The Avengers

[d_stilgar]

You have D-Box seats at your theater? Where are you from?

[OvRiDe]

Location:
Morgan Hill, CA

Some theaters here have them.. not sure if the one we are going to does, its been a while since I have been to that one. They are worth the 5 bucks!

[billygoat333]

Avengers Was Awesome!!!

[TLHarrell]

Morgan Hill, CA. Just south of San Jose/Silicon Valley.

Personally, I think the idea of the D-Box seats is a bit ridiculous. But... anything for the theaters to make a few more bucks...

[d_stilgar]

I've been looking at D-Box home platforms for couches. I would totally love to do that . . . if I had the space and money.

I think going to the movies at the theater is generally too expensive for me. I have a nice TV and would just wait for movies to come out and buy them, but . . . my wife likes the theater experience and we both hate having boxes with discs around. We rent quite a bit since we are poor and only go to the theaters for movies we are really excited about.

However, I would totally buy movies and TV shows if the industry would wake up to digital distribution. I love Steam for gaming. I would love it if they would offer the same thing for TV and movies. They won't for at least another 10 years, and we have a lot of internet issues that need to be figured out before it happens as well. But if they did it, I would buy a ton more.

Anyway, I think it is a good thing that theaters do things to try and add value to the experience. I think paying for 3D is a bunch of complete crap. I like 3D (depending on the movie and its use by the director), but don't think it is at all worth the cost on top of the ticket. More than people hating 3D, I think the premium price tag is killing its chances of lasting. So yeah, I'd pay for D-Box seats, especially to try it out and see if it would be worth it for the home.

[TLHarrell]

I think D-Box is a little bizarre. I don't really like the idea of two hours of having a full time "musical score" being appended to my nether regions. There's a test seat out in the hall at my local theater. It plays some clips from Pirates of the Caribbean and something else. Perhaps, while on the sea, having the wave motion would lend something to the scene. Or during other action sequences. But having your chair kicked, punched or wobble every time an actor looks at the camera funny it is way overkill. Not every little motion, action or trivial thing needs to come out in the seating. In this way, it's too gimmicky. Instead of being a minor addition to immersion, it becomes a distraction.

3D can be good or bad. Only movies I've sprung for 3D on were Tron Legacy and Avatar. Both were fantastic experiences. Not every other movie out there really needs to be run in 3D. Few movies really benefit from the experience, and become gimmicky as well. They instead purposefully pose stuff in scenes to force the 3D perspective. It's contrived, and it shows. Carefully thought out, properly produced 3D is very good. Slapping 3D onto something just to grab a couple extra bucks at the box office is bad... and it usually leaves me with eye strain. Not a pleasant experience.

Go to Costco or somewhere that have 3D TVs on display with a demo reel playing. Slap those glasses on your melon and watch for about 15 minutes. It's bad. Watch the fish in the ocean swimming in front of your nose. Watch all the other stuff they stick out of the screen at you just to show off how cool 3D can be. Now think of watching that for hours on end on a lazy Saturday. Yuck.

[OvRiDe]

Well no D-Box in the theater we went to, and we decided on just the Digital theater as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it!! Well worth the watch. 3D might have been good, but alot of times I find the 3D more of a distraction. I guess it just depends on the movie.

[d_stilgar]

I've thought the same thing about D-Box. From what I've read, seen, and heard, they do a pretty good job of making work and be a more immersive thing rather than make it wiggle all the time.

3D really depends on the title. I watched some dance competition movie in 3D. They even had really gimmicky crap in there like bubbles floating all around, and yet, for the genre of movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I saw Avatar in 3D. Although I don't love the movie as much as most people, I enjoyed the use of 3D in that movie. At times I had to take off my glasses and look at the difference to tell it was even being used. That's how it should be. There are so many tools a director can use. 3D should be another tool to help push the story or message or immersion further, not to make crap fly out of the screen constantly.

[AmEv]

^I'm with you, D. Avatar was too freakin' predictable.
After seeing that, I've come to the conclusion that JC is a great visual director, but a bad story director.

[xr4man]

avengers rocked teh casbah!