A calendar worth adding for Malaysian moviegoers!

Dear Readers,

I was looking through Google Calendar late last week. I was looking under the Interesting Calendars section when an idea popped up in my head. Why not update Malaysia's latest movie release dates in a Calendar and share it to the public for everyone's (if not everyone, then at least for avid Malaysian movie fans) consumption?

So i went to a reliable movie release site for Malaysia: Cinema Online and began creating the Calendar for all moviegoers in Malaysia to use. 

You should see it available for you to subscribe to on the right hand side of this page. It's quite big, you can't miss it! 

Simply click on the +Google Calendar button at the bottom right of the calendar and you should be transported to the full calendar. 

If you would like to add the calendar, here are the relevant links to various formats:

iCal

XML

HTML

I appreciate helpful comments regarding the calendar and if you do find it useful, please spread the word. Once you've used the calendar, you will know when a movie will hit Malaysian shores simply by looking it up in your calendar. 


Thanks for reading!

Transformers: Age of Extinction opening night at Cathay Cineplex

Honestly, I wasn't too excited by the latest feature film in the Transformers movie franchise. It's called Transformers: Age of Extinction. I watched a couple of trailers and I've even featured one on my blog, but I felt that I would reserve judgment until I actually watched the movie. I will not be judging the movie in this blog entry. I leave that open to you, dear readers. 

My indecision

I was quite undecided on where to watch this movie, initially, and I paid the price. The tickets were on sale really early on..perhaps in early June? I can't recall. And by the time I did click through the relevant cinema websites, I could not find optimum seats any longer. 

I had to ask myself, shall I watch it in IMAX 3D or in plain 3D or in a Dolby Atmos theatre or just plain old run of the mill 2D ?

A quick Google search of the movie title yielded a lot of IMAX 3D references. Apparently Michael Bay has stated that unequivocally that IMAX 3D is the best way to catch the movie. Nuff said.

OK, we're supposed to catch it in IMAX 3D but I could not find any optimum seats by that time. Tough luck. I think Michael Bay did say that the next best way to catch the movie would be in a Dolby Atmos theatre, so I looked that up as well. No luck, the best seats were taken. And if they weren't yet taken, the showtime would be something that I can't manage; e.g. in the middle of the day or too late in the night. 

So, I was in damage control mode. I decided. Let's just watch it in the cheapest but most reasonable setting. This would leave room (and spare change) for me to maybe watch the movie again in a more optimal environment, such as in an Atmos or IMAX 3D theatre, IF it was worth a 2nd viewing, of course

My decision

My eyes fell upon Cathay Cineplex. I believe I've not blogged about this cinema. I have been there though. As early on as in 2006, I believe. One praise I have for Cathay (it was once called Cineleisure) was that it always seemed easy to get tickets there (it's not exactly a hub for moviegoers, in my view) AND the viewing and auditory experience was satisfactory. How can it be unsatisfactory, as its theatres have met the THX standard?


My fragile tickets

And it was indeed a very decent, straightforward experience. No real frills. The tickets themselves were printed on very cheap paper. I do not think they utilize electronic ticketing. I had to go to the counter, state my ticket reference number and the attendant would print out the seemingly incredibly fragile tickets. I regret I have no photo to show you all what the tickets were like, but please, feel free to go there and experience it yourself!

My takeaway

I would recommend Cathay Cineplex, located at e@curve, for those looking for seats to the latest movies in a pinch! There's no Dolby Atmos, D-Box or fancy IMAX theatres here, but they do guarantee all their theatres feature digital projection so there's no more Analog film reel in use by this cinema, I can tell you that :-)

Till next time!

Godzilla AKA Gojira returns!

Hi there,

I was fortunate enough to be able to catch Godzilla relatively early on in its Malaysian release. 

I chose to experience Godzilla at (GSC) Golden Screen Cinema's (and Malaysia's) one and only Dolby Atmos theatre which is actually Hall 3 in Golden Screen Cinema 1 Utama. 

I paid for the ticket online and simply printed out the selfprint ticket which would allow me through the turnstile. 

QR code at the ready

Below is how the turnstile scans the QR code and subsequently opens up the gates to your chosen (and paid for) cinema experience.

Make sure the QR code is within that scanning window (obscured by the paper) and you're good to go!

 My chosen seat this time around was seat H14. I was fortunate that I arrived just in time before any commercial/trailer had begun (how early is that?!) and there weren't many people. It being the first show on a Thursday probably had something to do with it. :P

I managed to take a photo of the viewpoint from my seat. Here it is:

Methinks this view is pretty decent. What do you think?

The minutes ticked by. It was only then that I realised that I hadn't been early, the show itself was delayed. Oh dear. A fellow audience member (seated a row above me) chatted with his friend. He said there were delays previously, up to half an hour, but I wasn't sure whether he meant this particular Atmos theatre (Hall 3) or just a delay in general in GSC's cinema services. Why wasn't I sure? Because he spoke in a language that I have yet to understand; Cantonese with some English thrown in. Seeing as the movie was not going to start soon, I took out my phone, and started to take some notes regarding my 2nd Atmos experience, just in case I forgot anything later. 

Moments after that, I heard our fellow from a row above change his topic to smartphones. He talked about phones with pretty good specs, like a 5" screen, 13MP camera, but don't expect the build quality of a smartphone that costs thousands of Ringgit. I assumed he was talking about some new, cheaper smartphone emerging in the Malaysian market; perhaps any one of these: 

• Xiaomi's Mi 3 which would be available for purchase from May 20th 2014 at RM889
• Oneplus' One of which I have no details on its Malaysian availability or pricing, sorry!

 It's nice to know that the phone in my hand could generate a conversation elsewhere! Anyway, their conversation, in turn, led me to try benchmarking the data connection in Hall 3 of GSC. Why not? I noticed that the data connection seemed speedy enough. So i ran a Speedtest and the result is below:

It's OK-ish..nothing to shout about I guess

It's decent..in terms of download performance. The ping and upload needs work though. I recall, at least, that a ping > 500ms is synonymous with an unplayable online gaming experience. Am I right? :D

Back to the movie experience! I timed 1208hrs as the time when the first trailer popped up on screen. So we were 8 minutes late already. Which trailer was it? Why, none other than ...

Yup, guess I've got to book my calendar for this too. After 20 minutes of advertisements and a "The Purge" trailer, the famous THX demonstration played. So, this is a THX cinema? Cool. It was followed by 2 (count 'em!) Dolby Atmos demos. I wondered why there were 2. Perhaps they came up with a new one. I liked the newer one better, that's for sure. It seemed to really leverage the 64 speakers in the Hall.

I remember the movie proper started to 'roll' (perhaps once upon a time it rolled, because movies were a series of pictures in a 'can' displayed at a certain speed) at 1228hrs. 

I liked the movie and its presentation. I would say 2D is definitely the way to watch this movie. I've no idea whether 3D has any momentum left in it nowadays. I want to ask GSC/TGV in Malaysia; how are 3D ticket sales going? Are they still selling well? If it's not selling well, what happens to the 3D theatres? Will they be selling off the 3D specs? Are people even buying 3D television sets?

You see, I watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 3D and throughout the movie, I wished I could just watch it in 2D, and that's never a nice feeling to have hang over you whilst watching a movie! As I said in a previous post, I praised Gravity for being an excellent 3D movie. A 3D showcase, if you will. Other than that, I've not been impressed with any 3D movie lately..

Let me share with you one highlight from watching Godzilla. As the character played by Ken Watanabe was introducing Godzilla to the audience, he said on-screen "We call him.." and someone from the audience sportingly and spontaneously cried out "Gojira!" That moment certainly made me laugh! Thanks for livening up the theatre man!

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...