Wednesday, August 26, 2020

I want to see The New Mutants and Tenet but I'm wary of theaters because of Covid 19.

The New Mutants
and Tenet will be coming to theaters very soon. I love theaters, but I ask myself all the time if I feel safe going. I haven't been in a movie theater for most of the year. The last one I went to was Pixar's Onward, and I think it was still winter here in Utah. It seems so long ago. So I guess I'm making a blog post trying to suss out what I should do.

Businesses are suffering in the Covid world. Olive Garden is just the latest casualty. Read this as "Goodbye cruel world...." I imagine a chain as big as Olive Garden would find it hard to make money doing mostly take out (and to make ends meet). Are movie theaters in danger as well? Yep. Do I love movie theaters? Very much so. I have so many good memories. Does it feel safe to go? In Utah? Unfortunately it does not. Utah has been one of the states that has lifted its finger at mask wearing wholeheartedly. Utah is a state where everyone does what they want, and it's backed up by guns and the words, "You say what? Make me. I dare ya."

So here's the bigger question: do I actually want to see The New Mutants or Tenet?  Yes. In an ordinary world I might have skipped The New Mutants, but nothing about 2020 feels ordinary. It's the first chance to see a big budget film in a theater in months, so I'm feeling a bit deprived. But I'd have to wear my mask for the entire show, and I'm not sure I'd want to do that, which means I probably won't go. And as for Tenet, I would watch anything from Director Christopher Nolan. The man's a creative genius, and I respect him for his abilities to create stories that are incredibly compelling.

But these movies will eventually come to video, and I can wait. It's not worth the risk.

Covid 19 sucks. I shouldn't have to debate the safety of going to the movies. But if I don't go, then I'm part of the problem that will cause movie theaters to ultimately go under. I really do wish that my fellow Americans cared. But many of them (at least a third if not half), don't care about anything but themselves or those who worship the ground they walk on. It's reflected in our politics. It's reflected in the way we treat one another.

If businesses like the beloved movie theater don't survive, I will blame the selfish people. They killed all the things that bring many of us joy, when all they had to do was wear a mask.

5 comments:

  1. At least you have that option. Out theaters are closed. They might open the second week of September, but not holding my breath. Would I go if they were open? You bet! We've always hit the early show which has few people anyway. Bet there would be even fewer now. The moment our theaters open, if they ever do and are still in business, I'm there.

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  2. I feel the same frustration. I haven't gone inside anywhere except work in 5 months because when we were shut down and had a chance to minimize this thing jerks had to whine and complain and not do what they were told--starting in the Oval Office. There might be a safe reopening of schools and college football and everything if people had simply made the "sacrifice" of wearing a mask and social distancing for the first two months or so. As far as sacrifices go, it didn't seem like that much to ask but we're such a spoiled, entitled country that we'd rather over 170,000 people die so we can get haircuts and go to bars and so on. It's enough to make me wish other countries would actually take in sensible Americans so we could just let the idiots kill themselves off.

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  3. I know what you mean. I feel relatively safe going into work, but we're all adults and masks are required here. A movie theater? For me, the movies aren't worth the risk. But I still go grocery shopping and out to pick up food from restaurants, and that's probably higher risk.

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  4. I believe it will be available for streaming. The New Mutants, that is.
    I know it's not a movie theater, but it's something.

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  5. The movies are still closed here in Michigan. I've never been one for crowds and I've been working through this whole thing since I work in a hospital. I am just hoping there isn't another shut down/wave. I was offered a voluntary layoff, but I didn't take it. The hospitals lost a lot of money, but slowly we are making a come back.

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