Back to the cinemas with Wall-e: and a review of the Namur Dollar Cinema (Montreal)

This post comes after a long time since my previous post. Basically I haven’t been to the movie theatres for a while; and because of my desperation to see the latest Pixar movie Wall-e (I know it’s not the latest anymore), I allowed myself to watch a bootleg CD of the movie. It was a bad copy; but enough to make sense of the whole thing. I must say that I enjoyed the movie, even as a bad print, but I never recommended the CD to anyone and waited/hoped for chance to see the movie in a movie theatre one day.

My chance came when I had the opportunity to go to Montreal for a while; and learned about the ‘cheap’ dollar cinema at Namur. I was delighted considering the huge cost of movie tickets here. I was more thrilled when I learned the Wall-e was running and I took to chance to watch Wall-e as soon as I could.

(How to get to Namur Dollar Cinema): The Namur Dollar Cinema (Theatre) is close to the Namur Metro station. And basically one needs to walk towards Wallmart, but not ‘to’ wallmart. Instead, take the Decarie underpass, which is basically the big highway and after crossing to the WallMart side, walk down along the highway. The next ‘right’ is a Mall which has a Winners etc. And that’s where the Dollar Cinema is (first floor).

Anyway, I reached in time for the 12:00pm show, only to realise to my horror that Wall-e had shifted to the 1:30pm show (and I didn’t know about it). So rather than head back, I decided to walk Igor, just before the Wall-e screening, and then watch Wall-e.

I paid two dollars per movie, ie. 2 dollars for Igor and 2 dollars for Wall-e (that’s the cost for the movie). I don’t know if it is allowed to watch back-to-back movies in the same theatre for the price of one movie ticket (I know it’s done), but I didn’t feel it was ethical so I paid for both. I also bought the one dollar popcorn, which was not bad.

One thing, they only take cash, and I forgot to withdraw cash from the ATM earlier. And so I was trading with my last coins. Later I had to go to the nearby ATM and shell out two dollars withdrawal charge for the ATM!!! So much for cheap cinema.

Anyway, back to the movie.

The Igor screening was terrible. The projection quality and sound quality was so poor that even though I was in the first few rows (out of choice) I couldn’t make out clearly what was being said. The seats were comfortable enough, but the quality of screening seemed pathetic. Then, the screen was really dirty. I could see patches of stains on it… that disturbed vision, especially when seeing from so close. Plus, the movie Igor was poor enough to be seen directly on DVD or TV. Didn’t seem worth watching it on big-screen. I already started regretting coming here… but secretly hoped that the Wall-e experience would be better.

Interestingly, after the movie, the projectionist cut off the credits and turned on the lights. I hate it when they do that… isn’t it illegal??? Is should be.

Anyway… soon enough it was time for the Wall-e screening… and the projection and sound quality improved. Perhaps they were using a better print. But I was relieved. The patch on the screen bothered me more now because it was disturbing me from seeing clearly the spectacular animation of Wall-e… which brings me to Wall-e.

Wow, it is an amazing movie. when I saw the bootleg copy, I liked it… but didn’t think it was thaaaat great. But seeing it in the big screen made me change my mind. I still don’t think it is the best thing Pixar has produced. I’m still a big fan of the Incredibles, and I think that while the animation of Finding Nemo was not as spectacular, it was a better story. And Monsters Inc was just so much fun… so I put Wall-e as the fourth best animation of Pixar (and it will be reflected in my best of 3D animation list).

The movie is truly a delight for the eyes… a beautifully crafted masterpiece. The scenes are wonderful, and the emotions expressed are great. But the entry of the humans and the Axiom was just too ‘noisy’ and jarring… while fun for a while, I certainly couldn’t handle too many repeat screenings of that. In that sense, even Finding Nemo had the irritating Fish Tank scenes, but they were not continuous. The Wall-e Axiom scenes, are loud and surprisingly shallow… too many stereotypes being introduced in a world that was earlier defined without stereotypes. So the movie jars… but still works as an amazing visual treat.

It is the best movie of the year? Apart from the traditional art-house movies that are screened to limited audiences and usually attract the Oscar crowd… I thought out of the entire range of popular movies Wall-e was the best. Except… when I saw Batman and Wall-e… I was a little confused and feel that Batman is a much better movie than Wall-e. Wall-e must win the best animation movie of the year, hands down. But can it win best picture? I doubt it. Should it be nominated? Definitely.

So, back to the Namur movie theatre… I reconciled myself to the Namur theatre and decided that I would only see the good movies again in the theatre… but what it did remind me was of the joy of seeing a movie in the theatre and I will find more budget screenings (like Tuesdays) to see some big movies on screen. It’s back to the cinemas for me.