So The Avengers is in 3D. Woo? I don’t know. I’m thinking a lot less ‘Woo’ than most people maybe. I may go as far to say, ‘Boooooooo.’ I know intense.

There are a few reasons for this. For one, and a great argument on my part: uuuuggghhhh. I hate 3D. When is this thing going to die already? Martin Scorsese did it. He got that out of his system this year which was perfect because it was a throw away year for film. That happened, so can we make good regular movies again? The sad part is Marvel knows EVERYONE, their mothers, their great aunts, and the guy they met one time in the Payless shoe store are all going to go see The Avengers. So what if they could get some of those people to pay even MORE money? They’d be rich(er)!

But 3D didn’t have to be the only answer. With Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, I was convert. A doubting Thomas of IMAX. I finally saw it and loved it. Beautiful! Shooting in IMAX doesn’t seem like a gimmick as much (mostly if you can go to an actual IMAX theater) as 3D does. Films like M:IGP and The Dark Knight Rises provide audiences a unique experience in IMAX. They’re not post converted; it’s part of the art of the film.

But fine! If you’re going to do 3D with as big a production budget as The Avengers (or Thor or Captain America), do it right! Shoot it in 3D. Make me believe that the extra $39 million per ticket I’m paying was done for a reason.

But, nonetheless, Josh Whedon promises to not overdo it. Okay, Josh Whedon. You have no idea how to overdo stuff…He claims that because it’s an action movie, things will fly at the screen naturally. That’s true. But that gives more of an excuse to do that here and there and then a little more and then finally: no content AND bad 3D! Bring it on 2012!

Universal’s Ben Stiller-Eddie Murphy comedy doesn’t come out until November 4th but between Eddie Murphy hosting the Oscars and Ben Stiller hosting Saturday Night Live, you’d think the movie had been out for months by now. But no. It hasn’t. And then, Universal announced that in three cities, it would be released on Video On Demand a mere three weeks after it’s theatrical release for $59.99. (What???? More on that in a bit.)

That was a big no-no for small theaters across the country. Cinemark, Regency, Emagine and Galaxy Theaters all refused to play the film at any of their locations. So Universal has withdrawn its offer. Yeah! Woo hoo! A big win for small theaters across the country! Tower Heist, a mediocre film and will end up doing okay, can now be played at your theaters again. But let’s address something else.

$59.99?!?!? For a movie??? At home!?!? I get that some people prefer the comfort of their own home when watching a movie. But that movie should then cost, like, what? $6? $8? Not $60! Going to a movie these days is expensive. Too expensive really. When you multiply that price roughly five times to watch at home, who are you marketing to?

“Movies are too cheap these days!” – nobody

So, my guess is this has prevented Universal from a large let down. No one wants to see that they couldn’t get a single person to pay their astronomical price. Because although Ben Stiller running around a museum and Eddie Muphy as a talking animated ass is worth millions of dollars, maybe seeing them as regular people robbing Alan Alda isn’t what everyone’s been waiting for. Maybe it is. I could be wrong. I bet those nine people who had to pack of their fold out chairs after anxiously awaiting this movie in front of their On Demand are really upset. Now they’ll have to wait less time in front of a theater.

Why is this information important? Well, as The Wrap has reported, UltraViolet is being presented as the savior of the failing home entertainment market. How failing is this market? Oh well, DVD sales just fell a mere 44% last year (44%– that’s huge!), due largely to online streaming websites and video on demand. But alas, UltraViolet has now ridden in on its great white horse here to save the day, combining the physical ownership of a DVD with the Internet, web streaming capabilities favored by customers of companies like Netflix. UltraViolet is, thus, offering “new freedom with new UltraViolet digital copy,” says it’s commercial, by allowing access to your movie collection from a variety of forums.

Sounds great? Well, I have just one main concern: the digital streaming aspect of this next great hope is currently free for only a year. After that, studios have the option of launching additional fees for watching your own movies, that you have already paid for. Will people actually go for this? I mean, charging the hypothetical customer additional fees a year later to watch a movie he already owns seems a bit (or a lot) like highway robbery to me.

So what do you think, Banterers? Is UltraViolet going to be the life support that the home entertainment sector needs? Or will it just be another red herring in the face of Internet streaming sites and video on demand?

Miramax has created ‘The Miramax eXperience,’ an interactive application via Facebook where you can rent films to watch directly on your computer. It’s basically like Instant Netflix but instead of a monthly or yearly fee you pay for each individual movie (about 30 Facebook credits or $3 each) and the rental is active for 30 days but the viewing window is only 48 hours once you start the movie. Seems pretty ideal huh?

But like every new invention there are a few catches. For starters, because this is such a new application there are only about 20 titles available in the U.S. right now, and even less in the U.K. and Turkey (I’m sure other locations will become available soon enough). Additionally, the custom player that you watch the films on, Ooyala, isn’t exactly the most up to date video experience. If you have stopped the movie and go back to it later it can’t tell you where you left off, something that always comes in handy for me! Also, even though you are not physically watching the film on Facebook, you are renting it from the application therefore the typical Facebook “permissions” are present asking you to post this activity to your wall and newsfeed (something I find extremely annoying and invasive about Facebook applications).

Be that as it may, I think this is overall a pretty great idea. While the service hasn’t worked out all its kinks yet, Miramax is smart to release it as soon as possible beating out the competition and being the first movie studio to get the ball rolling on this. Facebook has stated that this deal does limit them just to Miramax so I expect other studios will soon follow suit. I also enjoy the fact that it is single-film purchasing instead of a monthly fee. It’s much more financially sound that way. The application is currently live so you can check it out here: http://apps.facebook.com/miramaxapp/ and see if you’re interested!

Here’s a full list of available titles:

U.S.: Adventureland, Chicago, Clerks, Cold Mountain, Extract, From Dusk Till Dawn, Gangs of NY, Gone Baby Gone, Good Will Hunting, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Kill Bill 2, No Country for Old Men, Pulp Fiction, Shall We Dance (2004), Sin City, Spy Kids, Swingers, The Switch, Trainspotting

U.K.: Chicago, Cold Mountain, From Dusk Till Dawn, Good Will Hunting, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Kill Bill 2, Shall We Dance (2004),Sin City, Spy Kids

Turkey:  Adventureland, Chicago, Clerks, Cold Mountain, From Dusk Till Dawn,Gone Baby Gone, Good Will Hunting, Jackie Brown, Spy Kids, Swingers

What do you think Banters? Good idea or is this completely pointless?

This year, however, I feel is slightly different. I mean, if there were just one year of Blockbuster sequels, well then this would be that year. What with Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, David Yate’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II (but don’t let the name fool you, it’s actually the eighth film in the series), Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon (the third installment of this series), Jennifer Yuh’s Kung Fu Panda 2, oh, and Todd Philips’s The Hangover Part II making up five of the big name, high grossing movies this summer, I have to wonder, “Is there any room for others?!”

It’s not that I hate sequels, or even am against them in concept. I, like most moviegoers, can get behind a good sequel. What would Beverly Hills Cop have been if not for II and III? Clearly, I’m not unreasonable. In theory, I could totally see myself wanting to see alien machines, Asian pandas (even though one could ask if there were any other kinds?) and drunk guys in Thailand. And I suppose if I tried hard enough I could even get excited for another angry pirate and a British kid doing magic.

I guess, the real issue lies in the fact that it’s not even summer yet and we’ve already had two BIG sequels, and perhaps even the BIGGEST sequels (don’t hate, Harry Potter fans). Wes Craven’s Scream 4 and Justin Lin’s Fast Five were both highly anticipated sequels and they actually paid off. And paid off well! I mean, the sequels between them contained lots of blood, huge car crashes, innovative deaths, references to meta, and a trip down south to Brazil. And to top it all off, both scripts were entertaining and even the acting was tolerable. Can any of these sequels really live up to that high of a precedent?

Well, color me surprised if they do. Meanwhile, I’m saving my movie money and, no doubt, repeated viewings, for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens and J.J. Abram’s Super 8. Ah, real cowboys and real aliens?! Now, that’s something I can get behind!

If that’s not enough to tie you over, check out the new interactive game where you quest as Thadeus (Danny McBride) and have to survive in the wilderness.

The film also stars James Franco and Natalie Portman and is directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express.)

Be sure to catch Your Highness on April 8th.

While it may not get you all the advanced screenings, SundanceNow allows viewers to see plenty of hard to find and rare films right from their homes; it is perfect for any avid film fan to look up something they haven’t been able to find since the age of the videotape. SundanceNow offers plenty of recent films as well.

There are two aspects that make this great. Number one: it’s legal. No more pop up ads on strange websites to watch your film in six different parts. It’s all put together for you, now with no risk. Number two: SundanceNow continues to update their already impressive catalogue. So if by some miracle, you’ve already seen EVERY movie they have available, next month they’ll have something new for you.

For more information check out SundanceNow’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Ruckus Wireless will be providing the internet, so thank them. The question now is why does this matter? For one, it’s one less thing you need to worry about while attending the festival. (No, they are not doing anything about the tons and tons of people, just giving you a more convenient way to complain about them on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever your social media site of choice is.) However, this is great news.

I’m going to take this beyond the festival for a minute if you’ll allow. Ruckus is going about creating a specific wireless network that will apply to the Sundance goers. That means they’re working on a network that will allow roughly 50,000 people to view huge files all within the same small areas. (Hell, currently AT&T can’t even do that within a single building.) This is a pretty big technological breakthrough that, while I’m sure they have had the ability to do so for quite some time, they are now actually putting to good use. As an avid film fan, I can’t be happier with the testing location.

In the end, this helps everyone. Whether your Ruckus and just got the great opportunity to try something new or you’re the attendee who gets to make calls and look things up much quicker or you’re the studio who gets a whole bunch of people to Google or spread the word about their films, it works out. It works out perfect, in fact.

Regardless, this is a great idea and very helpful to all those who will be at the festival. That means I expect a lot of tweets to @themoviebanter and some great photos on our Facebook wall. Happy Sundance everyone!

Information brought to us by Michelle Kung over at The Wall Street Journal.

We want all the feedback and pictures from those who have seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.  Please post them to our FB page. We will post the best picture to the site and give one hell of a shout out to you. Perhaps some prizes will come your way as well. DVD’s, T-Shirts…who knows?

Keep Bantering
Review of the film will be coming ASAP

Knowing that, who would then be surprised that I went to the Quidditch World Cup.  No, don’t worry – I haven’t gone round the bend.  It’s muggle quidditch.  Three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker run around holding a broom between for a half an hour long game.  The quaffle is a volleyball, the bludgers are dodgeballs and the snitch is a guy or girl dressed in all gold who runs around the field and tries to escape the seekers.

The IVth annual Quidditch World Cup took place last weekend in a park taken over by college kids.  With schools from as far as Texas and Canada in attendance, this was a celebration of nerdy-ness by a group of actual athletes.  There are track stars, wrestlers and dancers all playing this fantasy game.  And it is not a game for the faint of heart.  In the few hours I was there, four people got taken out by stretcher, the first aid tent ran out of ice and a chaser played a game with blood literally streaming from his temple.

It was a weekend of playing pretend: hundreds of people were trying to make believe they know how to fly.  So yes, I am a nerd.  But this weekend I was surrounded by a group of other nerds.  Nerds who were also jocks, braniacs, divas and drama queens.  But all were quidditch fans.