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So Did the Hordes Really Skip out for Episode 2?
gabec asks: "A few days ago Slashdot reported that thousands of people were going to call in sick so they could go check out the new Star Wars movie. Virtually the entirety of the computer services department at my university is taking the day off in unison to go see the show. I expect the whole school to implode that day. So my question is, how many Slashdot readers really did skip out of work for Star Wars Episode 2?" Those wacky geeks over at General Protection Fault probably said it the best. I think a high truancy rate was only to be expected. Funny thing to note: timothy and I went to see Spider-Man, yesterday and we were the only two people in that theatre. Three guesses where everyone else went, and the first two don't count.
I booked two days holiday so I could see the midnight showing at Leicester Square, London.
Steve.
My manager (a genuine SW fan) organized a trip to the theater to see SW:AotC on opening day. The company didn't pay for the tickets, but everyone was excited to:
a) see Star Wars before everyone else did (including their kids)
b) spend some time together where there was no pressure to perform
As an employee of a company that has seen 4-5 layoffs over the past year and a half, and a member of a group that recently completed a very stressful project, I can say this trip was the best thing anyone has done for my group's morale and general stress level in at least six months (and it didn't really cost the company anything). Of course, that probably means we should have been doing stuff like this all along.
Stephen
P.S. For those about to say that it cost the company 20 man hours for my group to go see this movie, just take it out of my 'overtime account'. There's about 500 unpaid hours in there already for this year.
But yes, I did go see SWEP2: AotC yesterday afternoon. Since I'm a consultant, I didn't have to "skip work" or call in sick to see the movie.
(My timing was off on Thursday -- the early-afternoon shows were sold out -- so I bought an advance ticket for 2:10pm Friday. The theater was only about 10% full.
My goal was to see the movie before school got out because the teens are often rude and obnoxious. As it turned out, there was a rude and obnoxious guy in the row behind me anyway (sitting by himself), making loud annoying comments. To his credit, he mostly made the rude comments during the incredibly-lame romantic-dialogue segments, but it was so annoying that about a third of the way through the movie, I got up and moved several rows away.
After seeing the movie, I am somewhat more inclined to agree with "The Case for the Empire."
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ Pleasanton California
I just couldn't justify getting off work to see it, but I did have my tickets for yesterday (Friday night) secured online a week in advance, and very glad I did. Although the AMC where we saw it was not digital-equipped, the picture looked clear and fine, so I'm not sure what purists and Roger Ebert complained about. I'm still definitely planning to see it in our digital-equipped Showcase theater later, but I'm not expecting to notice that much of a difference. I think film projection can present this film perfectly in a nice theater with a well-tuned bright projector.
The good news for me is that I was really afraid I would hate it. Like most, I was disappointed by EP1, and heard that although this one was better, it wasn't much so. I would have to respectfully disagree with those opinions. This movie blows EP1 away, and although I have to see it again before figuring out where it stands in the rankings of the whole series, I'm definitely seeing it again. I'm pretty sure that having Jar-Jar on the screen for probably less than a minute total was significantly better than a movie full of Ewoks.
The battle scenes are outstanding, and I have no idea why some people said that only the last half an hour of the movie is "redeeming." I don't want to give anything away, but there are plenty of action scenes throughout the movie, starting out very early. Sure there is dialog and exposition interspersed throughout, but it's all very well done. For those of you who, like me, didn't like EP1 and had reservations about seeing it this weekend, I strongly recommend you check it out. Don't wait for video, or necessarily to see it in digital - it's a beautiful exciting movie that definitely needs to be seen on the big screen. Lucas has redeemed himself a little in my eyes, and I can't wait to see how EP3 will turn out now.
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Now we know why so many companies go out of business.
What kind of drugs are you on? So they dropped $1000-$1500 on a movie so that their company could take a Friday afternoon off. How does that contribute to the dot-com collapse? The cost is minimal and the morale boost is tangible. If you consider the kinds of hours that most IT people work (while still being paid a salary based on 40 hours), only an idiot would say that they aren't entitled to some fun time occasionally.
How many companies have "summer hours"? I've worked for several companies that let you leave at 2:00 on Fridays during the summer. At others you have to work a couple extra hours during the week to make up for it, but it's no big deal.
At most companies that I have seen, Friday afternoons are the least productive hours of the work week anyway. A manager with a clue would probably rather channel that lack of productivity into a morale-boosting event.
It's important to do something nice for your employees every once in awhile. It's not like they're even doing that though since a Star Wars release only comes along once every few years.
I've worked at companies that spend that much money on a weeks worth of catered lunches for executive meetings. I worked at a company that spent several times that much each month to rent an auditorium for our monthly company-wide meetings.
If a company of 130 had $1000-$1500 to spend to boost company morale, I could think of far worse ways to spend it than renting out a theatre to see Star Wars. Logo'd Stress Balls or "cool" company keychains, for example. T-shirts with company mottos on them. New mouse pads for everyone. Catered box lunches for the whole gang. Special "you are a valuable member of our team" award plaques or some similar hokey bullshit. Who wants that shit when your company could rent out a theatre for a private screening of Star Wars? Duh!
I was driving through my old college stomping grounds of Ann Arbor, MI on Thursday, and decided on a whim to see if there was any chance whatsoever of getting tickets. I doubted that tickets would be available, since Ann Arbor is a geek-heavy town where students can skip class on a whim, let alone for an event as big as Star Wars. Needless to say, I easily got tickets 45 minutes before the 6:00 pm show. I remembered a sold-out theater for the first weekend of the original trilogy re-releases and Phantom, but the opening night showing of Clones was only half-full. Amazing. Apparently, people disliked Ep. 1 more than I anticipated, and decided that the effort to pre-order tickets or stand in line for opening day just wasn't worth it.
--All your stolen base are belong to Rickey Henderson
No need to skip work. My company rented out a mid-afternoon showing on opening day for us. As did a number of other companies in the area such as Origin and Dell.
Why skip when work will pay you to watch a movie?
:)
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
I noticed something funny here in Norway. When Yoda started fighiting, everybody in the theatre started laughing! I laughed too! And when he was finished fighting, he took his stick and started looking old again.
What was lucas thinking of?
I took the whole day off, but told my boss I was going to play golf (guess what he loves to do!). Started playing golf at 9am, and my buddy and I went to see AotC afterwards. If you're going to waste a vacation/sick day to do something, you might as well make a day out of it. Thursday was the only good day of the week to go play here in Maine, so it all worked out.
We got there just as the movie was starting. The ushers didn't have a flashlight, but I had my Photon red LED flashlight, and caught an aisle seat right away. I'm going to shoot the guy with the bladder condition that sat in the middle of my row. Jerk got up 5 times, which means he also came back 5 times.
The theater was only about half full, and the ticket guy said they had not been very busy all day.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
Too bad AotC sucked...
Funny, yes. Unrealistic, no. I remember seeing a demonstration by a competing team's fencing coach/master a long time ago. This guy was one of the best in the world in his prime, but well into his elder years spent most of his time just teaching and walking around with the assistance of a cane.
However, put a blade in this old guy's hand, and he was suddenly transformed from a decrepit-looking fragile elderly person into a graceful, dangerous foe. I saw him whip one of his own students who was at the time representing the US in the World University Games. After the bout, he picked up his cane and limped back to the sidelines.
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
I put that down to him acutally being old (850+; in Empire he mentions to Luke that "when 900 years old you reach, look this good you will not, hmmm?") and quite fragile.
But, when he needs to, he can use the force to make the cane redundant, and allow him to bounce around just as fast as he can imagine, and overcome the limitations of his old and fragile body.
Most of the time he doesn't bother though, 'cos it requires a load of concentration and it's easier to just hobble around with a stick. Being wise, old and a generally serene kind of guy, he doesn't feel the need to rush everywhere at top speed, and is content with that.
K.
Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?