The Curse of Unassigned Seating

I remember the good old days. The days when I was young, carefree and totally unaware of how bills would ruin my adult life and childhood dreams. How thrilling it should be then, that for a small sum I can be transported away no matter how brief, or not so brief in the case of Batman v Superman, it may be.

Cinema is a mainstay of my life, more so now than it has ever been, it provides a place where enjoying a film is the main goal, where I HAVE to turn off my phone, with a massive screen and surround sound that I can’t afford to recreate at home. It is the best place to watch a film; But it is also the best at potentially ruining them.

Trailers are now an enemy to those who don’t wish to have spoilers ruining their entertainment, I count myself firmly in that camp. Where before they provided a brief snippet of a film to get you intrigued and excited, now they show it off in its entirety… just with the boring bits cut out. The aim of a trailer is supposed to be to catch your attention and make you wonder, thus allowing curiosity to over take you and before you know it, there you are watching it. That no longer seems to be the case, now trailers stretch on for 3 or 4, even 5 minutes sometimes, there are teasers of the trailers and they start 2 years or more in advance of the film actually coming out. More and more people, like me, curse the trailer along with the spoilers.

Spider-man in Civil War, one of the recent films where I’ve encountered this problem.

The issues of the trailers themselves is not what prompts me to write this article, however, it is something altogether more annoying.

Unassigned seating.

I’m sure many of you, dear readers, will agree that getting in early so you can pick a good seat is a priority, especially for the latest big release. As a fan of several movie franchises I want a good seat so that I can enjoy the show the maximum amount; but as a fan of stories, I cannot sit through the trailers anymore. Until I can watch them without encountering the spoilers I’ve actively avoided for weeks or even months… I will campaign against them.

Not so long ago if you turned up early you could pick your seats and then they were printed out on the tickets, if you turn up late you get whatever seats are left and that’s the price you pay for your poor time keeping. I’m a firm believer in fairness, if you are willing to put the effort in, then you should reap the rewards. I should be able to get good seats at a film screening without needing to run the spoilerific gauntlet known as the trailers.

Batman v Superman, another film where I encountered this issue

Unless the people in charge of making trailers are going to tone it down a bit, which I don’t see happening anytime soon, I respectfully expect the curse of unassigned seating to be lifted… I’m looking at you Odeon!

Thanks for reading.