A couple of months ago, I went to the cinema to watch Wakanda Forever, the sequel to Black Panther, both Marvel movies.
I hadn’t seen the first one, and a friend told me I should watch it, so I could understand the new movie.
And I didn’t.
I didn’t watch the first movie because, basically, I didn’t want to spend half the afternoon watching a movie, when I was going to spend half the night watching another movie.
So I did something better.
I watched three different summaries of that movie on YouTube, and after those 35 minutes I was ready to go to the cinema.
My friend told me it wouldn’t be the same, but I still enjoyed the movie, so I think three summaries are enough to understand what a movie is about.
Something similar is going to happen this week.
A friend is coming to the city, and she wants to watch Avatar 2.
She told me that “I have to watch the previous movie first,” but I’ll probably end up watching two or three summaries on YouTube again.
I just checked, the first movie lasts over two and a half hours, and my attention span is not very good lately.
I know she will probably be mad at me, but what can I say, it’s almost three hours. That’s too much.
Something that will be different between these two situations is the language:
I watched Wakanda forever in English because I went to the cinema with American friends, and at least one of them hates dubbed movies.
But I will watch Avatar 2 in Spanish because I’m going with an Ecuadorian friend, and although we both understand English movies, watching the dubbed one is just easier.
Actually, I don’t even know if the English version will be available. Most movies are dubbed, and just a few are available in the original version.
Why?
Because most Ecuadorians don’t speak English, and it doesn’t make sense for theaters to offer something that most people won’t buy.
That’s why, if you are planning to visit Ecuador, you should know at least the basics of the language we speak, so you can communicate with locals, and enjoy your time here.
