Another terrible job on the 3D in Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn. See review below. This is the third 3D title by Shout, that the 3D problems could have been fixed if they had the 3D Film Archive do the restoration.
The good: It's a very clean transfer, even with the over and under 3-D source limitations. $$ was clearly spent. Likewise for a very nice 3D menu and 2D making of short, which itself is entertaining and for the most part, very well done. Metalstorm is offered as a two disc release, with the 2D disc offering the bonus material. Audio is provided as both 5.1 and 2.0 stereo options, with the 5.1 adding some lower end heft. Metalstorm was originally shot in the StereoVision single strip over and under 3-D process, and while it has some source issues such as vignetting and on occasion soft edge focus, most of the time it fares far better than Jaws 3-D and Amityville 3-D, which are not nearly as sharp and also have chromatic issues baked in as well.
The bad: An entire feature with various types of stereoscopic misalignment that vary from shot to shot. It's a text book example of what can cause 3-D headaches. Even for those that can endure, our eyes are still doing things they were never supposed to do, and that amounts to a degraded 3-D experience. Adding to the eyestrain are some very poor convergence changes. "Tweaks".. that are worse than the original. Case in point- remember those opening titles made by Celestial Mechanics that zoomed out of the theater screen? Someone apparently decided those needed adjusted and just before the credits start, the stereo window racks heavily into positive z-space so the opening titles are never allowed to come out of the screen. The original intent is ruined. Likewise, there are times in the feature when positive parallax seems to be wider than it has ever been before, another recipe for stinging eyes.
Everybody's mileage with these issues will vary, and on smaller 3DTV displays the continuous cases of misalignment will be more tolerable on the eyes. But the salt in the wound is these issues could have been addressed. Shout put up a disclaimer before the feature starts on the original element limitations and how they worked on reducing these issues. If they would have addressed the 3-D issues half as much as the concerns they had over the element conditions, Shout could have easily had a knock out of the park 3-D release.
The Metalstorm making of short makes a number of references to the showcase 3-D teaser trailer that ran just before Jaws 3-D, and indeed, more have likely seen the Metalstorm 3-D trailer in 3-D than the actual feature itself. I've seen the trailer again in 3-D over the years, thanks to private film collectors. All the more frustrating the trailer on this two disc set is not what we saw before Jaws 3-D, as it is presented here in 2-D only. Someone in making of short innocently enough makes the mistake of thinking Metalstorm had the first ever true 3D trailer. The first true 3-D trailer was actually released in 1953 for "It Came From Outer Space", which has been preserved by the 3-D Film Archive and is available on the Universal 3-D bluray due out this October.
Summary: If you're a fan of Metalstorm, I would still encourage a purchase, as strictly from an element standpoint it has never looked cleaner and likely will never be visited again in 3-D. And that last part sadly is also the downside.
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That's what I get for procrastinating.
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