Uptown Theatre

that’s rather annoying the non-alignment issue was NOT resolved/fixed.

I went to the Uptown for the first time in about four years yesterday to see TRON LEGACY. I first went to the Uptown in the 1950s as a child (and have the SOUTH PACIFIC ticket stub stapled to my program as proof!), and had gone fairly regularly until changing tastes in filmmaking passed me by. However, I was curious to see how much my favorite theatre had suffered over the years, as well as to check out the new digital 3D system.

First, the good news. I’ve read about the speaker modications at the theatre and feared the worst. But the Uptown seemed to me to still have its distinctive sound quality. There was perhaps less rumble in the bass, but TRON is a typical noisy special effects extravaganza, and I didn’t sense any disappointment about the sound range or volume.

Also, I was impressed with the management. I went with a visually-impaired friend, who just came along to treat me to the movie. He took the 3D glasses he received at the box office and put them in his coat pocket as a souvenir. Similarly, I put mine in my coat pocket since I had visits to the restroom and the concession stand to make before I took my seat. A manager stood by the concession stand as we entered. He stopped us to ask if we had received our 3D glasses at the boxoffice, since he didn’t see either of us with any. I appreciated the manager checking to make sure we had our glasses. (A couple of years ago at the AMC Hoffman in Alexandria, the box office DIDN’T give us our glasses. I didn’t question this, since I thought maybe they handed them out by the auditorium entrance. This was a hassle, since there was no manager in sight and it was a long trek back to the box office, where one person was handling the line for the 22 auditoria.)

As for the bad news, the curtains were not in use for the performance I caught. Since the theatre thankfully didn’t show advertising before the presentation, it would have been nice to have the curtains closed instead of staring at a blank screen. Perhaps this is because the theater was uncomfortably dark between shows, so you probably couldn’t have seen the curtain anyway before the show. The spotlights that used to be on the edge of the balcony illuminating the curtain are either turned off or gone. I’ve never understood why any business fails to highlight a feature that makes it distinctive from the pack, and you’d think the Uptown would automate its curtain opening if need be to make it part of the show.

But the worst thing about my visit was the projection. While the dark image was annoying, I think much of that was due to the production design of TRON and the limitations of the 3D technology. I took my glasses off several times during the film, and the image seemed bright enough then. The previous poster mentioned that a dual projector system has been installed. I can confirm that, since the two projectors seemed misaligned on one point of the screen (near 9:00 if you think of the screen as a clock face). Worse, non-aligned edges of the image were visible on all four sides. If this is the new permanent projection system of the Uptown, they should at least increase the masking to hide the image edges. The non-alignment of the image edges, and their distortion due to the curved screen made them too noticable.

All in all, it wasn’t as bad a visit as I feared it would be. The small audience yesterday made the theater seem more like an old grind house, but at least we found a parking space right in front of the theatre. And the movie was, like the original TRON, clunky and incomprehensible, but thanks to a great production design and an innovative musical score, lots of fun.

I saw Tron in 3D over the weekend as my experience was a mixed bag. The picture and previews were clear but dark. I am guessing they did not install a new screen. The movie had an upward curvature at the bottom corners probably because of the screen’s curved nature. At least that annoying screen rip that I experienced watching “Revenge of the Sith” and “Dreamgirls” is gone. An interesting observation was during the flashbacks, the movie seemed more pixellated. Is this DP’s version of ‘aged film’? I want to see the film again…maybe at the Regal Magestic 20’s IMAX-lite theater since it is new. At least the $10 matinee price is much more palatable at the Uptown’s w i d e screen then $17.50 at an IMAX-lite one.

Showmanship was lacking once again as the curtain was not in use. Surrounds were very good as was the bass but not as booming as say Cinemark’s XD, AMC’s IMAX-lite houses, or the bigger THX auditoriums. There was a warning at the box office about the movie’s presentation and dark spots, but I didn’t notice them. I suspect there needs to be more tweaking to whatever 3D system they have in place. AMC went out of their way to solicit patron experiences as a card was handed out to log on and blog about it. Since I’m a Moviewatcher card holder/member, there was a guest survey request in my email when I got home, which was completed.

For the price and in anticipation of system tweaks, I’d definitely come back. :)

yeah, I’m eyeing that Thursday midnight show too. As for the sitting not too close, that’s the fun of the Uptown, I know when I was a kid it was blast sitting in the front row, the swoop into the trench of the Death Star in ‘Star Wars’ – weeeeeee, however being older it’s not as fun as say ‘Cloverfield’ with it’s shakey cam which made me want to hurl.

Of the one time I was up at King of Prussia IMAX – the screen size didn’t wow me, although the movie ‘Final Destination 3’ was an utter blast on the large screen: blood, gore, dead teenagers – woohoo!, I’d sooner go west and see an IMAX movie over at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg – which will be showing ‘Tron Legacy’ in 3D and 15/70mm (IMAX)

unfortunately JodarMovieFan, Tron Legacy is not opening at any of the three Smithsonian IMAX screens :( they will more than likely show it later in it’s run since Toy Story 3 is playing at Air & Space, and Harry Potter 7 is due shortly over at Natural History.

So I assume the silver screen will not only produce the 3D imagery properly, but also help the colors and brightness have more ‘pop’ – I’m just worried that the Sony system doesn’t hinder either of these on the Uptown’s screen, I know that over at the Cinemark, they boost the light output higher for the 3D engagements, at the time National Amusements were none to pleased when I hadn’t told them about the poor 3D engagement of ‘Bolt’ over at their Fairfax 14 screens – the darkness was the sole problem – they solved the screen AND the light adjustments after I had brought it up. So… to sum all these issues up, I’m really curious to know what AMC has exactly done in converting the Uptown to 3D Sony LCoS Digital projection.

New (flat) screen? Oh oh. I just thought if they were to go digital, the image would be cropped at the sides given the current screen’s curvature. I’ll probably see Tron 3D in real IMAX at the Smithsonian and catch it here later just to see what they’ve done to the place.

Someone in the know should post something about this new system…Steve? Somebody?

I suppose we’ll just have to check this one out … :D I doubt AMC would close it now after investing money into this new projection system. Sell it? Maybe.

Hmmm. IMAX or Uptown? IMAX supposedly has what..40,000..watts of power to their speakers? Is their DP system 4K? I haven’t enjoyed a really decent Uptown presentation in years. And remember from Steve Guttag’s post about AMC decontenting the theater by taking out speakers?

Another AMC theater that they will probibly close because it’s a single screen theater.

Warner’s is REALLY pushing the new Harry Potter film (Deathly Hollows) not only is there a 12:01 (Friday morning) screening, but there’s also a 3:30AM (!) screening too – I’d be very surprised to know who goes to THAT screening.

XTC screen is AMC’s theatre version of Cinemark’s XD screen – it’s the IMAX alternative so they can playback any movie on the digital projection system. Because of the size of the Uptown’s screen it’d make sense to have a system that can playback 4K enchanced DLP – Barco, Christie and NEC projector’s can do this as well as Sony’s digital projection system.

I don’t know how many speakers are implemented on AMC’s XTC’s screens but hey why not go with the flow and have AMC convert the Uptown screen as such. I’d assume there are at least 6 speakers behind the screen already. I’d think that with Barco DP system able to display such a bright and colorful image on the Cinemark Egyptian screen there ’s no reason why the Uptown can’t have digital projection as well. Is the curved screen really that problamatic?, isn’t the screen comparable to the Arclight’s screen size and curvature?

Interior, also from Jack Coursey:

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