Arclight Bethesda

^ even though the Uptown doesn’t have an Atmos setup, ‘Ready Player One’ on the big large screen was epic and a highlight of last year.

Just this last past week though Arclight has really stepped up it’s game with trying to put as many movies on the ‘widescreen’ screen and it’s second Dolby Atmos auditorium. While ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the Uptown was sensational, Arclight’s return engagement of it on the widescreen screen, and specifically the movie’s Dolby Atmos mix was an auditory experience in it’s own respect and trounced the 5.1 mix with its music and key audio moments traversing over one’s head.

I’ll admit, now being an AMC A-List member, and trying to beholden to not spend money I really don’t have ~ I miss Arclight tremendously. ‘The Favourite’ I saw here in early December was head’s and above far superior to AMC Shirlington’s presentation. 7.1 surround sound, the black box / low lit auditoriums, the three trailers before the feature (and not the standard barrage of twenty minutes of trailers at AMC [and Regal]) all exemplify how and why seeing a movie at the Arclight is my preferred way and environment in experiencing a movie.

Tristan, do you recall what Auditorium you saw Thor in? I’ve been there once and didn’t enjoy the place or the service, so I haven’t been there again. Although, I visit that place every 2-3 months to visit my Stylist. Maybe the place has improved. I’m willing to give it another chance. :)

yup that’s me… Dubstar. So where’d did you eventually see “ID: Resurgence” ? sorry for the late answer but Fairfax’s two Xtreme screens are fixed 1.78 screens – but on the positive side they are massive tall screens (too bad they are Auro 11.1 [so few movies are mixed and released as such])

back on topic though, just saw ‘Secret Life of Pets’ here at Arclight’s widescreen screen and I have to say the 3D (and brightness) was much better than ‘Finding Dory’s presentation.

hey there FAShaffi – are you a member over at bluray.com ? I know I answered a similar question just recently – and I’ll answer it like it did there. For scope films on the widescreen screen – it’s vertically masking where the screen actually lowers to 2.39 from the top downwards, thus eliminating the black bars that fixed ‘flat’ 1.79 screens present when presenting ‘scope’ movies.

Hope that answers your question. It’s a great screen and features a properly calibrated Atmos sound system, which in my opinion trounces the sound over on Tyson’s Dolby Cinema setup. (Unfortunately this morning’s presentation of ‘Finding Dory’ really showed off to lackluster effect how 3D glasses and non-laser projection can diminish color) Dolby Cinema and IMAX-laser (at Udvar Hazy and at the Lockheed Martin screens) show off how laser boosts brightness and colors to beautiful eye-popping superior effect. Wish Arclight would invest the time and money to switch over to a Christie 4K laser system for this screen.

while this is my favourite newer theater in the DC metro area – I do have to say they are the worst when it comes to the number of 3D movies shown as such during the day.

I have around a half dozen of the lobby’s ultra-cool poster wall

while it’s unfair to compare Ant-Man’s ‘digital’ presentation to IMAX’s ‘laser’ presentation (at Air & Space Museum Airbus IMAX screen) [darker, less color, less sharpness] – I do have to say the Dolby Atmos mix blew the 12-channel IMAX mix out of the water, simply superior – the imaging is very wide as to extend the music and sound cues just outside the screen area (as mentioned before in my observation to ‘The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies’ Atmos mix) – what achieved this is the fact that not only Atmos allocates the speakers closest to the screens as sourcing, but sound ‘behind’ the screen is benefitted from not only the pre-requisite left,center,right speakers but also left-center and right-center speakers as in typical pre-1977 70mm sound systems (before the transition to ‘baby boom’ features and the removal of two channels of the five front stage speaker set up) The bass also seems tighter and punchier for some reason, most notably also heard in the Pixar short film that preceeded ‘Inside Out’: ‘Lava’

‘Mad Max Fury Road’ in Atmos really showed off the bass channels (auditorium #6) to stunning effect, tight, low and resonant.

In 2013, I went from 70mm film festival at Seattle Cinerama to see a couple new 2k digital films which looked like crap compared to 70mm resolution, and notice Giles that crap is the more appropriate 4 letter word to publcly employ.

I finally made the trip to visit this grand new plex with much enthusiasm after reading what a great movie exhibition business this was in LA.

Before the movie, I had lunch in the eaterie area and was disappointed over the fact that the big restaurants have yet to be opened. Bobby Flay’s burger joint I’ve had and wasn’t too thrilled with at the Arundel Mills location and Cheesecake Factory is just another pricey chain restaurant. Visually, the place looks better and brighter than the old food court, I have to say that many pieces of the laminate furniture is already peeling apart. Very bad. Plus, a combination of the lack of patron courtesy and attentive cleaning staff made for very dirty tables. I don’t know why it is people don’t clean after themselves and leave their uneaten food, drinks and trash on the table when there are clearly marked trash bins all over the place.

I caught the new Wachowski sibling film ‘Jupiter Ascending’ also with some degree of heightened enthusiasm even after their last two disappointments known as ‘Cloud Atlas’ and ‘Speed Racer.’ The film was in #7 and had the Atmos sound system but was not Wide Screen.

When I went into the lobby area, there are self service tables with movie cards for you to sign up for or so I thought. I thought you could sign up and use the card at the same time to get your points. You can’t. Since I was running late, I paid the $17 (!) for the 3D Atmos presentation. It was only after I saw a guy, who should have greeted me at the station, who stated I could not get credit for my purchase since I didn’t go through him to sign up for the card. The idiot should have greeted me the second I walked through the door not just look into space like some zombie. I told him I was already late for the movie so I’d sign up at home. He then grabbed the card I had thought I’d need with the unique membership number and said I only get that when I sign up at home. Okay. Fuggeduhboutit!

The ticket taker observed me walking up and didn’t bother greeting me until I opened my mouth to say hi, first. Buzzer Poor, poor, poor customer service. Looking at the age of this guy, he had to be a Manager or someone in authority. I should’ve gotten his name. I asked him if the film was in Dolby Atmos. (I already knew it was because thats what the showtime ad said). He didn’t know, but looked at my ticket and said. ‘well, it says 'dolby’ so it MUST be Atmos. AHA! Okay. He told me where the theater was but no ‘enjoy the show.’

When I got to 7, the previews had started and the seat I had I could not see the number but visually, I sort of knew where it should be. Supposedly, there were to be 3 others in the same row but there was no one there. So much for reserved seating. The auditorium, itself reminded me of AMC’s newer theaters but in reduced size. I’d call them AMC’s IMAX-lite-lite. :D Screen size can’t be more than 50 ft. Seats were comfortable and, thankfully, all the armrests can be put up so you can make yourself more comfortable as long as you don’t have someone sitting next to you.

Presentation was good. The stylish glasses were spotted on the left but tolerable to see the movie. The digital 3D movie had decent color saturation and the expected darker picture was tolerable. The Atmos sound effects were mostly noticeable in some dialogue and people entering certain scenes. The sound could have been cranked up more beyond cradling you to sleep.

For $17 to watch a 3D DP film on a 40ft screen in Dolby Atmos is getting into IMAX-lite territory. Unfortunately, the customer service here is not there to justify such a high price point either.

the 7.1 surround sound presentation of ‘Into the Woods’ here at Bethesda was superior to what I had heard in December at Syracuse’s (New York) Regal Destiny USA’s RPX screen. I was hearing more instruments and movement of sound to better effect.

I’m loving the ‘Arclight Presents’ film series, although whoever over at Warner’s did the 2K DCP of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ should have been kicked in the knees there were so many flaws, you wouldn’t have believed the movie was shot on 70mm film stock in the first place (it looked like a projected DVD) – the 2K bluray is far and away the better transfer (creating a new 4K DCP should be paramount). The 5.1 sound though was the highlight.

finally saw a movie here: ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ – the Dolby Atmos system on screen 7 is the perfect example on how, why and possible for medium size auditoriums can feature and present Atmos mixed films.

3D presentations are complimented and achieved with Dolby glasses.