Angry about analogue @ Warragul Cinema Centre

Call me tragic, but every now and then I get excited about a film.

I’d been anticipating Christopher Nolan’s Inception since the first teaser trailer came out August '09. The Dark Knight blew my mind, securing Nolan a place in the top echelon of filmmakers. Take a look at his track record - the man can do no wrong.

For those of you apathetic to pop-culture buzz (I feel you), this is a film that lingers in your mind for some time afterwards, nagging away at your sensiblities until you submit and indulge in a second viewing.

I popped my Inception cherry at Warragul Cinema Centre on the Saturday after it’s Australian release. A week’s worth of stewing on the film’s content followed, before returning for a second helping. By this time, it had transferred from Warragul’s premiere cinema 3 – equipped with Dolby Digital surround – to inadequate analogue sound of cinema 2.

And boy, did it show. Cobb (DiCaprio) had suddenly developed a severe case of sibilance, hissing gratuitous logic with distracting execution.

Cobb and Ariadne’s spawning in the crashing surf of limbo (the film’s most gut churning moment) is augmented by deep orchestral horn blasts rumbling through the core of the cinema, up your legs and into the pit of your stomach. You KNEW you were in the distorted depths of the subconscious. At least in digital sound you knew...


In cinema 2, it felt like a bullfrog farting into a pillow.

I’m being harsh, I know, but I don't go to a cinema just to watch a movie. I hire a DVD if I just wanna watch a movie. I go to the cinema to be fully transported into the world of the film - to be dazzled visually, and aurally. I want the dickhead with the rustling bag of takeaway behind me to get taken out by a stray M4A1 bullet in a gunfight with Fischer's subconscious private security. I want his head to explode. Digital can almost grant you that. Analogue cannot.

Last year, my sister took me to Transformers 2 for my birthday at WCC. Again, as it was some weeks after release, we were in cinema 2. The screen showed me shape-shifting robots blowing the shit out of each other, while the speakers struggled under distortion. As much as I’ve always been for supporting local economy, I had subsequently vowed to view my films elsewhere (as a virgin viewer at WCC, I was unaware of cinema 3's superior sound quality). It seems time has an uncanny ability to heal all wounds.

Cinema manager Kelly Moroney , whose been at the complex for 7 years now, said that "complaints are very rare". And to be truthful, a lot of people I've talked to have trivialised my quality gripes, while an acquaintance recently attempted to subdue my criticism; “It’s all we have, so it’ll do”

But if you’re passionate about your movie experience, and want to buy into the 'dream', quality is paramount. Nolan would've had a monkey fit if he new half of DiCaprio’s lines where hissed through the speakers.

If you're a local who appreciates quality, see the flick you've been waiting for in the opening week while it's still soundin' digital, before Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz waltz in and kick it into analogue.

...

PS - Cinema 3 is prepping for a 3D upgrade. A new screen has just been installed, and hopes are that the projector arrives by Xmas. Sure, 3D’s gonna pull in the kiddies, but I would argue strongly in favour of getting your sound quality up to scratch in all cinemas, before heading to novelty-town.