Yesterday, my wife and I were reminded why streaming a movie at home is far more relaxing than venturing out to a theater. It started with the redemption of our tickets. I bought the tickets online at home. Cinemark sent me a QR code and instructed us to "proceed directly to the ticket podium" when we arrived at the theater. The trick is there is no ticket podium when you arrive at the theater. We arrived right at the movie's advertised start time (more on that later). The line to purchase paper tickets was quite long as were the lines for the self-serve kiosks. Half the convenience of buying tickets online is that you can skip the ticket lines at the theater. What were we expected to do? I wandered around the lobby holding my cellphone looking like a right old boomer when a passing manager saw me and took pity. She walked me over to what looked like it may have been at one time a ticket podium, booted it up, and scanned my phone. Then she did likewise for other confused patrons shuffling behind me. I give her kudos for being polite, professional, and helpful. Our tickets scanned, my wife and I hurried through the halls for fear of being late to our movie.
We shouldn't have worried. The trailers were already running as we took our seats. Yet there must have been at least 30 to 40 more minutes of trailers and commercials run before the actual movie started. As trailer after trailer played, I turned to my wife and asked incredulously, "Are you kidding me?". And I'm not talking about that pre-show, Entertainment-Tonight-like garbage they subject you to if you arrive early. The lights were dimmed. It was well past the movie start time. We were in trailer time.
It was during this time that we turned our attention to adjusting our seats. The recliners in our theater were certainly cushy. Yet they feature a hard plastic tray fastened to the right armrest that doesn't really have much room for adjustment. It made holding my wife's hand uncomfortable. The chair's hold on me was quite snug. I don't mean to brag, but I have a slight build. If the recliner felt small to me, I can't imagine how uncomfortable they must be for people of a larger size. Also, if you attend a movie here and plan on adjusting the leg rest of your seat, I suggest doing so before the movie starts out of respect for your fellow moviegoers. The motor driving the recline feature is slow and loud. The sound of it straining along with the creak of the leather borders on comical.
Speaking of disturbing your fellow moviegoers, here is my biggest complaint for this location. It is a haven for spoiled middle-schoolers who treat the theater as their own private clubhouse. To the four kids who ruined our movie with their fart noises and lame comments: Joel Hodgson you are not. Shut up and stop being so damn selfish. This location is the only theater in the area where I have experienced this level of rudeness.
From being made to feel like an idiot while trying to redeem my tickets to not being able to fully enjoy the movie, I doubt I will return to this theater again in the near future.
TL;DR? Ok, Cinemark at Polaris, here is my feedback:
1) If your not going to follow your company's guidelines for ticket redemption, make it clear to people when they enter the theater as to what is expected of them.
2) Don't show so many trailers. Sheesh. People often have to budget their time to squeeze in a movie. You're not doing any favors by advertising every upcoming movie from every studio.
3) The recliners sure look expensive, but they need some tweaking to be comfortable.
4) I don't know what you can do about unsupervised children. Maybe make it clear that there is a manager on duty? Advertise a code of conduct? read more