Is it really 3D? Avengers and Men In Black 3D

I don't see movies in the theater all that often. Just no time for it. So I'm a little behind on this new wave of 3D. This week I was able to see not 1, but 2 movies on the big screen: Men in Black 3D, and Avengers 3D. Previously I had only seen Tron: Legacy in 3D, and I thought that 3D was subtle, and very well integrated.

Avengers had pretty decent 3D. For the most part it drew you into the story. Though some of the "tricks" were a little annoying. Like looking down at a Helicopter on a airfield with a really close up lamp post floating off in the corner. Just seemed a little cheap to force the issue of 3D. In a lot of scenes I felt like I was watching something closer to a pop-up book. Sort of 2 1/2D. So many moments seemed to be a flat image floating in front of a flat image. For the most part that wasn't too bad, but occasionally, it was something really obvious like the Hulks fists. They sometimes looked like 2 flat pictures of fists floating in front of a flat Hulk, who in turn was in front of a flat city. Really takes you out of the moment.

The final battle had the most jarring moments though. Overall, a phenomenal battle in a phenomenal movie. Those armored space whales were quite impressive. But the aliens on those little air skiff's, those looked like cartoons. They just didn't look the least bit integrated to me at all. Just a CG alien pasted onto a post card of New York City.

Beyond a few missteps with the 3D technology, I have nothing but good things to say about the movie. The plot was solid, the dialog great. Certainly what we have come to expect from someone like Joss Whedon. 3D aside, the special effects were amazing. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier was . . . perfect. So much better than that horrible made for TV Nick Fury movie with Hasselhoff a few years back. Someone really put some thought into this Helicarrier. Side note; now that they have pulled this off, what could possibly stop them from making a live action Robotech movie? Hulk was finally done right. Very realistic. Well as realistic as a completely fabricated, 10 foot tall, green skinned character can be I guess.

Men in Black 3D on the other hand, not so good. The story was good, the acting really well done. Josh Brolin was so good at mimicking Tommy Lee Jones that I serious thought they were dubbing the voice several times. He just had it nailed, even right down to the mannerisms. Will Smith, just as funny as ever. While watching the movie, I never once doubted that Boris the Animal was anyone other than Tim Curry, turns out it was actually Jemaine Clement from "the Flight of the Conchords." Never would have guessed. A fine performance never-the-less.

The 3D was the only real issue I had with the movie. It felt really gimmicky. OK jumping off the Empire State Building is 1 thing, that's fine, I can live with that. But so much of the rest just seemed forced, and more distracting than immersive. The scene in the electronics store, with all the lasers, that bordered on ceasure inducing. It was just insane. There was a moment with a horse . . . was there a horse or am I remembering that wrong? Could it have been a motorcycle? No I'm pretty sure it was a horse. That just goes to show you how much it too me out of the moment. Anyway it's a chase scene, and the they have to turn the horse around. But it doesn't look like a three dimensional living horse turning around. Instead it looks like a paper cut out of a horse turning around. Really odd looking. The rest of the 3D was just really over done. Scenes that didn't need much to enhance them were forced into a disorienting 3D blur. And I do mean blur. The backgrounds at times were almost incomprehensible. I know they were trying to make it seem like a real, tactile, visual experience, but we just don't see the world that way. Yes we tend to focus on the person talking, and the background just sort of blurs out of existence for that moment . . . but not THAT much. It was like the characters were suddenly thrust into an impressionist painting, all color and motion, no substance.

One last thing. I felt like there was a major plot hole in MIB3. Others might not feel the same, but it was just a glaring omission to me. What happened to Agent K the first time he met up with Boris the Animal to make him so cold? And what exactly changed the second time to loosen him up a bit? It's implied that meting the young Agent J as a boy was what softened him up. But it seem's to me that he might have met the boy either way, and it certainly doesn't deplane what happened the first time through.

These Are the Disney Droids your looking for

Not quite ready to go blast on the blog just yet. Still trying to figure things out, and waiting for my schedule to settle down a bit. A major move to another state can really cut into your time. But I did want to start putting a few things on the map, and give a taste of what this blog will be about. Disney theme parks recently unveiled their new Star Wars Build A Droid Astromechs, and I've got to say I'm very excited about them.

At the moment they are only available at Disney MGM's Star Tours store. In the future they might be found at other Disney locations such as Once Upon a Toy Store in Down Town Disney. The plan is that there will eventually be 71 unique Droid parts available so that you can create your own unique Astromech. For those that don't know, R2-D2 is an Astromech Droid. So far only about 2/3rds of the parts have been released, the rest should be out soon. The parts include Disney themed hat's like Mouse ears, the Indiana Jones fedora, and a Yoda hat, all scaled to fit your personalized Droid.

The 71 parts break down to:

25 heads, some of which are brand new designs that have never been released before.
13 bodies
10 of each of the 2 legs
5 of the middle foot
8 different hats


Crunch the numbers on that and you actually get over 1,000,000 possible Droid combinations. That's a whole lot of Droid's to be looking for.