Monsters - available on iTunes before theater release for $10.99

Movie delivery keeps getting interesting. "Monsters" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1470827/) slated for a limited October release in the US was released to VOD on September 24th.

Short critique on the movie (no spoilers). The movie was great except for the end. The acting was standard faire for a mid-sized budget film. The creatures were very interesting.

The most interesting part of the whole setup is that the movie was available for $10.99 to watch on iTunes before release to theaters. I have always asked why don't they do this. iTunes really did something interesting when they did (1) Bubble which was released at the same time as the movie and when they did (2) Purple Violets which was released only to iTunes. I never saw Bubble but Purple Violets was great. I think producers are looking for more ways to make money off of movies and VOD prerelease to iTunes / Netflix will be the two venues to make this happen. I paid $10.99 for a movie I thought was "OK". Instead of $12 sitting at the theater. Some movies you still need to have the theater experience. Would 1 would pay $12 to go see it in the theater now? Probably not. But if they had done some pre-release movie "clip" thing for Avatar or something like that we definitely would go see the full movie on the big screen. The only ones complaining about this would be the movie theaters themselves. Movie theaters in America are a stable of our culture. They are going to have to reinvent themselves if they really want to stay relevant in the age of "instant everywhere" movies. Granted as I mentioned the theater experience (for 2D movies) can't be beat by even the best home system, some are spending the money to get it pretty close.

3Don't ... 3D is just not ready for prime time

I know that a lot of folks love 3D. I am just not one of those folks. I've seen several moves with and without 3D (specifically Avatar) and I can certainly say that 3D is just not ready yet. Not that the visual piece is not stunning, it is. The issue stems from the glasses themselves. There is a slight reflection in the bottom of the glasses that is very distracting. During fast motion images become blurred. Lastly, there is a depth of color in 2D that is flat out missing in 3D.

You go to the movies to be engrossed in the experience, to suspend your disbelief. The glasses have a reflection of the screen in the corners that is basically the movie playing in the corner of your eye. It's bad enough that people distract you with flashing cell phones and ipods but to have the entire movie playing in front of you and your periphery is not the way you want to spend two hours.

"Why are you so M* f* blurry" ... I'm not sure what causes this, but while watching Avatar I noticed that when things became very fast paced, you almost could not focus on anything. All of the images on the screen began to blur. Seeing Avatar in 2D, there were no issues with the fast paced action. Might be the way 3D is filmed that just can't handle scenes like that.

Color ... Avatar was an amazingly rich environment with more colors than you can shake a crayola box at. 3D made Avatar seem muted, washed out. In 2D you could see every little floating seed and fleck of burning tree.

It's not just the big screen that is lackluster. 3D televisions leave a lot to be desired also. 3D was big in the 50s and has attempted to make a strong come back. Watching television with extra equipment is not something that most people handle the extra equipment. The technology has to get to a point where you don't need the additional accoutrements.