IMAX...I do not get it.

[Lone_Poor_Boy]

I don't care what screen, what sound system, what resolution, first and foremost, the story has to be good. I don't want to be wowed (or assaulted) by technology, I want to be moved by a good story.

Good writing is so rare these days. The suits figured out they could churn out garbage during the long writer's strike. Lemmings were still glued to their screen and that's when reality TV really took hold. And movies just became action, explosion CGI spectacles with no coherent story, but just a vehicle to move from one cliche to the next.

I too need a story that is well done, unique, but also has a payoff that makes sense in the end. I haven't watched new movies in probably 3-5 years. Even the supposed best just bore the hell out of the two of us.

 

[Fuelish]

I've never seen a "regular" movie in IMAX.....only things like documentaries. One I saw on the Grand Canyon was breathtaking. (and the sound was impressive, but not overpowering.)

Try visiting The Grand Canyon ......spent 8 days/7 nights white water rafting the lower half...... changed a whole lot of perspective in my life, amazing place.....not to mention I met my (now) wife on the hike down Bright Angel Trail to the rafts......May of '89, vacation of a lifetime....and, yeah, we're still married.....LOL.....hell, she bought me a Tele Thinline for my 60th birthday, guess I'm a pretty good guy

 

[PBO Blues]

The ultimate IMAX movie, Avatar in 3D.
The most mind-blowing, Inception.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I'm old, cranky, and generally don't like anything new, not even sort of new, mostly like stuff from at least forty years ago. I LIKE THE IMAX EXPERIENCE! My son and I usually go see any new movie we are interested at the IMAX. You can book your time, even your seats, it's cool. I'm not crazy about the 3D stuff, but I still like going to see a movie at the IMAX even in 3D.

 

[Ed Driscoll]

Imax is...meh.

I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when it came out in 1968 at the Cinerama Theater in downtown Hololulu. Cinerama was three curved screens that wrapped around the audience, with three projectors, and multiple speakers behind the screens. Sounds traveled with images as they moved up/down and left/right. It was a very realistic 'immersion' experience. It was also a very scary movie for the wee Peegoo. I loved it.

I saw 2001 in Imax a couple of years ago in Dallas. This was a really brilliant, immersive experience in its own right.

 

[RodeoTex]

I saw the Story of the Ozarks or some such in the '90s. Pretty impressive.
Sorry if it's gone downhill.

 

[ChicknPickn]

Depends very much on both the quality of the film production and the engineering of the theater. I've been to several of these at the Virginia Air and Space Museum Imax in Hampton, VA, and it's big and bad (in the positive sense).

 

[Obsessed]

The original documentaries made specifically for IMAX were fantastic with 3D done very well. The normal movies being played at those theaters are meh at best and a rip-off at worst.

 

[nojazzhere]

Try visiting The Grand Canyon ......spent 8 days/7 nights white water rafting the lower half...... changed a whole lot of perspective in my life, amazing place.....not to mention I met my (now) wife on the hike down Bright Angel Trail to the rafts......May of '89, vacation of a lifetime....and, yeah, we're still married.....LOL.....hell, she bought me a Tele Thinline for my 60th birthday, guess I'm a pretty good guy

Been there, and yes, it's breathtaking. One of my brothers guided a rafting tour through there.....almost died when he was kayaking with them and was trapped under a rock by the current. Mother Nature can be awe inspiring....but DEMANDS a certain respect.

 

[mfguitar]

I have seen a couple of films on the original dome-style I-Max and they were awesome, one was a plane flying through the Grand Canyon and the other was a nature film. It felt like I was in the plane.

 

[graybeard65]

I've seen several films with the IMAX format - I love the impressive visuals, and the sound at our local theater was just perfect - we saw the new Bond film this weekend - and it was just breathtaking. Maybe it's a theater thing, they have to dial it in and run it just right for the full effect? I don't know - but for blockbuster films, the IMAX is by far my favorite.

 

[Skully]

Imax is...meh.

I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when it came out in 1968 at the Cinerama Theater in downtown Hololulu. Cinerama was three curved screens that wrapped around the audience, with three projectors, and multiple speakers behind the screens. Sounds traveled with images as they moved up/down and left/right. It was a very realistic 'immersion' experience. It was also a very scary movie for the wee Peegoo. I loved it.[/QUOTE

I first saw "2001" in a domed theater with the same type of set-up (Century Theatre in Pleasant Hill, CA). I saw numerous other films there including "Logan's Run." About 10 years ago, I paid a premium ticket price to see "Logan's Run" at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. The projection wasn't calibrated properly and my viewing experienced paled in comparison to what I got at home. I was so pissed. But it was then that I realized that every time I saw that movie about a domed city in a theater, in was in a domed theater.

I though movies had to be filmed for IMAX - with multiple cameras and all. How could they do a 007 movie in multiple formats? Does the film crew have a gaggle of cameras for each format?

Then again, I don't care that much. Like @Bones said, a good story should trump all the rest. Give me a good story with cheesy effects over great effects without a story any day.

They don't need multiple cameras, and they can upscale it for the format. Oftentimes, they shoot a few select sequences with Imax cameras. That's what they did with "No Time to Die."

 

[davidge1]

I like the iMacs I have here at home.

 

[Lawdawg]

Like someone else mentioned not all IMAX theaters are created equal. I've seen some movies on less than ideal IMAX screens and it wasn't that impressive. My local theater recently installed a proper Dolby Cinema room that is hands down my favorite for seeing big budget movies. The screen is not as large as an IMAX theater, but the picture quality and sound are much better.

 

[nickmsmith]

It’s just a bigger screen and sometimes louder. Not really a different experience in any way. I saw Shang Chi in IMAX and in regular theater. Can’t say I noticed any difference at all.

personally, a regular sized movie screen is good enough, and the local theaters already have great sound systems in the regular theaters.

It’s come a long way from when I was a kid. And a really long way from when many members here were kids.

 

[Mike the marksman]

Watching a large format film like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Lawrence of Arabia is a completely different experience on something like an IMAX screen than on a standard screen.

Those movies were made to be shown on huge screens. I hope LoA makes another IMAX run, that would be a religious experience.

 

[Vocalion]

Sounds like you went to a bad IMAX. The one we go to is quite good, sound and screen. We try (well, tried) to catch any big productions there.

Not all IMAX theaters are created equal. We have a couple in my hometown that are great. The sound is good, the curvature of the screen is not obvious while the film is showing, and the edges look fine. I went to an IMAX is Seattle once that was much smaller and the curvature and perforation of the screen was very obvious - distractingly so while the film was playing.

 

[nojazzhere]

I have seen a couple of films on the original dome-style I-Max and they were awesome, one was a plane flying through the Grand Canyon and the other was a nature film. It felt like I was in the plane.

Not to quibble, but could that Grand Canyon film have been a helicopter, rather than a plane? Helicopter flights are permitted on certain occasions, but airplanes are forbidden.
Still impressive, huh?

 

[beninma]

People might be getting IMax confused with OmniMax.

A lot of the documentaries are OmniMax productions.

There are only like 10 OmniMax screens in the US. It’s a small number and they generally don’t show normal movies. The film and production process is dramatically different.

IMAX today tends to be a cash grab with a purposely confusing name to make you think it’s the same as Omnimax. The effort to put something out on IMAX is lower today with all the digital film camera technology.

 

[Greg70]

My experience is with the Omnimax theater in the St. Louis Science Center. We used to have a membership there and watched several shows, primarily documentaries. I never really had an issue with the sound. It was as good as any theater. They had recently upgraded the sound system so maybe that helped.

On the visual side, the experience isn't as good if you're not in the center 30 or so seats that surround the projector. Even in the center though, I have found that I miss most of what is going on in the periphery unless I actively move my eyes around to catch everything. If I'm at a regular cinema my eyes just stay focused on the screen and my brain immerses me in what's directly in front of me. Our eyeballs have much higher cone density in the center of our field of view and this is what our brain pays attention to anyway. The Imax forces you to look around constantly while viewing. Sometimes this can be a little distracting if you're trying to follow a story and not just have an immersive visual experience.