Well, most likely they're just poorly EQ'd. I see (hear) this A LOT. Usually the 4-8K ranges of frequencies are WAY too hot. It makes dialog painful and if someone in the movie fires a gun then kiss your eardrums goodbye.
Yeah, what he's describing is what I experienced: I couldn't tell what Bane was saying most of the time, a voice which I have since learned was manipulated for effect and the explosions/gunfire would blast my eardrums! This is the 2nd time I've been to this particular theater, I saw the new Alien movie Prometheus there. I don't go to theaters much, but I don't remember a case where it was this bad. Anyway, I'm not the best judge because I think I have lost some hearing and I do prefer watching movies with subtitles on these days; I'd turn them off, but then a point would come when something wasn't clear and I'd have to rewind, turn them back on to understand it, so eventually I just gave up and now I always keep them on... It sucks cause I can't keep my eyes from looking at them first, a habit that develops with their use - you're looking down most of the time, missing facial expressions, etc.
Hahaha! Way to lighten the thread up! That was awesome!!
I guess we'd rather not really think of the reality here. At some level I just said to myself I'm not gonna let it affect me much. Hell, I live in Chicago after all, murder capital of the US at times - getting gunned down in the wrong part of town is a way of life. We had jokes told for that one year when more people were killed here than US troops in Iraq, prompting a sort of "Hey, it's getting safer in Iraq than in a US city! WTF?" line of joking... Heh.
