It's a while since I've been to a movie theater, and longer yet since I had an "IMAX experience."
Until last night, I mean.
We've not been going to see movies in the theater for some time because one of us had trouble hearing the detail through all the SOUND that seems part and parcel of many of today's movies. So, we wait and catch the movie on Amazon/iTunes/Red Box, or Blue Ray if the movie seems to warrant it. "Guardians of the Galaxy" anyone? :-)
Late last night I went a tad out of my way to watch the final two episodes of Season Four of Game of Thrones—"The Watchers on the Wall" and "The Children"—that had been reformatted for IMAX projection.
"The Children" is an episode I've left on our DVR since it was broadcast. I've watched it a couple of times since. I was not unhappy about seeing it again on a screen the size of the side of a barn.
The GoT experience was fine, and a great way to while away a couple of hours late of a Saturday night (I went to the 10:00PM showing.)
Of course, there were the obligatory trailers prior to the main feature. "Dig", "Jupiter Ascending", something else. I can't tell you because I found the experience overwhelming.
OK. I'm used to fast-paced images in trailers, the main grab-you-by-the-throat scenes quick-cut together to whet the audience's appetite. For action or Sci-Fi movies, at least. But, the sound. It was physical. It could be felt. And, I felt, to the detriment the experience.
It could be I'm getting old. Well, that's true enough. And it could be I've become one of those "Youngsters today, they can't hear anything!" old men. And it could be the kind of movie I see in movie theaters. I suspect "Starting Out in the Evening" (a particularly lovely movie, by the way) would be unlikely to have affected me so, being bereft as it is of explosions and such.
I believe we'll continue to see movies in the way the two of us have come to enjoy them. In the comfort of our home, long after they've left the theater, on a large-enough-screen tv to allow us to appreciate the scope of the Directory of Photography's art.
And I'll buy Season Four of Game of Thrones when it comes out on DVD so I can binge-watch the entire thing from Episode 1 of Season 1 through to "The Children" in Season 4. The work is well done. It can stand multiple viewings.
As it was after midnight last night when I made my home, I had the added excitement of doing it while a gentle snow was falling. Nothing untoward, beyond a couple of haiku, ensued.
I also prefer to watch movies in the comfort of my own home. Can't say I've ever been to an I Max but years and years ago, must be in the 60's I did see Paint Your Wagon at Cinerama. I did recently go to the movies to see the last Hobit film, which I enjoyed even if I didn't enjoy the people who surrounded me either eating nachos or popcorn.
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