Anyone catch Reloaded in IMAX yet?

bubba966 · « **on:** 24 Jun 2003, 05:09 am »

Picked up tickets for tomorrow night. But still wondered if anyone's had the IMAX experience with it yet.

Apparently they've gotten past the 2 hour limit problem they've had with the earlier DMR releases (Apollo 13 & Episode 2). I don't know if they went with thinner film stock, or larger platters. But they didn't have to cut anything out of Reloaded for IMAX presentation.

Wich is too bad, I was interested to see what they'd cut out...

bob82274 · « **Reply #1 on:** 26 Jun 2003, 12:30 am »

Well Charlotte only has an Omnimax theater which is good for the normal IMAX stuff but I wouldn't want to watch a regular movie on it. I am heading to Raleigh July 11 to go work on my new condo and I saw that Apollo 13 is playing there. Don't know if Reloaded is playing or if Apollo 13 will still be playing but I sure hope so.,

jqp · « **Reply #2 on:** 26 Jun 2003, 05:14 am »

What do they do to give it "the IMAX experience"?

bubba966 · « **Reply #3 on:** 26 Jun 2003, 05:28 am »

An IMAX screen is 80' x 60' (4:3). Which is a good deal larger than most theaters, as most theaters are setup for a 1.85:1-2.35:1 aspect ratio with a maximum width usually at 60'.

Reloaded was shown in Scope (2.35:1), but according to IMDB was shot in Super 35 (1.33:1). If the info on IMDB is right, you should get much more image watching it in 1.33:1 on an IMAX screen as you won't have it cropped at all like the regular theatrical presentation is. That's also assuming that the special effects were done for all of the additional info in the frame, and not just done for the 2.35:1 image shown in the theaters.

bubba966 · « **Reply #4 on:** 3 Jul 2003, 05:01 am »

Well I was finally able to catch it Monday night.

Damn does it kick ass in IMAX!

Waaaaay better than any regular theater in Seattle. The sound was awesome. And the picture was actually better (at least in the very back row), which surprised me as I figured it'd look like ass blown up so big.

And it wasn't 2.35:1, or 1.33:1. It looked to be either 1.77:1 or 1.85:1. I couldn't tell definitely as I couldn't discern where the bottom of the screen was as they didn't have the frame centered on the screen. They had it down low rather than centered.

But it wasn't cut down to 2 hours like the other DMR releases have been.

I actually wanted to see a 2 hour cut of Reloaded.

If you've got the ability to watch it in IMAX, DO IT!

George W · « **Reply #5 on:** 5 Jul 2003, 12:57 pm »

Bubba,

Did you watch this at the Seattle Center Imax? If so I may have go to check it out; curious as to how much they're charging. Thanks

wshuff · « **Reply #6 on:** 5 Jul 2003, 03:09 pm »

What is DMR and why was it necessary to cut the films to 2 hours?

bubba966 · « **Reply #7 on:** 5 Jul 2003, 04:58 pm »

Quote from: George W

Bubba,

Did you watch this at the Seattle Center Imax? If so I may have go to check it out; curious as to how much they're charging. Thanks

George,

I did catch it at the Boeing IMAX. Tickets are $9.50, but well worth it as the presentation is much better than anyplace else in the area. You'll want to get there 30-40 minutes early if you're going on a weekday to get seats almost wherever you want. But you'll want to sit in the last row or two.

wshuff,

DMR is IMAX's "Digital Re-Master" process to adapt a normal movie for the IMAX format.

The 2 hour limit was in effect as that was the maximum amount of film they could fit on the IMAX platters. Normal film is 35mm, 4 perf run vertically. IMAX is 70mm 15 perf run horizontally. So IMAX film is twice as wide, and 3.5 times as long as a normal 35mm film is.

wshuff · « **Reply #8 on:** 5 Jul 2003, 05:48 pm »

Thanks for the explanation Bubba. How have they managed to get around that 2 hour limit? Another platter, thinner film, longer film, voodoo, magic?

I've loved the few IMAX presentations I've seen, but they have been the educational variety. I'd love to see Reloaded.

bubba966 · « **Reply #9 on:** 5 Jul 2003, 06:10 pm »

I'm trying to find out how they got around the 2 hour limit. It could be done either with thinner film, or a larger platter.

I would hope that they did it with a larger platter rather than thinner film. The amount of film run through one of those projectors every second is scary, so I doubt that'd be their first choice.

Once I find out what the fix was I'll let you know.

bubba966 · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 Jul 2003, 08:17 am »

Well, I saw in in IMAX for the 3rd time tonight.

Gotta love it. It's much easier to catch things when they're blown up so large.

bob82274 · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 Jul 2003, 07:50 pm »

Heading up to Raleigh this weekend... going to check out my condo

While I am there I hope to see Apollo 13 and Reloaded as they are both playing right now. Looks to be a busy weekend!

bob82274 · « **Reply #12 on:** 27 Aug 2003, 04:11 pm »

OK I finally got around to seeing it at IMAX and all I can say is WOW! Two quick comments bout it as I have to get to a lecture here in just a minute.

A) Much better the second time around. After seeing the Aniimatrix and picking up a bunch of subtle nuances through out the movie it is evident that what seem like plot holes are inconsistancies really arn't It has been a well thought out story that critics of the movie are two shortsighted to see.

B) In regards to it not being cut I think I figured out why it was able to run the full length. When you watch it you notice that it doesn't take up the full screen like a normal IMAX movie. Even though it was shot in Super 35 it was shown in its OAR. This would allow you to have more frams per lenght than before. So with that in mind you could fit (and these are arbitrary numbers) 140,000 frames where as before you could only fit 100,000 frams on the same lenght of film.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Aug 2003, 06:56 pm »

Bet the Imax version rocks.

bubba966 · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Aug 2003, 11:04 pm »

Quote from: bob82274

B) In regards to it not being cut I think I figured out why it was able to run the full length. When you watch it you notice that it doesn't take up the full screen like a normal IMAX movie. Even though it was shot in Super 35 it was shown in its OAR. This would allow you to have more frams per lenght than before. So with that in mind you could fit (and these are arbitrary numbers) 140,000 frames where as before you could only fit 100,000 frams on the same lenght of film.

Decent guess.

But can't be one of the possibilities.

Reason being is this, while standard 35MM & 70MM is run vertically through the projector, IMAX is run horizontally through the projector. IMAX is actually 15 perf 70MM run on it's side. So the space not being used top & bottom on Reloaded & other IMAX DMR releases is not taking up any less space as the full width of the frame is still being used. As such the film is still the same length whether you use the full vertical space or not.

I would guess that they just went to thinner film stock. And when you've got that much film (aprox 52,500' of it for the IMAX release), a little bit of thickness makes a big deal.

Oh, and bob, Reloaded is 199,300 frames long...

bubba966 · « **Reply #15 on:** 27 Aug 2003, 11:12 pm »

Quote from: Rob Babcock

Bet the Imax version rocks.

Yup, certainly does.

I've only paid for 4 movies this year (though I've probably watched over 125 in theaters this year...

), and three of those tickets were Reloaded in IMAX.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #16 on:** 27 Aug 2003, 11:39 pm »

The Wells Fargo Cinedome in the Washington Pavilion here in SF has a fantastic large format theater very much like Imax. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of films that they can play there. I do plan to catch SuperSpeedway II asap.

bob82274 · « **Reply #17 on:** 28 Aug 2003, 04:25 am »

Quote from: bubba966

Decent guess.

But can't be one of the possibilities.

Reason being is this, while standard 35MM & 70MM is run vertically through the projector, IMAX is run horizontally through the projector. IMAX is actually 15 perf 70MM run on it's side. So the space not being used top & bottom on Reloaded & other IMAX DMR releases is not taking up any less space as the full width of the frame is still being used. As such the film is still the same length whether you use the full vertical space or not.

Oh well you learn something new everyday... Now if i could only learn something in my lectures (kidding its just been review this week

)