Movie Ticket prices going up

It wasn't more than a year ago that I was paying $5 for admission to a movie, heck i'll pay more for a nicer theatre and maybe for 3D in the case of a movie like Avatar.

The movie industry is making money, and they know it. Now Yahoo gave me the heads up that movie ticket prices will go up.

It's moves like this that assure me this world will never get out of a recession, because the movie industry is investing in this stupid 3D technology. I was pretty impressed by the 3D in Avatar, but no movie is going to do that much effort again. Oh i'm sure James Cameron will in his "teased" sequel, but there's a reason Avatar didn't win best picture. 3D isn't cinema value, it's a gimmick. Now that gimmick is becoming the standard of the movie industry, as is IMAX.

I've seen three movies in IMAX, and i'm done with that gimmick as well. There is honestly no value in my honest opinion for paying extra for a larger screen (IMAX) or to have stuff pop out at you (3D).

People like to watch movies at home, and the regular screens of a movie theatre are about ten times the size of the average 55 inch TV in a home. So answer me why an even bigger screen matters that much? It doesn't if people are content watching the movies at home.

However 3D doesn't add to a movie, the novelty rarely every holds onto the viewer for long. Now studios see 3D as a way to make more money, the majority of these movies are pop out 3D which is a simple 1 hour of labor to add the stereoscopic effect of 3D. Are we really going to wear glasses whenever we watch a movie, people are too lazy for that including me. Turning on the TV is a no brainer, but reaching for glasses? That just seems stupid to be necessary in your own home, and that also makes TVs too expensive.

Time and time again, even though I am tech crazy I will say this. Technology does not guarantee a good movie, and all this stuff they add to the movie going experience without giving consumers "viewing choices" on seeing a movie will keep movie goers away.

So if these depraved managers want to raise ticket prices, go ahead, because i'll never take a risk with movies again unless I absolutely want to see them. That was one element you have to love about movies, taking a risk and either liking or disliking a movie. That element is gone, and have made movie goers more definitive of their genre. The movies used to be escapism, now its an expensive escapism that you have to be particular about if you want to afford the overpriced popcorn.

I thought of something interesting, perhaps movies want to use 3D to curb piracy. I imagine a pirated 3D film looks awful, but price goes over preference in this economy.

To save the escapism of movie going,the movie industry and the studios, go back on these ticket prices you delusional minds in the industry. The Recession isn't over, and this will only hurt the movie industry which has remain untouched financially.

For me this means I am eating before I go to a movie, because at this point the snacks and drinks should be free with these prices.

Geeksquisite Episode 51: Avatar: The Last Airbender Eps. 1-5

TJ and Ed discuss the first five episodes of The Last Airbender.

Geeksquisite Episode 51: Avatar: The Last Airbender Eps. 1-5

Merry Christmas to all

As we approach a treasured holiday, everyone here at Geeksquisite is busy wrapping gifts and preparing for the holiday. So please excuse our lack of posting in general, we will be back to report on the world of gaming the day after Christmas.

This is Geeksquisite's first christmas, and I am thankful to be a part of this contributing team.

We will absolutely do our best to have a podcast for all you listeners next week on Avatar the movie.

We apologize for our lack of posting, but stress the importance of our work in the outside world pressuring us towards the November/December months.

Once again, thank you our readers for taking a minute to read our thoughts in the world of gaming.

FUCK MOTHER NATURE: AVATAR SO CLOSE YET SO FAR

Sorry I haven't posted in quite a while do to college craziness. I feel like i have something to say though. FUCK MOTHER NATURE!!! I should be sitting in a warm toasty screening of Avatar in IMAX as we speak the trailers are about to roll. And guess what I'm sitting at home typing this up instead. The snow has played some wicked tricks on me before but this is just cruel. It couldn't blizzard when New Moon came out or when Alvin and the Chipmunks hit theaters but on the FUCKING OPENING WEEKEND OF AVATAR. I'm so miserable right now that it hurts. I have in my hands 3 beautiful IMAX tickets for the epic 14 years in the making world changing AVATAR and i'm typing this. That is All.

AVATAR The Game: Story and Features

Alright so AVATAR The Game isn't an MMO? DID I MISS A MEMO, like what the hell. I remember for the last year are so up until about this summer that it was going to be an MMO. Now according to this video it's a 15 hour campaign where you play humans for a shooter for like 7 hours and as a Na'vi in a more melee focused campaign. Now I'm not saying thats bad in fact the game looks pretty dam good and I really do like Ubisoft. On top of that they've been working on this for 2 1/2 years unlike most movie games where you only have 10-14 months. Still when the hell did this become a third-person single player game and not an MMO. Seriuosly how did I miss that?

Video Games | Avatar | TGS 09: Story and Features Overview

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

TGS 09: New Avatar Footage

I was really unsure of how well this game would turn out since game properties based on movies don't tend to be all that great but this looks pretty promising. My only problem with this game is that it's been called an MMO but I don't know what they are talking about. I haven't seen anything other then a cool third-person shooter. I know there are third-person shooter MMO's I'm just saying I wanna hear about how thats going to work cause right now it just looks like a campaign.

Video Games | Avatar | TGS 09: Combat Trailer, Part 1

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

AVATAR DAY IMPRESSIONS

Got a chance to see the 15 minute preview and it was quite mind blowing at times. There are some shots that seriously look like a guy in a latex suit like Abe Sapian sort of but it’s all 100% CGI. It might even look a bit more real because latex suits do have certain look to them and I think the skin on the aliens is incredible. The one thing that kept throwing off the reality of them was the eyes because they aren’t proportioned like humans. Seriously though like 5 minutes into the footage I didn’t see it anymore. This is the best CG I’ve seen especially for every single thing in the frame being CG. Everyone states Benjiman Button or Davy Jones or Gollum but they were just 1 single character. Here the screen is simply filled to the brim with effects and most of them do look photo real. It’s extremely impressive. For me the weakest part were a few of the Dragon shots but there were others where I actually felt like I could touch it. So I will admit it’s a tiny bit uneven but it’s much further then I’ve seen movies go before.

I totally see why the trailer has been disappointing people but trust me the 3D and the size have a lot to do with it. There is SOOOOOO much detail in the skin of the Na’vi that you just can’t see on a 2 inch face on a computer screen. Is it safe to lower your expectations a bit from it being 100% real, yes. But it’s not the huge disappointment a lot of people seem to think it is based off the internet trailer. I’d say they are really far along, they just need to work on the eyes a bit but everything else was incredible.

And of course I have to mention the 3D. It’s not 3D like you think of 3D, it’s extremely realistic I would say. Most of the time when you see 3D your aware of it, and I won’t say I wasn’t at all aware because duh I was seeing a 3D movie with ridiculous looking glasses. It was pretty close, when I came home I looked at angles of entering rooms and such just to compare. It was weird but the 3D in the footage felt super natural, nothing jarring. The only part where it was a bit tough was in the jungle chase scene with this like space panther thing. I think I was a bit too close to the screen so that might have been the issue, very ungimmicky 3D.

A Few quick thoughts:

I'd like to see a shot of live action humans interacting with the Na’vi. That is something we don't really get to see much of in the footage aside from a small clip of Jake Sully waking up in his Avatar form. I think they could have got a few nay sayers by showing more footage of them interacting.

Some of the creatures like the space rhino need some more work. It didn't look all that convincing. The space panther thing was easily the most impressive of the creatures showing. I can't wait to see it again.

The backgrounds and landscapes are practically perfect. I mean maybe a special effects artist could tell what was going on but it looked real to me.

I was amazed with the amount of detail in every single frame of the film. There is so much that I think people are pointing out the 1 or 2 things that don't quite look right and forgetting about the 1 million others that look perfect. A part of that uncanny valley I assume.

The dialogue in a few parts was a bit off, but it was also out of context so maybe all together it will work out just fine.

So there you have it December 18th 12:01 Am I will be in line for AVATAR and I think you should be too.

AVATAR MMO Trailer

Since to day is in fact Avatar day not only will I be treated to 16 minutes of IMAX footage of the movie but Ubisoft has released it's first footage of the upcoming MMO.

Video Games | Avatar | GC 09: Debut Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I have to say that graphically the game is really looking good and that the character designs seems to really work in video game form. I've heard a lot of complaining about the movie and how the characters are too stylized to be real. Here they kind of run with that a little and it isn't so jarring. This MMO will be on the PC and the XBOX 360 this fall. So this might just be the first console MMO that does well, we'll just have to wait and see.

AVATAR Has Arrived

TRAILER

Please watch in HD.

Here are some photos of the upcoming film. I'll give my thoughts on the trailer and Avatar Footage tomorrow night, after I come back from AVATAR DAY in IMAX.

Click on the Photos to see them in High-Rez. The photos are taken from the trailer which is why some might appear blurry because they were meant to be seen in motion.

See AVATAR on August 21st

Announced at Comic-Con (a GREAT SITE for updates on James Cameron's Avatar)

Official Avatar Site (Went live yesterday)

I know I haven't posted anything about this movie on the site ore even talked about it that much. I promise you though that is going to change because what some might not know is that AVATAR is my most anticipated movie, maybe even more so then The Hobbit. This is going to cause a bit of a dilemma for me though with this latest news out of Comic-Con. There is the occasional movie where people say that no one has said anything bad about the film. This is the ultra rare case where that statement has actually rang true.

July 23rd at 4pm EST James Cameron took the stage at Comic-Con in Hall H to show 24 minutes of the movie AVATAR coming December 18th 2009. This is Cameron's first feature film since Titanic became the biggest movie of all-time in 1997. During the panel James Cameron announced "AVATAR DAY". Which will take place on August 21st. On that day The Trailer for the movie and game will be released as well as something that has never been done before. In select IMAX theaters across the country 15 minutes of the film will premiere in IMAX 3D...FOR FREE. An announcement on tickets and reservations will be announced in the near future.

This is incredible news and if you don't know what AVATAR is today I swear you will be singing it's praise by the completion of this year. This film has been placed to be the biggest influential blockbuster since Star Wars changed SCI FI over 30 years ago.

I mentioned a personal Dilemma before and that is "I REALLY WANNA GO ON AUGUST 21ST" the problem is I already know I will do whatever I can to see it in IMAX 3D on Opening night. So should I go in August and see a full 15 minutes of the movie and slightly diminish my first viewing of the movie in December. I honestly don't even wanna watch the trailer I think. I think I might even prefer not to see a single piece of moving footage until that magical night when the clock strikes 12. I will be struggling with this decision for the next 28 days as I way the pros and cons of this decision.

Help me decide below in the comments :)

James Cameron's Avatar showing footage

THE WHOLE STORY

I've heard about this movie for over a year or two, the guy is legendary and Avatar is supposed to be top of the line all CGI droolfest.

Well now he's decided to show 24 minutes of his movie at a Cinema Expo in Amsterdam.

First of all, I guarantee you someone will pirate this and show everyone. Or maybe Cameron will show it to everybody later on, but 24 minutes! Why, why not show a trailer?!

*the poster is dated incorrectly*

I really don't get this anymore, I understand it is to entice people to go see the movie. But 24 minutes is like showing half the movie regardless of the runtime, whats next?

I remember being able to watch 6 minutes of the Incredible Hulk when the footage came out, it was awesome and made me go see the movie. But just a day or two ago T.J. posted The Last Airbender trailer and went crazy because he wanted to avoid seeing it. Now fans of the movie are going to see the actual movie, 24 minutes of it, and they could hate it or wish it was the whole damn movie.

This practice of showing more than 5 minutes of a movie to entice people to watch it only feeds the piracy crazy and should be substituted by trailers. Those are cool, they're shorter, and they get you excited. Real movie footage only makes you obsessed.

24 minutes! I gotta say, I don't get it.

Ubisoft Conference Impressions-THE PAIN!

After Microsoft and Electronic Arts had their shot, It was Ubisoft's turn to wow us with their upcoming projects. In stride the conference began confidently, Ubisoft really got me excited. 

So for the first 30 minutes some interesting stuff happened, James Cameron came on stage and talked about his upcoming Avatar movie and the release of a loose MMO based on it. Sounded cool, but after that we had..James Cameron talking about Avatar. Well he lasted a while but then we had....................................James Cameron talking about Avatar. Tell me whats wrong here?!

I'm not kidding, a quarter of the conference was about Avatar and James Cameron. Steven Speilberg took only 4 minutes in a half hour shorter Microsoft Conference than the half hour James Cameron did in the 2 hour conference for Ubisoft. 

But when it was over, then we got to see Red Steel 2 using Wii Motion Plus. It was pretty nice art style wise and the combat with the Wii setup looked well executed, however this is verbatim from T.J. who showed more interest in the game than I. After that they got into soccer, which had technical issues showing the video and ended up being boring to anyone outside of sports. Then they pointlessly proceeded with a move-for-move showing of Splinter Cell: Conviction with the same demo people, just like the Microsoft press conference.

Then they showed R.U.S.E which didn't have anything new we haven't seen. Couldn't get worse right? Well it did as it showed Pets and other Feminine based games no guy or serious gamer would care about. Then they showed us almost 20 minutes of Rabbids Go Home, a virtual acid trip that made me smile a few times for an otherwise juvenile, pointless game. Then the TMNT game for the Wii, that looked good but it didnt have enough to erase the bad taste from everything else mentioned that presented itself. 

Then they showed us the crown jewel, Assassin's Creed 2. Gameplay? Nope, just a Cinematic Trailer introducing new characters. Not enough to have made this whole ride worth the painful moments we had to endure.

So is this the WORST conference so far? Yes. Is it as bad as Nintendo's with the Sarah Palin predecessor woman host from last year? No, It's MUCH WORSE. It can't get any worse than it did for Ubisoft, which is a big empire. But they showed no effort to continue their march to fame, and further buried the change they seemed to want within the company. Core Gamers, I sympathize with you. But remember, at the end of the day if Ubisoft had to pick. It chose the money because everyone without a creative leader eventually does.