13 and 14

   Zootopia now no longer playing at Fat Cats, its screening has now transferred to the far-less-expensive Paramount 5. I watched Zootopia at Fat Cats yesterday, the only member of the audience, on a screening the last day it was showing there; the next day, today, I watched it again, for half the ticket price, in a theater packed full of adults, children, and presumably adult children, on its first day at a new theater*.

   Taken together these mark viewings 13 and 14 for me. Do I have a problem? Well, maybe I used to, but, not with these ticket prices now...

   Viewing 13, yesterday, was the least enjoyable of all of them so far. Even worse than viewing number, what was it, five? Six, actually. That one was pretty miserable. Watching it with another person, another dude, not as part of a date... so self-conscious. And here, well it was my first time in a month... the sloth scene, I've been laughing at it in the trailer, not the sloth trailer but the full one, and I figured hey maybe it'd be good, maybe since I haven't seen the film in a month everything I'm so used to would be funny again... but, I was possibly even more self-conscious. I did laugh at that scene, a forced laughter. Nowhere else did I laugh. Nowhere else was it funny**.

   Exiting the theater, I saw the new Huntsman movie playing right next door. And so I... I bought a ticket for that, missing only the first few trailers. That experience, that experience I enjoyed.

   HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR is SUCH A GOOD MOVIE GUYZ. Really complex character interactions drive a story that deals with such themes as: love, chess motifs, child soldiers, and Jessica Chastain. The trailers all make it look like just some run-of-the-mill sfx-driven shut-your-brain-off fantasy flick, but the trailers are stupid, and they give away all the plotpoints. Having not see the first Huntsman movie, though, I was not visually literate enough for any of the spoilers from any of the trailers to stick for me, so graciously nothing was ruined. Really, though, I'd actually been going to mention some of the actual themes, but realized I can't get into any of them without going into some major spoiled-by-the-trailer-anyway territory.

   Yeah, yeah, yeah. I spend too much money at the movies. I don't buy any snacks, and I have money again now that I'm back to selling my blood plasma. And I already told Disney to take all my money, and I need to live up to that commitment. And Winter's War was just barely starting; I knew I'd regret it if I passed the opportunity up. And I'd been going to see Civil War today, maybe, but it's a pretty long movie and it would have trampled over my ability to make it to class in time. Whatever, I'm going to see it at some point anyway...

   This evening's viewing of Zootopia, at Paramount 5, let's get to that now. I had a couple of options, after missing the 6:50 viewing (grocery shopping! see the, I've got money now, thing)- I could hit it 9:00, or I could hit it 11:10. I had things due at 11:30, if I'd go see it the earlier I'd have to scramble slightly to get those done... but. 9:00, that's where people would pack up to see it, that's where I'd be surrounded by fellow viewers again, that's where I'd be able to feed off their energy again. So I chose that one.

   So. Zootopia viewing, take 14...

   13 was the worst? 14, was, the most wonderful, of all the viewings. I'd seen that movie 13 times previously, and jokes that weren't funny even the second time were hilarious here... Even. The. Sloth. Scene.

   Even the sloth scene!

   Especially the sloth scene!

   It's just such a friggin' good movie. No-- friggin' great. That's a great film. My goodness.

   Zootopia is only a few million away from surpassing the $1,000,000,000 mark worldwide in box office gross, but it's still up in the air whether it'll have the legs to make it that far; every little bit helps...




*Paramount 5 also operates the Teton Vu drive-in, which has already screened Zootopia, but I'm not counting that, because, obvious reasons.
**Except for Bonny enabling Stu's specism. That part was, pretty funny.