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Author Topic: Matrix Reloaded: The IMAX Experience Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-26-2003 12:13 PM                     There is another thread on "Matrix Reloaded" a page or so down in the review listings, but I thought the IMAX DMR process version deserved a different thread, so here goes. I watched the IMAX version of "Matrix Reloaded" last night at the Cinemark Carefree Circle IMAX Theatre in Colorado Springs. I've already seen this movie previously (a SDDS presentation at AMC Quail Springs 24 in Oklahoma City), so I won't get deep into the dramatical review. Most people do agree the film could have been a good bit better, particularly in the boring first hour. The main reason I wanted to watch this IMAX version was to see how it would compare to 70mm blow-ups I've seen in the past, and also to see how the 2.39:1 original aspect ratio would be treated. The IMAX version is letterboxed (to me it appeared as roughly a 2.1:1 ratio). For the most part, I would say the IMAX processing is a great way to go for 35mm to 70mm blowups, but the process needs a couple improvements. The IMAX DMR process (am I saying the acronym correctly?) brings a lot of good points to the presentation and a couple of bad ones. The Good: the laser scanning and post processing tweaks done to the image have virtually taken away all perceivable grain. The film's image looks MUCH cleaner than it did in its more noticeably grainy 35mm version. The film image was absolutely rock steady, which made scrutinizing the image detail quite a bit more easy. In comparing this process to straight Super 35 to 5-perf 70mm blow-ups, this IMAX process shows a lot more detail. The Bad: Color quality could have been much better, particularly in the live action only plates. The color in darker scenes had a blown-out quality to them, reminding me of videotape-to-film transfers. The color problem is especially noticeable when you have an IMAX trailer playing in front of the film for Disney's "The Young Black Stallion". That movie is actually being filmed in IMAX, yielding razor sharp ultra-high definition imagery and rich color that had me thinking of exquisite photo travelogues from National Geographic Magazine. The color problem, I'm sure, has to do with the up-rezzing process in taking what is effectively a 2-perf 35mm image and blasting it up to 15/70. There is evidence of sharpening filters at work. Some details wind up with haloing around the edges. The most harmful side-effect is from what appears to be a high-pass filter at work. High-pass filtering can find and enhance edges very easily. I use the high-pass filter in Adobe Photoshop at times to isolate things like hair strands in creating masks. The really bad problem with high-pass filtering is if you blend it into an image, you can kill lots of subtle shadow detail and wind up with an image that appears like it went through a Xerox machine. Here's another thing I noticed with this blowup and all of its sharpening. It really amplified the textures on any actor's skin. Laurence Fishburne already seemed to look a little pock-marked in the 35mm version. In IMAX, his face looks pitted like volanic igneous rock. Gloria Foster had all these big freckles and moles on her face and chest. Gross! Overall, though I would say the IMAX blow-up process had a much easier time handling close-ups than it did in dealing with groups of people. One thing that looked surprisingly good was the CGI elements. I don't know if any/all were re-rendered to 4K or higher for this release. But the details all seemed much better and the color quality was very smooth. The only bad thing I noticed was certain CGI model elements didn't have the texture mapping they needed for IMAX. For example, Morpheus and an agent are fighting on top of a semi-truck speeding down a busy expressway. The camera tracks over them revealing the roadway below. The road looks totally fake because there is next to no texture on it. It looks cartoony instead. With complaints about color noted, the image quality on this blowup is still better than what you would see in straight 35mm projection on an IMAX screen. In a round about way, it also proves the point and value of making 35/70 blowup prints for movies shown on giant screens of all types. Hopefully the IMAX DMR process will bring more popularity to the format and make the struggling company strong again. But IMAX DMR is no substitute for actually shooting something in 15/70. Even though the movie looks like it might be silly, I am glad Disney is shooting "The Young Black Stallion" in IMAX.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 08-27-2003 04:50 AM                        I also watched this movie in the IMAX format recently. Generally, I would confirm all the observations Bobby made. However, I didn`t find the digital effects more realistic-looking than in the 35mm release. The digital animation still looked very fake to me. Mostly because the characters didn`t really have any surface textures, they looked like inflated dolls. I found that there was still a lot of grain visible, but oddly the grain didn`t move: on light surfaces, it looked like a very thin net. Still, the movie looked and sounded amazingly good in the IMAX. I am not sure about the aspect ratio, to me it looked like less than 1:2. But it is really very hard to tell with such as a huge image in front of your nose.  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 08-30-2003 10:42 PM                     I didn't see MATRIX RELOADED in the regular 35mm version. I WAITED to get my FREE ticket for buying THE MATRIX on DVD a week before the movie opened. Well, the ticket arrived two months after I sent it in, and after it closed locally. So I caught the IMAX showing in New Orleans at their IMAX Theatre at the Aquarium of ther Americas. My impression pretty much mirrors Bobby's. THe halos WERE way too obvious and I think were a distraction. However, having seen many 70mm blow-ups in the 70's and 80's, I certainly think the quality was there and this HAS to be the way to go for these IMAX presentations (instead of the ENCHANCED 35mm prints!) I was especially appreciative of keeping the OAR, or at least close to it. they probably saved as much of the width as 35mm scope to 5/70 blow-ups did. One thing that's important, though, is to sit as far back as possible from the screen. Close-ups look pretty oppressive if you sit where most people like to for a normal IMAX film. I did notice some very fuzzy shots, however. Since most scenes are wll focused, I can only assume these shots were fuzzy in the original 35mm version and the powers that be decided they could live with that (this seems to be a current trend among movies today. It's OK if our shots are out of focus. Who notices, anyway?) But these flaws only multiply with the giant IMAX format and especially with the grain removed.  |  IP: Logged Jesse August Film Handler Posts: 58 From: Vancouver British Columbia Registered: Jul 2003 posted 08-30-2003 11:34 PM                     Remember that DMR is still in it's infancy and will continue to improve. This is just the third movie released with the DMR technology used, and it's already improved since Apollo 13. But that is just my opinion. Jesse  |  IP: Logged Don E. Nelson Expert Film Handler Posts: 138 From: Brentwood, CA, USA Registered: Nov 2001 posted 09-15-2003 03:21 PM                     I noticed that with IMAX, it is very critical where you sit, most people don't realize this and just wander in and sit anywhere. Some people sit close to the exit, for a fast exit at the end of the movie, so whats the point of going.  |  IP: Logged

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