When I first heard about Piranha 3D I knew I would have to go see it in theaters. Anyone that knows me will tell you I love watching B-movie sci-fi films. Having enjoyed and been a fan of the original Piranha franchise, I was all too happy to give into marketing and see the latest entry into the series. I wanted to see an early A.M.Cinema at West Oaks Mall a cheap showing, unfortunatly I ended up sleeping in too late and missed out on the showtime. Being my day off and being a must see, I chose to go to Plan B and see an afternoon showing at Pleasure Island. The catch, is they are only showing it in their new ETX theater. I missed out on the cheap ticket by sleeping in and in consequence now had to pay the standard 3D upcharge plus an ETX upcharge. Basically for what I paid for this one show, I could of saw two non 3D movies easily. The question is was it worth the price? Guess you'll have to read on to find out. Well, with that backstory taken care of let me get on with the reviews a double-header this week, one for the movie and one about my first experience with ETX.
ETX Review
Enhanced Theatre eXperience is what AMC's new ETX stands for. It is in the former theater number 2 for those familiar with AMC Pleasure Island. Their website states that ETX comprise of 20% larger floor-to-ceiling screen, breathtaking sound and digital projection that is higher resolution than HD. I'll give my critique on each basis of these movie enhancements.
20% larger screen - This I didin't find entirely great for the upcharge. If you've been to AMC Pleasure Island inside theaters 1 and 2 you'll know that these theaters have always been larger than the other theaters. So, the extra larger screen doesn't seem to count as it's always been the current size. Maybe in other parts of the country with ETX where they didn't have these large theaters from day one it maybe new to them, not around here though.
Breathtaking sound - This i'm torn on, as it is a more richer sound. AMC says its 12 channels of audio with a 50,000 watt system. You can hear alot more of the finer usually unnoticed background noises which adds some ambiance when watching the film. But, I don't love how when things go boom or the bass kicks in every light fixture in the auditorium rattles.Which takes away from the movie when your sitting there hearing the theater shake apart.
Digital Projection - AMC says its digital projection system produces images comprised of 2 million pixels, which delivers a higher resolution than HD. My mom has a famous saying everytime I tweak the tv or by something new to enhance home theater which is "It looks the same, I don't see any difference" well, for once I have to agree with here. Compared to all the other now digital theaters I don't see a difference. Two years ago before the digitalization of the theaters you could tell it from a film projector, there's just not a great leap between digital theater and ETX.
When all is said and done with ETX. I have to say no its not worth the upcharge, I don't think there is enough to really push it leaps and bounds ahead of seeing the same film in the theater next door. I guess the only good thing would be you are guaranteed to see it in the larger theater. If you want to see a movie upcharged and get the band for the buck. I think IMAX or IMAX Experience (like at Citywalk) is a better setup, a bigger screen that Pleasure Island and worth the extra money. I'll have to go see another film at Citywalk and do a really in-depth comparision of the two.
Piranha Review
I'll call it Piranha, because, that is its actual name before they tacked on the 3D of it. I have to say what a wonderful throw back to old style B-Horror movies. It has its little comedic moments, a great cast and if you want it enough blood/guts/and boobs to make your heart sing. The story is very basic, not alot too it. In a nutshell: big spring break lake location, has earthquake, fissure opens at bottom of lake to a subterranean lake, fish come out, fish kill lots of people, people blow lots of fish up, and at the end people realize there's still more to come. Ok...you want more details...opening scene is the earthquake scene where we discover a fisherman in his little boat on the lake when the quake hits. The quake opens up a rift in the lake floor and with that causes a whirlpool which brings our fisherman into the water for first blood. The movie is set in Lake Victoria, if you've seen 'Girls Gone Wild' you'll know what Lake Havasu is where they filmed this and what the area looks like on spring break, lots of boat parties and girls in wet t-shirt contests. Jerry O'Connell plays Derrick Jones who is here to film a new video for his 'Wild Wild Girls' website and bumps into Jake played by Steven R. McQueen, who is ready to ditch babysitting his younger brother and sister for a day showing Derrick around the lake and hanging out with two of his always topless (sometimes both top and bottom less) models. So USGS (United States Geological Survey) comes out to survey the quake damage in the lake along with their escort the sheriff of Lake Victoria, Julie, played by Elizabeth Shue.
After losing some of his USGS divers to the fish (Novak played by Adam Scott) manages to catch one alive, they go to see Mr. Goodman the local know-it-all fish man, played excellently by Christopher Lloyd with his crazy scientist persona. Once they learn from Mr. Goodman that they are ancient two million-year-old Piranha they rush out to the big party on the lake to warn all the spring break kids. Of course none of them listen to the warning until its too late a giant blood bath ensues. While Julie and Novak round of what they can of attack survivors. Across in two other parts of the lake two other things are happening. One is Jake's brother and sister have decided to go fishing on a little island in the lake only to lose their canoe and be stranded. The other Jake is on the boat basically watching soft porn being filmed. As Jake is showing them different filming locations in the lake, they pass the island where the kids are and attempt a rescue only to ground their boat on a rock and with a sinking ship coming closer and closer to the Piranha only one thing is left.
Sheriff Julie to the rescue...after getting a distress call from her son, Jake, on her cell phone, its up to her and Novak to come save the day. But, not before Jake has a chance to blow the sinking boat to kingdom come and kill all the Piranha or so they think. Because, last thing you find out from Mr. Goodman are these attack are the babies...where's mommy?...you find out right before the credits roll leaving off for the sequel. Now, there is alot more to it than that, but, I can't give away everything.
The 3D in this movie was really good, there was maybe one or two of those little gimmicks thrown in but most of it seemed very natural to watch. It also gave a great depth to the underwater footage really giving the lake a feeling of being dark and endless. There was a couple times though that so much is happening on screen the 3D does end up blurring some. It was definitly worth seeing and now I have to go back and re-watch the original.
The next part of this entry is a little lengthy story of bad experience at AMC Pleasure Island:
I do not hold this over the theater staff heads or AMC as a company, but I directly blame theater management. Here's how this goes, bare with me its lengthy, I get to the theater about 12:10pm as on-line it said show time is at 12:30pm. Get to the box office window and it says first showtime is at 1:52pm, so, lying internet I assume. But...wait....what's this...next show time is at 3:00pm. Ding ding ding, alarm goes off, if they only have one ETX theater how can they show a 1:52pm movie and turn it around after an hour and a half film for a 3:00pm show? I had my reservations about the 1:52pm time in the first place being such a random and uneven start time. I ask the box office cashier if they times are correct and she shares my point of view with the time frame and decided to radio a manager to double check. Manager confirms that first show time is correct and I figure they'll just cross the 3:00pm path when they come to it. I'm really early now having expected a 12:30pm show and decide to head out and get some McDonald's for lunch.
It's just about 1:30pm when I arrive back at the theater, ticket stub gets torn, get my 3D glasses and (Boom) get to the theater sign says 'Now Showing 12:30'. I go back to the ticket take and she says there was a problem with the time and they (management I assume) didn't realize it until people started showing up for the 1:52pm and walking into the movie already playing. Now I'm righteously T'd off, not only did they have the original showtime I wanted, ticket taker let me walk to the theater to find out instead of telling me, and the next show isn't till 3:00pm. I go over to Guest Services as I was directed to and given basically a free ticket for any movie, any time. I said all I wanted to do today was see this movie and I traded it in right there for a 3:00pm showing. Had I not wanted to see this film so bad I would of been out the door and flying home to write a nasty gram (Which I decided to write during my wait for the next show and will be filing online after I post this). Needless to say first experience with ETX in general was not that great. I did however have a big feeling of pride, knowing I was right and they were wrong. As I said I don't blame the theater or staff, at fault here I feel is the manager that when questioned about the overlapping showtimes didn't immediatly see it and stop it right there, instead of just saying ok without looking into it as I feel he did. I of course expect a reply back from AMC about this and would to share that response on here when I get it. Atleast I saw the movie I set out to see, even if it did take most of my day off to do it.
