IAR Blu-ray Preview: 'I, Robot 3D'

Monday, 22 October 2012 22:39 Written by iamrogue

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Available on 3D Blu-ray beginning October 23rd is I, Robot, the hit 2004 sci-fi film starring Will Smith. The Blu-ray marks the first time that a film had been converted to 3D and released directly to home entertainment rather than having a theatrical release first, such as Finding Nemo and Titanic have done in the past.

Fox’s motivation behind this decision involves the high demand for 3D content in the home media market and the lack of Blu-ray titles currently available in 3D. The company has set a goal to convert much of their catalog to 3D for home media use and have decided to start with the Alex Proyas directed film. The new combo pack will feature 2D and 3D Blu-ray copies of the movie, as well as a DVD of the film. The combo pack also includes a making of featurette and a DVD commentary from director Alex Proyas and Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.

IAR recently had a chance to visit the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles for a special demonstration of the new 3D film, as well as a look at some I, Robot memorabilia in the Fox archives.

We began our visit with a tour of the Fox archives where props from their various films are housed. Front and center were items from I, Robot including Will Smith’s character’s badge, gun and sunglasses, his prosthetic arm, the Lake Michigan sign, and even Sonny himself. We also spotted items from other Fox films such as Daredevil’s mask, a Predator helmet and a sign for Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters from the X-Men series.

After that, we had an opportunity to see some scenes from the new 3D Blu-ray for ourselves in Fox’s executive technology room. The room itself is stacked wall to wall with 3D LCD screens of various different sizes, which allowed us to see how the technology looked on different sized televisions. We watched the first ten minutes of the film and you can see how well the 3D pops just from the 20th Century Fox fanfare that plays at the start of the film.

Of course, the movie itself looks great too, especially the scenes with the robots, which almost ten years later still holds up. One scene in particular that really works in 3D is when Smith first meets Sonny and the robot makes a daring escape by jumping out of a window. They showed us how that scene was converted to 3D and the difference between the 2D and 3D versions. The scene looks really great and the 3D definitely helps enhance the content of the film.

The Fox executives explained that I, Robot was chosen because it has been one of the studios top sellers on Blu-ray and also posses high quality content that would look good in 3D. The studio has partnered with JVC and is using technology that they have created to quickly convert films to 3D. Ian Harvey, Sr. Vice President of Advanced Technology for 20th Century Fox, explained that he has used the JVC technology to look at almost every title in the Fox library to see what might be worth converting next. While the studio has already announced that Independence Day will be their next film to have a 3D convert, Harvey has also looked at such Fox titles as the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises as possible 3D candidates, as well as the original Die Hard, which he said looked “really good” in 3D.