This is topic Ghosts of the Abyss in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 04-14-2003, 09:08 PM:
15/70 Imax presentation
Marcus Imax -- 4/14/2003
Marcus Imax Shin Bruise Count - 4
(This will accumulate as I continue to hit my shins on the seats because the theatre is TOO DARK before and after the show.)
I think this is going to be one of the biggest grossing Large Format films ever.
Film Review -- James Cameron tells a very compelling story here about the Titanic. OK, here is a bit too much folksiness with Bill Paxton. But that doesn't last very long, fortunately. This film does an excellent of showing the Titanic as it is now, and how it was when it launched. The new story is told with terrific shots from both outside and inside the vessel. The old story is told with still 3-D pictures and ghost-like reenactments. The technique of showing multiple images on different layers is very effective. Some of the best moments show the images from the 2 camera robots layered over pictures and maps of the ship when new. The film tugs on the emotions, but does not become maudlin. I think the general public is going to really like this picture. I liked it a lot, but it’s not one I’ll see many times.
Technical Review – Excellent presentation as usual by the Marcus Imax staff.
3-D is exceptional in the film, for the most part. One hour is a long time to wear those goggles, and my eyes were getting tired near the end. The first part of the film has some nice gimmick shots, shades of early 3-D here just to have some things come out of the screen, but the Titanic shots are presented very simply.
There are a few shots in the film with some convergence problems. There is one notable shot in the first 10 minutes that shows 3 scientists standing in a row. The man on the left is to the rear of the others, and I could not converge on him. My son could not properly view him either. These oddities stand out because the rest of the film is consistently excellent.
I can’t imagine this film being as effective in over/under 35mm. I would think that the image would just be too dark to see all of the details.
I rank this in the top group of Large-Format 3-D films, with CYBERWORLD, ACROSS THE SEA OF TIME and JOURNEY OF MAN.
Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 04-15-2003, 01:04 PM:
Edwards Mira Mesa 18 - Sceen 5 - 35mm Over/Under 3D - Dolby Digital
An overall excellent documentry. The transitions between "The Ghosts" and reality are seemless. The 3D serves the story well.
Technical Review:
Over/Under 3D did not seem to have any brightness issues that I could see, however this was one of the small auditoriums. The biggest problems I saw with it are jitter, and difficulty in making out some of the finer details in the picture. The computer animated sequences and digitally modified parts had excellent 3D, but most of the live-action 3D had serious convergence issues. Many live action shots seem to have charecters with 2 heads. No mater how hard you try, you just cant focus on them. Comercially, i think this was still a successs, as the auditorium was packed full, despite the 4 other local screens playing the movie. The audience seemed to really enjoy it too. Not a single complaint about the short runing time.
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 04-15-2003, 01:41 PM:
When CGI is sharper than the live action, it says something about the resolution of the cameras. Recall the many comments about "Star Wars Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones".
Posted by Edwin Graf Diemer (Member # 545) on 04-25-2003, 10:45 PM:
15/70 IMAX Presentation
United Artists King Of Prussia 16 IMAX Theater 4/22/03 5:45 Show
Ah, IMAX is back-this theater opened with an IMAX system, but the equipment was removed and a 8/70 system was installed in its place. Things look just great-a new screen was installed several weeks ago, and it is just as large as the original. (The 8/70 screen was smaller-contract requirement?) The only difference is that the IMAX pre-show demonstration is no longer there. Presentation? Glasses are the superior IMAX-supplied models, and ghosting was non-existant. Superb depth, and print flawless. I noticed some slight jitters during quick pans, but that is due to the process, not the technical presentation. The audience seemed to enjoy the film as much as myself, and the theater staff was excellent as always-film is always "done right" here.
Posted by Daniel Fuentz (Member # 1684) on 04-26-2003, 02:20 AM:
What's really sad for people in the Fresno, Ca metro is that there is a true Imax theater sitting vacant across the sidewalk from the Edwards 21 which is showing the film in over/under 35mm. (The Imax closed when Edwards was bankrupt, and has not been re-opened since Regal took over the chain)
Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-20-2003, 10:48 AM:
I just saw Ghosts of the Abyss at the King Of Prussia IMAX theater this past weekend. It was a great movie, I thought. The 3D effects were very well done. Scenes from Cameron's 2D Titanic seamlessly blended into the background. It was neat to be able to see the ship as it exists today. And I wasn't as annoyed by Bill Paxton as others seem to have been. Other than the scenes mentioned by others here, no convergence problems for me.
And I know we're not supposed to talk technical details here, but this movie seems to be a special case, and sorry, Edwin, I gotta take issue with you here. The left eye print was scratched through the entire movie, and the left eye bulb was way too dark on the left half of the screen. The right eye was out of focus slightly. There were several frames near the end where the jagged IMAX splice popped up as a bright white line in the middle of the screen. And there was about a second of black slug thrown into the right eye print about 2/3 of the way through, obviously to compensate for film somehow lost. It may have been great and flawless when they got it, but they've certainly had some problems with it, and the presentation has suffered a bit as a result, which is a real shame.
Posted by Darren Briggs (Member # 1071) on 06-22-2003, 02:49 PM:
Just sae this film at the IMAX in Bradford, U.K.
Good quality show as usual at this venue, but the film is a waste of time. Didnt tell me anything that all the other films about Titanic have.
Shot in 'Digital' the picture was awfull, a step backwards in quality compared to film. The excerpts of Cameron's Titanic which were blended into this film, although grainy, looked a hell of a lot sharper and more detailed. The shots of the Titanic looked very murky and full of Video Noise, and the 3D seemed to make it worse. Close ups of Bill Paxton and the crew in the MIR's, confussed your eyes on who to focus on. if you looked around the cabin, your eyes went mad! 3D IMAX normally looks life like and makes you feel you are there. This 3D digital effort made you want to leave. As noted in other reviews, the computer images looked alot sharper than the live action footage. And the 3D worked very well. The Black and WHite still images, that had been made into 3D were very impressive.
On a whole, Ghosts of the Abyss to me seemed a pointless waste of money, repeating badly what many other films had told you about the disaster. If you want to see Titanic in large format, go see Titanica, a true 2D IMAX film with so much detail you will feel you are there, not a pixel or video noise in sight!
Darren
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-22-2003, 04:14 PM:
I saw the film recently at the Museum Of Ancient Life in projected in 3D 15/70 via an Iwerks/CTI system, and the image quality was quite good, without a doubt, a much brighter projected image than at the nearby Imax Theatre at the Gateway Complex in SLC.
Condsidering where digital motion picture photography is at today, I thought the imaging was acceptable. Also take into consideration that this was shot around the time of 9/11. So todays equipment may be even a bit better than what they used.
It is certainly worth the price of the ticket to see this film if you have any interest in the Titanic at all. The journeys of "Jake" and "Elwood" into the inside of the ship were remarkable to say the least. The giant steam engines, propellor, stained glass windows...seen lit up from from the inside of the ship no less, make up some of the finest visuals ever made of the ship as she now sits. Forget the Bill Paxton crap and the ghostly people in some of the images...just sit back and enjoy.
Mark
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 06-29-2005, 05:16 PM:
It has been 738 days since the last post.
Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 06-29-2005, 05:16 PM:
Bringing this back up (the thread not the ship). Was the 35mm version anaglyphic?
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 06-30-2005, 07:12 PM:
No, it was polarized.
Posted by Andy Summers (Member # 3207) on 07-13-2005, 12:14 PM:
Wow saw “Ghosts of the Abyss” at the Bournemouth IMAX cinema 2003 looked and sounded fairly fantastic as the bass was on the soft side or it maybe the fader or even the mix, but I saw it twice there still good viewing I 3-D, the DVD version region 2 however is in 2-D oh well we can’t always have it, but sound mixes are in Dolby six-track and dts with THX approved on it, goes down better in the home cinema with just a dame bit more low end feel on the JBL 4645, and I must have seen this in total around 7 times as it’s not bad story telling of that fateful night April 14th 1912, well we just learn from are mistakes don’t we….
http://www.titanic1.org/
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/titanic.html
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Carpathia/
http://www.titanicmovie.com/