3D HFR Screening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug! + Dolby Atmos!

Hello all!

I managed to catch a screening of the 3D HFR ATMOS version of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug last night at GSC One Utama. GSC OU (specifically Hall #3) is the only cinema hall in Malaysia that currently offers the Dolby Atmos experience.

What is this Dolby Atmos anyway?  Feel free to click here to learn more about it. A probably easy to spot difference between the current conventional speaker system with this Atmos system is that there are now speakers located above the audience in the theatre! In a nutshell, Dolby Atmos endeavours to give the audience an ever more immersive movie-going experience.

Interested? So now you know what it is, and where you can catch a movie using this particular sound system, but what's the cost? I do not believe that GSC offers the Dolby Atmos experience at a premium over the conventional 2D experience, currently. I paid RM19 to watch the 3D HFR ATMOS version last night, and you would have to pay RM14 (which is essentially minus the RM5 cost of renting the 3D specs) for the 2D ATMOS version. These prices are only from GSC, mind you. If you want to compare prices between GSC and other cinemas, by all means, go ahead, but as I highlighted earlier, the HFR (feel free to read up on my experience of an HFR screening here) and ATMOS experience is currently only available at GSC. Kudos GSC :)

With the logistics out of the way, what was the Dolby Atmos experience like? It was an "ear opening" experience, by all means. Of course just before the feature presentation, Dolby had to show off its Dolby Atmos demo showcase so that the audience is made aware of the impending new experience. This demo will pan the sound not just around the audience (considered so 'yesterday' now) but above them and across them as well. The demo essentially thrusts the audience in the middle of a maple (?) tree in the autumn season, so as you are moving in the tree, you hear the rustling of the leaves as the fall off the tree. I thought it was a good showcase but I was left thinking perhaps they could have done better; what better super surround sound experience would you like to hear? Sound off in the comments, please. Personally, I thought maybe being in a water element might be more realistic. Perhaps standing in the rain in a city with the various cityscape sounds going off around you?

Anyway, on to the feature presentation; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and its Dolby Atmos experience. I recall very clearly a scene where the camera was looking down on one of the movie's protagonists and this camera was actually offering a viewpoint of an assailant (think Orc). So in this scene, the protagonist (perhaps it was Legolas?) would we looking up ready to fight the Orc which was going to jump right onto him. Since we were the audience, and we were looking at the protagonist, the sound of the Orc's battle cry would rightfully, in conventional cinemas, come from behind the audience, but instead, the film makers are now able to project the sound from the speakers located above the audience, which more accurately places the sound versus a conventional sound system. It makes sense, right?

Other than the above standout scene, I had trouble pinning down any more benefits from the Dolby Atmos system. Could it be that the movie simply did not take full advantange of the hugely improved soundscape potential? Or perhaps I was too engrossed in the story of the movie to actually notice what was going on sound-wise?

Feel free to watch a Dolby Atmos screening of a movie; Hobbit or otherwise and leave your comments on how it sounded to you!

3D HFR Screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Dear Readers,

I did manage to catch a HFR 3D screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and this time I was in seat from the beginning to the very end. In case you are wondering; no, there aren't any special scenes after the movie credits.

In any case, the difference between the IMAX 3D presentation and the HFR 3D presentation was immediately apparent. I was amazed at the stark difference and once again, my jaw dropped in wonder at how one movie could have such different presentations in circulation. In the IMAX 3D version, the scenes were actually blurry. The details in the visuals not as sharp. I was quite surprised at the quality of the IMAX version actually. Could it have been a poorly done IMAX version? I do not have the facts on this. The HFR 3D version, on the other hand, had sharp visuals all the way, which is what I expected from an IMAX 3D version in the first place!

As someone who first sat through the "less than ideal" version, I can fully appreciate the detail in the HFR version. If you watched the HFR version straight away, I would like to think that you would still be able to compare the visuals of previous movies that you have watched, with The Hobbit in HFR. Yes, I state HFR without the 3D because I am confident that the detail is apparent even in the 2D version. Though, I am not sure if there is a HFR 2D version available here in Malaysia. An analogy of my experience that I wish to convey to you, is similar to watching the standard presentation of a movie; that is, in its analog form without any 2D or 3D or anything added to it. Yes, I mean that grainy film quality. Keep that visual in mind and remember how you felt and what you saw when you stepped into a digital 2D presentation with all its quality and detail. That is the difference that you can expect when you go for a HFR presentation. It is another step forward but I also saw the visuals that probably made some reviewers or critics state: "looks like a video game" and "feels like watching it in the studio", "it looked fake" You would have to first experience HFR by yourself and see whether you like it or not.

To me, the HFR presentation is definitely the way to go when watching The Hobbit. I highly recommend it, borne out of my personal opinion and taste of course. The visuals were sharp and the motion blur was indeed reduced. You could really start to comprehend all the action scenes and further appreciate the movements of the characters, from both the virtual and real actors.

Here's looking forward to the next movie in HFR..any idea what movie that might be?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in IMAX 3D

Hi Readers,

I am glad to report that I just came back (relatively) from a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in IMAX 3D at Sunway Pyramid. I can say I had my mouth open in amazement for a good duration of the movie, right up till the end. I did not have the best start to watching this much anticipated movie; I walked in a few minutes late, I have no idea how late. Suffice to say it was still during the 'prologue' sequence, so I hope not too much was missed, but I am the sort to watch a movie from the very start to the very end, so I am actually planning on watching The Hobbit again!

It wouldn't be smart to watch at the same place, now would it? So that set me off on a journey. The journey to find the best Hobbit experience. But what triggered me to actually yearn for a better experience? It would surely be because I found something lacking in the screening that I just sat through. After all, if one were fully satisfied, and the 'thirst' is quenched, why would one still ask for more?

What I found lacking was the much talked about 48fps that The Hobbit was shot in. You will find more explanation on this here. Feel free to use Google to find out more, if you so desire. I accept the fact that perhaps I was a little too confident that the IMAX 3D experience would have been the best experience with regards to 'new technology' pioneered by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit's director. I should have done more research. Also I assumed that all versions of The Hobbit would feature the 48fps, or to use the official term, High Frame Rate (HFR).

It turns out I was wrong. The IMAX 3D version that I watched lacked the clarity that I was promised by the hype surrounding the HFR version of The Hobbit. I knew straight away as I sat in my seat that I wasn't going to get the much talked about HFR in this sitting of The Hobbit. I was disappointed but thankfully the movie was good enough to whisk me away on its adventure. That said, I would be reminded from time to time that I wasn't watching the much touted HFR version by the many action scenes presented throughout the movie. Yes, the motion blur was there (supposedly reduced or eliminated by HFR) and very noticeable in the action scenes.

Anyway, it just gives more to aspire to in the 2nd screening. And that leads to the question, "Do Malaysian cinemas even offer HFR?" I immediately sought out the answer to this question. On the way to finding out the answer, I 'dropped by' IMAX's website to find out whether what I just watched was actually in HFR. I had to verify, because one can never be too sure of oneself. I could be wrong. Perhaps the HFR didn't offer much improvement over the standard feature presentation? But I was proven right. Apparently, there is IMAX, IMAX 3D and now, even IMAX HFR 3D. Click here to read more on this. That article on IMAX's website lists down the IMAX theatres around the world that are screening the HFR 3D version of the film. And sad to say, Malaysia was not on the list, folks.

With no IMAX HFR 3D option here, unless we travel down to Singapore for a screening (Congrats Singaporeans!), we would have to take IMAX out of the IMAX HFR 3D equation, which just leaves us with HFR 3D. Again, we have to ask ourselves, is such an experience available to us Malaysians?

Once again, I journeyed to find out. It wasn't a long journey. Google now lists down the movie screening times for you as you type out the name of the movie that you would like to catch, and after I typed out "The Hobbit" (it works even without the quotes, try it), the following options appeared underneath:

See showtimes for (3D), (2D), (HFR 3D), and (IMAX 3D)

So Google tells us that there is in fact a HFR 3D version of the movie being screened in Malaysia. And where would we be so lucky to be able to catch it, you ask? Well here you go, but do feel free to look it up yourself. Clicking on the HFR 3D link yields the following result:

Golden Screen Cinemas - Signature Gardens

Golden Screen Cinemas - Pavilion KL

I tried many times to see if there were more than the 2 given options, but I was unsuccessful. Please do update me if you, dear reader, have found anywhere else that screens the movie in HFR.

So the standard procedure now applies. Select a suitable cinema, with a suitable time and purchase the ticket (probably the most painful part nowadays as ticket prices seem to be on the up, why is that? Anyone know?) and once again, look forward to a new experience. Hopefully.

It appears that while TGV has gotten its hands on exclusive rights to IMAX in Malaysia, GSC is the first to pioneer HFR. Competition is a wonderful thing, and it is the customer that benefits in the end. Till after I catch the HFR 3D experience...

IMAX in Malaysia is dead, Long live GSC MAXX

Dear readers,

I guess it would be right to comment on my recent re-visit of the 'IMAX' theatre at Level 10, Berjaya Shopping Centre. Wow, so I haven't revisited it since my experience with Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen!

To be frank, my friend had already visited the newly refurbished "GSC MAXX" earlier, and he was pleasantly surprised, so I took the opportunity to give it a whirl too.

Yes the signage pointing you in the direction of GSC MAXX are now in trademark yellow GSC colours (sorry no photos). The counter and concession stand remain largely unchanged though. The staff was quite pleasant when I asked whether the movie I was going to catch was any good or not.

Amazingly, I chose the latest Narnia movie to 'test-out' GSC MAXX. Perhaps not the best movie in the world to choose, right? But it was supposedly in 3D, so there you go. The ticket price is RM20. There is only 1 hall, containing the BIG-used-to-be-IMAX screen. The 3D specs look something like this (kudos to another friend on Facebook who detected the similarity) which to me, looked pretty good!

The seats were pretty decent too. When I booked the movie, there weren't many seats taken but as I walked in to the theatre, there were quite a few people (children in tow no doubt) already. The leg room is pretty spacious, I would say. That's because when I had to walk in front of some seated people, they didn't have to curl up like a ball to allow me to pass! So that's a plus point right there.

So, let's get down to the movie.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

First off, let me just say that this is not the most objective review. Secondly, I liked the book (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and when I watched the first movie in this Narnia series, I didn't have any expectations. Really. I just walked into the cinema and let the movie wash over me. Except it didn't feel like I had a great 'wash' at all. There's something missing about that movie, and skipping over Prince Caspian, I unfortunately found Dawn Treader much the same. It is strange and I can't quite put my finger on it, but there was just something that should have been in the movie, but it just wasn't there. I suppose you could say, it is missing 'the spark'.

Worse, the 3D was not well done. Take note (and if you don't believe me, try it out yourself) that certain portions of movie was not done in 3D. I don't know about other 3D movies out there (as studios just slap 3D on their originally very 2D movies), but if you just remove your 3D specs at some parts of the movie, thereby ruining your virtual reality experience (right..), specifically during the less action oriented scenes, you might find that the double-vision like characteristic of 3D images is not there! Maybe my eyes deceived me, so that is why I encourage you all to try it out yourselves.

Simply said, I didn't feel "wow-ed" at all. There are much better 3D movies out there. I surmised that perhaps the 3D was tacked on at the last minute. Or am I already a jaded 3D movie-goer? You decide. Basically, don't take a friend/family to this movie if you want them to experience 3D movies for the first time. Please.

Overall, GSC have done a great job in sprucing up the ol' IMAX. The movie certainly looked and sounded good as well as the overall ambience and experience of being there (right down to the Oakley-like 3D glasses) and I am thankful for that!

I look forward to watching TRON later this month and hopefully that title will be more deserving of 3D than Dawn Treader was.

Bottom line; YAY for GSC MAXX, nay.. for Dawn Treader.

Thanks for reading!