Bookends

It looks like Covid-19 has effectively killed the cinema industry. That's not really surprising - to be honest, it has been a struggling medium for some time, given the rise of streaming, the improvements in home TV equipment recently, and the demands of the studios for ever-increasing cuts of the ticket prices. Factor in much reduced capacities, a big hit on their ability to sell popcorn (which was largely keeping them afloat), and the general paranoia that inevitably accompanies the experience, and the writing was on the wall. Then factor in the fact that no new films were being released, and they're screwed.

The upshot of that is that it's quite likely that "The Rise of Skywalker" is the last film I will see in the cinema, joining "Superman III" as the bookend on that experience.

What's perhaps interesting there is that both films have some good material but both films are a very long way from being the best entries in their respective series. (Indeed, in both cases it is either the first or second film released that is the best.) Also, of course, both films have at least some music composed by John Williams, which is fitting given his importance in film music.

(I should perhaps note that "Superman III" would not have been my choice of film - I wanted to see "Return of the Jedi", but it was 1997 before I saw that one in a cinema.)

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that, I think. Except perhaps to note that Cineworld have acted fairly shamefully in their handling of their staff - layoffs at this time were entirely understandable, but for many of the staff to learn via Twitter is frankly outrageous. Meaning that if they do reopen and things go back to normal, I'm afraid I'll now think twice before heading there for a show anyway.