By: Sean Millski
I went into my first new 3D movie, The so-called Digital 3D, thinking it was going to be like the 3D movies of old, the ones I grew up with…Blurry, oddly colored images briefly darting off the screen, flying over the audience and into your face…. but I was way off, it wasn’t like that at all. It was much, much better.
As a movie buff, I would’ve ran to the theater to see this new technology if someone had come up with some cool, kick-ass new name meant to distance themselves from the old 3D format or to take a second and say “Hey man, This is something different” but they didn’t. They just added the word digital and I guess hoped that would do it. That monumental marketing failure has left me, and the rest of the movie-going public, slow to catch on to the new way to watch movies. It‘s no longer a momentary parlor trick that happens a few times during a hazy green and red colored flick. The new and vastly improved effect is an amazingly realistic depth with an even more amazing image clarity! I came away thinking “That was F’ing awesome!”. The digital technology offers a new viewpoint for the movie goer, a new perspective. It’s almost as if you’re in the movie! I don’t know how it all works, something about 48 frames per second and polarized ocular distance, but I know I like it!
The most noticeable and impressive change is the depth. you see things clearly that are in the foreground and in the background and as if they are, in fact, in front or behind each other. The characters have a realistic roundness to them. I can’t explain it, you have to see and judge it for yourself. The preview for the upcoming December release of Avatar, a combo Live-action and CGI animated film looked even more impressive! The effect on the Live action actors was flat out amazing! I think I will buy a ticket in advance for the first time ever.
So what did I go see? I went to a Loewes/AMC theater to see the IMAX presentation of Disney’s A Christmas Carol shown in Disney’s own Digital 3D format. I was Psyched but was disappointed to find that AMC’s IMAX screen isn’t the huge, 7 story wrap around I thought it would be. Instead it’s a flat, traditional screen that’s maybe a little bigger than normal. You also still need to wear 3D glasses. The new glasses aren’t green and red anymore, they’re both tinted black in a plastic, one-size-fits-all frame that you drop into a collection bin on your way out of the theater. They need to work on that end of things.
As far as A Christmas Carol was concerned ,I’ll give it a B-. It was good but we all know the story so no surprises there. Jim Carey’s face is flawlessly reproduced as a withered, bitter Ebenezer Scrooge. Gary Oldman, Cary Elwes and a few other actors are also easily recognizable. The facial details of some of the minor characters could use some work though. Also impressive is Jim Carey’s voice performances of Ebenezer and all three spirits. Gary Oldman also put in a great voice performance as Jacob Marley , Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.
Over all, I think I expected more imaginative storytelling from Disney but the IMAX Digital 3D, albeit horribly named, made it all worth while.