Avatar: Special Edition 3D

Avatar Special Edition comes to us 9 months or so after the original edition hit our screens and I'm very happy it did because due to my wedding, honeymoon and a busy festive season, I never made it into a screening of the movie at the time. So this weekend, on one of our sporadic solo dates (where Norngirl and I head to the cinema together but go to see different films which start around the same time) I jumped at the chance to see it for the very first time.

That chance came as we made the most of what proved to be an odd day. We took ourselves along to the £4 a ticket (half the price we last paid to see a 3D movie so thought it worth a mention), 2pm matinees at Movie House Cinema in the City Side Mall (Yorkgate). Norngirl went to see 'The Switch' and I donned the 3D glasses handed to me by the staff at the door and entered James Cameron's weird and wonderful moon world of Pandora.

I wasn't too sure what to expect as I'd somehow managed to avoid reading or hearing the ins and out of the plot and don't worry, I'll try not to spoil it in case you're still in the situation I had been and are considering going to see it for the first time but suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised. So if you've not seen it yet and don't want to risk knowing more than you might want to, just stop reading here.

As it got going I was slightly worried that Avatar was going to be 3 hours of gun touting and other needless action in 3D. Although there is a fair bit of that, thankfully my worry was alleviated as the plot started to unfold and the thoughtful and imaginative concept of this sci-fi universe revealed itself. Beautifully detailed, the environment that the characters found themselves in has to be the greatest draw of the movie. I hardly blinked the whole time as my eyes were glued to the screen, only as I got that stinging sensation of dry eyes was I able to override the desire to block my view with my eye lids for more than a split second.

Sadly though, some of the characters, especially the bad guys, seem ironically one dimensional for a 3D movie, this was personified with the main villain Colonel Miles Quaritch whose character had no depth and might as well have been a robot from a bad b-movie.

Thinking about the plot itself, I'm probably not alone in thinking that it is pretty much the Star Wars trilogy meets Pocahontas. Oddly though this is not a bad mix, especially with a sprinkle of more modern scientific thinking than those two stories which pre-date it. The creatures and technology used are believable given the understanding of the environment we're provided and the science fiction doesn't seem too out there, its almost a soft venture into a new world using concepts used before but well fashioned into quite a gem. I thought the cinematography was brilliant and made up for any short comings in the character development, after all, Avatar is long enough without the need to dig deeper into the various personalities of what turns out to be plenty of characters, most of whom I can't remember the names of anyway.

As a sci-fi and environmental science nerd with a penchant for this relatively new technology in the mainstream, it was probably something I couldn't help but like. I'm very glad it was re-released as it gave me a chance to enjoy it in the way it was intended. I'm not too sure how it's charms would translate to 2D on a DVD at home as most of the enjoyment came from the sheer spectacle and taking you out of this world and into another. Avatar's tag line of 'Enter the World' does not disappoint or mislead.

Moving onto the difference between Avatar and this the special edition of Avatar; I came to read afterwards that there is 9 minutes of extra footage added such as the romantic entwining, a hunt and a death scene. Those scenes did actually stick out in my mind and do seem worth re-adding even if they are just a drop in the sea of this movie, they do probably add a little extra understanding.

Talking of the sea. It sounds like there is a sequel in the pipe line which will take us to the oceans of Pandora. Count me in for a trip to see that!

Kiss Me Kate at the Strand and Bennets on Belmont

Better late than never, this is a recap of the last of this year's Belfast Film Festival events that we managed to make it to in April. On this occasion it was a trip to the Strand Cinema on the 24th April, the Strand being the only other independent cinema in Belfast other than the Queens Film Theatre. On show was a 2D showing of the 1953 film Kiss Me Kate.

We had made our way to East Belfast and met up outside the Strand then headed over to the row of shops on the Belmont Road to find somewhere to eat. We had just finished work and the movie wasn't due to start for a couple of hours so were eager to get some grub in us. We were torn between the Gourmet Burger restaurant and Bennetts on Belmont. In the end, after some expert decision making using a game of chance, we headed into Bennetts and were seated in a booth by the window. Not one of us had ever been here before so we didn't know what to expect. We ordered from what was quite a varied menu and got chatting. It wasn't long until the food arrived and it was an amazingly pleasant surprise because the setting seems a little understated for the presentation and quality of food we were presented with. The portions were quite big, the chips were delicious and the spiced chicken naan bread sandwich type thing I ordered was delicious too! Everyone really enjoyed their meals and I think the general consensus was we'd be back there if ever we find ourselves out that way again. Though we were eyeing up the desserts we held off in favour of sweets for during the film. We weren't hurried out of the cafe/restaurant and sat there a fair while. After we'd finished some hot drinks we made our way over to the old cinema.

Inside the foyer is relatively small but all nicely laid out, one refreshment counter and one ticket booth. We headed to the latter and were instead directed to the screen. Once we had our refreshments we made our way into the room and paid the lady our money. The room was, how to put this... ermm, quaint.
Its hard to describe but I'll give it a go. The room sloped, both down towards the screen but also about a meter sideways over the width of the room meaning you were sat slanted to the screen slightly. This was a little odd but it kind of added to the experience. The other issue with the room was the ceiling which was coming apart in places but it didn't flake on us so we can't really complain - who looks at a roof anyway?

About 15 people joined us and the movie began. There was a slight technical hitch at first; to begin with the screen wasn't sized properly, we were watching wide-screen stretched people, then it was out of focus but before long it was corrected and we got on with enjoying the show.

I'd never seen the movie before so I wasn't sure what to expect other than being told it was a musical about a musical. I found it very funny but maybe for the wrong reasons. On-stage spanking tipped me over the edge and don't even get me started about the lady being thrown over a donkey. If you fancy seeing the main reason why we all ended up in fits of suppressed and not so suppressed laughter though, fast forward to about 2:06 of this youtube clip...

There was something of a plot, though it tailed out towards the end and was replaced by tap dancing and jazz, which was probably more apt than a meaningful conclusion. It was light-hearted and a 'frolic' throughout though, a post-war happy-go-lucky number worth seeing, even if its not at a cinema. I guess that's what the festival was supposed to be about, getting out there and watching some examples of the films you maybe would not have chance to enjoy on the big screen any other time. So all in all it was a success and left us giggling all the way home like the big kids we are.

Madness in March

There is just too much going on at once for a dedicated post of each event that March has thrown my way so far, its madness, madness I tells ye! Thankfully, possibly related to the quantity of hours being put in at work, there has been a silver lining (or in my specific case, a giant glowing hourglass in the sky!) to all the rushing about. Though there have been far too many early mornings and late nights. A busy schedule has led to some nice photo opportunities, photos of things I would perhaps have missed had I not been moving around at funny times of the day, and here are a few of them:

It all kicked off on the 1st March with Crusaders first game live on Sky Sports and first game under our new floodlights at Seaview. The game was the kick start for a run of good results getting our season back on track with a guaranteed top 6 finish due to the league split after 33 games. Leeds sadly haven't got their act together and didn't look great this Monday just gone. In fairness though injuries aren't helping either team but there is still plenty of season to go though and its never dull when it comes to Leeds or the Crues.

Next up was part of Norn Girls birthday weekend and a trip to Dundonald and more specifically a Sunday afternoon trip to the Pirates Adventure crazy golf by the Ice Bowl. It's great fun and we've been a few times now. We prefer the course to the right because of the wet musical hole (that sounds wrong), but both are great. None of us won a free game token at the last hole but it is possible!


We also made it to two restaurants, one occasion was a trip to Gingerroot on Great Victoria Street and the other a trip to the Bellevue Arms on the Antrim road up near the zoo. 2 completely different types of food but both very, very nice. Gingeroot is the best place I know of in Belfast for a curry, though for any big heat in your curry be sure to ask for it. The flavours are yummy though and the set meal was huge! The Bellevue was great even though they were out of pineapple juice last thing on a Sunday which was disappointing as we were eager for a cocktail or two. The food itself more than made up for it though. I had the roast beef and it was perfectly cooked for a joint. Delicious and only to be equaled by the all you can eat carvery we headed to for mothers day at the Clarion hotel, the only shame there is that you have to go easy on the first 3 courses to be able to manage to sample the vast array of sugar loaded deserts.

The all you can eat was a bit like the mad hatters tea party but with cups that hold fluid and another outing we went on was a trip to the Yorkgate Moviehouse cinema to see Alice in Wonderland 3D. I hadn't made it to see Avatar whilst it was out so this was the first 3D movie I'd seen with real actors included on screen and I really quite liked the mix. I think the enjoyment was aided by the familiar voices of the computer generated characters, many of whom I didn't realize had actually been in it until the very atmospheric credits were growing and rolling.


As with the story in the movie whereby Alice finds herself at an engagement party, I found myself at my first ever engagement party. Not my own mind you (we couldn't nor really wanted one), we were invited to one of Norn Girl's friend's celebrations. The celebration was a nice evening out in the end. It was held at the Malone Rugby Union social club and the happy couple were eager to show everyone a great time. That was echoed by the performers of the live entertainment. They had a lead singer who was very eager to get audience participation. The crowd was quite young (or at least young at heart) and the tactic of joining the audience if they didn't come to you seemed to work well. I managed to escape the dance floor but had a really nice time never the less. It reminded me of a wedding reception which confused me a little but if that's the warm up, who knows what their wedding reception might be. Good luck to them in their build up to their wedding.

We had turned up a little later than we had hoped to the party that night. We had gone into town to change buses, but instead of the 6A we found David Coulthard being interviewed. He then proceeded to jump into a Red Bull F1 car and drove up and down in front of Belfast City Hall making an awful lot of noise in the process. As our bus stop was now part of a mock up race track for a one man piece of exhibition driving with hundreds of people swamping it. We realised we had to head on somewhere downstream of the event going on to some place where we might happen to find our bus. We eventually found the one of it's later stops on the bus route and the bus, thankfully, wasn't long. We sat down in seats that looked a lot more comfortable than the multi-million pound technological play thing that was wearing down its tires performing spins just down the road. One car traffic jams, whatever next.

After that, I invented a new form of sandwich or wrap, taking 2 slices of 50/50 bread and using them as a condensed wrap... any ideas of a name for this delicacy?

Up 3D and the 3D Cinema Showdown.

On Monday it was another cinema night and a trip this time to the Movie House cinema at City Side Mall (aka Yorkgate Shopping Centre) on the outskirts of the central business district of Belfast. There we enjoyed a trip for a cup of tea and then on to see the recently released Pixar /Disney Digital 3-D film, Up. After Toy Story 3D at the Odeon where RealD is the preferred format, this was a chance to try out the 3D experience at the Movie House’s flagship cinema, with a Dolby 3D system. So what did we find?

Well, to begin with, a delicious raspberry muffin and a cup of tea at a near by cafe. It was there I met up after work with Norn girl and friends, closely followed by my soon to be sister and brother-in-law. The group were set. Losing one to other commitments, the group heading to the cinema comprised of 4, 20 something’s and a 12 year old. It was the oldest of us, *cough* Norn Girl, who with the encouragement of her younger brother ended up buying some crazy coloured clip in hair extensions which were worn all evening until donated to a lion... don’t ask!

We made it to the kiosk outside the York Gate/City Side Movie House and bought our tickets. After a quick ice cream stop for some. We climbed the stairs and handed in our tickets. The rest of the group headed to the queue for drinks and refreshments but I only wanted a bottle of something wet and cold so made my way around to the vending machine that’s around the corner near the higher numbered screens. After I had bought an overpriced bottle of Oasis compared to any other shop in the area I had a look around at the machines whilst I waited for the others to catch up. One caught my eye. It was a grabber machine like I used to play in Blackpool on family holidays as a kid. I was tempted to play this one because it had a nice sign on it saying ‘win every time’. I got my £1 and put it in the slot. I moved the stick and the grabber moved forwards, I had my eye amongst the random items for a toy SpongeBob Squarepants... the grabber stopped, I hadn’t meant to but it hit the back wall and was just out of reach of Spongebob. Oh well, I pressed the lit up button and the claw descended and missed everything. Thankfully it was a win every time... take 2... this time I headed for a pile of stuff and managed to dislodge a few things and there was another Spongebob... if only I could grab it with my grabber. Take 3 I tried, and failed. Take 4, the claw grabbed, and started to pick something up... in a real life version of Sid’s space ship grabber machine victory in Toy Story, my first thought was also...“Alright! Double prizes!”. The others were soon with me and I gleefully donated Spongebob to Norn Girl. I offered the weird bee thing around but sadly for this ‘Buzz’ there were no takers.

We made it to our screen and the staff were handing out the glasses. The Dolby3D glasses are reused and are apparently washed each time between uses because they are expensive to produce. They look the part, like trendy sunglasses and have an almost two tone coloured shimmer to them.

We picked our seats and watched the 3D ads and the 3D Pixar short film called ‘Partially Cloudy’ which was funny and a good warm up for our eyes. The view through the glasses though seemed just a bit off being 100% clear. There was almost like a slight fog around the outside of the field of view from the glasses which didn’t take away too much but was just noticeable. We tried each other’s glasses but they were all the same. A wipe on a cotton t-shirt to see if it was a smudge or residue from cleaning or something didn’t make a difference.

Up started and we settled back into our seats. I won’t spoil anything but the story sets up in the past with the lead character Carl Fredricksen as a boy, we are given his life story... and then the main story begins. The comedy is brilliantly done, the situation is so imaginative and well thought out that it’s hard to describe. All I will say is that Kevin and the dogs with their collars, at least for me, are the funniest movie characters to grace our screens this year, the movie lives up to its name and is as uplifting as the name suggests.

The 3D effects were quite subtle in places and not always used as much as they could have maybe been but the story to this movie and the comedy is its charm, the 3D effects are just the icing on the cake.

So yet another excellent movie experience. I don’t like to promote products and services and the corporate world but it seems like its probably about the right time to declare that 3D isn’t just a fad anymore. With the new push to promote digital 3D systems, its well and truly being integrated as part of the motion picture art form and it looks here to stay... which is good news for me because I’ve really enjoyed it so far!

The only let down to the movie (that was my own fault!) was the slight discomfort that came when I had randomly lifted off my glasses. I was trying to hold them away from my face try to try to see how the 3D was working out and to see what the brightness was like between that actually on the screen compared to what was coming through with the lenses filters. On their return to my head, I ended up missing the side of my head and poking myself in the eye with the end of the ear piece... oops! I missed a couple of minutes of 3D due to this slight mishap but I can officially say I’ve safety tested the ear pieces of the Dolby 3D glasses and that pair at least are a good level of blunt.

With the Storm cinema at the Odyssey at the time of writing not having a 3D showing advertised on their website (though they do have the VIP screenings with the lazy boy chairs – to which I’ve only been once, but they were so very comfy!) and having now experienced a 3D movie at both a Movie House and the Odeon. I think I can outline my experience mingled with a bit of the experiences of those with me on each occasion.

Customer Service: Both venues were great – excellent customer service, as in no fuss and friendly and clean (before other people made them messy). All good!

Prices (at the time we bought the tickets):
Movie House City Side - standard 3D showing ticket price £7
Odeon Victoria Square – standard 3D showing ticket price £8.45

3D experience: The 3D technologies of RealD and Dolby 3D were both good and produced a good quality 3D experience but here are what we found to be the pro’s and con’s of our visits.

Movie House City Side:

Positives - Choice of seats on the day. A few arcade and vending machines in the corridors between screens though if you’re a parent this could well be a negative hehe.

Negatives - What we judged to be slightly more uncomfortable glasses for our heads than the Real D (4/5 of us anyway) and slightly less clear/vibrant images but still a very good quality, however this is likely to be subjective and also could be influenced by the colours used in the movie itself. You can't take home the glasses and look cool/an idiot on the way home. Food and drink is expensive compared to same products at local shops and supermarkets.

Odeon Victoria Square:

Positives - What we judged to be slightly more comfortable glasses for our heads and what appeared to be slightly more clear/vibrant images, though this is subjective and also could be influenced by the colours used in the movie itself. The glasses are your own to keep and you too can look cool/an idiot on the way home :).

Negatives - Lesser choice of central seat locations without increased cost. Food and drink expensive compared to same products at local shops and supermarkets.


In regards to the technolgies involved, I’ve had a read around the t’interwebs and the best description I’ve found so far (one that isn’t too out of date yet) is a post by a user on the Audio Visual Science Forum who describes his observations of RealD and Dolby3D.

Conclusion:

It’s honestly very hard to choose between them but personally from these experiences, I preferred the actual 3D movie experience of the RealD technology in the Odeon but preferred the physical venue at the Movie House.

However, if I had to choose what I enjoyed most of all; I enjoyed the good time had with Norn Girl, friends and family, the rest is just a bonus.

Toy Story 3D

Excited about a movie we’d all seen several times before? You bet we were! Last Friday I bounced into a cinema screen like I hadn’t done for over a decade.

Having been very impressed by the latest version of the 3D cinema experience when we took the plunge and went to see Monsters Vs Aliens a wee while back, we were really looking forward to this one. It’s not hard to see why when I break this down in true Joey Tribbiani style - probably a reviewing technique that the likes of Radio 1’s James King wishes he’d thought of (I don’t know about you but I think he has a terrible taste in movies, but even he gave this 5/5!)...

Whats not to like? Toy Story, good. RealD 3D Digital Cinema, good. Getting to walk out of the cinema with 20-30 other people all still wearing polarised glasses and looking like you’ve all come out of a Blue Brothers re-enactment, good!

This new generation of 3D cinema really does beat the pants off the older 3D versions. I remember being at Alton Towers in their 3D cinema as well as the odd IMAX elsewhere and coming out feeling quite nauseous. I’m surely not that prone to it? I’ve never been car sick and even when my cousin and I decided to spend the best part of a morning at Blackpool Pleasure beach riding only anything that spins, and riding those rides repeatedly we didn't hurl. We might have been dizzy and in need of food to give our internal organs some stable and cohesive binding, but it wasn’t as bad as a 30 minute visit to see an unstable 3D adventure. With the new range of digital 3D cinema, we’ve headed to the Odeon mainly so far, and I believe they use RealD, this has been by convenience more than choice, but undoubtedly it has been first rate. The screen still seems very bright, the colours are great, the 3D really does stand out and the experience has been all together brilliant. Sure it might seem outdated and be superseded before long, but right now, it’s quite a sight, quite literally.

The only downside I’ve found has been the cost. The Odeon is far too expensive, as it is anyway for its regular tickets, especially compared, over here in Northern Ireland, to the Movie House cinemas. With the 3D showings, for 2 adult tickets and a bag of sweets, you’re not going to get much change from a £20 note.

Toy Story itself was the same bunch of giggles and action as it was in 2D but in 3D that extra dimension really does add an extra dimension. Seeing Andy’s toys coming to life with depth was great, it was like watching it for the first time again and brought you closer into the characters CGI world. From the reactions of those in front and from my own behaviour, it seemed like everyone was taking random turns at smiling at whoever they were with. Not to spoil it for anyone, but even the credits had a hint of 3D to them!

All in all, it was probably worth the money this time but I do hope it comes down in price a little, and perhaps it will if the hints are true that 3D TV might be upon us in the not so distant future.