Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Annabelle: Creation (2017)

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 08-13-2017, 10:48 PM:

CINEMA: AMC Barrywoods 24, Kansas City, MO
AUDITORIUM: 12, SEAT: D9
PRESENTATION: AMC Dolby Cinema with Recline-O-Vision
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Seat doesn't recline enough, has touch panel control on top of the arm that is super easy to accidentally activate. And why aren't these seats heated? I paid over $18 for a Sunday noon matinee after fees and taxes. For that kind of money, I want my butt warmed. First Look played in right front channel only, excessive light reflection
RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)

You walk into this room and it's barely above pitch black. Black walls, black carpet, black seats, with minimal lighting, and no lights backing the seat numbers, so you need your phone flash to find it. And yet during the movie, the blue LED strip in the ceiling and the light from the screen itself reflects on the shiny leather seat tops. Not helping matters is those glass partitions between rows. You can stand at the front of the room and read the credits off them. Not even joking. And that "deep black" Dolby brags about in their trailer where they end with "YES THE PROJECTOR IS STILL ON", we KNOW it's on. Because the screen IS NOT BLACK. It's CLEARLY LIT UP. It's not even EVENLY lit. It's PATCHY. There's NOTHING to brag about here.

WTF is up with that Toyota ad running on First Look where the girl band carjacks a guy in a roundabout? Is that supposed to be cute? They're freaking felons now.

There's a Death Wish reboot coming from Eli Roth starring Bruce Willis? I would buy a ticket for that right freaking now if they were on sale.

THE PLOT: A little girl dies. Wackiness ensues.

Set in a period ranging from probably the fifties to the seventies (or overall just modern day Kansas, there honestly isn't much difference), a group of orphan girls (waves at Emmylou Harris) are fostered at a big ol' house in the middle of nowhere featuring a lot of neat rooms, one of which is locked and may be haunted by a creepy doll trying to find a soul for the little girl who died. Naturally, one of the girls gets in.

What follows is formula creepiness and a whole lot of scary music designed to make you jump. And if you're going to see such a movie, a Dolby Cinema auditorium is the way to go. Clean, loud, and punchy. It was like the soundtrack was designed to exploit this auditorium to the fullest. WOW.

The visuals are good too. It ultimately goes on too long and isn't the most original thing ever made and the way the girls speak isn't exactly period-specific sometimes, but I had a decent enough time anyway.

Not $18 worth, but decent enough.