Ztraveler's Log

Commenting on fake IMAX

Aziz, I’ve worked for Regal Cinemas—in city that holds their cooperate headquarters—and personally detest the tread toward surcharging for “experiences”. These giant cooperations of Regal and AMC are all about optimizing the processes surrounding watching a movie to squeeze every drop of profit they can from the huddled masses that thrill to cinematic tales. While there’s so many rants available here, I like that you have focused your discussion on one issue: the surcharges placed on fake experiences.

Our viewing of movies these days is already muddled with so many distractions by these corporate chains. I often ask myself “what movie did I pay to see?” by the time the last trailer unrolls. After enduring 20 minutes of “Preshow” extended ads, two minutes for National CineMedia’s trailers, 4-6 MPAA approved trailers, I’m often exhausted! It’s to the point that patrons can nearly count on being 5-10 minutes late, fumbling through the aisles, crashing down in a nosy heap and still not miss the roll of the credits. Now, after peddling the preshow time to any number of hungry media outlets desperate for audiences, Regal and AMC expect those of us who love movies to dump $5 extra bucks on top of the exorbitant ten dollars we normally dish to endure a fake-ass IMAX? We have every right to demand a higher standard.

I’m one of those people that adores going to the movies. I love the process of finding a time, organizing groups of friends, and arriving 2-3 hours early for midnight shows (which doesn’t mean as much in NYC as it did in Knoxville, TN). I still haven’t invested in home theater systems or Blu-Ray because I hold theatre going to be wholly different, something amazing, quasi-spiritual. And even after working behind the scenes, learning to thread the polyester strand through the intermittent sprocket, and seeing the cold-business behind distribution, I stand behind watching movies multiple times in the darken auditoriums for one reason: immersion. And once the first frame of Abrams’s Star Trek came on screen, you wanted nothing more than to be immersed, to be baptized in this new vision for the initial mission of the starship Enterprise. You wanted this bad enough to pay $5 extra. And what you got instead was disappointment.

IMAX format of years past has a great potential to immerse. That’s one reason why documentary filmmakers were one of the first adapters of this medium. The presentation used to be stunning! I recall the advertisements of screens 7 stories high, with 6 channels of discrete sound. Sadly, those innocent days are in danger with practices such as “The IMAX Experience.” I say the disappointment of a slightly larger yet not 7 story screen is enough to distract your full immersion.

I caught the midnight show of Watchmen on the smaller IMAX screen at the AMC Empire 25 off 42nd St/Times Square. I thought to myself where’s the subwoofer? Shouldn’t that boom be louder? And even if the screen is a bit larger, shouldn’t the rows be steeper? For the first time in these smaller IMAX screens, our $5 bought us distraction not immersion. It’s high time we call these dubious business practices out and expect what the adverts claim to provide: a true IMAX experience. And with the power of tribes like AICN and social networking outlets like Twitter and Facebook, we’ll find those who are outraged by these changes and hold AMC and Regal accountable. Best of luck in the word wars to come!