At The Movies, Part 2

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In my previous post, I talked about Siskel and Ebert, and how much I enjoyed their show. In this post, I want to talk about my own love of the movies.

There’s something about the moviegoing experience that I really enjoy, but I can’t really put my finger on it. It may just be the atmosphere, being in an auditorium and a large screen. But it also might be the trailers, or the dimming of the lights as it all starts, or the reaction of the crowd. I remember seeing Terminator 2 on opening night, and the audience just gasping as Schwarzenegger did that first one-handed shotgun cocking while riding a motorcycle. While I enjoy watching movies from the comfort of my home, there’s something to be said for being in a theater.

Under normal circumstances, I might get to the movies once or twice a year, and some years not at all. But with the current COVID situation, it’s not an option. However, I found an alternative, a not-quite-the-same but still enjoyable way to experience that theater experience virtually.

At the start of the year, I purchased an Oculus Quest VR headset. One of the apps I have for it is called SKYBOX VR. It allows you to watch videos on the headset, inside a virtual movie theater. It’s not the only app of its kind, but it’s the one I’m currently using, streaming movies from my PC to that personal, virtual, movie theater. It even supports 3D movies.

While it’s certainly more comfortable to just watch a movie on a TV, sitting in that virtual theater is a realistic enough substitute for actually going to the movies that I had to try it out by watching an entire movie in it. And it was fun. I watched a film I’d originally seen in a theater one summer a long time ago. And next, I’ll watch a film I never got to experience in a theater: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Thanks to Oculus Quest and SKYBOX VR, I can go to the movies whenever I have some time, and even watch some classic films as they were originally intended...well, sort of. :)

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