'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

[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?"