I too found that the 2.5 hour film just flew by and that the story line was excellent with no dull bits.
The 3-D malarkey is not always necessary depending on the subject story but here it definitely helps the visual epic.
The IMAX is most unlike a normal cinema which, when you go to one, you will see. Bradford only seats 200 people so its not a big seat area. The screen is curved and is very large.......so large that if you sit dead-centre....it fills all your field of vision.....thats why I advise you to get there early and grab those seats dead centre. You also sit relatively close to the screen.....again it fills your field of view. The film is apparently shot or projected with 70mm film.......quite how its done when its all CGI cannot say or digital images......but its very very effective.
I would recommend NOT to watch it first time on a TV or PC, it just dont work!! The red/blue specs ypou are given are large proper plastic framed jobs that fit over anyone's normal spec, you simply hand these back as you leave. Dont bother with crappy cardboard specs, the plastic ones were perfect....they are massive lenses and you kinda look like Brains from ThunderBirds......but hey everyones got 'em on!
If you have an IMAX within a hour or two's drive, then make the effort, you will not be disappointed.
Right......just copied this lot from the B'ham IMAX site;
About IMAX
For excitement, scale and sheer sensory overload nothing comes close to the IMAX experience.
With a screen as high as a five storey building and as wide as four buses nose to tail, 2D presentations are spectacular enough, but the special 3D films will have people reaching out to touch the images on the screen. The crystal clear picture and 42 speakers of digital surround sound ensure a truly captivating experience.
You'll never look at a trip to the cinema in the same way again.
What is IMAX?
IMAX is the largest and most exciting film format in the world!
With crystal clear images, ten times larger than traditional cinema format, the IMAX experience draws you in with pictures so real you want to touch them, so powerful you can feel them.
The IMAX experience takes an image rich in clarity and definition, throws it onto the world's biggest screens and wraps the viewer in digital surround sound.
Whats so different about IMAX?
Since the earliest days of cinema, film makers have realised that the bigger the image the greater the impact on the viewer.
Imagine the difference between watching a film on video at home and the same film at a regular cinema. The film may be the same, but the experience couldn't be more different. Well consider the jump from traditional cinema to IMAX as a similar dramatic leap.
With IMAX® 3D we then add, quite literally, a new dimension to the whole electrifying experience.
Using state-of-the-art polarised glasses, the IMAX® 3D experience has brought 3D enjoyment a long way from the cardboard glasses of the 1950s.
Bigger images. Better sound. Sharper 3D. The IMAX experience is the future of film entertainment.
Screen and Sound Systems
The screens in IMAX Cinemas are the biggest in the World. Up to eight storeys high, they are ten times larger than a traditional cinema screen and fill the whole field of human vision.
Made of stretched vinyl, coated with a reflective silver paint they are stretched taut over a scaffold frame.
With thousands of small perforations they allow sound from speakers positioned behind the screen to play their key role in the total surround sound system.
Sound is critical to the IMAX experience. The film soundtracks are delivered through a mighty 15,000 watt digital surround sound system.
The screen at Millennium Point, is 22 metres wide by 16 metres high. That is as tall as a five storey building, and as wide and 4 buses nose to tail!
Film Size & Projector
To project such large films IMAX have built the most advanced, high precision and powerful projectors.
IMAX films are shot and projected on 70mm film - the largest film format in the world. It is only possible to project these onto the huge screen because of the remarkable high definition and clarity of these film frames.
And it is these huge film frames that are at the heart of the IMAX experience. Three times larger than the traditional 70 mm cinemascope frames they have pushed the quality of motion picture images to new heights (quite literally).
The key to their superior performance and reliability is the unique 'Rolling Loop' film movement. The Rolling Loop advances the film horizontally in a smooth, wave-like motion. During projection, each frame is positioned on a fixed registration point and the film is held firmly against the rear element of the lens by a vacuum. As a result, the picture and focus steadiness are far above normal standards and provide outstanding image clarity.
The powerful 3D projector uses two 15,000 watt bulbs (the average 35mm projector uses a bulb between 2,000 and 4,000 watts). The huge heat generated requires a dedicated cooling system that pumps 1,600 cubic metres of air and 36 litres of distilled water through the lamp housing every minute to keep the projector cool.
How IMAX 3D Works
IMAX® 3D is state-of-the-art technology to take the 3D film experience in a whole new direction.
3D technology is based on human vision. It mimics the way we see the real world. When you look at an object each eye sees a slightly different view and our brain fuses these together into a single 3D image.
The two lenses on the IMAX® 3D camera roughly match the distance between our eyes and so each lens 'sees' a slightly different view. The images are photographed onto two separate rolls of film - corresponding to a right eye and left eye image - which run simultaneously through the camera.
These two films are then simultaneously projected in the theatre. This is why the picture looks a little fuzzy when viewed without 3D glasses, as you are seeing two pictures at once.
Our glasses contain polarized lenses, which allow just one picture to be seen by each eye, thus tricking the brain into seeing the 3D image.
.....thought those specs were good.......they are polarised!! Enjoy!!
