IMAX: "I like My movies Big!" the official IMAX movie thread

Ok I'll admit it, I love full length IMAX Movies, Star wars Episode 2 in IMAX was totally awesome, and so was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

So after browsing around The Amphitheatre I noticed there was not a thread about IMAX Movies, so here it is!

Discuss any Good/Bad IMAX Movies you've seen, and anything else involving IMAX!

 

Very good idea.

Though I have to admit I've never seen an IMAX film (though there is a facility in the area). They showed "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and reports were that it was extraordinary in IMAX, especially the first task (the one with the dragons).

Can you give us some of the history of IMAX?

 

Films seen in IMAX

Apollo 13
AOTC
Matrix: Reloaded
Matrix: Revolutions
Batman Begins - the Batmobile chase was so much fun on the huge screen.

Will also be checking out Superman Returns tomorrow.


I think it's great that modern films are getting the IMAX treatment.

 

I saw AOTC in IMAX, but hollywood films are the vast minority of what I've seen on the giant screen. The IMAX theater I'm most familiar with is allied with a science museum, so they mostly show IMAX nature films and the like... I like 'em when I can get there, but I'm the kind of person that likes the Discovery channel...

 

When I opened this thread I was curious if it would be about "real" IMAX movies or the 35mm transfers. As I expected it was about the 35mm transfers.

Its an odd little catch-22 in the LF (large format) industry. Hollywood filmmakers are hesitant (if not out right opposed to) making real LF films and the people with the true passion for the format aren't making the movies that large audiences want to see. The film is huge, the cameras are huge (and noisy especially for 3-D), and the whole thing is very expensive.

So IMAX got to that point that turns all artists, "how are we going to pay the bills"? They flirted with just showing reg 35mm films on regular projectors to bring the people in but that didn't really work. There were a few major releases in the native format probably the most notable being Disney's "Fantasia 2000". Then around 2002 they started using DMR (Digital Re-mastering) to transfer the 35mm films to that huge IMAX 15/70 (70 millimeters high and 15 perforations wide) film stock.

The theaters started getting their money but ironically the people with the passion for the format were very, very, unhappy. Some worry that with DMR, filming in the format will become a thing of the past. They point out that while the DMR process is very impressive its still inferior to something shot directly on 15/70. Its interesting to point out that the term "the IMAX experience" was originally reserved by IMAX to differentiate between real IMAX films and DMR blow-ups but now they've largely thrown that out as well now using the term to differentiate between the IMAX DMR and the theatrical 35mm release.

With the new advance of 3-D extrapolation (being premiered with Superman Returns) they are on the cusp of another revolution that again is meeting with some trepidation by purists but getting rave reviews from the general audience. I'll be catching Superman Returns in, oh, about 6 hours and 48 minutes and I'm very interested in seeing this new process. Some critics have gone as far as to say that its the most immersive cinematic experience they've ever seen in their lives. Others have complained that the process causes tracking problems during high action scenes.

 

I've seen four movies in the IMAX format:

Beauty and the Beast - Technically, this was actually a 70MM presentation. Still, it was an experience I'll never forget. I had previously only seen this movie on VHS (dozens of times, I might add) and seeing it on such a large screen brough tears to my eyes.

Ocean Men: Extreme Dive - This was a very boring and very short diving documentary. It didn't put the large screen and incredible sound to good use.

Space Station 3D - My only 3D theater experience. While the 3D effects were not as impressive as I had hoped, as someone who is into astronomy, the documentary was very fascinating. The narration by Tom Cruise was also top-notch.

The Lion King - Wow! Another Disney favorite, this time viewed as a full IMAX experience. The stampede sequence was, well, to die for.

Sadly, my local IMAX theater shut down shortly after The Lion King was released. I don't know if I'll ever get to experience films in this format again.

 

Yeah. I think the IMAX science type movies have kind of gone downhill. Everest was excellent, and so was the moon 3D one. But, half the time, you get another 3D movie about sharks.

 

(Note: Information taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAX/)
HISTORY

The IMAX system was developed by three Canadians: Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, and Robert Kerr. During Expo 67 in Montreal, their multi-projector giant-screen system had a number of technical difficulties that lead them to design a single-projector/single-camera system. The first IMAX film was demonstrated at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. The first permanent IMAX system was set up in Toronto, in the Ontario Place park in 1971. During Expo '74 in Spokane, Washington, USA, a very large IMAX screen that measured 90 x 65 ft (27.3 x 19.7 m) was featured in the US Pavilion (the largest structure in the expo). About 5 million visitors viewed the screen, which covered a person's total field of vision when looking directly forward. This easily created a sensation of motion for nearly everyone, and motion sickness in a few viewers. However, it was only a temporary screen for the six-month duration of the Expo. Several years later, a standard size IMAX screen was installed, and is still in operation at the renamed "Riverfront Park IMAX Theatre." The first permanent IMAX Dome installation, the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center, opened in San Diego's Balboa Park in 1973. The first permanent IMAX 3D theatre was built in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for Expo '86, and is still very much in use, as it is situated at the tip of Canada Place, one of Vancouver and the world's most recognized structures. As of May 2003, there were 230 IMAX theatres in 34 countries around the world. Half of these are commercial theaters and half are in educational venues.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS:
The intent of IMAX is to dramatically increase the resolution of the image by using much larger film stock at a resolution of about 10000 x 7000. To do this, 70 mm film stock is run "sideways" through the cameras. While traditional 70 mm film has an image area that is 48.5 mm wide and 22.1 mm tall (for Todd-AO), in IMAX the image is 69.6 mm wide and 48.5 mm tall. In order to expose at standard film speed of 24 frames per second, three times as much film needs to move through the camera each second.
[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/Imaxcomparison.png]
( Imax film vs. Standard 35mm film)

Drawing the large-format film through the projector was a difficult technical problem to solve; conventional 70 mm systems were not steady enough for the 586x magnification. IMAX projection involved a number of innovations. William Shaw of IMAX adapted an Australian patent for film transport called the "rolling loop" by adding a compressed-air "puffer" to accelerate the film, and put a cylindrical lens in the projector's "block" for the film to be vacuumed up against during projection (called the "field flattener" because it served to flatten the image field). Because the film actually touches the "field flattener" lens, the lens itself is twice the height of the film and is connected to a pneumatic piston so it can be moved up or down while the projector is running, this way, if a piece of dust comes off the film and sticks to the lens, the projectionist can switch to the clean side of the lens at the push of a button. The lens also has "wiper bars" made of a felt or brush-like material which can wipe the dust off the lens as it moves up or down to keep the show clean. IMAX projectors are pin-stabilized, meaning 4 registration pins engage the sprockets at the corners of the projected frame to ensure perfect alignment. Mr. Shaw added cam-controlled arms to decelerate each frame to eliminate the microscopic shaking as the frame "settled" onto the registration pins. The projector's shutter is also open for around 20% longer than in conventional equipment and the light source is brighter. The largest 12-18 kW xenon arc lamps have hollow, water-cooled electrodes. An IMAX projector is therefore a substantial piece of equipment, weighing up to 1.8 tonnes and towering at roughly the size of a kitchen refrigerator. The xenon lamps are made of a thin layer of quartz crystal,

 

That's a really interesting article. Does anybody know how many conventional films are adjusted for IMAX?

 

I'm pretty sure its under 20 at this point. Thats counting upcoming releases like Ant Bully, Happy Feet, and Open Season.

 

What about "Superman Returns?"

 

What about it?

I didn't list it as an "upcoming" release because at that point it had been released (you're still looking at less then 20)

It is of note as it is the first live action theatrical release to be converted into 3-D. The end result was quite impressive if not a bit distracting at points. I had been reading that it wasn't like what you normally think of when you think of a 3-D movie and it was nothing like what I remember. I remember some stuff popping out and some stuff popping back but little more then that. This was almost like it was fully rendered (which it was its just really odd seeing it that way). For example the tip of someone's nose would be closer then the bridge or their cheeks. It was basically the way a person really looks. Like I said it ended up being a bit distracting though on various levels. First off I felt like I spent so much time making note of little details that I effectively stopped paying attention to the movie. There were also times that it worked better then others. Sometimes it would just end up being a jumbled blur.

 

Never had been to Imax before,and Superman Returns with the 3-D bits was spectacular. Great experience .

 

The best film I've seen in IMAX is POLAR EXPRESS.
I hope they play it in IMAX yearly. That was a great experience.

 

Only Imax movies I've seen are Episode II and the T-rex movie. T rex was cool. Episode II was awesome, especially because they cut out some of the crappier parts.

 

Brandon Routh looked a little odd in 3D. It looked so real.

 

I saw Batman Begins on IMAX and it was the worst movie-going experience I've ever had. First off, it was a curved "omni-max" screen pretending to be a true IMAX screen and the entire movie you litterally had to turn your head left and right to see different parts of the screen. Even in simple conversation scenes. If I hadn't seen it already in a traditional theater I wouldn't have been able to follow the movie at all.

Secondly, the aisles were extremely narrow, probably to cram as many seats in the theater as possible, and these teenagers kept getting up and down throughout the movie forcing the entire row to get up each time they walked by.

 

^Oh. That sucks. The IMAX theater near me is pretty new and one of the bigger ones around. It's also more like a regular theater with stadium screening, etc. Every seat in it is pretty much a good seat. I enjoyed seeing the IMAX Batman Begins.

 

There are certain sequences--like the Kraken attack in POTC that seem made for IMAX.

 

This is NOT the IMAX I Grew Up With

 

The articles a little old but all very true. These "LIEmax" screens are popping up everywhere and I keep having to advise my friends not to waste money on them.

 

I thought New Coke was pretty good...

 

I'd like to see "Avatar" in IMAX...

 

You must be psychic, because anyone who has seen AVATAR, and has also experienced IMAX,
is without a doubt thinking exactly the same thing.