Midnight madness

Last night I left home near midnight to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine at 12:01 a.m. (After all the trailers the starting time was more like 12:20.) Although I've enjoyed the other X-Men films, I'm not a hardcore fan or comic book reader, so I wasn't going out because I absolutely had to see it at the first available opportunity. Honestly, I expected the movie would not be very good. (Those expectations were correct.) No, this screening just fit into my schedule better. Really.

As far as I can remember, the last time I ventured from my apartment at such a late hour to do anything was about a year ago to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Then I was going because I was eager to see the movie.

It was never normal for me to run around late at night, but doing this happens so infrequently now that departing home to do something at such an hour is like visiting another world that used to be a little more familiar. The atmosphere from the blanket of night makes the same places feel transformed. It's like a secret society that emerges while most people are tucked into their beds.

To a certain degree I'm comforted by being out and alert at those late hours, as though it's liberating to roam in the moon's shadow. (This may say as much about where I am and have been than anything.) Maybe it's simply that this time of the day is quieter.

I didn't have to go to the midnight movie, but I confess that I got a bit of a charge at the idea of doing it. Sure, attending this screening let me support the theater that's a stone's throw from me and freed up those two hours the rest of the weekend, but I also wanted to catch a glimpse of what's going on when most reasonable people are sleeping.