This year I brought myself a year long pass to the IMax at the BC museum. At six storeys high, it's the largest cinema screen in Western Canada. As they tell me every time I visit.
Which is every couple of months, either for Hollywood film or a documentary. The pass gets you into the latter for free, and the former for only $4 ($5 if you book a seat online).
The Hollywood flicks are variable. There is something awesome about seeing a good fight and chase scene in HUGE techni-colour vision. But if the action moves too fast, the eye can't follow it across the screen properly. It needs to be centred and stuff in periphery there for 'effect'. Which would make it look a little strange on a normal screen. But that's how they make the documentaries look so great. If you do look away from the centre, you'll see the images are distorted slightly, but also it's a frame, just to pull you into the action (be it wildlife, or racing cars, or adventure).
The flip side of Hollywood is the slower dialogue parts. Having Captain Kirk's head with 10 foot high nose just shows off every single pore and hair follicle. It's a little disconcerting. It's TOO clear. The films that work better have a little more fuzz in the static scenes, and lose the hyper reality of the image.
Still, I enjoyed 'Pacific Rim' for it's stupidity of robots versus Cthulhu. Star Trek: The Edge of Darkness looked great when we had action. The Hobbit Part one was great for some scenes, but the fight through the Mines of Moria was almost impossible to follow and blurred into one chaotic mess. Which was a shame, as it looked like it should have been the set piece money shot of the movie.
As for documentaries, if you didn't see Shackleton's adventure, you missed out. Incredible story of two years on the ice and sea of Antarctica. Grainy movie footage from the expedition itself made my jaw drop. The recreations of the story of getting back alive were hugely compelling, and I had to check that it was all true. It was, of course.
The one on Sharks, however, was terribly twee. Dumbed down to a level that made no sense. It was neither aimed at kids (even with the stupid turtle narration) or adults (with the savagery and majesty of Sharks pushed to one side). Glad it was free.
But with a free pass, a miss or two is fine as long as you get value. And I did, and this year I'm told Santa brought me a renewal.
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