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Author Topic: Godzilla (2014) Lyle Romer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1400 From: Davie, FL, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 05-21-2014 06:15 AM                     quote: Bobby Henderson The pressure is definitely on Dolby to bring down the crazy cost of Atmos to make it more practical for a lot more movie theaters. Agree 10000%. There is no way to really get ROI on Atmos at the current cost. People like me notice all the subtleties of the surround field and go out of their way to try and attend Atmos screenings. People like my wife just think it sounds good and don't know why. If it wasn't for me she wouldn't know what Atmos was and would think that a well equipped and eq'd 5.1 presentation sounded good as well. It just isn't different enough to warrant a $30,000 price tag. Maybe Atmos theatres need to do what AMC seems to be doing in the "Prime" auditoriums and doing lighting to point out the speakers. Perhaps Dolby could work with them on some type of old school IMAX style "explanatory" trailer that lights the speakers and does demos with a voiceover.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-21-2014 08:37 AM                     At the very least, the price tag on the Dolby CP850 needs to come down a bit or Dolby needs to come up with a CP950 that boosts capabilities yet cuts the cost in half -kind of like what Dolby did with Dolby Digital when the DA-20 package was released to replace the DA-10. I'm not sure what can be done to make all those speakers and amplifiers more affordable. I think that's really the thing that pushes the costs up pretty high. On the surface it would seem to make sense for companies like QSC to release 8 channel or 16 channel amplifiers, that way a Dolby Atmos setup wouldn't require 3 or more huge cabinets filled with amplifiers. OTOH, what are the drawbacks with having one piece of rack mount equipment doing the job of a bunch of separate power amplifiers? By its nature Dolby Atmos does require more powerful surround speakers and works better with at least a couple sub bass cabinets in the surrounds. This is more added expense. Installing and setting up an Atmos system looks pretty freaking complicated to me. I'm not advocating garish, ping pong, extreme surround use in movie mixes, but I do think movie productions really need to schedule in the extra time needed to create proper, immersive movie sound mixes -whether they're mixing in Dolby Atmos, using whatever DTS comes up with on their "Open MDA" thing or if it's just something a vendor like ProTools comes up with on their own. If audiences can't tell the difference between a conventional 5.1 mix and an Atmos mix that isn't going to do much in the way of selling Atmos to commercial movie theaters.  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 05-21-2014 09:16 AM                        Too damn dark. Why do they always make the biggest actions scenes of a movie at night? At least when we ran 35mm some studios still struck drive-in prints.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 05-21-2014 09:22 AM                        I saw Godzilla on Friday at the Marcus Renaissance Cinema in their newly-renovated UltraScreen DLX auditorium. The renovation brought large reclining chairs, reserved seating, and a Dolby Atmos installation. The movie was in Dolby Atmos, but Marcus was coy about advertising it universally, and there was no Atmos trailer preceding the movie. I thought the movie was very good. I gave it a See Now! rating on our site, as it contained everything that one would expect from a monster movie. While I didn't dislike the 1998 version, this one was much more like the Godzilla movies I remember watching as a kid. There were definitely plot holes that were huge (how does an EOD soldier know how to do a HALO jump?), poor acting (Aaron Taylor-Johnson should not be a lead actor), and more, I was thoroughly entertained and cheered the ending fight scene. The Atmos mix was good, but not spectacular. There were times when it stood out as off-screen voices came from a rear corner or Godzilla's roar was coming from just above the screen. I was most impressed with the sound system that was installed in the theater, as one of my main criticisms of Marcus' UltraScreens has been the lack of thunderous bass response. This movie contained quite a bit of bass, and this is the first time I've felt it in an UltraScreen. Overall, I got my $10.50 worth.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-21-2014 03:02 PM                     quote: Scott Jentsch The movie was in Dolby Atmos, but Marcus was coy about advertising it universally, and there was no Atmos trailer preceding the movie. That's really a bad move on the part of Marcus Theaters. I wonder if they're trying to do like Cinemark and others, hiding the sound system brand name as perhaps a way of fooling customers into thinking the fancy sound system is exclusive to just that brand of premium priced movie theater. Given how conventional sounding some Atmos mixes tend to be, playing the Unfold or Amaze Dolby Atmos trailers would at least give viewers a better idea of just what that sound format can do. Honestly, none of these premium priced big screen theaters has anything truly unique that can't be utilized by a competing theater chain. So all this value they're putting into their dopey acronym labels, like "XD", "RPX" or whatever is badly misplaced. I'm more interested in knowing if the show is being presented in 2K, 4K or some other projection format. The differences in laser or conventional xenon-based projection might be worthy of note. I want to know if the show is in 5.1, 7.1, Auro or Atmos. Saying the show is playing in XD, RPX or whatever tells me absolutely none of that. It's just pretentious bullshit.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 05-21-2014 05:00 PM                     I thought it was a mixed bag, definitely better than the prior US attempt, but ugh... the human characters were so bland and boring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson in particular. 3D was sporadically good, but it was too dark to really convey the dimensionality. The Atmos mix was pretty good, not great, but it did heighten some scenes).  |  IP: Logged Terry Lynn-Stevens Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1081 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Dec 2012 posted 05-21-2014 08:36 PM                     Jonathan, Godzilla is all about the lizard and who he fights with at the end. The human characters are just sideshows until we get to that point. The second installment can have whomever as actors, but it is Godzilla who matters. He is supposed to be our buddy.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Goeldner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1360 From: Washington, District of Columbia Registered: Jun 2008 posted 05-21-2014 08:58 PM                     well there was more Godzilla in the 1998 version than this - and what was all that extra weight / 'fatness' with him - he looked bloated ...  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-09-2014 05:15 PM                     This Godzilla only looks fat beside that idiotic chameleon from the Ferris Beuller POS.  |  IP: Logged Terry Monohan Master Film Handler Posts: 379 From: San Francisco CA USA Registered: May 2014 posted 06-27-2014 12:17 PM                     They will be doing a sequel, so here are my thoughts to the director. Have a seen like in a classic 35mm Chinatown movie theatre that is showing the old Godzilla film. Have the God Z monster break thru the back stage screen wall into the cinema while the audience has 3-D glasses on and he comes thru the screen into the frightened crowd. Have one old fat lady yell 'That is what I call good 3-D' Turn up all the surround speakers in the sequel with people yelling and screaming all around you. I'll send my thoughts to the producers.  |  IP: Logged

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