Star Wars - IMAX

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Went to see this yesterday (Monday) at noon - didn't want to even try over the weekend. However, we got tickets easily and then found seats in the IMAX sweet spot (although not the really sweet, sweet spot). As far as I'm concerned this is exactly the kind of movie IMAX is meant for - IMAX would do nothing for, say, "Harry met Sally".

I also think Star Wars did the 3D stuff very effectively without overdoing it. Any parts that seemed off were more likely a result of my eyesight / glasses / IMAX combo than the movie itself. As opposed to, say, "Spy Kids 3D - Game Over". :scowl:

As for the movie itself, just put on the special 3D glasses that go with this post and the big surprise in the new Star Wars movie is:

3)'x%=^^9

Enjoy!

[haele]

1. Watch out for Fandango if your theater is reserving seats for Episode 7.

Our favorite local Regal (the only one that set the sound correctly!) went to reserved seating for the IMAX 3D showing, and there were all sorts of double-booking and changed seating problems between the Fandango tickets and the Regal tickets. The only IMAX 3-D showings that weren't sold out through 31 December when we looked Christmas Eve were the first showings on Sunday and Tuesday, so we felt we had to pay the extra $4 to get tickets then, because Sunday was half-sold already. We bought our "IMAX-3D sweet spot" seats (two rows down from the back, off center left one seat, because that's two rows above where they set the pink noise signal analyzer for the sound system in most theaters), but when we got to the kiosk to print our tickets Sunday morning, we got seats in three rows further down and two seats off the right aisle - not seats we'd take normally at all, and certainly not the ones we purchased.
The ones I felt especially sorry for were the people who bought online and printed out tickets. For some reason, tickets printed from the online purchase system did not make the transition to the theater's ticket purchase server, so they ended up double-booked. The theater ended up comping them or had to get them new tickets when they showed up. Another reason we like this theater, the manager is an A/V nerd and really takes the customer service part of the movie theater business serious.

Hey, Fandango didn't care, they got their fee...

Haele

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2. I can reserve tickets, not seats themselves

If I could reserve the seats themselves, I'd definitely go more. I can pre-pay for tickets, so the big problem is trying to estimate how busy it might be as everyone gets there as early as they think they can get away with to get the seats they want. Once upon a time I might have wanted to tell my classmates I saw it on opening weekend, but that's not worth the hassle now (many decades later), so I wait until it's not as busy, because my life's too short already to waste it waiting on line when I can just wait a day or two and have a better and more relaxed experience.

I don't use Fandango itself because our local IMAX has its own in-house ticketing system (or one they leased from somewhere), so double-booking hadn't been a problem, and seat reservations aren't an option.

Still, it wasn't quite the rush as the first Star Wars (and no, I haven't seen them all, but I am old enough to have seen the first one as a teenager). First, a lot of theatres upgraded their sound system for it, and if you were in a theatre next door (in a multi-showing cinema) you could hear Star Wars through the walls, and it was LOUD. Without having yet seen the movie, it sounded wild. Then, when you actually went to see it, the special effects were like nothing you had seen before, and just mesmerizing. Finally, this was before "safety", so when a theatre started a showing, there were ZERO lights. No lit exit signs, no wall sconces, and certainly no runner lights on the walkways. The theatre was pitch black. It was a total immersion experience.

Similar with Jaws. The original Jaws isn't too scary if you watch it on DVD. But the original showing in the theatres was pitch black (and a lot of the scary scenes took place at night) and it was a hell of immersion experience. I think that's part of why it had such an impact.