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This topic comprises 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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Author
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Topic: Superman Returns
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Mark J. Marshall
Film God
Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 07-18-2006 09:04 AM
Well, I finally got a chance to catch this last night at the UA King Of Prussia Stadium 16. This was, I think, my third time seeing this movie, and it was kind of late (10:30 show) and I was a little tired, so take all of that into account when reading my review.
First of all, unlike Brian's theater, these guys did change their polarizer config from |_ to /\, which was cool, because I got to wear my comfortable glasses that I bought for Jeff's first 3D festival. And it's always fun to tell the ticket taker that I don't need the glasses. ![[Cool]](cool.gif) Unfortunately, they told me that the polarizer config was only changed for this one movie. Every other customer was given the cheapo theme park ride square glasses.
The picture seemed a little softer than other DMR films in my opinion. While some of the other films went from extremely sharp to a little soft, this one stayed relatively consistantly soft throughout the show. I'm not sure if I prefered it that way or not. And I could have swore that I detected some blown up film grain in a couple of shots too. Are we sure that the whole thing was shot in HD? The volume was a little low for IMAX standards I thought, but that was probably the operator's fault. COME ON GUYS, I WANT TO HEAR THAT BOOMING SUPERMAN MARCH BLOWING ME THROUGH THE BACK OF THE THEATER WHEN I SEE IT IN IMAX!!! ![[Mad]](mad.gif) ![[thumbsdown]](graemlins/thumbsdown.gif)
As for the 3D, I have mixed feelings on that. Going in, I had the experience of seeing a lot of dual strip 3D films in 35mm at Jeff's festival, and at Pete's theater. I've also seen the 70mm 3D stuff at Disney World and Universal Studios about a hundred times, and I've seen a few IMAX 3D films as well. All were dual strip, and all were actually FILMED that way to begin with. I was a little skeptical about the possibility of converting a 2D image to 3D. Now, having seen this movie, I can tell you that it can be done. But it looks like it might be a pain staking process right now which needs some refining.
There were a couple of "money" 3D shots. Some close ups of Lois Lane looked absolutely realistic and phenomenal. Some of the other shots looked forced, and totally off. But most of the shots were somewhere in between. There was at least one shot that I caught where the background looked like a two dimensional rear projection screen behind the action. You actually see that quite a bit in the old 3D westerns from the 50s, but the difference is that back then, it actually WAS a rear projection screen behind the stage coaches. In this case, the film makers probably either ran out of time or overlooked it.
But that all has to do with the 2D to 3D conversion technique. Given the money shots, I believe that this is something that can be done. But it might not be something ready for prime time. I guess we'll know next year when Star Wars comes out. But even that will be plauged with the field sequential flickering problem that's inherent in the DLP systems.
To make matters worse, something was off with the 3D in this theater. Either the operators threaded it wrong, or the projectors aren't in sync for some reason. I don't know enough about IMAX projectors to speculate what the problem could have been. All I can tell you is that the left eye was VERY SLIGHTLY ahead of the right eye. This created a very annoying flickering effect almost like the field sequential flickering effect of DLP. This was only really noticeable to the average viewer during shots where there was a lot of motion on the screen, like the plane crash scene. But somehow, I detected it from the first shot of the green band for the first trailer. For a while, all I knew was that there was a problem, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Eventually I spotted the left eye being ahead of the right. I don't believe that it was off by a full frame though because that's painfully obvious when that happens. Maybe the shutters are out of sync? No idea. One of our IMAX gurus can comment.
Anyway, it was "neat". It was "cool". But overall, I was under impressed by the lack of consistancy in the quality of the 3D shots, and the out of sync problem. But the money shots do give me hope that one day this process will be perfected.
Edit: Here's my other two questions that I forgot to mention:
1... Why even take the glasses off for the 2D scenes? Once the polarizer swings out of the way, you can see the left eye print with both eyes anyway, so what's the point of the distraction? Did they just want to say to the audience "Here comes a 3D scene, so get ready!" ?
And 2... Is there a changeover that closes on the right eye while it's black, or is the black film from the right eye print being projected on top of the left eye print?
[ 07-18-2006, 01:59 PM: Message edited by: Mark J. Marshall ]
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There is an outside chance that the motor controller may be failing, but this should trigger the system to generate a E-Stop. I run SR projectors, and as Brian has stated, his projector is a GT where the twin rotors are stacked and locked together, where the SR system has two projectors with just one rotor each. I have during test screenings, had a 3D print jump out by one frame, and it sure is noticeable. I am sorry that you had to sit thur this less the desirable show. Hope your next visit is much better.....
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