God I hate movie theaters! The sound is unbearable. Not that I have anything against it being loud, it's just that some idiot always turns it up to the point where the speakers are distorting and it sounds like total crap. Grrrr!
i would suggest going to the former AMC theatres then. they were made geared towards a different demographic and dont have the volumes set as high.
I can't do 3-D... My big issue is the refresh rate flicker. 24 fps in 2D, projected, is OK. 12 FPS per eye in 3D, projected, is not. If you're the sort of person that low refresh rate CRTs bother, or old school fluorescent bulbs bother, no amount of good filming will save you until 48 FPS becomes the norm (24 per eye).
.... that would be the case with 3d televisions (which use active glasses, essentially blacking out one eye at a time and alternating them)..... not 3d in movie theatres (which use simultaneous projection of polarized light).
http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=56
the eye strain people usually encounter while watching modern 3d movies is one of three things:
1) you cant focus on something: when we look at something in the world and then change to something else which is a different distance away our eyes need to refocus. this causes a problem in 3d movies because our brain thinks that refocusing is needed but our eyes are saying they dont (since the film is already focused). this battle goes on for a little while until our brain eventually wins. a way to ensure that this happens sooner is to relax your eyes and let them unfocus slightly. after a few minutes it will be better.
2) improper separation distance: the 3d effect is a result of 2 different images, one being seen by each eye from a slightly different angle similar to how we would see in a regular 3d world. the difference between these two images needs to be set specifically for the average separation distance of a persons eyes. if your eyes are narrower or wider than what is considered normal than it wont quite make sense to your brain. however, eventually your brain will work everything out.
3) general eye fatigue: points 1 and 2 really only explain the first hour-ish of the movie. after that point than general eye fatigue takes over. when you are watching a movie, tv, on a computer, etc. our rate of blinking decreases SIGNIFICANTLY. this is even more pronounced in movie theatres because very rarely do we look away from the screen. while at home watching something there are visual distractions around which we will occasionally (more than you think though) switch our vision to. when we do this our eyes will refocus and blink (thus moistening our eyes again). in a theatre this does not happen nearly as often. the effect of point 3 can be reduced by blinking every 20-30s at least.
as a side note on point 1 and 2:
you would be surprised at what your brain can do. many studies have been performed on the ability of our brains to adapt to different visual conditions. subjects have worn glasses with lenses in them which flip what we see 180* (make everything appear upside down). after 5 days straight of wearing them the world no longer appeared upside down, but like normal. if the glasses were removed the world again appeared upside down for a few days until the brain sorted everything out again. this is called Perceptual Adaptation and is well documented.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_adaptation