I have to phrase this carefully. You see, I REALLY did not like this movie. I thought it made no sense, some of the images were more disturbing than interesting, and there were some odd problems with the sound and 3D.Remember the computer game MYST? The graphics look like that. The film is supposed to be about a musician who goes to a castle owned by his mysterious (and dead) mother. There are some nice early scenes in the castle, but once the film goes into the dungeons, it looks like a 3-D version of the ride in the film THRILL RIDE. We even break through some boards, just like in THRILL RIDE.
Some of the computer images are nice, but the trip through the dungeon is too long and seemingly with no point. It has something to do with music, but neither myself or my children could make any sense of it.
There is one dungeon scene that is somewhat controversial, in that IMAX sent a letter suggesting that this scene is not in the best interest of IMAX, and theatres should not book the film. They are scenes of moderate and painful torture that seemed out of place.
Oh, the music is strange, and I found it very uninteresting and unenjoyable. It seemed to be a jumbled mess.
Now, some technical problems. I don't know if this is the fault of the producers or of the theatre. First, there was some breakup of the 3D images. At one point, when a pole is thrust at the audience, the end of the pole separated into 3 images instead of coming out of the screen. My daughter noticed it also, so it wasn't just my 3D headset.
The sound...sounded to me like the left and right front channels were reversed. At several points in the film, when objects moved to the right side of the screen, the sound went to the left. Other times, objects moved to the right, and the sound went left. Two examples...at about the halfway point, an amusement ride car goes off to the right of the screen. We heard the sound go off to the left. Late in the film, "Mr. D" moves to the left side of the screen, but his voice moved right. Surround channels seemed properly aligned, and everything was correct during the pre-show light show.
Did I tell you I really hated this movie?
Is it the worst 15/70 I've ever seen? Well, I fell asleep during XTreme, and the film that ripped off the Eames family "Powers of Ten" was not very good. I did stay awake during this one, but mostly I just sat stunned at the lack of anything interesting happening on the screen.
Oh, one other odd event...during one of the opening scenes, the image seemed to be very small (its the scene in the front hall with the knights). The picture did not look like a giant screen, but looked like I was looking into a very small room. It was a very strange feeling.
3-D was OK, but CYBERWORLD has many better scenes. Even SIEGFRIED AND ROY had some more interesting scenes.
IMAX needs to tell more stories and concentrate a bit less on pure image. My personal favorite is SUPER SPEEDWAY which tells two stories that come together at the end. TO FLY and some of the space shuttle films put a story first, and tie in the visuals to fit.
I don't remember...did I say I did not like this film at all, that I left the theatre feeling cheated by the film makers, and I will never EVER go to see this film again?
Oh, sorry, I guess I'm still in shock from the awful song that ended the film.
Sure wish I could get a look at OLD MAN AND THE SEA.
Mark Lensenmayer
film viewed at Marcus Imax in Columbus OH
7:00 on 3/12/2001
------------------
"As a moral to young men who come down to the city, don't go round breaking people's tambourines."
Home
posted 03-12-2001 08:41 PM
Printer-friendly view of this topic