'Goblet of Fire' NOT worth viewing at some Omnimax theatres

[mechtild]

Announcement:

Greetings, LJ friends! I just thought I'd pop in to warn you:

Do not go to see Goblet of Fire (or any "regular" film) at an Omnimax theatre without checking what sort it is first.






~Scenes we would liked to have seen Saturday night from The Goblet of Fire.


Remember how I was gushing last month over how sensational it was to see the TE's of all the LotR films at an Omnimax in Indianapolis? (They are playing there in conjunction with the LotR museum exhibit.) Well, I am here to tell you that not all Omnimax theatres are the same.

We went to see Goblet of Fire this weekend in my native northern Minnesota city by the lake. We had a choice of seeing it at the "regular theatres" at the local shopping centre ("Boooo!") or at the town's Omnimax ("Yeaaah!"). I have never been to our local Omnimax before. Had I done, I would NOT have chosen to see a regular-format film there.

Unlike the Omnimax in Indiana, which had a huge slightly curved screen with rounded edges mounted to its front wall, our Omnimax is a "dome" theatre. Its screen is shaped like a dome set into the roof which extends down the front wall, sort of like a planetarium's dome but shallower and off-kilter.

Even before the film started I thought, "Uh-oh. How is this going to work?" It didn't. The widescreen film we came to see was projected onto the dome over our heads. From where we sat (middlish, a little to the side), the picture was completely distorted. The sides of the image just faded into nothing.

Needless to say, since what we could see of the film really did look splendid, we are going back to see it again on a normal (if small) screen at the local multiplex.

So.

This is just to let the rest of you know to CHECK before you go to an Omnimax to see a regularly-formatted film. If it is a "dome" Omnimax, don't bother. It is a waste of your time and money. A normally-formatted film simply can't be enjoyed that way.

~ Mechtild

Comments

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

We saw "Attack of the Clones" in a domed IMAX - the light sabers had a strange 90-degree bend to them. "Oooh, interesting new light sabers!" I thought. Never again!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

You would think it would really be cool, wouldn't you? "Oh, boy, an IMAX!" I would have been first in line to see a Star Wars film (though not that one, sorry) at an Omnimax.

But it really stinks when the film is not in the right format for the theatre. As I explained above, Ann, the Omnimax in Indianapolis must have been a modified one. Although their screen was huge and curved, and more of a square than a rectangle, it wasn't a dome at all. The films played on their screen beautifully.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Awful, wasn't it? It seems as though it out to be illegal to charge money for that, seriously.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

P.S., if you didn't read Sayhello's 11/26 post down there, she explains that the dome style IMAX's are the old models. The newer ones are the sort we saw the LotR films on in IN, which worked great.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

OK, last time, Ann. I JUST got a reply notice for your comment. I thought, "Hmm, that's odd, I guess I never answered that." So I just posted this moment, (weeks later), and I see that I DID post a response. What's with that? Are they now sending out all the "lost" reply notices? I'd better check before I answer any others without looking first.

[maewyn-2.livejournal.com]

That won't be a problem for me. We don't have a working IMAX theatre where I live any more.

I hope to see Goblet of Fire within the next couple of weeks (it doesn't start here until 1st December). Yes, I've finally caught up with all the books and movies!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Even with our limited viewing, I could tell it's a really, really good film, Maewyn. And, as I whined on Pearl's LJ, they even kept Harry's bath scene in it. "Where was Crickhollow?????" I demanded to know under my breath.

[maewyn-2.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they did that! The bathroom in that scene as written seemed to be very impressive. Was that so in the movie?

It's funny how they put bath scenes in movies that don't really need them, and leave out the ones which were originally written as such!

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

But the bath scene actually is very important in GoF, don't you think? Harry has to go to the prefect's bath in order to figure out his clue for test #2. They did it in a cute way in the film; all the kids in the audience were so cute, tittering like mad because Harry was naked (not in front of the camera, but under the bubbles - sorry Daniel Radcliffe swooners), esp. when Moaning Myrtle showed up.

Yes, the bath was very impressive. My daughter said, "WOW! Why can't we have a bathroom like that?"

[sayhello.livejournal.com]

The curved dome OmniMaxes are the originals. Very fascinating, but I totally can't watch them. Kills my neck and makes me nauseous. Neither can a lot of people. Many of the newer ones are more the "normal" one-wall screen type we were at in Indiana. The one we have here in town is the same as Indy. I need to check if GoF is still playing there next week. I saw PoA there, and the film was actually *formatted* for the IMAX screen (it filled the entire humongous screen. It was amazing.)

It never even occurred to me that they would try to show a normal movie in a domed IMAX

You *definitely* need to see it again in a better theatre. It's a marvelous film.

Hewene

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

You *definitely* need to see it again in a better theatre. It's a marvelous film.

We are going to see it tonight, in fact. Hot diggity! Watching LotR on the screen in Indiana was fantastic. I sure wish it had been that sort of Omnimax, but it wasn't. I think it stinks that they would show a normal film in there. It is completely inadequate. As bad as if we had shown up to find out that we were to watch it on TV screens.

[sayhello.livejournal.com]

Hey, I just got the notice for *this* comment. LJ is *slowly* emptying out it's backlog, and I've gotten bunches of old notices, trickling in a few at a time. It's annoying, as I have to check each one to see which ones I responded to already, and which ones I hadn't.

So how did you like GoF once you saw it on a *normal* screen?

Hewene

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

I really, really enjoyed it. I didn't bother making an LJ entry about it because I was able to say my say on the LJ's of others who already had posted about it (Pearl, Maewyn and Lady Wendy). My other Harry Potter posts were about the previous films and about reading the books.

Here's a link to Maewyn's, which has a string of short posts, easy to read:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/maewyn_2/7152.html?nc=20

The production values were super, the performances very good as usual, wonderful set-pieces and the film went a lot further in helping me really care about the characters. I intend to go again before it leaves the big screen.

The new director has done little film work but a lot of TV. I hope he does something good with OotP. Unlike a lot of people, that was my favourite of the books.

Yes, I keep getting ancient reply notices, too. At the beginning I made the mistake of answering them, all the while scratching my head, thinking, "Didn't I already answer this?" Then I'd post and see that I had. D'OH. Now I look more closely and check.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

By "new director" I meant the one booked for film 5, I should have said.