| You say you don't have an IMAX
in your city, well you aren't missing much. Please don't start
sending me hate mail just yet - LOL.
When I heard Clones was coming to IMAX I wasn't all that
excited. The DVD had been released by then and I am sure like
many of you, had been watched more then once :D I was in no
hurry to go see it. I was ready to skip it alltogether but
my friend Elie convinced me that we HAD to go see it for the
technical side. So I caved in. Let's look at what I think
worked and what didn't.
What I did like about the Imax Experience:
As many of you have read, Imax supports 2 hours and so 40
minutes or so had to bet cut. Most scenes you don't even noticed
removed or miss (Like the Sound Of Music waterfall scene,
Anakin meeting Jar Jar, Queen Scene on Naboo to name a few)
What really works well in this edit is the love story. Yes,
you heard me right :) By removing all excess silly dialogue
that no one says in real life ("My heart is scaring from
the kiss that should never have been Blah Blah Blah")
you feel like they are actually in a real courtship.
The sound is amazing. The surround speakers really do justice
to the Sound Designers. I feel I could distinguish speekers
better then at the regular screening.
Seeing things that you never caught on the big screen. For
instance, my jaw dropped when I saw TaunWe on screen for the
first time in Close Up. There are SO many tiny details...Skin
texture and transparent veins, that I never saw before. It
really looks awesome. Many background Droids and Aliens were
also discovered for the first time because they are SO big
on the Imax screen. I kept thinking "I never saw him
before".
The action scenes like Coruscant Chase, Clone Wars and Arena
Battle were very cool in Super Size but not having a Widescreen
Ratio seemed to sometimes reduce the magnitude of the scenes.
What I didn't like about the Imax Experience:
First and most noticible...Aspect Ratio reduced to Pan &
Scan 3:4 instead of Widescreen 2:35:1.
I HATE full frame video and this only proves that a movie
filmed for a Widescreen frame looks AWFULL in a square box.
All the information on the sides was chopped off. If there
were 2 people talking, half their faces were lost. YUK YUK
YUK.
The movie having been cut so much gave me the impression of
watching the DVD in Fast Forward. Sure some scenes are better
left hidden away but I think too many were removed. For instance
the entire Palpatine Office scene from the begining. Then
when Anakin and Obi Wan visit Amidala's Apartment, it cuts
from the elevator ride to them sitting on the couch with Amidala
saying "Who is trying to kill me" Your initial reaction
is "wow, are we here already?"
This beef might not apply to most of you, but working in film
effects it's one I noticed RIGHT AWAY. I am not sure if it
was caused by the Blow Up or Compression Artifact, but there
was a really WEIRD filter effect on screen. Let me try and
explain...If you look at film, you can clearly see a grain,
one that is different for every frame of film. When you add
an element to a scene, like say CG, you must add a grain layer
to match the film's background plate. In essence, if you look
closely at film you should see a constant moving pattern.
Well in IMAX Clones, when an object was NOT moving, the grain
seemed like a freeze frame. It wasn't moving at all and was
a very BIG distraction. You would have a huge close up of
Amidala and her lips were moving while she talked so the grain
was there but on her cheeks it was a freeze frame and it seemed
that her face was all pasted together from different film
elements. Same occurance in background elements like Matte
Paintings or Set Walls. For me this has turned me off ANY
future IMAX feature film conversion. If ever they release,
say, Raiders of the Lost Arc IMAX - I will pass.
In the end, The lights came on and I was happy to have seen
the film...so that in the future, I would save money and never
see an IMAX blow up again :) Had this version come out before
the DVD it might have been more exciting.
Okay, now you can send me your hate mail :D
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