New laser technology provides audiences with the most vivid digital images ever to appear on screen.
Visual Images/Flickr
A brand-new technology is revolutionizing how people experience movies — and Austin is one of the first cities in the world to get it. Imax with Laser is a groundbreaking film projection technology coming to the Bullock Texas State History Museum this October.
The Bullock Museum Imax Theatre is the first venue in Texas to feature the laser technology, replacing the current digital projection system to bring the highest contrast level for images available anywhere. Designed for both 2D and 3D film, the result is a system that's close to 50 percent brighter with a larger color range, meaning audiences view colors never before seen on screen.
"This technology will offer the sharpest, brightest, clearest, and most vivid images ever created on screen," Josh Jacobs, Bullock Museum director of film and theaters, says in a release. "More contrast and a wider gamut of colors means more detail in the image and even more intense, lifelike images, creating a heightened level of realism that makes audiences feel like they are part of the movie."
The museum is also installing a system that will double the sound level and boost the sub-bass. Additional speakers, new 3D glasses, luxury seating, new carpeting, and expanded concessions are also planned to enhance the Bullock Imax.
The theater will close August 5-October 6 to prepare for the installation of Imax with Laser. When the Bullock Museum Imax reopens on October 7, the “biggest screen in Texas” will host the U.S. premiere of Texas director/writer Terrence Malick’s anticipated drama-doc Voyage of Time.
In the meantime, people can visit the museum’s Texas Spirit Theater to see the award-winning animated short World of Tomorrow by Austin filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt. An accompanying exhibit of Hertzfeldt’s original artwork will also be on display from August 5-October 7.
For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.
The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).
Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.
Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred 3D viewing method makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.
The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.
Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.
A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.
There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.
