Imax and ROTK...horrible (1 Viewer)

[Shad R]

I saw the very first midnight showing on the Imax screen in Denver. I had anticipated it all week. When the previews started, the front speakers started to rattle, especially during Spiderman 2. I thought maybe it was preview reel, but it did it ALL THROUGHOUT THE MOVIE! Also, the high-end of the audio spectrum kept cutting in and out, and it sounded like the digital signal kept switching to analog. I wasn't the only one who caught this, because I heard someone else commenting on it on the way out of the theater. My friend was mad too. The rattle was OBNOXIOUS! and distorted. Man, last time I saw a movie on the Imax (Lion King) it sounded amazing. I thought they'd check their equipment, I mean, this was Lord of the Rings, for crying out loud. Anyone else have this happen at an Imax showing?

 

[Kevin Porter]

The IMAX showing in Houston went perfectly fine. The projection was slightly crooked but no one could tell. Other than that it ran without a hitch. Sorry to hear about your experience Shad.

 

[Sean Laughter]

Well, "The Lion King" was a DMR processed print, that was actually an IMAX 70mm print playing through the IMAX projector, whereas ROTK was a 35mm print playing on a 35mm projector and whatever sound processing that have for that purpose. Did anyone complain about it? Depending on how often that theater actually shows 35mm prints, they may not have been aware of the problem (I'm not sure how much the projectionist in a flat-screen IMAX - I'm assuming you were at a flat-screen - can hear in terms of physical rattling of the house speakers).

 

[JoshGroetsema]

We saw ROTK at the IMAX in Lincolnshire, IL and I have to tell you that we had the EXACT same problem

For the first half of the movie, every few minutes one of the speakers would suddenly produce a distorted noise for a second or so. And this would happen in some of the quietest scenes. Also, there were problems with the color as well. In certain scenes there were very noticable changes in the color scheme on the screen.

I was very disappointed with the theater but, of course, by the time we left the theater at 12:30 in the morning, there was no one to complain to.

 

[Perry Jonkheer]

How was the picture quality compared to The Matrix Revolutions??

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

Matrix Revolutions is a DMR processed film projected through the IMAX projector...so it's bound to look a lot better, and brighter, than 35mm blown up on an IMAX screen does. It should be a night and day difference...

Why they don't remaster the LOTR films for IMAX is beyond me...I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing both IMAX DMR releases of Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. You simply can't beat the quality, and brightness of the image, short of filming in actual IMAX format from the get-go. And the sound is spectacular at any IMAX auditorium worth its salt (The Sony Metreon in San Francisco is quite good).

I had an annoying buzzing sound and various DD sound drop-outs throughout my viewing of ROTK in a "normal" theater, extremely distracting and just about ruined my experience...I wonder if there are a lot of damaged prints that have been shipped out to exhibitors? It seems that a lot of people have complained about issues like this already (a few here and a couple of other forums as well).

-Dennis

 

[Sean Laughter]

Because the platters that hold IMAX films are not large enough to hold the film without an intermission. Even the IMAX print of Star Wars:AOTC had cuts made to the film itself to widdle it down to fit on an IMAX platter. The theater I work in got the upgraded reel units when we played Fantasia2000 (at IMAX expense I believe), and I highly doubt they want to be doing free reel unit upgrades anytime soon to make the platters any larger (if it's even physically possible to make them larger without risking damage to equipment).

 

[Gary->dee]

ROTK is a loud ass movie, probably the loudest I've seen in a theater yet. I wouldn't doubt that certain speaker systems have problems playing it. I saw it as a regular DTS theater and there were a lot of times during the movie in which I was close to covering my ears, especially during any scenes featuring the Nazgul. Yikes! This one's probably going to blow the HT speakers when it finally arrives(extended edition of course, I don't do the theatrical cuts at the crib- I'm snobbish).

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Shad R,

I was at that same screening and noticed it right away too. It was very distracting especially during the singing, or any theme music that held a note longer than 2 beats which is nearly every theme. The bass was definitely there, and the picture didn't look too bad, although that particular Imax screen has some problems, especially with reflections. Add in that it is dirty in some spots and there is actually a hole the size of a baseball near the middle.

 

[Sean Laughter]

Are flat screen IMAX screens actually cloth-like material (or whatever screen material is termed)? Because dome IMAX screens, at least all of the ones I see are metal, so not exactly prone to tearing or hole damage. In fact, whenever we have a helium balloon stuck at the top of the dome (happens occasionally when there are events at the museum, regardless of how hard we try to keep them out of the theater), we have to shoot paperclips at it with rubber bands

 

[Neil Joseph]

I saw ROTK today (Monday) in IMAX and I was not impressed with the sound. To me, it sounded like a 6.0 mix with no LFE. The other time I saw the movie in a traditional theatre and the LFE was there but the subwoofer was rattling (bottoming out) throughout the film to the point where I could exactly locate it to the right side of the screen.

Pathetic and a shame, because I know that after viewing this film twice that it will have a phenomenal DVD audio mix.

 

[Mark Kalzer]

I did it yesterday and was quite impressed by the quality! Great sound! The Matrix Revolutions was still a bit more mind blowing, but then that was also my first Matrix Revolutions screening at the time, compared to this being my third Lord of the Rings screening.

Did anyone else see a message before the movie that read like "This is not an actual IMAX print. It is a regular 35 mm print and does not represent the audio and visual quality of IMAX."? May have just been the people of IMAX covering themselves. I like to think they pay close attention to the Paramount in Toronto just cause it's where the head offices of IMAX are!

 

[Bryan Tuck]

I thought I'd heard that they were going to make an IMAX print of ROTK, and that it would just have an intermission. At any rate, I've actually never seen a 35mm film projected on an IMAX screen; I imagine it would look pretty grainy, though.

By the way, was Matrix: Rev in its OAR on the IMAX print?

 

[Sean Laughter]

I believe the IMAX print of ROTK was cancelled at the last minute, at least I read that rumor on some forum somewhere, take it as you will

 

[Tom Koegel]

Sean,

At the flat screen IMAX here in San Francisco, at the Loew's (née Sony) Metreon, the screen is some sort of perforated cloth. Before every movie they run a sort of sound and light show pumping the "IMAX experience" and they have lighting behind the screen so you can see some superstructure, speakers, etc., through the perforations.

To those who have seen Matrix or ROTK in IMAX, do they clip off the sides of the image or do they just create a large letterbox on the screen? I would think that the OAR purists here would object to a non-letterbox presentation.

Tom

 

[Patrick Sun]

For the Matrix Revolutions, it was presented in letterbox format, retaining its OAR.

 

[Neil Joseph]

ROTK was letterboxed in its oar of approx 2.35:1. All other movies I have seen in IMAX were letterboxed.

 

[Tom Koegel]

OK, brace yourself for a really dumb question but . . . what's the big deal about seeing a non-IMAX film in an IMAX theatre if the film retains its OAR? Is the ultimate image size that much larger than at a large conventional screen? Maybe my viewpoint is skewed by having IMAX experiences at a flat screen theater, not a dome. But I would think that a letterboxed 2.35:1 on an IMAX screen (which is normally, what, about a 1.6:1 ratio?) would yield an image not much larger than a "normal" 2.35:1 projection in one of the larger venues in your average multiplex.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

The image is still larger, of course this depends on the Imax screen you see it on, but the biggest factor, at least for me is the sound. The sound in most Imax theatres blows away that of a normal cinema in pure volume, especially the bass. Too bad there were problems at my Imax screening of ROTK with the sound at parts.

Seeing Reloaded and Revolutions on Imax was a big difference from the standard theatre presentation visually. The details you could see...were almost scary *cough*Lawrence Fishburns face*cough*. :b

 

[Jonny K]

I saw ROTK yesterday at an IMAX in Calgary. I was dissapointed. The sound was good, but the picture left me wanting. Maybe I'm crazy, but everything looked quite blurry. For instance, at the beginning of the movie where the people are on the boat, in the distance shot you can't even make out their faces.

Now I usually find theaters to have blurry screens, but I found this to be more so. I'll see the movie in a standard theater and compare...