An Examination of Alien Technology

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Phillyist was lucky enough to be among those invited to the Bridge theater yesterday morning for a special presentation by DreamWorks Animation's co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg came by to talk about DreamWorks' new 3D technology, and show us clips from an upcoming film that takes advantage of that technology: the computer-animated movie Monsters vs Aliens. Katzenberg started things off by saying there have been two revolutionary changes in film technology—the introduction of sound in the '20s and the introduction of color in the '30s—and that this new 3D technology will be the third revolutionary change. That's pretty big talk, especially considering the fact that 3D was already introduced some years ago, and disappeared along with other movie fads of the time. But Katzenberg was quick to separate this new 3D technology from what he called "my Dad's 3D." He said the problems of the old 3D (the two different images being out of sync, the ugly blue and red coloration, the blurry image, the glasses that hurt your head and could even make you sick) have all been solved. Now the glasses are comfortable, and the image is smooth and flicker free. He used a metaphor from music distribution to explain the difference between 2D movies and this new 3D: it's equivalent to the step up from a vinyl record to a digital recording. It's a more perfect representation of reality. He also stressed that DreamWorks has completely altered the way it makes movies so it can film in 3D, rather than take a 2D film and convert it to 3D after the fact (which he compared to the process of colorizing black and white films). He expects 3D films to re-energize what it means to go see a movie in the theater. It will bring people back out into the theaters in larger numbers, because it will be a premium experience that you can't have at home. Unfortunately, that also means you'll have to pay a premium price for it; we're talking $5 on top of the already pretty ridiculous price you have to pay for a movie ticket.

But enough about how great 3D is supposed to be—how great is it actually? How about those movie clips? A detailed description can be found after the jump.

After a short explanation of the film's premise (which is that aliens are attacking the Earth, and our last hope is the monsters that the American government has secretly captured and imprisoned over the years), Katzenberg showed us three clips, each something like five minutes in length. The first opens with a huge alien probe that has landed on Earth. Its one giant eye is staring around at the military personnel and vehicles arranged around it. The President of the United States (voiced, appropriately enough, by Stephen Colbert) steps up to personally make contact with the alien, using an amusing method: he plays it some familiar music on a keyboard. The probe reacts violently, pulls itself out of the ground, and turns into a giant rampaging robot. As one might expect, conventional Earth weapons have no effect on it. The President retreats to a war room very like the one in Dr. Strangelove and discusses options with his advisers. General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) offers the only reasonable plan: to unleash the monsters on the aliens. He profiles for the President each of the monsters, including the most recent addition to the team: a woman named Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who grew almost fifty feet tall, and got super strong to boot, after being struck by a meteor on her wedding day.

In the second clip, we pick up with Susan right after her traumatic growth spurt. She wakes up inside a metal room, not sure where she is or how she got there. She's pushed out into a much larger enclosed area where she meets her fellow monsters: the half-bug mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), the indestructible (but very stupid) gelatinous blob known as B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), the Missing Link (who looks sort of like the Creature from the Black Lagoon), and Insectosaurus, a huge (even bigger than Susan) caterpillar-like thing whose roars only the Missing Link can interpret. Susan is horrified of them all, and grateful when General Monger comes in to escort her to her orientation.

The third clip opens right after the monsters have been dropped into San Francisco to face off against the alien probe. Susan is still getting used to her new height and strength, and at first flees the probe by roller skating on cars. When the probe attacks the Golden Gate Bridge, she realizes she has to help, and turns back to fight, trying to get the other monsters to help her (and they do, a little, although there's also a lot of bumbling and confusion). After a lot of damage to the bridge (and probably a good number of fatalities amongst the innocent bystanders, which was a little surprising, given the movie's otherwise very light, comedic feel), the monsters do succeed in destroying the probe—but as Katzenberg pointed out afterwards, they've only won the battle, not the war.

After the clips, there was a Q&A session, which Katzenberg used as an excuse to cover the rest of his talking points. One of the most encouraging things he said was that all the money and technology in the world won't make a bad movie good, and that the story is still all-important. It's very good to hear him say that. A company that's spent all the time and money building this technology might be tempted to relax on the other aspects of filmmaking, and just trust on the razzle dazzle of 3D to get them by, but it sounds like Katzenberg is not content with that. Another interesting point he made, again to highlight the differences between the old 3D and the new 3D, is that whereas in the old days, filmmakers would deliberately try to break the fourth wall and push things out at the audience to show off the technology, and thus bring you out of the movie, the new 3D filmmakers will never poke at the audience or break the fourth wall, because they're using 3D to bring you into the movie, to make it a more immersive experience.

Katzenberg is a huge believer in the future of this technology, and thinks it can be applied equally well to any genre, even a cop drama like The Departed. But it's a technology that's still growing. Right now only about 1500 theaters around the country are equipped to project the new digital 3D. By the time Monsters vs. Aliens is released, Katzenberg expects 1000 more theaters will have been converted. By 2010 (when the next Shrek film is supposed to come out), he figures 7500 will be equipped. Of course, if a theater near you isn't equipped, that doesn't mean you can't see the movie at all; you'll still be able to see it in regular old 2D, and for cheaper, at a standard theater.

But will people pay the premium ticket price for the full experience, even if they have the option? Katzenberg is betting they will. He pointed out that the movie business is doing just fine, even in the current shaky economy, and that really in terms of things you can do for entertainment, going to see a movie is a great bargain.

Katzenberg also talked about the further advances in technology that are down the road—getting 3D in the home (which he downplayed as impractical, because obviously he wants you to come to the theater to experience it); owning your own pair of 3D glasses that might double as sunglasses; spreading 3D to all forms of video, even portable players like iPods; and getting the 3D effect without glasses (which is already possible—it's called autostereo—but only on a very small scale). He also talked about what inspired him to go down this road in the first place (Polar Express 3D really excited him, and he saw a lot of promise in the technology), and another big advantage that should come out of 3D: a big decrease in piracy! Apparently 90% of piracy is people in theaters recording the movie with a camcorder, and if you tried to do that with a 3D movie, it would look like garbage.

And that was it for the presentation. This Phillyist walked out reasonably impressed, but with reservations. When we caught an old school 3D screening of The Creature from the Black Lagoon a few years ago, it made us wonder why 3D never caught on, and why they hadn't fixed the problems with the technology and brought it back. So we're excited to see all that happening now. That being said, despite Katzenberg's claims, we found the new glasses, like the old ones, still gave us a mild headache (although that could be because this Phillyist had to wear them on top of his regular glasses, and also has a pretty large head that the one-size-fits-all 3D glasses clung to a bit more tightly than was entirely comfortable). And although the effect was impressive and immersive, it didn't seem nearly as revolutionary as Katzenberg was making it out to be. The movie itself, technology aside, seems entertaining, imaginative, and funny, and we'd definitely like to make it out to see the whole thing in all its 3D glory when the time comes. But we'd really rather do it for free, and review it for Phillyist, than pay that extra $5 for the ticket.

Image Credit: DreamWorks Animation

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