Marina Theater Sucks

I just got home from Star Wars, its 12:30AM. Yeah the movie started at 12:00AM but it was such a fucked up experience. From what I saw of the movie though, it was looking REALLY good, like REALLY good, BUT the Marina Mall theater is just terrible.

The issue I had was with the sound. The first 15 minutes of the movie was this huge gigantic space battle with explosions and chaos non stop. The sound though was incredibly low and was coming out of the front speakers only. I swear I could hear the guy next to me eating his popcorn! I told Nat we should just leave, she suggested I should tell someone. So I did, I went up to one of the movie ushers and told him to raise the volume, he went and told some Kuwaiti guy who was sitting watching the movie with us. He went out and came back in a minute later but the sound was still the same. So I told Nat lets leave, I wasn’t going to watch the movie like this. So we got up and left, once we reached the main entrance where we got the tickets from, I saw a guy who looked like management, I asked him who I should I ask a refund from. He looked at the tickets and told me that once the tickets were cut that I couldn’t get a refund. He didn’t bother to ask why I wanted a refund or why I looked pissed and wanted to leave, nothing. So I proceeded to tell him that I paid KD5 to watch Star Wars and you can’t expect me to watch it in a theater where the sound system is lower then mine at home. I told him the sound is too low and I already complained about it and no one did anything. He told me that no one had told him about the sound, he assured me he would fix it and told me to go back to my seat. So I did. I got back inside, by now I had already missed a good chunk of the movie but I was like its ok, at-least the sound will get fixed. It never did! It didn’t get louder and it didn’t go into surround.

Finally we decided fuck the refund, lets just get out of here. If the movie when action packed was low and imagine how a normal scene would be. When I got back up to the main entrance, I took a feedback form, filled it in and dropped it in the feedback box. I don’t know if anyone will read it or care, but I just had to do it. Now I am back home, disappointed and pissed off. The Marina Mall cinema totally ruined my movie rush. I was planning to start booking tickets online and make this a weekly thing but now I don’t think I will since its just better off watching a movie at home on my sound system.

What did I learn today? Marina Mall theater is one of the worst I have ever been to, and that KD1 for a large popcorn at the cinema doesn’t seem expensive after passing by Starbucks first.

To read the letter I emailed to the people in charge click on more

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To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Date: May 18, 2005 1:08 AM
Subject: My Worst Movie Experience Ever

Hi, tonight I decided to watch the premier of Star Wars at the Marina theater. I booked the tickets online and was really impressed at how easy the process was. I was planning to start watching movies a lot more often because of the online service. I am not a regular movie goer and my last movie was the last episode of The Matrix which I watched in Fanar over a year ago. The movie sucked back then but the theater wasn’t bad at all.

Today though it was the other way around. The first 15 minutes of Starwars Episode III as you might know involves a huge battle with lots of explosions and sound effects. Yet the theater we were in made it seem as if nothing was going on. The sound was extremely low and not even in surround. The sound was only coming out of the front speakers and low enough that I could hear the person next to me eating his popcorn. Keep in mind this is during a gigantic space battle that was going on. I was about to leave when my wife advised me to inform someone about it. So I did, I informed one of the ushers who went and informed another person who was watching the movie with us. He then went outside the theater and came back in a minute later but the sound was still the same.

So 15 minutes into the movie I decided to get up and leave. Once I got to the main entrance where I purchased the tickets from, I saw someone who looked like management and I asked him where I could get a refund. He looked at my cards and told me I couldn’t get a refund once they were cut. He didn’t bother to ask me what the problem was or anything, so I decided to tell him the problem. I told him I didn’t come to the first showing of Star Wars at 12 midnight so I could watch it on a volume lower then my home stereo. I told him that there was no surround sound and that only the front spears were working but they were very low. I also told him I had complained but nothing had been done. He told me that no one told him about the problem and that he would solve it, he told me to go back to my seat, and I did. 10 minutes later the sound was STILL not fixed, the battle scenes were nearly over and if I could barely hear those I doubt I would be able to hear the rest of the movie. So I got up and left, but I made sure to fill out a feedback form and dropped it in the box.

I don’t know if anyone reads those so I decided to email the people who should know about my experience. This was my first movie experience in a long time and with my discovery of kncc.com I was hoping to make a habit of at-least seeing 1 movie a week, but after tonight’s experience I am not very confident about that.

If you need further details and information you can contact me at this email address of call me on xxxxxxx.

Thank you