3-D...Disturbingly overpriced, Distracted by head gear, Diluted by bright lights

                Happy Holidays to all the readers and followers. I don’t know about you guys, but I love the holidays and I love specially Christmas time. It’s just means more time to spend with family and friends. The only thing different this year than all the previous is I am currently at work immediately after the holidays. Not the worst thing in the world but it’s all part of being a big kid.

                So the weekend started off just the way I liked it; with a paid day off on Friday. Is there anything better? I mean I am getting paid to be at home and not to mention I left really early on Thursday. So that was pretty radical. Santa came to the house as usual. But my list was short this year and that is how I wanted it to be. But he capitalized and came through big. Better yet I stuff myself so hard all weekend with Christmas “unhealthiness” but it was so worth it. And what does someone do on a day where everything is closed except the only companies that force their employees to work? Go see a movie! One of my most favorite things in the world. Not to mention for once, there are more than just one decent flick in the theaters worth seeing. But I could not say the same for my crew. There are few movie interests that I have that coincide with my friends. Being good friends, they still tag along and most of the time and end up really liking whatever we end up seeing.

                But there is a plague that is streaking across America and more recently, hitting the households of unsuspected, good American citizens. It’s called 3-D!

                This is by far the worst advancement that man has made in the past 5 years in cinema quality and picture clarity. I can remember when the local theater had the DLP HD projectors and it made everything look so much better. And also they installed a good amount of HD projectors after the DLP bust. This was by far the best thing next to IMAX movies. But 3-D movies are just a waste of money. Everyone thinks it’s so awesome and so new, things really pop out of the screen. Yeah right! It’s a joke and a terrible one. All at the cost of 5 extra dollars per movie, as if they were not already expensive for a non student ticket. Let’s look at my bulleted list.

• 3-D is stupid and a terrible technology. Why? Because it isn’t new. There isn’t anything “new” or “ground breaking” about it. As I recall, there has been 3-D images produced in comics, magazines, and older movies years ago. Why is it so cool and so new that everyone needs to make a big fuss about it?
• It costs significantly more. I remember my freshman year of college, movies were only 5 dollars. That was 5 years ago. Now they are almost 10 and for a 3-D movie, sometimes (depending on the theater) it costs closer to 15 dollars. Is that even necessary? I don’t think so.
• The picture quality is not even that much better. They actually even play a message that says half the movie was shot in regular movie 2-D. I took my glasses off during Tron Legacy and the picture was perfect. Wow, I had to sit through the entire movie thus far and half of it looks fine without the discomfort?
• There are very few visuals that are even “eye popping” or jump out at you. It doesn’t even stimulate the senses enough to warrant the price and the terrible picture quality.
• The glasses are uncomfortable and don’t fit every ones face. They do not even look cool. As a matter of fact you couldn’t pay me to take them home. The ones for home entertainment are even uglier and bulkier. Why do I want to wear glasses when my vision is perfect and I am at home? You’re right, I don’t.
• Associated with movie costs, the 3-D TV cost is even more than a regular, LED, 240 hertz awesome viewing screen. Plus the image quality still doesn’t compare.  I don’t know one tech savvy person who has bought one. Why? Because the technology is not even developed enough to justify the 3k price tag.
• Every movie is coming out in 3-D now. It is ruining my experience. I would much rather save the money I would spend going to the movies and buy the BluRay when it comes out for close to the same price and better quality. Now I have to wait to see Thor because they are releasing it in 3-D. Ruining everything. I don’t want to see his hammer fly at me once I want to enjoy the ENTIRE MOVIE.
• HD cameras produce a better image than 3-D cameras. Have you seen Lord of the Rings on BluRay? It’s amazing! The colors are simply brilliant. And they were using almost 5 year old technology and the quality was about 10x better than movies that come out in 3-D. Just think of how awesome and non complex the camera systems are now for HD movies. Probably 10x better than 5 years ago. Hell probably 10x better than last year. No one needs 3-D capable camera when an HD camera is looking more like real life.
• The images are always unstable when wearing 3-D glasses. Not only is it hard to completely focus on. You can always see imperfections. Most of the time the images do not match up so it doesn’t even look 3-D, just a blurry cartoon drawing like the first and second season of the Simpsons. And it only focuses on intense lighting effects and not always the main focal point of the camera. FAIL!

Enough about our consumer based cinematic technological advancements. Let me rant and rave about the movies I did see regardless of format.

                It was a Jeff Bridges filled weekend.

• Tron Legacy: This flick was awesome. Best Sci-Fi movie that has come through in a while. Almost as visually stimulating as Avatar but defiantly could have used a “non Disney” production to it. But the original was excellent for the 80s and this sequel we very gnarly for the 2000s. I just wish I had watched the original before to freshen up on my exact programming lingo.

• True Grit: Yet another amazing film. More dialog than I expected, but well worth it. Not to mention a couple of face blasts that made me cringe with excitement. And an all start cast that I didn’t not realize was cast. But fortunately for me, Alamo draft house played a few short clips from the original. I do not think I had ever seen it but my dad loves John Wayne and knew everything about the movie. So as soon as he views it, I can get a better understanding.

I give both of these movies 2 thumbs up. Go see them. But not in 3-D!

So overall, I had a great weekend. Great friends in town, great family around, great everything. Not to mention how great a beer tasted after a hard day of opening presents.

Sidebar: I think I have strayed too far from my original idea for this blog. I need to get back to it. This is my last rant about something that I think about and I will get back to the original, “situational” thoughts that I come up with. I still have them but sometimes these take precedent because they happen more frequently. Don’t worry faithful readers. I’ll get back to the good stuff real soon. Maybe tomorrow?! Im cooking up something real nice like.