"Up" in 3D... Alamo Drafthouse Village... Auditorium 4... Friday May 29th 2009

My second digital 3D movie (or third, counting Beowulf at the Gateway a couple years back), Up was a special screening for some corporate employees I was invited to as a guest. (Thanks guys) My last 3D movie was also at the Alamo Drafthouse (see Monsters Vs. Aliens below), and was in the same auditorium (4), but I noticed they also had a 3D movie playing in Auditorium 2 at the same time, so I'm thinking the Alamo folks can show four 3D movies at a time if they want.

After some DVD-quality Pixar short movies put on by the Alamo, the film materials started, with a conventional 2D trailer for Where The Wild Things Are, and after a header saying "put on your 3D glasses now" we saw 3D trailers for Toy Story 3 and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. Good idea to group them like that.

This movie does not have a lot of strong/obvious 3D effects, even though it's in the same 3D format ridden pretty hard by Dreamworks in Monsters Vs. Aliens. Probably a stylistic choice by Pixar... goes to show the studios' variety in approaches to the new format.

While Skywalker Sound's Oscar-winning staff created the Up soundtrack, this is a movie intended for families, and the Alamo's audio system was not strongly tested; I'd say it was sonically more like a beefed up version of the movie "Earth." No audible artifacts of any sort.

Picture was nearly perfect again, they have a small mark on the screen in the bottom middle, but it didn't detract from the viewing experience too much, and there were no picture problems. However - I think I saw my first "artifact" of either the 4K projectors at the Drafthouse, or the 3D process (not sure how I'm going to determine which). There's a long, slow-moving shot of Paradise Falls where the camera follows the water falling down the beautiful, high waterfall. The frame is nearly all water, and the picture basically has a bunch of white noise in the middle where there's lots of misty clouds of water. I was seeing a weird "glistening" on the screen wherever the water was. Is this a screen door effect? Or... something to do with the appearance of this type of picture (which has a high amount of white noise in the frame) when viewed through the 3D glasses? More movies will reveal.

Foodwise, I just ordered their popcorn this time. Honestly it's not the best-tasting cinema popcorn in town, because it feels like it's cold (not popped on site?) and their "butter" has a weird texture to it... it might be real butter, knowing the Alamo. Not sure how I feel about real butter!

Ticket cost = zero :)