I arrived a few minutes late to my local screening of The Dark Knight, which was just enough to miss the trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen. Even though both films are produced by Warner Bros/DC Comics, it seemed odd to me that the trailer was attached to the IMAX print of The Dark Knight. I thought only IMAX presentations are advertised before IMAX films? Was I wrong?
Now Cinematical is reporting a rumor that Watchmen will be also released in IMAX. This isn’t unlikely as Warner Bros has been doing IMAX up-conversions of their big films for a while now. I understand why moviegoers might want to see a big event film on a huge screen, but after seeing The Dark Knight, which featured 20+ minutes of footage shot with IMAX cameras, it’s starting to make less and less sense to me. The truth is these unconverted IMAX presentations aren’t worth the expanded ticket price. They are a fad, which no doubt will eventually be replaced with feature length movies filmed with IMAX cameras. And I can’t wait.
After The Dark Knight is released, a bunch of filmmakers and studios will rush to film their entire feature films with the 70mm IMAX cameras. I’ve heard the 35mm downconversion even looks more vivid than footage shot with traditional 35mm cameras. Sure, there is documented technical issues due to the size and weight of the IMAX cameras and short film load, but Nolan has proven that it doesn’t add much to a time schedule or budget.
That said, I’ll probably still see Watchmen on the huge IMAX screen just because it’s there. I just can’t wait until this fad evolves.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Got my midnight IMAX tix for Seattle…. Can’t wait for all the trailers… heard we get to see 15 secs of the new Potter too!!!!!
July 16th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I no longer have an IMAX screen nearby, so this news doesn’t affect me as much as it might have, once upon a time. Although, I have heard that watching a movie in IMAX can be a little overwhelming. I’ve only see specific IMAX productions about the rainforest and space stations and such, so I don’t really know.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
well, paul thomas anderson can’t do his huge long takes now. imax cameras only roll about 2 and a half minutes of film. :c
July 16th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
I JUST SAW THE MOVIE>>>>>B+……..you will be amazed….the only reason i give this movie a B+ rating is because there is soo much going on its kinda hard to keep track of everything…..I think i need to watch it again. Coolest scene in the movie is when batman first rides his batpod…..the way its introduced is awesome….
watchman trailer was sweet too…cant wait un 03-09_09
July 16th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I JUST SAW THE MOVIE>>>>>B+……..you will be amazed….the only reason i give this movie a B+ rating is because there is soo much going on its kinda hard to keep track of everything…..I think i need to watch it again. Coolest scene in the movie is when batman first rides his batpod…..the way its introduced is awesome….it detaches from the tumbler
watchman trailer was sweet too…cant wait untill 03-09_09
July 16th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
edward: don’t get me wrong, Im not saying all movies will be filmed in imax, just some of the huge blockbusters. I wouldnt expect PTA do shoot imax.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Obviously the future of this is not film but digitial video. Once they make a camera that can hold the same image quality/resoluiton of the Imax Camera but smaller, quieter, and able to do longer takes then a feature length film could be possible. Also, no one is going to rush out and make a full length feature this way. as nice as imax is, it’s a small slice of the ticket sale pie. they’re not going to invest that much into it since most people won’t even see it in that format.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Good work David Partida. We’ve all been wondering if The Dark Knight was any good, and what the coolest scene might be.
Is the Watchmen trailer online somewhere?
July 16th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
not to mention the imax cameras are too noisy to even record dialogue or other sounds on set.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
@ M&Co:
it will be tomorrow at 9pm.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
no….the trailer is not online anymore….but it is an amazing trailer. There is no doubt in my mind that when you see it….your gonna be like “WOW”!!!!!
Zack Synder is really growing on me as a director. His trailer for his movie makes frank millers trailer for the spirit look awful. When you watch the trailer…your gonna agree with me. Theres this really cool character in the trailer…..he almost looks like iceman mix with silver sufer…i dont know the characters name but he looks awesome
As for the dark knight…..enjoy it…..i did……
July 16th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
the harry potter clip sucks by the way….they dont show anything…..just the title of the movie…
July 16th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
@david:
so it’s sort of like the teaser trailer for The Dark Knight was???
July 17th, 2008 at 1:41 am
anyone have a link to the trailer yet?
July 17th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I’m going to see it in IMAX tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. and I am so freaking excited!
The Watchmen trailer only adds to my anticipation, but I could care less about Harry Potter, really.
I think IMAX is going to catch on after TDK comes out, and eventually they’ll have to make better, less cumbersome cameras for the IMAX that can shoot digitally. Then it may become the only way to view movies in the future… who knows? But it will be awesome!
July 17th, 2008 at 10:41 am
A PTA film in IMAX would be incredible. There will be Blood would have had to be shortened to 150 min. (how long was it?) Longer shots, slower editing work great in IMAX.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I saw Order of the Phoenix on Imax (upscaled from 35mm) and it was pretty amazing. I’d love to see The Deathly Hallows have some Imax scenes, but we’ll see.
Imax is still too cost prohibitive for a full feature. For example, I don’t think we’ll see Transformers 3 totally shot on Imax because besides the extra operating costs; the cost of doing an effect for that should would be beyond huge when all added up. From what I hear the Imax footage on TDK didn’t have too much VFX work on it
July 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
35 MINUTES AGO!
I swear to God I’ll see this as early as possible.
July 26th, 2008 at 2:51 am
With the current inflated price of cinema tickets, IMAX only costs a couple of dollars more than a normal cinema where I come from (£9ish vs £8), so inflated ticket prices are hardly an issue these days, here in the UK at least.