Reviews from a few of us AVS members that caught 'Red Tails' here in SoCal:
Quote:
Originally Posted by fookoo_2010 
The film itself is so-so, worth seeing once, but not twice IMHO. But the Auro3D in Edwards Calabasas (California) is unlike anything that I have ever heard before: to my ears better than Arclight, the Academy, or the Director's Guild in Los Angeles. Super clean and immersive and that is a characteristic of theater 2 with the audio setup there and not so much Red Tails, itself, with 11.1 with apparently 5 height speakers to the right and 5 height speakers to the left mounted above the normal surround speakers with four rear speakers directly behind the seats. Plenty of bass. From the start of the four or five trailers, the audio was something that I had never experienced before. IMHO, the film itself was not better with respect to the audio than the trailers.
The film itself is so-so, worth seeing once, but not twice IMHO. But the Auro3D in Edwards Calabasas (California) is unlike anything that I have ever heard before: to my ears better than Arclight, the Academy, or the Director's Guild in Los Angeles. Super clean and immersive and that is a characteristic of theater 2 with the audio setup there and not so much Red Tails, itself, with 11.1 with apparently 5 height speakers to the right and 5 height speakers to the left mounted above the normal surround speakers with four rear speakers directly behind the seats. Plenty of bass. From the start of the four or five trailers, the audio was something that I had never experienced before. IMHO, the film itself was not better with respect to the audio than the trailers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sdurani
Caught it in 11.1 at one of the Auro-3D beta sites (Edwards Calabasas). The movie felt like a typical George Lucas production these days, what with the wooden acting and clichéd dialogue. On par with an afterschool special or TV movie of the week, but with big production values. The Star Wars-like dogfights, unrealistic as they might be, were a treat to watch (really puts you in the cockpit). The height effect was subtle for the most part, with a few noticeable moments where it was more obvious (e.g., last shot of the film). We were careful to find seats in the middle of the overhead speaker matrix. Trailers before the film appeared to have been upmixed to 11.1, since familiar ones were more immersive than they've sounded previously. Curious how this soundtrack will be delivered on BD.
Caught it in 11.1 at one of the Auro-3D beta sites (Edwards Calabasas). The movie felt like a typical George Lucas production these days, what with the wooden acting and clichéd dialogue. On par with an afterschool special or TV movie of the week, but with big production values. The Star Wars-like dogfights, unrealistic as they might be, were a treat to watch (really puts you in the cockpit). The height effect was subtle for the most part, with a few noticeable moments where it was more obvious (e.g., last shot of the film). We were careful to find seats in the middle of the overhead speaker matrix. Trailers before the film appeared to have been upmixed to 11.1, since familiar ones were more immersive than they've sounded previously. Curious how this soundtrack will be delivered on BD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Simonian
Drove down to LA to meet other AVS members and also to see Red Tails in Auro3D with them. My thoughts mirror with that of Sanjay's. Movie and sound.
Here is what I thought about the Auro3D system:
My verdict? One word... potential.
Let me say first that we were able to enjoy the whole sitting with no audio artifacts, dropouts, etc. The bass was there the whole time too.
The Red Tails audio design, imho, was not adequate enough to fully realize the true potential that this system could offer. Most of us agreed that there were maybe at most half a dozen or less times throughout the entire viewing that the extra channels were noticeable or what I'd say as improving what a proper 5.1 (or 7.1) system could achieve. I mentioned to the others that I almost wanted for the sound mixing to be more gimmicky. It needed to be more aggressive and directional. I was also hoping for a thicker sound mix ala Saving Private Ryan and such. The whole design seemed very straightforward when it should have been pushing the envelope. I hope that there are more films mixing in 11.1 so I can provide a better overall verdict on the Auro3D system, itself because I feel that the actual mix for RT was not good enough and would have been pretty much just as good in 5/7.1 audio.
I wasn't impressed with the overall sound design and mix but the Auro3D helped a bit. Hopefully another movie with a more aggressive use of the 11.1 channels will be a better Auro3D demonstration. That being said, I thought it was worth the trip to Calabasas but I just enjoyed hanging out with fellow AVS'ers.
Drove down to LA to meet other AVS members and also to see Red Tails in Auro3D with them. My thoughts mirror with that of Sanjay's. Movie and sound.
Here is what I thought about the Auro3D system:
My verdict? One word... potential.
Let me say first that we were able to enjoy the whole sitting with no audio artifacts, dropouts, etc. The bass was there the whole time too.
The Red Tails audio design, imho, was not adequate enough to fully realize the true potential that this system could offer. Most of us agreed that there were maybe at most half a dozen or less times throughout the entire viewing that the extra channels were noticeable or what I'd say as improving what a proper 5.1 (or 7.1) system could achieve. I mentioned to the others that I almost wanted for the sound mixing to be more gimmicky. It needed to be more aggressive and directional. I was also hoping for a thicker sound mix ala Saving Private Ryan and such. The whole design seemed very straightforward when it should have been pushing the envelope. I hope that there are more films mixing in 11.1 so I can provide a better overall verdict on the Auro3D system, itself because I feel that the actual mix for RT was not good enough and would have been pretty much just as good in 5/7.1 audio.
I wasn't impressed with the overall sound design and mix but the Auro3D helped a bit. Hopefully another movie with a more aggressive use of the 11.1 channels will be a better Auro3D demonstration. That being said, I thought it was worth the trip to Calabasas but I just enjoyed hanging out with fellow AVS'ers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin
Saw this film on sunday with a few of the socal (and norcal) guys at the Edwards Calabasas theater (the auro 3d test site).
Hmmm...I must say the dialogue was interesting...a bit cliche and corny at times. The story's execution was so so compared to that of the 1995 HBO film about the TAs (Laurence Fishbourne one). Still the film was at the least enjoyable for me.
The thing that bothered me the most though was the CGI. Something about it just made the dog fights seem unreal (just watch the trailers to see). My preference would be for them to use real planes but I know that would be IMPOSSIBLE to find that many B-17 bombers to use for the escort scenes.
Other than those issues the film was still enjoyable. A must own? Probably not unless its in the $5 bin.
Now to the sound, when the trailers started playing I thought the tracks were upmixed to use the 11.1 system since. For example, the battleship trailer was lot more immersive than I remembered and I've seen it several times at many theaters.
The movie itself though, being that it was the first 11.1 mix I got pretty hyped about it. I was expecting aggressive use of the "Voice of God" speakers but instead only a few scenes used em (to my hearing). During the movie I kept looking up at the speakers when some of the planes would fly overhead. Either the heights were subtle or my hearing is going out.
Like Scott said, the system has potential.
EDIT: It would be pretty sweet to have a film like Battle LA remixed into 11.1...I can think of a few scenes where the overhead speakers would be great
(Bridge scene)
Saw this film on sunday with a few of the socal (and norcal) guys at the Edwards Calabasas theater (the auro 3d test site).
Hmmm...I must say the dialogue was interesting...a bit cliche and corny at times. The story's execution was so so compared to that of the 1995 HBO film about the TAs (Laurence Fishbourne one). Still the film was at the least enjoyable for me.
The thing that bothered me the most though was the CGI. Something about it just made the dog fights seem unreal (just watch the trailers to see). My preference would be for them to use real planes but I know that would be IMPOSSIBLE to find that many B-17 bombers to use for the escort scenes.
Other than those issues the film was still enjoyable. A must own? Probably not unless its in the $5 bin.
Now to the sound, when the trailers started playing I thought the tracks were upmixed to use the 11.1 system since. For example, the battleship trailer was lot more immersive than I remembered and I've seen it several times at many theaters.
The movie itself though, being that it was the first 11.1 mix I got pretty hyped about it. I was expecting aggressive use of the "Voice of God" speakers but instead only a few scenes used em (to my hearing). During the movie I kept looking up at the speakers when some of the planes would fly overhead. Either the heights were subtle or my hearing is going out.
Like Scott said, the system has potential.
EDIT: It would be pretty sweet to have a film like Battle LA remixed into 11.1...I can think of a few scenes where the overhead speakers would be great
(Bridge scene)
