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  1. #1
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Batman Begins - the dome IMAX experience

    It's now Monday and my neck is still stiff from watching Batman Begins on the dome IMAX screen over the weekend! On the movie itself, first to mention is that the bar for the comic book movie adaptation has now been raised. This is about as good a rendering of the Batman mythology as I could have possibly hoped for. Instead of the sloppily unfocused campy tongue-in-cheek caped crusader adventures that plagued the last two Batman movies, Batman Begins fully realizes the character depicted in the seminal The Dark Knight Returns and Batman Year One graphic novels that Frank Miller wrote in the late-80s. This movie now distinctly moves Batman into a shadowy and frightening character, which is more in line with how the backstory was written into the graphic novels and subsequent comic series.

    Unlike the other Batman movies, Batman Begins focuses on the development of the Batman character, rather than a rogues gallery of villians and sidekicks. After the first Batman, the other movies began to lose focus and branch off into any number of ill conceived directions. Batman Begins is a tightly written and directed movie that has a compelling narrative, a sense of purpose, and great all-around depiction of Gotham City. Christian Bale was more than up to the task of playing the Bruce Wayne/Batman character, and the supporting cast was strong (if anything Katie Holmes was the weak link). The only flaw to the movie was in the action set pieces, which were not quite as well done. The Batmobile chase was cool, but the fight scenes in general had way too much close up shaky camera work and ADD-induced editing. (Then again, I generally feel that very few American and British directors know how to properly film and choreograph fight scenes to begin with, so it's par for the course.)

    Only the Tim Burton helmed 1989 movie comes close to this one for filmgoing enjoyment. That one had a less coherent storyline, but it had better set pieces, a focused villian, and more style and panache than Batman Begins.

    As far as the IMAX experience goes, I went with a group of friends and the misfortune of sitting off to the side and towards the front of the auditorium. On a flat IMAX screen showing a movie originally framed for 35mm widescreen, this is not good. On a curved dome IMAX screen, this induces seasickness! The dome IMAX screen is exactly what it sounds like, rather than a flat screen, the screen is a dome shape and projected up high towards the ceiling. It creates a sensation of motion, but it also skews the geometry of the movie!

    In general, I've had mixed experiences watching movies in IMAX. In some cases, the theater simply took a 35mm projector and projected it onto the IMAX screen. I did not like that approach because the image from a 35mm film strip looks grainy and dark when projected onto an IMAX screen. In other cases, like Attack of the Clones, the image was transferred onto a large format IMAX print and projected through the IMAX projector. But, that particular movie and Apollo 13 were blown up into the full 4:3 IMAX aspect ratio, which was like watching pan & scan on an 8-story screen.

    With Batman Begins, they went with the original widescreen aspect ratio while using the large format IMAX print, so that was more like watching a letterboxed presentation, but the screen is so large and wide that it still goes into your peripheral vision. I was very impressed with the image clarity, so I might need to catch another showing after work this week to see how it looks on a flat screen.

  2. #2
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    Thanks for the review - well done!! I'm not a big fan of IMAX. After giving it several tries, I often get motion sick unless I sit in the back row center.

    I am going to see Batman Begins tomorrow for my first time. Can't wait!!

  3. #3
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    Saw this movie in San Francisco's Metreon theater so get the full effect. Maybe I haven't been to a movie on a Tuesday matinee in a while (hence no crowds or chatter of non-serious movie goers), but this film was hella loud!! I'm not a movie critic, but I thought the story was terrific! But I think my ears are still ringing. Great movie to see in a capable theater.

  4. #4
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Breezer88888
    Saw this movie in San Francisco's Metreon theater so get the full effect. Maybe I haven't been to a movie on a Tuesday matinee in a while (hence no crowds or chatter of non-serious movie goers), but this film was hella loud!! I'm not a movie critic, but I thought the story was terrific! But I think my ears are still ringing. Great movie to see in a capable theater.
    That Metreon IMAX has a very nice sound system and they do like to crank it up. The only shortcoming (and this applies to any theater with stadium seating) is that the surround imaging is sometimes less effective, and the sound quality can vary a lot from row to row. Typically, movie theaters will turn the volume up higher for sold out shows and lower it when the theater is mostly empty because the more bodies you got in the auditorium, the more sound absorption the audio system needs to overcome.

    I ventured over to the Dublin IMAX the other night to check out Batman Begins on a flat IMAX screen, and it was definitely an improvement over what I saw at the Tech Museum's IMAX dome. I made sure to sit towards the back this time. The fight scenes looked more coherent, but still pretty confusing. The Dublin IMAX looks smaller than the Metreon and bigger than the Tech Museum (but that one has an odd shaped seating arrangement with the projector right in the middle of the seating section and pointing towards the ceiling), but they seemed to have the sound dialed in just right, and from where I was sitting at least, the surround effect was better than I remember at other IMAX theaters.

    With the IMAX image resolution, I could see that a lot of the scenery in the movie did not use CGI and relied more on practical/mechanical effects. The aerial shots of Batman overlooking Gotham (Chicago) looked incredible. This image quality is every bit as impressive as what I used to see on movies that screened using 70mm prints.

  5. #5
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    Thanks for the post. I think Batman Begins is worth a try in an IMAX theater. San Francisco's Metreon charges $15 for IMAX. How can I find out if its screen is flat or dome? I don't want to sound like an idiot when I call.

    As for sound levels, I stick napkin paper in my ears when it gets too loud. I admit that I lose lots of imaging that way. Oh well, so I'm a little protective of my ears. What's the point of this hobby if it leaves me less able to enjoy it for years to come.

  6. #6
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Breezer88888
    Thanks for the post. I think Batman Begins is worth a try in an IMAX theater. San Francisco's Metreon charges $15 for IMAX. How can I find out if its screen is flat or dome? I don't want to sound like an idiot when I call.

    As for sound levels, I stick napkin paper in my ears when it gets too loud. I admit that I lose lots of imaging that way. Oh well, so I'm a little protective of my ears. What's the point of this hobby if it leaves me less able to enjoy it for years to come.
    Just so you know, the only IMAX dome screens in California are in San Diego and San Jose. You can always check the theater's website, since they will typically describe the IMAX theater.

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