As you can see, the more Brilliant Color applied, (these photos taken at the same exposure), not only is it brighter overall, but if you look in the dark areas, the added contrast + brightness makes details more visible. Of course, a Brilliant Color setting of 10 can be a bit over the top. You'll see some flattening of colors in skin tones (too few colors - so faces look a bit mottled). Cinema does not default to 10, but Mike did use BC at 10 for his calibration.
Optoma GT720 Sharpness
Hey, The Optoma GT720 is 720p resolution. We're so used to reviewing 1080p projectors (probably about 5 to 1 compared to 720p models), that we sometimes forget that while a 720p projector can have good optics, and a technically sharp image, having only 720p means that you have slightly more than 40% of the pixels of 1080p, and therefore the lack of resolution becomes the cause of the image appearing less sharp. If this were a 1080p projector with the same optics, you'd have 2.25 times the number of pixels, so your image would appear to have more detail, be sharper.
Top left: Optoma GT720, Top Center - Runco LS-5, Top right - Mitsubishi HC4000.
2nd row left: Panasonic PT-AE4000, center: Epson Home Cinema 8350, Right: BenQ W6000
Note that only the first two images are from 720p projectors. The first is the GT720 of course. The image next to it, however, is from the Runco LS-5. That 720p projector is a whole different class of projector, and sells for 10x the price of the GT720!