PS: Did anyone see the Dark Knight in 15/70 IMAX? I didn’t care too much for the film, but the EXPERIENCE was out of this world. The detail was jaw-dropping.
Yes, I saw them at an ‘all-knighter’ at the BFI IMAX in London. The experience is exceptional (Interstellar was just as good) and it will be very sad if and when IMAX replace their projectors with Laser.
On the topic of whether the changing aspect ratio is a good or a bad thing, I think it’s fundamentally a good thing. It doesn’t distract at all and the IMAX 15/70 scenes are absolutely worth it. The movie industry needs ways to attract people back into cinemas and IMAX 70mm is definitely one of those ways. I think another will be reverting a few screens back to 35/standard 70mm. The drive to digitise everything, release in 3D where possible and raise ticket prices is not working. The enthusiasm for analogue technologies on the other hand, is being felt across the board.
I have to say though, that the IMAX scene in TFA was not worth it. Christopher Nolan makes action sequences work for IMAX by slowing down the editing and having lots of practical effects/stunts to make up for it. You can appreciate the higher film resolution a lot better. Whereas the escape from Jakku was very fast paced. Nolan had 70 minutes of IMAX in the Dark Knight, TFA had about 5. It’s over before you can get excited, and some people I saw it with didn’t even notice it happen.
Really that aspect ratio shift is not doable in home video, because we’re all watching on wide screens. It’s nice to have something that a cinema can do that home video can’t. 😃