Originally Posted by kgrogers1979 (Post 10932715)

Oh well. Enough of that. It has nothing to do with the movie, but I always get frustrated when I think how Marvel has completely ruined Spider-man over the last two decades.

Originally Posted by /Film

As 3D movie attendance declines and questions are flying about 2011′s summer being more like the beginnings of the death throes for the format than the explosion of 3D, Sony is angering exhibitors by forcing them to shoulder one more budget item.

Sony announced yesterday that it will no longer subsidize 3D glasses for its releases. Currently studios foot the bill for glasses for each 3D release; that bill tends to run from $5m to $10m, depending upon the popularity of the film. Sony has two big 3D films out in 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man and Men in Black III, so will moviegoers end up paying more than the usual surcharge to see those films in 3D?

Some 3D systems, like Dolby, XpanD, and IMAX, rely upon proprietary glasses that are returned to the theater after each showing, cleaned, then reused. But most of the 3D screens in the US use the RealD 3D system. Sony, like other studios, has been paying for the disposable 3D glasses that audiences are given upon entry to the film. Some of those glasses are recycled after each show, but not all. And now Sony doesn’t want to foot the bill for RealD glasses.

Theater owners will have to pay, or find a creative way to get someone else to pay. The most obvious solution is to increase the 3D surcharge, either for films distributed by a studio that doesn’t foot the bill, or across the board. How does another dollar per 3D showing sound? Essentially, anyone going to a 3D film might have to buy their own glasses. (Could we then bring our own glasses, and skip that charge? We don’t know now.)

The possibility that studios would stop paying for glasses has been broached before. When 3D really started to take off, studios agreed to pay for glasses, following the lead of Disney. Given that studios are unwilling to spend a dime they don’t have to spend (except for coughing up $200m for something like Green Lantern, of course) it was safe to assume that one studio would eventually be the first to quit subsidizing glasses, and it just happened to be Sony.

So will you pay extra for glasses? Are you instead happy to see anything that might end the current 3D wave sooner rather than later?

The National Association of Theater Owners responded,

Sony’s actions raise serious concerns for our members who believe that provision of 3D glasses to patrons is well-established as part of the 3D experience. Since the onset of the digital 3D revolution in 2005 it has been understood that exhibitors would bear the weight of technological and facility modification costs related to 3D, while distribution took on the cost of 3D glasses. Any changes to that understanding must be undertaken through the mutual agreement of both sides of the business.

In other words, “we popped for the projectors, and you were supposed to keep the glasses coming.” Time to compile a chart of theater upgrade costs versus glasses costs, with surcharge income factored in.

Originally Posted by Groucho (Post 10942556)

3D should be the same price as conventional screenings if you schlep in your own glasses.

Originally Posted by Groucho (Post 10942556)

3D should be the same price as conventional screenings if you schlep in your own glasses.

Originally Posted by Supermallet (Post 10942765)

$30 per person, here we come!

Originally Posted by dragon tattoo (Post 10942522)

anything that kills 3d faster is welcome with me. Make people angry, yeah, come on sony, do it!

Originally Posted by kgrogers1979 (Post 10932715)

The last 5-10 years? Try the last two decades. Spider-man pretty much jumped the shark in the early 90s and has never really recovered.

First there was Maximum Carnage in 1993 which symbolizes everything that was completely and utterly wrong with the whole 90s decade. The whole "maximum extreme" attitude of comics. Carnage himself was a crappy product of the 90s that for the love of god I still don't know why they keep using him to this day. But anyway MC was a massively decompressed storyline that took up fourteen issues when it could very easily have been told in three. It also had tons and tons of pointless gueststars like Deathlok that just showed up for no apparent reason other than to be a gimmick. The whole thing was just terribly bad and the beginning of the end for Spider-man comics.

Then there was the infamous Clone Saga that took up two entire ****ing years from 1994-1996. As bad as MC was this was far worse. Basically the sum of the Clone Saga was that from an earlier story in the 70s Peter was cloned and the cloned died, but now it was revealed that the clone was actually the real Peter and that the Peter we had known for the last 20 years was a clone. It was all a bunch of bull that was dragged on far too long. By the end nobody freaking cared anymore, and the writers had written themselves into a hole with no way out so they did the dumbest thing imaginable. They brought Norman Osborn back to life and said he was the mastermind of the whole Clone Saga, and oh the whole thing about Peter being the clone was wrong and just a mind trick Norman played on him. That entire two years was one steaming pile.

Then there was The Other in 2000. Now they rewrote Spider-man's origin. It wasn't an accident when the spider bit him. It was destiny. It was all a bunch of mystical mumbo jumbo, and Spider-man "died" and was reborn from a cocoon with some new powers like organic webbing. Some people liked it, but I thought it was bad.

There there was Sins Past in 2001. Wow just wow. This one takes the cake. Remember how Gwen's died and Gwen moved to for awhile England to get away from everything? Well Sins Past says that isn't why she moved. She moved because she cheated on Peter with Norman freaking Osborn of all people, and Norman knocked her up with twins. She moved to England to give birth and then moved back to New York and never told anyone. This was easily the dumbest storyline in the history of all comic books.

Then there was Civil War in 2004, which itself wasn't bad, but it led to something even dumber than Sins Past. Civil War was a storyline where the Marvel superheroes were fighting against each other because of some opposed the Superhero Registration Act and others didn't. The SRA wanted every superhero to register and reveal his/her secret identity to the world. Spider-man actually did this and revealed on live TV that he is Peter Parker.

That in turn led to One More Day. What I said before about Sins Past being the worst storyline ever. One More Day managed to top it. Kingpin after discovering Spider-man is Peter Parker sent an assassin to Peter's home to kill him. The sniper assassin shoots but of course Peter's spider-sense warns him and he dodges but the bullet strikes Aunt May. Aunt May is near death. The top doctors in the world cannot save her. Tony Stark even offers to give as much money as possible, but nothing can save her. So what does Peter do? He makes a deal with the freaking devil to save Aunt May's life. Mephisto is basically the devil in the Marvel universe. He offers to save Aunt May but it will cost Peter his marriage and it won't be that they aren't just married anymore, it will be that they were never married period. So in one swoop 20+ years of Spider-man history is effectively erased, because the marriage never happened at all. Also nevermind the fact that Aunt May said she was ready to pass on, Peter couldn't except it and was a greedy bastard and gave up his marriage and any future potential kids he might have just because he couldn't let Aunt May go. So he makes a deal with the devil. Isn't Peter supposed to be some brilliant scientist? Even a moron knows making a deal with the devil always always comes back to bite you in the ass. "With great power comes great responsibility?" Uncle Ben would be rolling in his grave if he knew how Peter turned out in OMD.

Oh well. Enough of that. It has nothing to do with the movie, but I always get frustrated when I think how Marvel has completely ruined Spider-man over the last two decades.

Originally Posted by fumanstan (Post 11025502)

I don't think it looks too bad. No where near as bad as the Green Goblin costume in the first movie.

Originally Posted by Draven (Post 11026301)

No kidding. Not sure what a giant man-lizard is supposed to look like instead.