Portland Oregon’s Museum of Science and Industry has one of those IMAX dome screens that they use to play IMAX films upon. If you’ve never seen one of these, think of a laser light show or a planetarium; you lie back and stare at the ceiling, completely surrounded by the film.
This allows for these magnificent films of staggering scope and clarity to be distorted to the point of unwatchability on the inside of a large dome. Unless you manage to score the two seats in the house directly under the projector, the film will be crooked in addition to horribly distorted by the dome, and the epic swoops and pans IMAX films are known for are pretty much guaranteed to make you nauseated. In fact, part of the “preflight briefing” even includes instructions to help minimize nausea. And yet people still go.
People eat this crap up, and I have no idea why. “Hey, want to go watch a distorted, crooked, nauseating movie?” “COUNT ME IN!”
(They also occasionally play actual films that have been upscaled for IMAX release. <i>Transformers</i>, <i>Batman Begins</i> and <i>Harry Potter</i> played there. And people went. The fast action and explosive explosions in <i>Transformers</i> were nigh-unwatchable on the flat screen; I can’t even imagine what it must’ve been like on the dome. But I digress.)
The reason for all this explanation is that I just heard an ad for the latest IMAX epic that is playing on the dome. It’s some Grand Canyon movie, which virtually assures that the sort of epic swoopiness and zoominess that makes people nauseated will be well-represented — but now they’ve kicked it up to the next level. The film’s music is provided by the Dave Matthews Band.
I feel nauseated already.
