dr_phil_physics | Entries tagged with 3d

Hard To Believe

I am a huge fan of Titanic. The movie, the RMS Titanic herself, the arrogance and elegance of the Edwardians. So given all that and the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking, I guess you really have to imagine that I've been swamped with things to do such that I did not have a chance to see the re-release of Titanic in any format in April.

So now it's summer, I've no classes and Mrs. Dr. Phil is in Esteli, Nicaragua. So I'm going to catch up on some movies. When I started to check on times, I found out that Wednesday and Thursday were the last days to see Titanic and The Hunger Games in IMAX.

Titanic 3D in IMAX [PG-13]

Celebration North IMAX Theatre, Seat A14(13), 3:00pm, 1×$15.00

Huh. They've just started doing assigned seating in our IMAX theatre. I wanted first row center -- the ticket seller had a seating chart, but pointed at the wrong row. Okay, the seating chart doesn't actually have labels for FRONT or REAR, but I'm pretty sure in any theatre I've ever been in, ROW L is not the first row. And then the screen could only slowly scroll up. This is going to get old when people are stacked up in line, as opposed to a Wednesday afternoon in May while school is still in session.

I picked A14, but A13 is "better". Why first row? So I can stretch my leg out at will.

But what about the movie! I hear you shout.

Look, James Cameron's three hour and seventeen minute Titanic is an epic. It begs to be seen projected on a big screen. It's been fourteen years since it's been first run in theatres, and while movies have changed a lot in fourteen years, Titanic holds up exceedingly well. Oh sure, the bad dialogue and bad characters are still front and center, but all the impressive parts of the film are still there. And we didn't have an IMAX in Grand Rapids yet fourteen years ago.

After Avatar, one is sure that Cameron wouldn't let the 3D conversion look bad. Fact is, if I didn't know better, I would have sworn Titanic was filmed in IMAX 3D -- it's that good. (1) There's a quiet scene when Rose's Monets are getting drowned and the surface of the water is a rippling shimmer. In 3D it's full of depth, even in the far lower left corner, 'cause I checked. (2) They actually converted too far. TV screens should not be in 3D, though I'll concede that in "Snoop Vision" from the ROV robots in the wreck, that the video feed might be in 3D for the pilot's binocular vision. (3) Some of the full screen full on faces seem a bit flattened, but I think that's just the much larger than life effect. (4) The 3D depth created by bubbles and floating bits of debris in submerged shots in every bit as astounding as some of the floaters in Avatar.

Cameron's nearly full-size sets have bulk and solidness. Indeed, it's only when you get that first exterior shot of the bow almost to the water that you finally believe that such a solid ship is really going to sink -- the same emotional feeling I had back in December 1997.

During the 100th anniversary specials, Cameron reexamined the evidence and changed his mind about that 90° pitch angle of the stern as it went down, but said he wasn't changing the film. However... I did spot one update to the film, and I'll have to do some checking with my astronomy software. But there was one howler in the original with a circular constellation in the night sky -- and plenty of people, myself included, wondered why the hell Cameron didn't have the correct night sky. Well, as Rose is looking up floating on that chunk of wood, the howler is gone and replaced with the Milky Way. Now I have to check to see if that's right. (grin)

I'm glad I finally got a chance to see it this way.

Highest Recommendation

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: happy

What A Coincidence

Yesterday we went to see Hugo in 3D. So what were the odds that we'd see movie trailers aimed at kids and/or in 3D?

Why YES -- these are all coming in 3D.

So... how about The Pirates? From the animators of Chicken Run and Wallace and Grommit. Please? I haven't laughed so hard during a trailer EVER!

The next trailer was Yet Another Pirate Opening. But we've seen this before, it's for Spielberg's Tintin. Looks like fun. But I am waiting to hear from someone who is a longtime Tintin fan, preferably from Europe, as to whether they've captured this right. Americans by and large have never taken to Tintin.

The Lorax -- Oh thank god that it's not a Dr. Seusss live-action movie with Jim Carrey or Mike Myers. Having said that, the animated artwork looks good, but I got no hint of Dr. Seuss-ish dialogue.

Revise, Revise, Revise

Beauty and the Beast in 3D makes a January return. Automatic Cash Machine, but sadly it looks a little dated. Disney is capable of screwing things up, so we'll pass.

It's been a few years since George Lucas has messed with us, so no surprise that Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is getting the 3D treatment. I'm sure many will ban this. But given the popularity of the Star Wars merchandise -- Star Wars LEGO I'm looking at you -- it makes tremendous sense to introduce the youngsters to Star Wars on the big screen. And despite Jar-Jar Who Shall Not Be Named, compared to Episode III, Episode I has some great scenes. And the 3D-ization clips we saw looked good. I'd expect Lucas to technically tweak this right.

15 April 1912 + 100 Years

Titanic. After Avatar, does anyone question James Cameron's technical understanding of 3D? Obviously it's been years since Dr. Phil has seen one of his favoritest movies on the big screen. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it the many times I saw it first-run. And it'll be a century since the sinking. Will there be midnight showings designed to mark the 2:20am sinking? (evil grin)

I am so there. (swoon)

Have They Got This Now?

At Celebration Theatre, they were using a different 3D projection system. Certainly Hugo looked outstanding. And the two big retro converted films have heavy CGI use, which may facilitate the 3D conversion process. So I haven't given up on 3D if done right by competent filmmakers. But if this flight of movies tanks, I think Hollywood will rethink 3D as a cash conversion process.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: excited

A Saturday Goal

Off to the movies on Saturday afternoon, as we are sorely behind, and I promised Mrs. Dr. Phil a Thai dinner -- after I had to eat Thai down in Atlanta. So after the movie, it was just hop onto I-196 and down to the new Baldwin Ave. half-exit and Bangkok Taste. We were going to start with a couple of vegetarian Thai spring rolls, but instead I spotted a peanut curry noddle dish, so we added that to the curried eggplant and Thai BBQ duck -- and had a splendid meal.

There was a table near us with a large group, including three little girls, each one blonder and shorter than the next. They were very busy with their crayons and were very cute and well behaved.

Hugo 3D [PG]

Celebration Cinema North, Theatre #4, 3:15pm

There's been a lot of talk about Martin Scorsese's first 3D film as an homage to film. But this is thoroughly delightful and convoluted and beautifully filmed movie which is as entertaining a two hours as you'll find anywhere. It's a steampunk dream, but rooted in a reasonable version of history and technology. There's clockwork mechanisms galore, both large and small, steam trains, the Paris train station -- both gleaming public spaces and dirty, steamy bowels, love of all sizes and depths, an automaton that can write, and orphans.

Hugo is a boy trying to survive by secretly keeping the clocks running in the station. His father is dead and his uncle has abandoned him, both were clockmakers of a sort. The train station is populated with a variety of people living and working there. The toy seller, the book seller -- played by Ben Kingsley and Christopher Lee, respectively -- the cafe owner, the newspaper seller, the flower seller, and... (duh-duh-DUH) the station inspector. The last is played by Borat, er, Sacha Baron Cohen in what I think is his finest role. Needless to say Hugo is constantly in danger from being deported to the orphanage by the station inspector, who has no idea Hugo is keeping his station on time.

Is this realistic? SF? Fantasy? Yes. It is also about the people who work in the station, rather than travel through it. It's about books and movies, especially Harold Lloyd and Georges Méliès. It is about the aftermaths of The Great War, what would later become known as World War I, and how you cannot understand the period between the wars without knowing how WW I impacted people.

Scorsese's attention to details, in both characters and technical issues, is a delight. The station inspector has a lovely Doberman -- and there's a very cute side story involving a long hair dachshund. There's something here to keep everyone happy, and I haven't provided a single spoiler. (grin)

Except for a bit of focus error I fought with in a scene right near the end, this is one of the better done 3D movies. It is sharp and clear and detailed. If this is how and why they want to make 3D movies, it's fine with me -- not like some of the crap that's been passed as 3D-worthy in the last couple of years. What in the world was Martin Scorsese thinking? I think he was enchanted with the story and I think we're going to have to get a copy of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret and see what the book is all about.

Highly Recommended

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: nostalgic

A Starr-rrrh Is Born

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was the unexpected hit of the summer of 2003. Who could believe that one could find so much in the old Disneyland animatronic ride? And yet they managed to pick up a stellar cast who hung on gallantly to the impossible coat tails of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow. Our first of glimpse of Captain Jack, heroically standing watch atop a mast... and stepping off from mast to dock just as the boat sinks, told us this was not going to be an ordinary movie.

And then we went to Finland. One of our "things to do" was see a movie in Helsinki, which we did. Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines was all the better with Swedish and Finnish subtitles. But that Friday, POTC was going to open and we had to see Mustan helmen kirous, opening night, in the big theatre at the Tennispalatsi (former Olympic venue).

Much like the original Star Wars trilogy, POTC 2 & 3 were a double-feature, complete with a pretty decent sudden death cliffhanger. Unlike Return of the Jedi, POTC 3 was the weakest of the trilogy -- they were trying to do too much. Still, watching the unpredictable Captain Jack Sparrow is always fun. So when WOTF workshop co-leader Tim Powers said that one of his novels had been optioned for writing the next POTC script, well, we knew we'd be there.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in IMAX 3D [PG-13]

Celebration Cinema North, IMAX Theatre, 12:25pm, 2×$16.50

All of which leads us to Saturday afternoon, Celebration North IMAX 3D of POTC 4, "suggested" by Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides, which I confess I don't have a copy of... yet. The lobby of the multiplex was crawling with pirates, handing out Mardi Gras type throws as booty. One fellow was dressed and made up as a very credible Captain Jack. We thought maybe they'd be going to our showing, but in fact I guess they were there to provide some color during the afternoon, as they were still there when we came out.

The IMAX theatre wasn't empty, but I'm not sure there were more than a couple of dozen when we got in. Our "perfect" on-center seats in rows 2, 3 and 4 were occupied, so we took a chance at row 1, which at least has great legroom. In fact, we had the whole row to ourselves. (grin) Turned out OK -- lean your head back against the headrest and I got the whole screen in my 3D glasses' field of view, and we weren't so close as to distort reality. Hot dogs and nachos for lunch. But it could've easily been the biggest tub of popcorn they had...

But what about the damned movie? I hear you scream. I know some early reviews had some complaints, but I have to say it was a lovely Captain Jack Sparrow movie. Sure, I managed to guess a few twists ahead of time... but not all. (double-grin) While Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) aren't in this tale, Penelope Cruz ably fills in as the lady pirate, who may or may not have affections still for Jack, who may or may not have affections for her. And thankfully, Geoffrey Rush's Captain Hector Barbarosa is back for another bite of the apple -- is that a thin slice of apple at the end of his fork while dining on the deck of his ship -- or at least a nip of the spirits. He has long alternated between friend and foe, but now he has a very personal reason to go after, not Captain Jack, but the legendary and modified from real life Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. Yes, the real Edward Teach is famous for twisting lit fuses in his beard for battle. (fiery-grin) And look for cameos by Dame Judi Dench and Keith Richards. And a huge round of applause for Captain Jack's longtime first mate Gibbs. And a long tense scene with a pastry. One of King George's pastries.

Of course this romp is about the Fountain of Youth. So we have too many ships, too many captains and too many sides. And mermaids. Perhaps it is sufficient to say that there are plot elements reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but surprisingly the Spanish turn out not to be in the role of the Nazis.

Ah, but what of Jack Sparrow's precious Black Pearl? The ship makes an appearance of sorts, certainly establishing a plot line for POTC 5 (and 6). Some other things are givens at this point in the series -- we know Jack's compass isn't an ordinary compass for finding North and there's that damned monkey again. Also we get voodoo, magic swords, zombies, vampires, to say nothing of damnation and redemption. A pirate's life ain't easy. That's movie pirates, by the way. Wikipedia has a disambiguation term Piracy in the Caribbean for real (sniff) pirates.

As for the 3D IMAX, they did a far better job of 3D than the unwatchable action scenes previewed in the next Micheal Bay Transformers movie. And there were two good 3D gotchas -- one with a sword is most effective and unexpected. And a third with elements of poignancy and horror near the end. Then there are the 3D effects with water, some of which were quite beautiful.

And DO stay through ALL the credits for a Dr. Phil Special, the most delicious one in all four movies. Huge potential plot for the fifth movie... As the opening salvo of the Summer Movies of 2011, we got our money's worth on this one. Mrs. Dr. Phil suggested this may be the best one of the series so far. I think it's a coin toss between POTC 4 and the more innocent POTC 1, as is typical of sequels.

Highly Recommended

Trailers: Super 8, the J.J. Abrams/Spielberg movie, Harry Potter 7.2, Cars 2 and the Transformers On The Moon movie. We'll see the first two. Oh, and Celebration North is going to show all three Lord of the Rings movies in the Extended Editions in June.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: happy

Tuesday Double Feature

With my grades in and both of us on vacation, it was time to try to catch up on some of the films out there. First up, the sequel to Tron.

When it came out in 1982, of course I saw it. Pretty sure I saw it at least twice -- once in regular distribution and once over on the Northwestern campus as part of Tech Flicks in Tech Auditorium. May have even rented in once after we got up the U.P. and had a VCR in the late 80s. Memorable visuals, less than memorable story.

So when the idea of a sequel came up, I was curious. As soon as I started seeing trailers, though, I knew we'd be seeing it in 3D IMAX. For sure.

Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D [PG]

Celebration Cinema North IMAX, 11:00am, 2×$15

Funny to go into a movie with low story expectations, but that's the game here. I was prepared to be visually entertained. Surprisingly, we were entertained on both the story and the visuals. Sure, it's not a great story. They kind of stretched things here and there to mesh with the original backstory. But by and large they didn't do any damage that way, and though there were some deeper social commentary story lines which could be hinted at, they were skipped over. So nothing too controversial remained.

Lots has been said about Jeff Bridges and his dual roles as Kevin Flynn and Clu. I had to glance at the Wikipedia entry for Tron to verify that Bruce Boxleitner actually was reprising a role from the original. The guy playing the grownup son Sam Flynn opens as sort of a cross between Bruce Wayne's bad boy act in Batman Begins and the reckless James T. Kirk in the Star Trek reboot from last year. But nicer. Definitely not the brooding sullenness of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels.

But the real breakout star for me was Olivia Wilde as Quorra. Some of you may know her as Thirteen in the FOX medical show House. She has the most wonderful eyes and given the Tron-ish makeup and short black hair framing her face, the eyes get well treated on the huge IMAX screen. Plus her character smiles a lot, in addition to a lot of kick-ass Tron-ish maneuvers. Thankfully, though a relationship is clearly developing between Sam and Quorra, the film wastes no time stooping to even so much as an on screen kiss between them. Wilde has apparently expressed a desire to do a third film, exploring her character in the real world. I'd see it.

Meanwhile, the film is just plain fun. The lightcycle battles have been updated with more movement, offering so much more than was possible some thirty years ago when the graphics were chewed out on the world's fastest PDP-10 computer. But the odd rocket powered police frames and the lighted side lines on everything screams towards their late 70s origins. The four Sirens who gird Sam for battle in the games are so stylized, with the severely pulled back hair and heavy eye makeup that they look like refugees from 1970s flight attendant school. None of this is a complaint -- it's "perfect".

Everything is dark and everything is light. The dinner scene between Sam, his father and Quorra, in a highly lit white set, brings the scene from 2001 to mind where David Bowman is living out his life in the hotel room, eating all alone. The night club reminds me a lot of the Merovingian's club in The Matrix Reloaded, but then just like software and operating systems, how can any movies about virtual computer living not be like all the other movies about virtual computer living?

What I want to know is this: How the hell did a pair of big servers survive in a dusty basement office without any hardware faults for over twenty years? Not that it really matters. (grin) I was just happy to see the one young "genius" in the boardroom in meatspace, though never really developed as a character, pulling off a UNIX "kill -9" on a command line interface.

The 3D of the Grid world really works quite well. The diminished brightness of the 3D glasses only becomes noticeable in the very end when we are back in the real world. And even then, it's not too distracting.

You don't need to have seen the original in order to be entertained. But if you're an old fogy like some of us, it's pure electronic joy.

Recommended

TRAILERS: Given that Tron is a Disney property, lots of Disney trailers. The top one, though, was our first look at the fourth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, in 3D IMAX. Oh, yeah. We'll be there for that one. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pleased

Sigh

Once again I find myself way behind in posting to LJ -- particularly movie and play reviews for this summer. Really, they're coming.

But today was a lovely day. A front moved through so the last several days have been free of the oppressive humidity and so the breezy temps in the mid 80s were quite pleasant. And I told Mrs. Dr. Phil that if she wanted to go see Despicable Me this weekend, I'd have no objections. So she checked schedules and she chose a 3D showing at Celebration North, instead of a 2D at Holland 7. No problem.

Despicable Me (3D) [PG]

Celebration North, Theatre #4, 3:35pm, 2×$10.50

Even before I saw the movie today, I knew one thing: I want minions. (grin)

Not sure I'm evil enough to have minions, given their ambiguous status -- are the minions property? Created? Born? Independent contractors? Aliens? We have no idea. But they're fun. They're not so much as evil as... different. (grin)

As for the movie, the whole opening with the Great Pyramid was pretty much known to us, since most of it showed up in the initial trailer we'd seen months ago. Once we get past the Keith Olbermann MSNBC Countdown-like TV news segment, the story really takes off. And it's a fun romp. Our chief villain is a man named Gru. As the story develops, a young upstart villain named Vector becomes his nemesis. The thing is, Vector thinks he is a genius and is so overconfident he's an idiot. And Gru? He has villain tendencies, but we're not really seeing top drawer villain crimes from him -- at least not successful ones. This leads him to getting trouble in arranging for a loan to fund his next Evil Project from the Bank of Evil (formerly Lehmann Brothers). Eventually this leads him to acquiring three orphan girls -- Margo, Edith and Agnes -- for their cookie selling skills. It's complicated.

The girls are a hoot. The orphanage they come from is run by a woman who makes Dolores Umbridge look kind. We know even before it happens that the girls will melt mean old Mister Gru's heart, because he's not really all that mean and old. Plus we've seen the trailers.

Of course this is an animated movie and there's plenty of things and cartoon physics which don't make sense and aren't supposed to. Gru's "car", for example. No one seems to notice it or its repellant behavior. I kind of think that in real life one would notice Gru and his guns out in public. Indeed, both Gru and Vector have an armada of weird guns -- freeze guns, squid guns, piranha guns, etc.

Besides the yellow bodied with blue jean bib overall clad minions, which inexplicably come with either one or two large eye(s) covered in large lensed goggle(s), there's quite a cast of strange creatures. There is Gru's "dog", which is all teeth and viciousness. Sometimes. There is Dr. Nefario, with the rubber gloves and the hardness of hearing, who design's Gru's weapons. Sometimes. And there's Mom -- Gru's mom. OMG, the voice is Julie Andrews!

Recently we've been treated to a number of animated movies which have turned out to be fun for both adults and children. Not a huge attendance for this Saturday afternoon matinee, which is reasonable since the movie has been open a couple of weeks. And not a huge number of young kids, though those there along with some teens sitting behind us, seemed very appreciative.

Certainly I have no interest in hating this film because of the massive possibilities for marketing opportunities -- which apparently they are taking advantage of. In particular, it turns out the little puppet book about the sleepy kittens is available. I think a whole lot of little kids will be made happy by that one marketing tie-in alone. Maybe a hit toy for Christmas will be 6-inch models of the Moon. (grin)

Overall, Mrs. Dr. Phil and I loved this moved. It is very funny and beautifully done. The 3D is mainly effective -- the roller coaster scene is full of motion and quite well done. DO stay for the End Credits -- definitely an entertaining example of a Dr. Phil Special of the First Kind -- especially if you sprang for the 3D glasses. (grin)

Highly Recommended

Trailers: 2010 is trying SO hard to be The Year Of The 3D Movie. Sigh. And seeing that we're at an animated 3D movie, it is interesting that there are so many more animated 3D movies coming. Interesting may not mean "good" for various values of interesting. There's the dueling post-Krypton-esque Megamind supervillain vs. over-the-top Superman-ish hero movie. Probably see this, especially with Tina Fey as the damsel not-so-in-distress. The last airbending happy wings apprentice quest war owl movie. And Alpha and Omega, the upper-and-lower caste wolf love story movie. Oh, and there was one (mostly) live action movie which naturally is a sequel, Nanny McPhee Returns. I've seen part of the first movie and it's hard to believe that's Emma Thompson.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: amused

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Titanic II - The Sequel
All 3D All The Time
We'll Always Have Paris -- The Train Station, That Is
Arr-rrrrh, It Be Summer Movie Time, Savvy?
The Film We Didn't Even Know We Wanted A Sequel For
A Despicable Day

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Entries tagged with 3d

Titanic II - The Sequel

All 3D All The Time

We'll Always Have Paris -- The Train Station, That Is

Arr-rrrrh, It Be Summer Movie Time, Savvy?

The Film We Didn't Even Know We Wanted A Sequel For

A Despicable Day