Ice Age 4 and 3D Bandwagon in Sri Lanka

July 29, 2012 | By Rakhitha | Filed in: Movies, Sri Lanka.

Image from Wikipedia

Around this time of last year, Sri Lanka did not have any 3D movie theater.  If you wanted to have a 3D movie experience, only choice was to go for a movie while in another county. Finally with the end of 2011, MC Cineplex opened with one 3D theater. Now we are half way through 2012 and there are 3 theaters with 3D credentials.

MC 3D tickets are priced at 600/= per head at the moment, which I think is bit high. Recently upgraded Savoy 3D is priced at 400/= per head. 400 seems reasonable price to pay for 3D. We will have to wait and see how prices play out since now there is competition in 3D arena.

This weekend I watched Ice Age 4 at Savoy 3D. Movie was quite good. And It had used 3D with some caution. Without overdoing it. Because there were some sequences in the early stage of the movie which could have been made to feel like a Roller coaster ride with overused 3D. Fortunately it has not gone down that path.

And ofcourse the 4th installment is slightly different form the previous movies in one aspect. In earlier parts of the movie, story take place as animals try to survive mass extinction events triggered by mother nature. But this time around the events are rolled in to motion by one of the most loved characters :). And you will discover not only how continental drift, and rotation of earth inner core start. You will also discover how North American Continent was formed and City of Atlantis submerge. Also unlike Ice Age 2 (Dawn of the Dinosaurs) creators has not let the the full surprise out in the trailer.

Show I went was the morning show. It was pretty much fully booked by Friday. And the entrance was bit crowded and chaotic. I guess there were lot of people waiting to watch this movie.

Overall experience of watching the movie in upgraded/renovated Savoy Main theater was quite good. With the new silver screen and projection technology, brightness and picture quality was way better. There was no flicker in high-speed action sequences. However there is one small complain to make. That is, on the screen there is a few inches wide and few feet high color patch. It was quite visible during the movie. Specially when the focus of the eye change due to 3D effect, suddenly you see two color patches instead of one. Hope they fix it soon. Because when you go in to an upgraded shining new movie theater, even the smallest of the scratches can stand out.

By the way, I felt the 3D glasses at Savoy more comfortable compared to the one I got at MC. But I think in the long run all 3D theaters should consider switching to less expensive, light weight disposable/recyclable 3D glasses. Because having to wipe out the finger prints of the previous user of the glasses and some times even things he/she was eating is kind of annoying.

This post has more technical details of the savoy projection system and what makes it special.


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2 comments on “Ice Age 4 and 3D Bandwagon in Sri Lanka

  1. Frank Booth says:

    Adey 600 rupees is an excellent price considering the prices elsewhere in the world!

    • Rakhitha says:

      Thanks for commenting!

      I haven’t done much research on the prices elsewhere but In my opinion you cant really compare 3D prices in SL with 3D prices in another country due to all the economic and currency differences.

      IMO what we can/should compare is the ratio between 3D ticket price and 2D ticket price in various places. I don’t have much data to come to a conclusion. Based on one ocation I watched a 3D movie outside SL the 3D ticket price was only about 30% higher than the 2D ticket.

      600 LKR is close to double the price of 2D ticket in SL.