Jan 28, 2013 - Scott Jentsch

Attended the 6:40pm show of The Hobbit 3D in HFR and Dolby Atmos in auditorium #6 on January 20, 2013.

I'm not a fan of 3D, but I wanted to see this movie in the High Frame Rate picture format as well as the new Dolby Atmos sound format. I traveled almost two hours one-way to do this, so my expectations were high.

The theater is very conveniently located near the freeway and just south of everything downtown. We swung by Garrett Popcorn on Jackson before hitting the theater, so everyone at home was very happy with my road trip. Getting back on the freeway afterwards was very easy, and parking was in a garage under the theater, and it was free, so you can't get it much easier than that.

The movie presentation was great! Picture quality was excellent, and the sound quality was just short of superb.

I'm normally not a fan of 3D, but this 3D movie was well-done. On par with Hugo and Avatar. And the presentation in this theater was up to the task. There were no issues with masking, focus, or any aspect of the picture quality.

Even though this was a RealD 3D presentation, the screen was not as shiny as some other RealD installations I've been to. The 48' width made for a nice size, even though the screen and the seats were positioned in such a way that getting high enough relative to the screen meant that we had to be further back from the screen (Row H) than I would have liked. Distance-wise, we could have been in the last row of the sloped seating in front of the walkway, but then eye level is at or below the bottom of the screen from my recollection.

Being in the stadium seating also meant that the white exit signs at each end of the walkway are in your field of vision. It took some time to tune them out, and if you positioned your head just right, they would line up with the arms of the 3D glasses, which helped some. I know that they are there for safety, but it's unfortunate that something different couldn't be done to prevent these big white rectangles from being so visible in a dark theater.

The sound quality was very good. The Atmos sound system was showed off quite nicely, especially in the "Riddles in the Dark" sequence in the movie, where Gollum runs off into the dark and you can hear him scampering around the auditorium. Bass response was quite good, but I would have liked to have had just a little more low-end "thump" when the on-screen action called for it (such as the stone giant fight). Whether this was a shortcoming of the sound system, or just how the movie was mixed, I don't know, so I didn't knock off any points for this. I would much rather have good sound than muddy sound that goes too low for its own good.

The seats were very comfortable, but I would have liked if the headrest would have been a smooth surface, which would be easier to clean and less likely to transfer whatever might be there from previous viewers.

The bathroom was in good shape, even though it was a fairly busy Sunday night and there were plenty of people in the theater.

The Lobby Lounge served excellent food in the Royale Sliders that I had. These were tiny angus hamburgers that were delicious. I highly recommend them! Service was good and allowed us to get to the movie just in time.

Overall, a very positive experience. I would be interested in seeing another movie there, especially in the other Atmos-equipped screen, as well as checking out the VIP areas.

Would you recommend this theater to others? Yes!