[Part 2 of August 2, 2008: Food Review: Cyma Greek Taverna]

After lunch we headed back into the mall to get tickets to The Dark Knight. Finally. FINALLY I was able to watch it. And even though the movie was great, the experience was a FAIL that could well fit in the FAILblog if only it were a photo. Read full post...

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let's go back to when we were walking leisurely to buy the tickets. When we got to the ticketing area, the place was CROWDED. I mean the lines are, like, longer than I've EVER seen them in Trinoma, and the place was just insane! It turns out that the long lines were all for this new local movie, A Very Special Love, which we really didn't want to watch that very moment. We (or at least I) nearly gave up.. but then we noticed this short line off the side. It only had two people in line and when we looked closer the sign said:

EXPRESS LANE FOR SENIOR CITIZENS
and
The Dark Knight
and
Mamma Mia

LOLs! I realize now that I should have taken a photo of that sign. Ah, well. So we got in line and bought our tickets. The show wasn't until two hours so we decided to go to Starbucks (after goofing around with theHigh School Musical stand-ups) and kill time. So we got our coffee, tea and milk... I, of course, had my favorite Hazelnut Mocha latte, and, with the ever-lovable Starbucks lighting, we couldn't resist taking photos~

Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the cinema. The movie was, as many of you know, awesome. I could write a lot about my thoughts about The Dark Knight: about how Heath Ledger had a great performance, as usual. About how, as much as Katie Holmes can be a good actress, I'm actually glad Maggie Gylenhall replaced her in this movie. About how Aaron Eckhart amazed me. About how Christian Bale's portrayal of Batman and Bruce Wayne is even better than the last. About how the writers just ROCKED.

But I don't think I'm going to do that right now, since this post is about Trinoma Cinema's EPIC FAIL.

Just to make one thing clear: I actually like the Trinoma Cinemas. I LOVE them. I love how comfy the seats are, I love the sound quality, I love how clean the place is, I love the punctuality. But this time they disappointed me big time because right smack in the middle of the movie, right when the climax was building and everyone's eyes were glued to the screen....

the

audio

turns

off.

HU-WHAT?!

For about three seconds nobody actually complained out loud. I think we were all caught unawares, and we were all thinking that "Oh, y'know, technical difficulty, the sound's gonna go back right away."

It didn't.

And worse, the video kept going! So we were seeing what was happening, we could see Christian Bale's reaction to something, and we see people in the movie panicking, but we had no idea what on earth was going on.

FAIL!

This goes on for the next full minute or two. By this time, people were complaining big time, and I was already composing this blog post in my head.

When the audio finally comes back on, we had already missed a HUGE chunk of information. Plus, of course, we were totally yanked out of the zone!!! I was expecting for the operators to stop the movie and rewind it to where the audio was lost...

Didn't happen.

With a sigh, I resigned to watching the rest of the movie and try to enjoy it. The rest of the audience was doing so, as well... Sara (who had watched the movie before) filled in the blanks for me and Mi, and the show went on for the next 30 minutes or so. And then, just when another critical part of the movie arrives, and Gordon was talking to two of his people, the sound goes weird and becomes muffled, as if someone had put their enormous hand over the cinema speakers. Take note that this is a dialogue scene. DIALOGUE!

And then, the lights go on and the movie stops.

FAIL!

By this time, our reaction times were faster, and there was a collective exclamation of "WHAT?!" and "COME ON!!!"

Several seconds ticked by, an audio recording of "Sorry, we are experiencing technical difficulty" played in a lopp, Mi was laughing in exasperation beside me, I was continuing this blog post in my head... and then the movie came on again. But not where we dropped off. Oh, no.

They had rewound the film back to where the audio first tripped.

That scene 30 minutes earlier? Yeah, that one.

FAIL!!!

Okay, so we finally got to fully understand what we initially missed, and okay, so the part we watched twice was a really really good part, but ARGH. It was really disappointing. I mean, of all movies to screw up on, it HAD to be The Dark Knight. And, okay, fine, accidents happen, and it's not like the movie operators wanted this to happen, but... ARGH!

At the end of the movie, I was half-expecting some executive-looking guy make an appearance and tell us that we had a free movie as a repayment for the inconvenience but no. The only apology we had was that audio recording played in loop.

But don't get me wrong: it's not like I'm holding a grudge against Trinoma now. I'm actually going to go back there on Monday to watch Mamma Mia (and get on that short, special line). I'm just wishing that the cinema people handled this better. And I'm hoping that this won't happen to anybody else again.

All that aside, the movie was awesome, which really made up for the "technical difficulty". And we had a really nice day, so I was able to go home with a smile on my face. Hehe. And, really, we laughed about what happened as we walked out of the mall. All in all, I think this Girls' Day Out was a success. :)

Happy Birthday, Loraine!

Saturday, August 04, 2007

so I finally went back to TriNoMa

It was Loraine's birthday yesterday, and the amigas and I decided to celebrate it in the Trinoma.

Since it was only my second time there and I got there early, I decided to walk the whole mall. Yes, I walked all four floors for an hour just to see what shops they've got now. See, my first Trinoma experience was sort of traumatic, and that was partly why I haven't stepped foot in that place for a while. (That, and I haven't actually had time to go malling, anyways.)

Well, guess what: I like Trinoma now. Read full post...

Haha! But I think it's really more convenient for me to go to SM, and I have the stores there pegged, so I prefer that over the newer mall. Ahehe.

The only store I actually entered to look around was (of course) National Bookstore and Fully Booked. I was looking for several Meg Cabot books... Unfortunately the ones available were the Princess Diaries series. -sigh- Sucks. I've wanted to get my hands on the Mediator books for ages. Ah, well. The search continues.

When I got back to the first floor, I got me a haircut at David's, too. (I should've stopped to get a Frapp at Starbucks before then. Hmf.)

And then my friends arrived, and we had dinner at Heaven n Eggs... Heeheehee. I had Twinings Mint Tea and Lemon juice, and Egg Sardou. It's Jerusalem artichokes and shrimp in hollandaise, topped with a poached egg and served on a muffin, with mashed potatoes on the side. Yum.

Heaven 'n Eggs has delicious food (I got to sample my friends' orders, too), but the price isn't...err.. student-friendly. Ahehe. But, hey, I think it's worth it. Beware, though: the service takes a while. But the crew is very polite and courteous and smiling, so I guess that makes up for it. And, yeah: the food is yummy.





After eating, we had so much fun chatting (we haven't seen each other in almost 3 months!) that we didn't notice that it was 10:30pm already. And I was supposed to be at work at 9. @_@


So I went back to Trinoma, and, it went pretty well. Sure, my past frustrations about the place have not been forgotten, but, taking that into account, I gotta say that Trinoma picked its feet up.

And I guess it's safe to say that I'll be coming back.