Avatar Experience

In January this year, together with my husband and nephew, I travelled to Boston USA to visit friends. While we were there, tickets were bought for the Imax 3D Cinema, to see the latest film "Avatar". I wasn't particularly excited about the idea, as it was not really my kind of movie. However,everyone else seemed to be totally thrilled they had managed to get tickets, so I went along with the excitement. Booked for an evening screening, "Avatar" was to be a great ending to our sightseeing day in Boston city.

Before flying out from the UK, our American friends advised that January in Boston was usually very cold, with deep falls of snow. Appropriately, we packed suitcases with plenty of woolly jumpers, thick socks and to be extra cosy, thermal leggings and vests!

On the morning of our sightseeing trip, it was bitterly cold and I dressed with layers of warm clothing - including thermal leggings and long sleeved vest. No way was I going to feel the cold on my day out! Full length winter coat, comfy fur-lined boots, a scarf and thick gloves completed the ensemble.

Boston is a lovely city and the day turned out to be sunny. Very cold and crisp, but sunny, with not a flake of snow to be seen. We posed for lots of happy photographs and tried the Boston brew of Guinness in an Irish pub until eventually it was time for the "Avatar" 3D movie. Joining throngs of people getting "in line" it was clearly a sell out, and our friends were delighted all over again, to have managed to get tickets.

As we made our way through to the seating area, smiley girls handed out yellow, plastic 3D spectacles - reminding everyone to hand them back after the movie. There were five of us in our little group and we settled in a row slightly off-centre, about half way back from the screen. "We should get good viewing here..." I was assured. Hmmm...

My first observation - the seats were quite tightly packed together and it was indeed a full house, not a spare seat it sight. Also, to my horror, it was already quite warm.

The lights dimmed and I tried my yellow sunglasses on for size. Not too bad, maybe I would be pleasantly surprised and enjoy the movie. After all, I thought, it is the biggest blockbuster around at the moment.

"Avatar" began and about half an hour into the story, I was feeling distinctly hot. My winter weather outfit, which had indeed served me well out in the streets of chilly Boston, was now causing me to perspire. Trapped mid-row, there was no way I could sneak out, especially now that the movie was under way and row upon row of yellow plastic spectacles were staring intently at the screen. I decided the coat would definitely have to come off. Thankfully, my winter coat has a sort of silky fabric lining. This meant I could remain seated and discreetly slip my arms out, stuffing the bulk of the fabric down by my sides. My woolly scarf - hand knitted by Auntie Winnie and one of my favourite Christmas presents -came off next. It too was stuffed down the side of my seat. Better. I was now no longer on the point of meltdown.

Getting back to the movie, the 3D spectacles certainly brought the colourful images right out front - giving the impression you could reach out and touch the scenes. There was a lot of green - green and blue, with enormous close up shots of very alluring, almond shaped eyes. For a little while I enjoyed the new experience, particularly when some pinkish, fluffy things seemed to be floating right in front of my eyes. Impressive.

Then the scenes changed and it was action packed, with lots of fast, erratic movement which I found a bit stressful on my eyes. Pushing the yellow spectacles up onto my forehead, I tried watching without the 3D experience. Hmmm...a bit blurry, but definitely less stressful on the eyes. Attention now diverted from the movie, my immediate surroundings came bounding back into focus. I was very hot. To start shuffling around in my seat removing more clothes was a definite no-no as all around me were engrossed in "Avatar" . Deciding there was nothing else for it but to try to watch the film again, I let the yellow specs drop back down onto my nose. Hmmm...still not really enjoying the experience. Then I had a brainwave. I could just go to sleep for the rest of the movie! No-one would notice because the yellow specs would hide the evidence. With a sneaky, satisfied grin, I slid further down in the seat and closed my eyes. Unfortunately, the excellent quality of my neck-to-ankle thermal underwear was now fully operational. The resultant, enclosed heat all over my body made me start to fidget. I fought to control my now twitching legs. There's only so many times you can cross and uncross your legs in the confined space of a row of cinema seats, before people start giving you disapproving looks. Still unbearably hot, I gently slipped off my fur-lined boots. Legs still fidgety, I tried tensing the muscles in both legs tightly and then letting go. I tried pulling one knee up to my chin and sitting with my arms around it. I changed to the other leg. I tried both knees together up to my chin. Nothing really made much difference and I was very aware that people around me must be thinking "For goodness sake, sit still!" By now, I had lost all track of the movie and my overriding thought was "Please let it be over soon...."

At last, it ended and I could stand up. Oooh the relief! How incredibly delightful it is, to be able to move freely after two hours confined in a little space! Slipping my boots back on, I listened to the comments of the audience, including my friends and family, who all seemed to be in agreement that "Avatar" had been totally awesome. I made no comment, focussing fully on re-wrapping my woolly scarf and pulling on my coat.

Handing the yellow plastic specs back to the still smiling girl I said thank you, while inwardly resolving not to do the 3D fantasy movie thing again for a very long time - well at least not while wearing four layers of very warm clothing.

On saying that, the "Avatar" experience is pretty spectacular. For someone who has never seen a movie in 3D before, it is definitely going to be an amazing experience and, truth be told, I am actually glad we went to see it. Now we are back home in Scotland, everyone, everywhere is talking about it and it feels good, on hearing people discuss "...those little pink fluffy things fly out and you can almost touch them!" I can honestly say "Yes! I felt that too!"