Large Format/"Premium" Theaters (IMAX 15/70, Digital IMAX, XD, ETX, RPX, etc.)

[CinemaFirst]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

That’s kinda weird that they would do only 3D showings of Blade Runner 2049, since in the US all it’s IMAX showings were in 2D (which made me see it in a standard 3D showing).

But yes, while I like IMAX 3D a lot, in general I think films which release in both formats should offer showings in both. Some films like Avengers, Star Wars, and Aladdin and Spider-Man coming up do exactly that, but quite a few like Captain Marvel, Justice League, Fantastic Beasts 2, Mission Impossible: Fallout, and most animated pictures are 2D only. And while IMAX 3D only is fairly rare now, Alita and Ready Player One did do so.

Concerning 3D Imax and Dolby Cinema, overseas the situation is quite different. The Imax around here shows *only* 3D versions, and gives no other options. The same with Dolby Cinema.

I truly wish one could choose 2D or 3D premium experience...

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

So long as you're talking about the real IMAX which has a screen that's a few stories high, I'd agree. I feel fake IMAX is not a great value for what you pay, unless you're using your A-List

with Tyson's IMAX now laser, A-List membership certainly is worth it, now if only AMC Rio's IMAX converted screen can open, they were supposed to have debuted it with 'Avengers: Endgame' but it didn't happen, not sure what the hold up is since Rio had the massive overhaul entire theater upgrade.

[Dreamliner330]

Originally Posted by Merkur

I'm really bitter about missing Interstellar in IMAX (or any theater really but that's a long story) and I tried to get contact the theater for a special screening but didn't get a response. Once it's gone, it's gone.

I saw Interstellar 5 times (I think) in 70mm IMAX on one of the huge screens (plus 2 or 3 times in 2K digital IMAX). Worth every penny. If it gets screened again anywhere in the US with 70mm IMAX on a huge screen, I’ll probably fly to wherever it is. Quite magnificent.

[ITDEFX101]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

how was it Udvar Hazy? Granted the screening I saw at Air & Space was early afternoon downtown, there were but no more than fifty people at my screening. IMAX-laser 3D was by far the best presentation both visually and aurally in my mind.

Didn't get a chance to see it...either it happens tomorrow night or next week. They are starting to reduce show times. Perhaps making way for John Wick 3?

[ITDEFX101]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

with Tyson's IMAX now laser, A-List membership certainly is worth it, now if only AMC Rio's IMAX converted screen can open, they were supposed to have debuted it with 'Avengers: Endgame' but it didn't happen, not sure what the hold up is since Rio had the massive overhaul entire theater upgrade.

AMC needs a hard expansion push to western Fairfax County and Prince William County. If AMC was closer to me then yes I would be all about A-list.... but I don't travel to Tyson's corner often anymore.

[ITDEFX101]

Ok so I saw Endgame at Udvar last night for the 9:50 showing.

I was hoping by now there would be a smaller crowd considering it has been out for a few weeks now and that it was a late showing. Nope...about 80 people there.

Ok so a few things.

-The movie started at full frame then around the scene where

[Show spoiler]they went to get fat Thor

the image went to letterbox for the...rest...of...the ...MOVIE!!! WTF?!?!?! Last year I clearly remembered the movie being played in Full Frame at my local Regal Digital IMAX and remembered that IW played at Udvar in Letterbox.

Something felt off about the sound at Udvar...it was like they toned it down and not fully utilizing the power of the speakers.

They played No trailers before the movie (ahh I wanted to see TROS trailer so bad). Seems that there were two groups leaving the theater. Those who left after the movie was done, and those who actually stayed behind to see if there was a Post Credit Scene. This caused a delay of about 20-25 mins before we got in because they had to clean the theater. A simple title card before the movie from the theater could have said there are no trailers or Post Credit Scene after the movie.

Image quality seems to have dipped since last year's visit in which I saw Pacific Rim Uprising(yeah I know it wasn't an IMAX filmed movie, but just to see all that action on the big screen)

Going back to Full frame/letterbox ..ok I can understand if certain scenes were filmed in IMAX only, but I am still confused why the Regal Digital IMAX showing played at full frame and Udvar switched nearly an hour into the film. It reminded me of watching the Airport brawl from CA: Civil War. It opened up for most of it then switched back to letterbox.

Overall I was not impressed with the presentation.

Oh BTW- GODZILLA: King of Monsters is COMING to Udvar..but I *might* skip it at udvar because of Endgame's presentation.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by ITDEFX101

-The movie started at full frame then around the scene where

[Show spoiler]they went to get fat Thor

the image went to letterbox for the...rest...of...the ...MOVIE!!! WTF?!?!?! Last year I clearly remembered the movie being played in Full Frame at my local Regal Digital IMAX and remembered that IW played at Udvar in Letterbox.

Ok, I've seen Endgame in true IMAX a number of times. The movie has a constant aspect ratio when shown in IMAX that has more image on the top and bottom compared to non-IMAX presentations (which means the non-IMAX ones are being matted for a widescreen aspect ratio, or "letterboxed" as you call it although that term is usually saved for home video formats).

This is true of both 2D and 3D versions in IMAX.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by ITDEFX101

Ok so I saw Endgame at Udvar last night for the 9:50 showing.

I was hoping by now there would be a smaller crowd considering it has been out for a few weeks now and that it was a late showing. Nope...about 80 people there.

Ok so a few things.

-The movie started at full frame then around the scene where

[Show spoiler]they went to get fat Thor

the image went to letterbox for the...rest...of...the ...MOVIE!!! WTF?!?!?! Last year I clearly remembered the movie being played in Full Frame at my local Regal Digital IMAX and remembered that IW played at Udvar in Letterbox.

Something felt off about the sound at Udvar...it was like they toned it down and not fully utilizing the power of the speakers.

They played No trailers before the movie (ahh I wanted to see TROS trailer so bad). Seems that there were two groups leaving the theater. Those who left after the movie was done, and those who actually stayed behind to see if there was a Post Credit Scene. This caused a delay of about 20-25 mins before we got in because they had to clean the theater. A simple title card before the movie from the theater could have said there are no trailers or Post Credit Scene after the movie.

Image quality seems to have dipped since last year's visit in which I saw Pacific Rim Uprising(yeah I know it wasn't an IMAX filmed movie, but just to see all that action on the big screen)

Going back to Full frame/letterbox ..ok I can understand if certain scenes were filmed in IMAX only, but I am still confused why the Regal Digital IMAX showing played at full frame and Udvar switched nearly an hour into the film. It reminded me of watching the Airport brawl from CA: Civil War. It opened up for most of it then switched back to letterbox.

Overall I was not impressed with the presentation.

Oh BTW- GODZILLA: King of Monsters is COMING to Udvar..but I *might* skip it at udvar because of Endgame's presentation.

sorry to read that Udvar fuzted up the presentation - I would have complained bitterly ... I have no intention on seeing 'Godzilla: King of Monsters' in IMAX anywhere in the DMV area and seeing this on the intended scope screen at the Uptown and then again over at the Arclight's Dolby Atmos screen

[xbs2034]

https://deadline.com/2019/05/the-aer...er-1202614664/

Tom Hooper’s The Aeronauts will open a week early exclusively in IMAX as well as be expanded for key sequences

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

https://deadline.com/2019/05/the-aer...er-1202614664/

Tom Hooper’s The Aeronauts will open a week early exclusively in IMAX as well as be expanded for key sequences

You mean Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts.

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

You mean Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts.

Yup, that’s what happens when you read an article quickly. Because of the director I knew of (vs someone I haven’t heard of before) and that it stars Eddie Redmayne, my mind totally processed that as Tom Hooper

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

https://deadline.com/2019/05/the-aer...er-1202614664/

Tom Hooper’s The Aeronauts will open a week early exclusively in IMAX as well as be expanded for key sequences

lol at amazon getting involved with IMAX. NOT that it's a bad thing, I just find it funny that some OTT providers are this keen on pursuing conventional cinema releases, to the extent of getting involved with IMAX, while others would like nothing more than to kill the theatrical experience stone dead (naming no names, but it rhymes with Betflix).

[Riddhi2011]

I saw Endgame this Friday on IMAX 3D xenon. Apart from the movie, which was beautiful, sad, fresh and powerful at times, the IMAX 3D was overwhelming. I was sitting centre row, centre seat and the 3D was too much. It hurt my eyes seeing so much depth. Not joking. My eyes eventually adjusted after the first half hour and then I didn't notice much 3D anymore (It was there). I personally thought the 3D could give someone a heart attack and would've personally liked it dialled down a bit. A lot of the aerial shots just looked like miniatures, despite not being miniatures. This is the problem with 3D.
Another thing is there were a lot of shots where the characters' faces and bodies just looked squeezed inside. I know they used anamorphic but this much distortion shouldn't have been allowed to remain. It felt as if they took the scope image and then stretched it vertically and added a few extra bits at top and bottom. It was distracting.
If the scope version has the proportions correct, then I'd assume that such a thing was done indeed. It may have been that they squeezed it vertically to avoid loss of image info at the sides because the Alexa65 has a 2.11:1 sensor. They might have stretched it from 2.11:1 to 1.90:1.
Were the faces as squeezed inside in the scope version Geoff?

[UFAlien]

The new issue of American Cinematographer covers Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In addition to confirming the whole film is 2.39:1 scope, they went into some details on the overall "look" as well. Apparently they're purposefully trying to avoid looking "too crisp" and clean, hence shooting mostly on 2x anamorphic lenses, adding simulated film grain in post, et cetera. They claim to be emulating the look of Blade Runner and Alien to an extent.

The movie was mostly shot on the Alexa 65 but with 2x anamorphic Panavision lenses that only cover a portion of the sensor, which is in line with their desire not to have hyper-sharp look. It does say that for some of the visual effects shots they used large-format, non-anamorphic lenses that covered the whole sensor so those would be sharper and give them more to work with.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Riddhi2011

I saw Endgame this Friday on IMAX 3D xenon. Apart from the movie, which was beautiful, sad, fresh and powerful at times, the IMAX 3D was overwhelming. I was sitting centre row, centre seat and the 3D was too much. It hurt my eyes seeing so much depth. Not joking. My eyes eventually adjusted after the first half hour and then I didn't notice much 3D anymore (It was there). I personally thought the 3D could give someone a heart attack and would've personally liked it dialled down a bit. A lot of the aerial shots just looked like miniatures, despite not being miniatures. This is the problem with 3D.
Another thing is there were a lot of shots where the characters' faces and bodies just looked squeezed inside. I know they used anamorphic but this much distortion shouldn't have been allowed to remain. It felt as if they took the scope image and then stretched it vertically and added a few extra bits at top and bottom. It was distracting.
If the scope version has the proportions correct, then I'd assume that such a thing was done indeed. It may have been that they squeezed it vertically to avoid loss of image info at the sides because the Alexa65 has a 2.11:1 sensor. They might have stretched it from 2.11:1 to 1.90:1.
Were the faces as squeezed inside in the scope version Geoff?

Is there a big difference between IMAX 3-D xenon and the laser ones?

[Dubstar]

I had no idea that Disney had mixed and released 'Avengers: Endgame' in DTS-X sound - is this their first release? Apparently the chain B&B's theater's 'Grand Screens' played this and also Friday's upcoming release of 'Aladdin'

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Is there a big difference between IMAX 3-D xenon and the laser ones?

Well there are the bonuses of better image detail, resolution, HDR (I really like how colors look on the laser system, probably even more on the single projector than dual projector which is what I saw Endgame on). Plus I believe all laser sites use the 12 channel IMAX sound systems whereas the Xenon theaters typically have the older setup.

[Pieter V]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

I had no idea that Disney had mixed and released 'Avengers: Endgame' in DTS-X sound - is this their first release?

Yes.

https://dts.com/dtsx-cinematic-releases

[Riddhi2011]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Is there a big difference between IMAX 3-D xenon and the laser ones?

I've only experienced IMAX 70mm 3D/2D and IMAX xenon digital 3D/2D. There are no IMAX Laser theatres in my country yet.

[Riddhi2011]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

The new issue of American Cinematographer covers Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In addition to confirming the whole film is 2.39:1 scope, they went into some details on the overall "look" as well. Apparently they're purposefully trying to avoid looking "too crisp" and clean, hence shooting mostly on 2x anamorphic lenses, adding simulated film grain in post, et cetera. They claim to be emulating the look of Blade Runner and Alien to an extent.

The movie was mostly shot on the Alexa 65 but with 2x anamorphic Panavision lenses that only cover a portion of the sensor, which is in line with their desire not to have hyper-sharp look. It does say that for some of the visual effects shots they used large-format, non-anamorphic lenses that covered the whole sensor so those would be sharper and give them more to work with.

Link, please!