I took my sons out last night for a movie. Of course, that doesn’t mean just take them to the movie and then go home.

We chose the theater at Northtown Mall because it has arena seating (the chairs are large and comfy, recline slightly, and are placed on a fairly steep incline as to give you an optimal view past the man with the huge head who always sits in front of you).

We got there early to buy the tickets and hit the food court for dinner. Mmmmm… mall food! Nothing quite rounds out the whole mall experience like having some soulless teen who would rather be doing anything else prepare your food. We ate at Edo, a japanese franchise, mainly because you watch them prepare what you’re about to ingest.

I had spicy chicken on rice, the kids stuck to rice bowls.

Then we wandered around for a bit, looking at various things but buying nothing. It was more a way to kill time before the movie started. Around 7pm we finally went into the theater.

Apparently in this city, the largest between Seattle and Chicago, only 10 other people chose to spend their hard earned money to watch the movie, so seating was easy (we got mid center, exactly where I wanted to be). They showed a bunch of crap on the screen while we waited for the film to start, mainly commercials for insurance agents and new shows on the cartoon network (I hate that! I PAID to get in… don’t show me commercials!).

Then the movie started up <insert logo for dramatic effect>

Um… I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, but it wasn’t great. I’m not saying it was bad, it wasn’t, but it didn’t fall into the “worth paying admission for 3 people + popcorn + soda + everything else” category. Imagine every cheesy 40’s and 50’s sci-fi movie combined with Casablanca and you’ve got the general idea.

Then again, my back was being a royal bizzach from sitting in the seat, so that probably had a lot to do with my take on it.