I went to this cinema to see Quantu of Solace not too long ago. This was my first visit to any Vue cinema.

My first impression when I walked in was slightly confused. The ticket office was there but no one was around and the display was off. Instead, a crude sign told us to go and buy tickets from the food place. There was nowhere giving us a brief descriptions of the films as in Showcase, Cineworld, Savoy and just about every other cinema I've been to. This was annoying as we didn't really know what was on or have a film in mind we wanted to see - hence why we ended up going to see James Bond.

The cinema was a lovely size, and they had a good range of food on offer, albeit at expensive cinema prices. The toilets were also nothing to complain about.

Upon going to enter the screen, there was a sign on the way rudely stating that bags would be searched. They weren't, and even so I wouldn't have minded because of recording equipment etc., but it was worded quite aggressively which made me think they'd had problems with people. This made me a bit uncomfortable.

The film itself was incredibly loud. We were sitting in the middle, and I was practically deaf after the first ten minutes. I sat with my hands over my ears for most of it. In that position, the film was still louder than average. I do have more sensitive ears and can hear higher frequencies than the average person, but I still don't understand how people managed to sit through it!

Halfway through, a man in the audience started shouting really aggressively at some girls to stop talking. I hadn't heard them making any noise (not that I could over the film and my fingers in my ears), but they seemed to shut up.

All in all, my experience was pretty bad. If I went again, it would be purely because of its convenient location near the shopping centre and good selection of restaurants, and also because I'm not familiar with Reading generally.