Audience, Assemble!

We didn’t go to the 9:15 a.m. (yes, a.m.!) show on purpose. By that I mean we didn’t plan to get there that early. The 10:45 would have been fine and beaten the worst of the opening day crowds. But it turned out that we were up, bathed and dressed and the dog had been walked so the earliest show it was, on the basic theory of why not, what the hell.

I’m not going to tell you about the movie. You can see it or not see it or go to a spoiler website if you care. It was “The Avengers” and if you don’t already know who wins, ironically enough you probably shouldn’t bother. That’s not the anecdote, anyhow.

A group of youngish rabid fans took the seats in front of us. They whooped and they started to talk back to the screen but apparently they didn’t know who was going to win because they soon became rapt. That’s nice. I like to see people be happy. But when the credits started, they became obnoxious again. In this town, pretty much the only people who go to the very first show on opening day either worked on the film or know someone who did. I read credits, just in case. Everyone in the audience but them was reading the credits. These individuals stood up -- blocking the screen -- and talked. Partway through the credits there is an extra scene. The fans left right after that.

The kicker is we already knew there were TWO extra scenes. We could have told them, but we didn’t. It wasn't a secret. I think the rest of the audience also knew. No one else left. No one said anything. Everyone just let them go and finished reading the rest of the credits in peace.

It’ll be interesting when they start lording it over their friends about already having seen the film (which they bragged about doing before the coming attractions even started) and they find out that they missed a really great bit. I kind of feel like I ought to feel guilty, but I don’t. Oh well.