This past year, we lost a great theater in Kalamazoo: The Alamo. You could order your food and drinks in the theater, have a place to eat, drink and watch the movie Great date night material. Located downtown, it wasn't always super convenient to park or attend, but we enjoyed it all the same.
We heard that the Alamo was closing and were understandably upset. I don't know the politics, but no amount of petitioning online seemed to have helped. Super bummed. We heard later that year we would be getting a new theater at that location, AMC. Ok, I guess another movie theater wouldn't be the worst thing ever. So many theaters are offering better food and drink selections now to keep up with competition, maybe we could still make it a decent date night.
The AMC Theater had been open for a little while by the time we decided to actually go see a movie. Between me not feeling great during my first trimester, to Breaky being abroad for work to me just not feeling up to, it had been awhile since we really went out just the two of us. With the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we decided it was perfect timing to get out of the house and go on a true date. We chose a dinner-time showing so we could grab food for dinner and not have a completely packed house. It was a Wednesday after all.
At the theater for DATE NIGHT!
We get there and getting our tickets was not a big deal. Super quick. Walk in and I swear the food line was almost out the door. I have never seen this building this packed with the exception of when we came to see the last Star Wars movie the day after it came out. And this was a Wednesday at 6:30. We decide just to get our seats and eat something after the movie. Get to the theater, and it was closed for cleaning. Mind you, this was maybe 2 minutes before the start time. We finally get in to the theater about 10 minutes after the show was supposed to start, only to have an abnormal amount of trailers. We honestly have never had to sit through so many trailers to watch a movie before. So much so, that Breaky just went to the concession stand in hopes that things had died down enough to get something. A hot dog or chicken tenders, or even popcorn. Something.
He arrives just as the movie starts, and tells me later that when he went to get food, the fryer was broken, so no fried foods, the popcorn machine was down, so no popcorn. We each got one hotdog and Breaky ordered a soda. The total for those three items? $18. Hell, at Costco, that would have cost us like $5.
I think the only thing we enjoyed about that theater was that the seats reclined. Which was nice for pregnant me.
Needless to say, I don't think we'll be going back to that theater if we have a choice.
On to the movie!
This will not contain direct spoilers, but if you want to go watch the movie with completely fresh eyes, you may want to stop reading here.
Both Breaky and I really liked the movie. I heard some rumblings from fans online, but remained unspoiled. I can see how some die-hard fans would be disappointed. A lot of people had hyped up the new movies with conspiracy theories, or things *they* think or wish would happen. Seeing clues where there probably weren't any.
On top of that, the movie didn't really follow the "this is going to happen because the good guys always win" format a lot of the previous movies did. There were many times I was almost panicked that just everyone was going to die. There weren't huge twists or reveals or revelations, but the movie itself kept you on your toes.
If I had one complaint, it would be that there were probably 2 or 3 times that the movie could have ended and I would have been ok with it. It was pretty long. I am glad they ended it when they did, but it may have dragged on a little bit longer than needed to be.
