When the Dark Knight, the newest rendition of the Batman series, was released there was a lot of talk of the cameras that were used to film it on and the quality that viewer were going to get when they saw the film. The movie was said to be filmed with not only high definition camera, but also IMAX camera.
Who out there has been to an IMAX film? I remember going to those at the Children’s Museum when I was younger, but had not been to one in years. And as I had remembered they were huge screens that basically went all around you and made you feel as if you were in the movie itself. The speakers were louder than usual and you became almost completely encompassed in the film. When I went to see Batman this way I was sorely disappointed.
When I first walked into the theater the screen was huge. It was about three times the size of a regular screen. And for an additional $5 per ticket I had even larger expectations. But the screen was not all encompassing as I had wanted. The corners were rounded but that’s it. When the film started the speakers were pretty loud, sure, but that did nothing more than annoy me as the movie went on. I didn’t get a headache or anything but there is a certain thing as too loud.
So I watched the film, moved on, and dealt with it. I let it bother me for a few months and then I moved on. (Looks like it is still bothering me, huh?) But recently had a little ounce of hope hit my heart as I heard that one particular IMAX was being sued for showing movies, charging the extra $5, and showing films that were not actually IMAX movies.
The story came about when a comedian saw a film in an IMAX theater and realized about half way through that it was in fact not only lacking something in the quality of the film, but later found out that the movie was never filmed with IMAX camera. (AN IMSX camera is huge, and produces images in multiple directions. On the diagram above you can see what the player does, but the camera are huge and cost millions of dollars each. The ones that they used for Batman were actually very similar to the camera that you see on the top of Google cars. You know the cars that I am talking about. The ones that drive around capturing all that footage for Google maps street view. Who out there has seen one of those in person?)
But it goes to show that even in this economy, cutting corners will not get you very far. A single theater is putting a bad wrap on itself, sure, but also on the IMAX name. IMAX is something that I associate more with documentaries and education films, not The Polar Express.
Anyone wanna go to Hamilton 16 this weekend? I hear that Angels and Demons is in the IMAX.
