Episode II on IMAX

I went to see Star Wars Episode II on IMAX with some high school friends yesterday. I wish I could say that it was even better on The Big Screen, but it actually wasn’t.

For starters, several scenes were cut from the film, though most of them weren’t crucial to the film as a whole (such as the Anakin & Amidala meadow scene). As best as I Can recall, about four or five scenes were cut.

More than that, the super-large size of the screen made it hard to follow some of the action. Because of their size, many of the intricate lightsaber battles just resembled flashes of blue and red light. Battle scenes such as those were really more appropriate for the Medium Screen.

I will say that the level of detail was astounding. At that size and resolution, I could clearly see the makeup on Natalie Portman’s face (and Hayden Christensen’s face as well). The detail did make the film more enjoyable (though, unfortunately, not enjoyable enough to offset the not-made-for-IMAX sizing problems).

The detail also gave me new appreciation for the CG work on Yoda. Most of the time, the CG modeling held up well (though some CG lighting problems became evident during full-screen close-ups).

In all, I had a good time. However, it was more of a novelty than anything else. If you’re really in the mood for watching Episode II again, you're probably best off just buying the DVD.

2 thoughts on “Episode II on IMAX

  1. The Acronym tag in this posting is broken.

    You open the acronym tag but close it instead like a href:
    <ACRONYM title=”That is to say, traditional movie theaters.”>Medium Screen</A>.

  2. i will spend the least possible amount of money on the star wars franchise. the first two episodes are horrendous and the yoda fight scene was all hype. the last great star wars game was tie fighter, and that was back in 93-94. lucas is raking in the money in marketing the franchise and we, the consumer, get crap back in return.

    i have a foul taste in my mouth now.

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