IMAX 3-D: Don't go if you are impaired!!!!

Rating: 2/10 (14 June 2010)

What a MISERABLE experience! I think the last time I went to the dentist, I had less pain and discomfort!
My boyfriend recently took me on a date to see Avator at an IMAX 3-D theater. He thoroughly enjoyed it. I, on the other hand suffered through 3 hours of human torture. The management decided I guess that to compensate for the summer heat, they needed the theater to be 30 degrees below room temperature. Several people brought BLANKETS into the theater in order to keep warm! They must have been tipped off about needing extra thermal protection. I still became a human pop-sickle even with a light sweater on. Okay, enough about indoor climatology. I have several limitations, one being visual, which I was not warned would affect my enjoyment of a 3-D picture. I wear special contact lenses to correct a corneal defect and astigmatism. When I put the 3-d glasses on to see the screen, I developed a nagging headache and became nauseous. I kept taking them off to try and ease the nausea. I even removed my contact lenses in an effort to correct the problem but to no avail. I finally resigned to viewing the movie without the glasses which gave me two choices: either watch a blurry screen seeing double-vision or close my eyes. Toward the last 3rd of it, I just closed my eyes. As if the freezing room temperature and my inability to see the movie wasn't enough, 3 hours of sitting without an intermission is a LONG time. Even Gone with The Wind had a 15 minute intermission! I wonder how all those young people in that movie theater sat so long without getting up? Are they that steeped in this virtual reality game world stuff that they are sedated into watching into a passive, catatonic state without getting up and stretching or a bathroom break? Is there some kind of secret brainwashing going on? Even the character Jake had to be cajoled into eating and showering because he was too into his virtual reality world. There's a hint! So my torture continued as my boyfriend, along with other Avatar fans, immersed themselves and enjoyed the movie, oblivious to those of us suffering through the agony of sensory over-stimulation and virtual captivity. I have an arthritic hip and the cold, coupled with the pain of sitting for a prolonged period caused my pain to become excruciating. The volume set for the movie was another hindrance. Is James Cameron trying to compensate for size or something??? WHY does the volume have to be increased to 10,000 decibels to get your attention? I didn't find it entertaining, I found it annoying and brain-jarring. My ears were ringing when we exited the theater. The increased volume just added to my already THROBBING headache. Toward the last 30 minutes of the movie, I was in such pain and discomfort that I could only do two things: either get up and leave the theater or, sit through it and cry. I chose the later, not wanting to be a rude to my boyfriend who had spent $24 for us to see this movie together. I put the glasses back on and closed my eyes, shivering from the cold, my hip and head aching, nauseous, tears streaming down my face as the loud explosion noises drowned out the sounds of my sobs. Finally, it was over. As we left the theater, my boyfriend commented it was the best movie he had ever seen. To say the least, I couldn't disagree more.