Men In Black 3 Survivor

We brought Vanessa and Ian to watch a movie last evening: Men In Black 3. They survived. Almost, barely.

How it all started was the Wife wanting to watch MIB3. We haven’t caught a movie for a long time. Vanessa overheard the plans and wanted to follow. She always wants to follow everywhere we go. Then, Ian heard his sister, and he wants everything his sister wants. So basically both kids said they wanted to watch the movie too.

But we were very apprehensive about it, for a few very good reasons:

1. They had never watched a movie in a movie theatre before.
2. There was once when we were at Universal Studios Singapore, watching the Shrek 4-D show, Ian was so terrified and screamed right from the beginning that the Wife had to take him out. Vanessa was also quite terrified. But she managed to sit through the whole short show.
3. Even for a kid’s friendly programme… like Barney concert at Kallang Theatre, well, they were also a little jittery. Although they eventually settled down comfortably.
4. Our kids are easily scared by many shows. Even shows that are, well, kid’s shows. Yes, even cartoons. The Incredibles, for example.

(Oddly enough, both the kids watch shows like NCIS and CSI. In fact, they are super-fans of NCIS. Vanessa’s Agent Ziva. Ian’s Agent Gibbs. They would play NCIS agents in the playground.)

So we were quite uncertain about the idea of them coming along to watch MIB3. Unlike Shrek 4-D, it’s not like we can come back in again to catch the next show. Then, unlike the Barney concert, there is no intermission midway for toilet break. Would they survive the movie?

We took pains to prepare them for the movie. I told them the show might be a little scary, but it is just a show, nothing’s real. There are monsters, but they are not real. They are big kids now. They need to be brave. They must show Isaac that they are brave. If they are scared, they can just cover their eyes. They can just tell us so that we can hug them. It’s going to be very dark in the theatre. No, it’s not like the Barney concert. It will be much darker, totally dark. Oh, and I almost forgot, that the sound will be very loud, and not to be scared about it.

All the logistics had to be carefully planned. Like, enough sleep. Well fed. Had their toilet break.

We stepped into the cinema, fingers-crossed.

The pre-show stuff started. They were alright. MIB3 started. They were alright. Even with the scary aliens. But their bravery couldn’t hold out the entire 100+ minutes of the show. Vanessa and Ian were seated between me and my Wife, Ian on my side. I was holding/hugging Ian. Midway, they had to change seats. Vanessa wanted me to carry. Ian wanted my Wife to carry.

But they survived. No screaming, no crying, and we didn’t have to leave the theatre.

I know, it seems strange to start them off on MIB3 for their first movie. They came through okay. I think now we can bring them out to more movies in future.