I went and saw The Dark Knight Rises tonight, which was great. It was great, except for the fact that the audio was so loud that near the end of the movie, I had to put my earbuds in to dampen the sound. Now, I know that, yeah, it's The Dark Knight, and it's a big fun movie, but do the theater techs really need to turn it up so loud, that it hurts my ears? (I'm not joking about that either, I felt physical pain in my ears.)
I was seated near the very front, but not on the bottom row, on the left side, and I wasn't directly in front of any of the speakers, so I don't think that had too much to do with it. I also talked to one couple after, who found it very loud as well. Along with them, a friend of mine, from Australia, also says he saw it, and it was too loud for him.
I think there should be a standard set in place, because it seems that there isn't, which says that the volume cannot go over a certain dB level. Had I been thinking, I would have pulled up my dB meter on my ipod to see what it was at, but alas, I didn't.
That alone, made watching the movie unpleasant.
I've been to rock and roll concerts that weren't as loud!