Anybody that knows me knows what a big superhero fan I am, especially when it comes to Marvel. For me, the new Avengers movie is the biggest release since the last one and will be until the next one.
So when I’m at work on Skype a couple of months ago and see an advertising banner offering the chance to win tickets to an advanced screening in London then it didn’t take me long to click it and enter my details.
Fast forward to Tuesday 22nd April, 2 days before the UK release anyway and when I turn my office computer on I have a message from “Marvel’s Avengers UK” saying that I’ve been selected for the screening and to reply within 24 hours. The screening being the next day. It was a manic morning and work weren’t too happy about me, and my girlfriend who I was dragging along, asking for a days holiday on such short notice. We booked the coach to get down in the morning (with it being cheaper) and the train to get back at 23:30 in the evening (with it running later).
Naturally I was also a little uncertain whether this was some kind of scam or not. In this day and age you have to be careful about everything and though it was advertised on Skype itself, getting a message saying “turn up to this address and you’ll be on the guest list” was a little suspicious to say the least. A quick trip the Skype forum and there were other people that had been selected who were wondering the same thing. Turns out there were actually 150 winners, which I wasn’t sure made it more suspicious or more likely to be genuine. Anyway, I went on the Skype support and asked them and they said that yes, it was in fact genuine. Phew. I linked her to the forum where she posted details about it to reassure my fellow winners. It wasn’t until later in the evening I got a congratulatory email with more details. It was an 8pm screening and they wanted us there by 7:30pm.
So the exciting day arrives and I’m up at 7am, we’re out of the house by 8am, pay £11 to park all day at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and get to the coach station for our 9am coach, but not before grabbing a bacon sandwich. By 10:30am it seemed like a long coach trip but soon sped up after we played a couple of games of Marvel Top Trumps, ate a packed lunch of egg mayo sandwiches and watched the latest episode of The Flash. Fun times.
London always feels like home to me, despite only living there for the first four years of my life, so when I travel down I tend to look out the window and just imagine what it would be like to be living among the havoc streets once again. It helps to pass the last half an hour or so as the coach takes the long traffic-filled journey to the station.
Off the coach at Victoria Station about 13:30 and it’s straight to the train station to collect our pre-booked King’s Cross to Leeds tickets for the late night train home. On the tube then we made our way to Leicester Square with the screening being at the Vue cinema in the West End.
We thought it would be worth a try to grab our tickets early so we went straight into the cinema to ask what the plan was. We spoke to the two women behind the counter, neither of who knew what we were on about. Safe to say I was a little nervous at this point. One of them simply kept repeating that the movie wasn’t out till tomorrow. Luckily, the manager came out and realised what we meant, there was an event that evening that was nothing to do with the cinema and we were hopeful that that was for us.
So now what? We have five hours to waste but it’s London so we naturally took a random direction and had a look around. It wasn’t long before we came across what is probably the greatest shop known to man. M&M’s World. They sell everything related to the popular chocolate you could think of from back scratchers to teapots and playing cards to baby bibs. It was all very impressive and from the second you walk through the door there is a very strong smell of chocolate in the air. If you haven’t visited it and are ever in the area I can highly recommend it.
A little walk round the markets and the local area and it’s time to look for somewhere to eat. We walked through Chinatown but in the end decided we’d like a curry instead. A little walk and there was “Grand Indian” staring us in the face. We had a little look at the menu outside and it wasn’t long till a waiter came out and invited us in. This should have been a sign but it felt rude to say no so we accepted. There was only one other couple in there and they left as soon as we sat down. Unrelated events, I’m sure. We were asked to sit in the corner in front of the window, despite the entire restaurant being empty. It was spooky to say the least.
If only we’d read the reviews. In fairness, the food was very nice, I ordered a Chicken Tikka Balti and although it was far from spicy it was enjoyable. However I have to say that that’s where the enjoyment ended. We were clearly put in the window to try and entice other customers to come in. It was all very cramped with small tables put so closely together. We had to start putting some of our food on the table next to us or eat off our laps. The worst part though, by far, was the service.
The waiter was a nice guy it has to be said, but all he wanted to do was talk. He sat a couple of tables from us and kept talking about football, which usually I would have no quarrel with. What I do have an issue with though is when he starts talking when I’m mid-conversation with my girlfriend who I’m trying to enjoy a quiet meal with. I didn’t want to be rude but I’m trying to just give short, quick answers in the hope he realises that unfortunately this afternoon, he’s not my date.
The food was quick and since we were rather terrified it was quickly eaten too. The bill, though, coming to £45 was far too expensive. I saw on the menu that my curry was £11.96 which is expensive anyway but when you add a 15% mandatory service charge on top it becomes almost criminal. 2 curries, 2 small glasses of drink (one of which being tap water) 2 poppadoms and 2 japatis should be half of that. London or not. Safe to say, a lesson learnt to research first or at least not go into anywhere that 1) the waiter has to come out to get you 2) is down a small side street or 3) has nobody else eating in it at lunchtime!
Being sat in the window meant we could look at some of the other local shops while we tried to avoid eye contact with the staff. There was a hat shop opposite called Laird London. I’m no hat expert so I had no idea whether this was a well known brand or not. My other half is intent on getting me a flat cap ever since I tried one on in a shop and didn’t buy it. I asked her the limit she would pay to get one, to which she replied “£17 or £18″ so after our extortionate meal we headed inside.
Having tried a few hats on, none of which impressed me to be honest, we asked what the price range was where the shop attendant replied “they range from £75 to £80″ to which we replied by swiftly exiting and moving on. Perhaps she saw us leaving the most expensive Indian restaurant in London and saw us as gullible mugs with more money than sense. Whatever the reason, we didn’t stick around to find out.
There was only a couple of hours to kill now so we headed back to the cinema area and into the nearest Costa Coffee for a large hot chocolate with all the trimmings and another swift game of Top Trumps and the Connect 4 app. I admit I was getting a little bored now, I just wanted to be in the cinema and start watching the movie after what had already been such a long day. I was worried after all this that I’d nod off before the opening scene.
We wasted the time till 18:30 and stood outside the cinema which was surrounded by people in Marvel related shirts. Not only was our special event on but the triple bill (Avengers / Winter Soldier / Age of Ultron) was also about to start. We asked the ticket guy what we do and he pointed us to the front desk. We asked at the front desk who said they had no idea and to just stand around looking pretty as a table would be set up shortly for registration.
Nobody seemed to have a clue what was going on. So we waited. It had gone 7pm and we were worried we were missing something. We asked the same ticket guy again and he told us to go upstairs where the registration table was. Facepalm. We’d been stood next to him for half an hour and he knew what we were waiting for. Anyway, we got up, we registered and we got a seat in the centre.
We had to wait 40 minutes or so for the movie to start but finally it did and after all the hype and waiting it felt almost unreal that I was finally watching new scenes from Iron Man and the gang after seeing every other film so many times. I won’t go into detail on the movie but I thought it was amazing and already have plans to see it two more times. This showing was in 3D and I hope to see it again in both 2D and at the IMAX. To be fair I was always going to enjoy it.
It had the strong humour element from the first movie, though it sometimes felt forced especially in the more serious scenarios. It definitely had a darker undertone but the new characters were very enjoyable, particularly Vision who I hope we see more of in the coming movies. I feel Ultron could have done more at the end and had a more epic final battle but otherwise I very much enjoyed it.
The only little hitch was about 20 minutes in when the sound kept dropping in and out. Then the film stopped and the lights came on. I’ll admit I had a little panic that they couldn’t show the movie and had to cancel it but luckily they said they would sort, rewind it five minutes and then put it back on. Which they did and it was perfectly fine until the end. I had only had this experience once before when I went to see Oblivion. A similar thing happened and we were all asked to leave (with free tickets) as the power had gone out.
So we were out at about 22:45 which gave us 45 minutes to get to King’s Cross. Having already bought and printed off our tube and train tickets we were there very quickly and headed back to Leeds. We got in about 2:40am on Thursday morning which is when it really hit home about how long a day we have had. We were in bed by 3:30am with alarms set for 8am to go to work.
Safe to say we were very tired the following day but was it worth it? Was it worth all the money, taking a day off work and the travelling just to see Avengers a day early? We were out the cinema only 93 minutes before it was released. But you bet it was worth it. Overall it was an enjoyable day out either way and an experience in itself. How many people can say they’ve seen the biggest movie of the year before it was even released? Legally, anyway.