Gravity in Dolby Atmos Movie Review

A

admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
My wife and I were fortunate enough to check out the new Gravity movie at a local theater in 3D with Dolby Atmos sound. The height speakers from the Dolby Atmos brought a very enveloping and spacious effect different than anything I’ve ever experienced in a movie theater. I actually had to fight the impulse to duck a few times during the scenes where space debris was flying over your head. Gravity was a well produced, well acted, involving movie that greatly benefited from its 3D video and Dolby Atmos sound treatment. This is a movie worth seeing at a Dolby Atmos theater instead of waiting to bring it home as a rental.


Discuss "Gravity in Dolby Atmos Movie Review" here. Read the article.
 
Stanton

Stanton

Audioholics Contributing Writer
Funny: I saw it in a similar theater (in NYC) the same night as you (day before release). This is only the second movie in the last few years that I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW THEY DID IT (Avatar was the other): I'll definitely be buying this release to see the "secrets" for what should be a reference BD. I actually experienced some vertigo in the first 10 minutes or so of the movie, and I thought some of the audio spacial mixing was excellent (should be a great surround sound disc).
 
skizzerflake

skizzerflake

Audioholic Field Marshall
This movie is really terrific. It's the first time (among many) that I thought a 3D movie really deserved 3D. It's a palpable experience because you know from the title, exactly what the "enemy" is. 20,000 MPH space junk is bad enough, but ultimately every will have to pay their due to the most elemental of forces, Gravity. I saw it in an Atmos theater, but ironically, the sound was the least thing I noticed. It was the great visuals and the 3D view of a decaying orbit, the earth and lethal shards of space shuttle that really gave me the creeps. Having grown up around NASA projects and having always been fascinated by all that, the idea of a large space disaster is something that will probably keep me up at night for a couple days. Highly recommended!
 
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Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
A 3D movie about Sandra Bullock's fight against gravity? I just don't know if I'm brave enough to watch that one all the way to the end. Win or lose, though, I bet there wasn't a dry eye to be found amongst the guys in the theater...
 
S

sharkman

Full Audioholic
Well, she's 50 now so I guess it would be a pretty select group of guys! Anyway, I thought it was a great movie, and not another typical action movie. Many of the views of earth was simply amazing too and Clooney did an excellent job, but Sandra could have won herself another Oscar depending on the competition this year.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Well, she's 50 now so I guess it would be a pretty select group of guys!
Sweet! I've never been called "select" before. :D Oh, and she's only 49. :p

My brother agrees with you all in that it's worth seeing in the theater. The first review that I heard was from a buddy at work who gave it an average rating and said that it was a rental. Regardless, I won't go to a theater...but it's starting to sound like a pretty good flick.
 
H

Hocky

Full Audioholic
Blah. Worth a watch, but not worth the buzz that it has created. Extremely predictable story lines and bad physics were killing me.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Blah. Worth a watch, but not worth the buzz that it has created. Extremely predictable story lines and bad physics were killing me.
It was Graduate level Princeton Physics next to the latest JJ Abrams Star Trek movies ;)
 
D

danlw

Audiophyte
Time to buy stock

Oh boy, who is going to come out with the first 64.1 HT Receiver?

Time to buy stock in speaker manufacturers...
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I saw this movie this afternoon, with my wife, eldest son and his wife. We had premium seating for the best sound. This was my first 3D movie experience. We saw the movie in the only theater in the Twin Cities that has Dolby Atmos installed. This is the first movie they have screened using Atmos. The theater is the Icon at St. Louis Park.

First of all the movie kept me entertained enough I did not go to sleep. It held my interest even if the story line was fat fetched in fact way out of bounds in terms of plausibility.

The 3D effects were stunning. Early on I had a little nausea, but it soon passed. Yes, I ducked!

The sound I thought was astonishing. The ability to locate sound to any point inside the theater and boyond was amazing. I never was drawn to a particular speaker. The sound was so good I never had the sound system intrude. I could forget it and enjoy the movie. This has never happened to me in a movie theater before. There have always been significant issues that bug me. The dialog was clear, but ever so slightly "shouty"' It was never "chesty." I suspect it is set the way it was because people are conditioned to quite a bit of shout in movies, among many other vices. However this was by far the best quality dialog I have yet heard in a movie theater.

The subs were very well balanced, no boom and not too loud which I find is usually the case. A good balance. I have heard deeper bass. I'm pretty sure the subs were sealed and did not plumb the depths, but they were very good. I never had the resonance in my chest cavity, that my TLs produce without even pushing them. However, this was clean well balanced bass, well beyond what is usually on offer.

It seems to me that the paper with all this math appeared in the AES journal not very long ago, I think less than two years. It is clever, as you don't need 64 channels in the traditional sense. It is a geometric matrix system that keeps up in real time to make the speakers accurately pin point a sound to any point in the volume matrix. So the points are defined first and the speakers respond accordingly. The math was beyond me, but I got the drift, and made a mental note that this could revolutionize "surround" audio. I would say it has and it will. Congratulations to all the brilliant engineers involved in this development.
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
Didja catch the ping-pong paddle floating in the Chinese space station?
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Picked up the 3D Blu-ray last night. Frys had it on sale cheaper than Amazon, so I didn't want to pass it up. Will probably check it out tonight.
 
darien87

darien87

Audioholic Spartan
Picked up the 3D Blu-ray last night. Frys had it on sale cheaper than Amazon, so I didn't want to pass it up. Will probably check it out tonight.
I picked it up on Tuesday also. I popped it in for a few minutes just to see the 3D and I gotta say I didn't really notice that it was in 3D at all. I was pretty disappointed. Maybe my glasses weren't working or something. I'll probably watch it this weekend.
 

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