If you've been to the movies recently and struggled to make out a lot of what the characters were saying, it's not just because you're getting old. The new film Interstellar is one experiencing sound issues.
An article published in the Washington Post this week claims that a lot of movies are having issues with their sound mixing lately, something that is especially notable in the new Christopher Nolan movie, Interstellar.
In Interstellar's case, critic Ann Hornaday points to the loud, in-your-face Hans Zimmer score and the overwhelming sound effects that often drown out the dialogue. The same issue also occurred for a lot of people in Gone Girl, especially during a key party scene where the score and sound effects overwhelm what Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are saying.
The issue with Interstellar seems to be a pretty widespread problem, and on Twitter a lot of critics and fans noted issues with understanding the dialogue in the movie, especially in IMAX theaters.
These issues and tweets are coming from all around the country and all over the world, suggesting that this isn't just a problem with individual theaters.
This actually wouldn't be the first time Christopher Nolan has had sound mixing issues. There were a lot of similar complaints about the sound mixing in The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan's previous film, again especially in IMAX screenings. In one pivotal scene in which Batman fights Bane, the sound effects are so overwhelming to the point where in IMAX it was virtually impossible to make out all the dialogue.
In that case, Nolan supposedly re-recorded some of Tom Hardy's dialogue to try to make it more comprehensible, but there were still a lot of major complaints.
So what exactly is happening here? Is it possible Nolan just had a really bad sound mixer for two movies in a row? Is the booming sound effects overwhelming the dialogue intentional? And will we ever be able to understand all of Ken Watanabe's dialogue in Inception without needing subtitles?
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