Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Mission: Impossible

This is topic Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 12-19-2011, 08:05 PM:

CINEMA: AMC Loews Lincoln Square with IMAX, New York, NY
AUDITORIUM: 13 (IMAX)
PRESENTATION: 15/70mm IMAX with Sonics-DDP sound
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: The screen was dimmer than I expected.
RATING: Six (out of ten)

So good to visit this place again after 6 years. It's pretty much changed, all the traditional screens are now Digital Projection, AMC lost it's THX certificate for the Loews auditorium, and peeking out on the window of the IMAX projection booth, the backup 35mm projector with SDDS is no longer there (or put away). I don't know if these were changed for the better, and I hope the sound system for the Loews auditorium wasn't touched. (Losing THX doesn't mean losing everything)

Anyways, I walked into the theater midway through the Dark Knight Rises Prologue. I was too occupied with buying popcorn and going to the bathroom, but at least I saw most of it, even though I couldn't understand what was going on.

The film itself looked pretty good. The 15/70 scenes obviously looked amazing compared to the embarrassingly bad 75% of the DMR'd film, but those select scenes actually looked inferior to The Dark Knight Rises Prologue. It looks like it was made on a digital intermediate, rather than DMR'd IMAX film and pure IMAX film spliced together, like how it should have been done. And because of this I'm starting to think the DKR prologue actually did go back to the cutting room for editing, rather than taking it digitally.

THE PLOT: ......

Brad Bird's first live-action film isn't necessarily bad. It feels like a Tom Cruise ego-trip that is, on the long run, a happy one.

Also, I did not expect the new Paramount logo to appear this soon. For a studio celebrating 100 years of existence, and that's the first time any film studio ever hit that age, the new logo was kind of underwhelming. Maybe I'm used to the previous one, growing up with it and falling in love with that mountain.

The new logo is below:

Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 12-19-2011, 08:28 PM:

Seen at 2-week old Rave Grove City Xtreme Screen, powered by Barco, as the short trailer said.

And this is a real bargain, at only a $6 (senior) admission...no upcharge for the larger theatre. 60' screen with a sound system that has a much better balance than the 2 local min-Imax locations. Low end was clean and tight, with some good chest-shaking sounds. Outstanding reproduction of small details in the track.

They showed a very very nice THX trailer. No mention in ads or in theatre of any THX certification, but this room sounded very much like the old 80's vintage GCC THX room that set the standard for sound in this area.

Now, the movie...don't expect any great character development or a plot that makes sense. You won't find it here. First and final sequences are OK, with typical MI touches, but that Dubai sequence at the Burj was terrific. Ridiculous, but terrific.

I'd give this one a B-...entertaining, but not something I'll remember much about. Wife would give it a D...she thought it was just a big cartoon (a point of view that does have some merit.)

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 12-22-2011, 09:24 AM:

quote: Connor Wilson
PRESENTATION: 15/70mm IMAX with Sonics-DDP sound

Can you be more specific regarding "DDP sound"? The DDP (3-CD) system does not have the running time capacity for a feature longer than about 75 (maybe 80) minutes (capacity of a CD).

The theater must use one of the DVD-ROM/hard drive audio players.

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 12-22-2011, 09:36 AM:

quote: Jeffry L. Johnson
Can you be more specific regarding "DDP sound"? The DDP (3-CD) system does not have the running time capacity for a feature longer than about 75 (maybe 80) minutes (capacity of a CD).

The theater must use one of the DVD-ROM/hard drive audio players.

I am definite that IMAX's digital sound system was used in all IMAX presentations, film or digital. I am also definite that the system was developed by Sonics. Apparently, IMDB lists most IMAX films, mostly DMR, as the soundtrack being in Sonics-DDP, so I just decided to go with that.

IMAX doesn't go in-depth into their sound system other than generic and vague remarks like "laser-aligned sound" or a clip of the sub-bass blowing out candles. I'm definite the soundtrack for Ghost Protocol was DVD-ROM or hard drive, but I don't know the name for it. If IMDB listed Avatar (162 mins.) as Sonics-DDP, I suppose Ghost Protocol is too.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-22-2011, 09:51 AM:

Honestly who cares if it's DDP or not now that Imax more or less absolutely sucks. We have a brand new Cinemark Next Gen screen just a hop skip and a jump from the house and it blows the Megaplex Imax off the charts. Bigger image and better sound, definately Barco and probably 4K. It's also less expensive and over there even I get the seniors discount!!

Mark

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-22-2011, 10:24 AM:

Doesn't the Sonics DDP system merely use uncompressed 16-bit LPCM audio? That would leave at best just under 80 minutes of audio capacity for a 700MB CD-ROM disc, with 3 discs being used to play back 6-channels of LPCM audio.

I wonder if the older, sprocketed magnetic reel to reel systems are being used for the longer running times, or perhaps maybe a DTS special venue system is being used.

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 12-22-2011, 10:31 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Honestly who cares if it's DDP or not now that Imax more or less absolutely sucks. We have a brand new Cinemark Next Gen screen just a hop skip and a jump from the house and it blows the Megaplex Imax off the charts. Bigger image and better sound, definately Barco and probably 4K. It's also less expensive and over there even I get the seniors discount!!

Mark, is your Megaplex IMAX a digital setup (LIEMAX)? If it isn't, then that really sucks, but then again most films benefit just about NOTHING from the IMAX DMR treatment.

Around my area there's a Cobb 12-plex that opened this summer and it has three VIP auditoriums that have Barco 4K projection and JBL speakers, and I'm unsure if they have 7.1 sound too. Those theaters have wider leg room and reserved seating, and I've been to all three of them, but that's a different story. There was also some audio bleeding in the third VIP room coming from the second one.

Posted by Joseph L. Kleiman (Member # 3097) on 12-22-2011, 11:38 AM:

I'm fairly certain Lincoln Square's running DTAC for the sound. That aside, I sat through the entire prologue and had absolutely no idea what was going on. It was interesting and unique but it made no sense being out of context, feeling like something that was cobbled together for a Comicon crowd instead of a general audience. In fact, my friends were so lost they thought it was the start of MI4.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 12-24-2011, 12:31 AM:

Joe, they do use the "New" DTAC at that location. They get all the money from IMAX for upgrades.

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Honestly who cares if it's DDP or not now that Imax more or less absolutely sucks. We have a brand new Cinemark Next Gen screen just a hop skip and a jump from the house and it blows the Megaplex Imax off the charts. Bigger image and better sound, definately Barco and probably 4K. It's also less expensive and over there even I get the seniors discount!!

Mark

Mark, I'm about sick and tired of your whole anti film bullshit that you've been screaming about for the past year, when prior to that you were all about Anti Digital pro Film. No digital IMAX or Digital screen for that matter is going to give you a better show then a true 15/70 IMAX screen. Your more then welcome to come down and see a show at my location, I'll even get ya in for free so you don't need to get a senior discount. Your hating of film just to hate film shtick is getting REALLY old.

quote: Jeffry L. Johnson
The theater must use one of the DVD-ROM/hard drive audio players.

The DDP is the old style sound system used in IMAX's for the Documentaries. They would very between 3-4 disks. Now all soundtracks come on one DVD that is downloaded on to our DFP Hard Drive. The soundtrack is then selected on our Palm Pilot and then locked in on your sync point.

Now on to the feature itself, I've seen a few times now and have to say its a fun ride from start to finish. The IMAX shots look gorgeous as does the rest of the film. The true IMAX shots are used to great affect, the Dubai shots are spectacular. Everyone should go check it out at least once in the theater.

4/5 [thumbsup]

Posted by Bob Bregazzi (Member # 5623) on 12-24-2011, 05:48 AM:

sorry guys but i do have to defend imax digital somewhat. i ran it for 18mths and have to say that for what it is, the results are excellent. the system was serviced by an imax engineer every 6mths over a 2 night period. 2nd night was all spent on audio & picture tune up. picture quality on imax 2d was outstanding and i would equate it to original 70mm. imax 3d only suffered slightly from light loss but put to shame bog standard digital 3d. sound quality imho was awesome. there is no way that you can compare imax digital with 15/70, they are 2 completely different systems and this is where imax have made the biggest balls up possible by not differentiateing between them. for someone who has seen 15/70 and then goes to see imax digital and is expecting to see the same, well they will be mightily dissapointed.

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 12-24-2011, 11:32 AM:

I think DTAC is also known as DDP-II.

The audio files are uncompressed LPCM 44.1 KHz 16 bit.

DTAC, AE-1 and newer audio players ingest DVD-ROM to hard drive for playback of features.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 12-24-2011, 06:58 PM:

Before everybody else only half-reads these posts and starts screaming at Mark about a non-related subject ("film"), I will point out that the IMAX he's referring to is indeed digital.

Posted by Keegan O'Brien (Member # 6539) on 12-25-2011, 05:27 PM:

THEATER: Regal Valley River Stadium 15 & IMAX (Eugene, Oregon)
AUDITORIUM: 9
PRESENTATION: D-IMAX
PROBLEMS: Volume was a tad too loud, other than that, perfect.
RATING: 83/100

This film has the best action set pieces of the year, uncontested. However, the story failed to do anything new. The villain was terrible, his only motive being a loon, and he had so little screen time that the idea of a villain was more present than the actual villain. The doomsday theme was necessary, I mean it is Mission: Impossible, but having to stop a nuclear bomb seems so trite. The film thew a lot of punches, but nothing that knocked me off my feet. I left the theater, ultimately, unimpressed. It's a fun action movie, but I can't say that it's a great film. But of course, the IMAX footage looked great, as always.

Posted by Joseph L. Kleiman (Member # 3097) on 12-25-2011, 08:36 PM:

Jeffry, DTAC and DDP-II are two different systems that share common software.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 12-26-2011, 01:17 AM:

Here is my video review of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Review)

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 12-26-2011, 11:53 AM:

quote: Joseph L. Kleiman
DTAC and DDP-II are two different systems that share common software.

Okay, what's the difference?

Does DDP-II use DVD-ROM discs?

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 12-26-2011, 12:24 PM:

quote: Jennifer Pan
Here is my video review of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Review)

Great stuff!

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 12-26-2011, 10:55 PM:

Mission Impossible : Ghost Protocol THE IMAX EXPERIENCE

****

Now thats a Tom Cruise movie.

MI4 is the best Tom Cruise movie I have seen a long, long time. This is the movie star type movie that I want to see. Totally in it from beginning to end.

Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton were outstanding. It was kind of cool that they brought the Russians into the plot.

Special effects were top notch and all of the stunts were pretty cool. Kind of reminding me of Firefox for some strange reason.

Overall, this movie will do well for word of mouth.

The most interesting thing was that you could tell Tom Cruise trusted his director and supporting cast around him. Its great to see Tom Cruise back in top form.

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 12-28-2011, 05:38 PM:

I visited the Toronto Scotiabank 15/70 Imax to see this.I heard it is the best of the 3 in Toronto.It looked like 5 or 6 stories tall but the screen was silver so hot spotting was very evident and I truly hate this effect.

The sound was way too loud and though great was straining and ear fatiguing in the upper mids at that level.
My guess is nobody has checked how too loud it is.

The Dark Knight Rises Prologue looked awesome but Mission looked very digital in comparison.As if it were a low res scan.

The movie was good and yes the Dubai skyscraper scenes were great x 2!
I will go back to this theater to see Titanic and Dark Knight Rises.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 12-30-2011, 11:05 AM:

James Bond thrown into the middle of a Road Runner/Coyote cartoon. Wackiness ensues.

Similar in tone and spirit to "Fast Five" which was also basically a live action Road Runner cartoon.

A good popcorn flick. Just dont try and analyize or explain what you saw happening.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 12-30-2011, 12:51 PM:

quote: Connor Wilson
The film itself looked pretty good. The 15/70 scenes obviously looked amazing compared to the embarrassingly bad 75% of the DMR'd film, but those select scenes actually looked inferior to The Dark Knight Rises Prologue. It looks like it was made on a digital intermediate, rather than DMR'd IMAX film and pure IMAX film spliced together, like how it should have been done. And because of this I'm starting to think the DKR prologue actually did go back to the cutting room for editing, rather than taking it digitally.

Couldn't agree more. It's kind of a waste to film in IMAX if you're just going to do a low rez DI. I remember reading about Inception (and the Dark Knight before it) and how Nolan does his editing the old fashioned way without DI to preserve the resolution of the source. No doubt the same thing was done for the Dark Knight.

I saw the film at Navy Pier IMAX in Chicago, and overall the presentation was good. Some very good low frequency, and the highs felt just right to me (no crazy over the top harshness as some have reported).

The movie was a blast, and the definition of popcorn flick. My two favorite sequences were of course the climb on the building, but also the scene in the Kremlin.

AJG

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 12-30-2011, 01:25 PM:

I should add that the sound was excellent but just too loud at the Scotiabank Imax.
It sounded like the amps were running out of steam at the level they were playing it during the loudest parts.
Maybe it's set to make the Bane DKR prologue sound more intelligible or perhaps the mix is louder than reference.

I was in a big hurry to get over to the Tiff Lightbox to watch 2001 in 70mm D.T.S on Kinotons! I visited the booth and it was very impressive! Douglas Trumbull was there a year ago when they premiered this new print they paid for.
It was scratched in Ottawa a little bit but looked great.
The screen is way too small but bright,I had little nit pik issues with lamp focus on one machine and focus on the other but the changeovers were flawless.Excellent sound!

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 12-30-2011, 02:49 PM:

CINEMA: 13th Avenue Warren, Wichita, KS
AUDITORIUM: 16
PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital Cinema/THX
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)

THE PLOT: Nuclear war. ("Wow. Really?" "Yes, really.") Wackiness ensues.

Loads of action surrounds campy chick flick style dialogue, which is par for the course with all the Tom Cruise MI films. WHY does the dialogue in these things always have to be so fucking campy?

As with the previous films, it was fun to watch, but it won't find a home in my personal collection, and I will have forgotten it completely be the end of today.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 12-31-2011, 06:46 AM:

After cutting his teeth on Pixar's The Incredibles, Brad Bird applies his ample talent and requisite enthusiasm for spy thrillers to live action in this, the latest installment in the foundering Mission: Impossible franchise. And the result is a resounding success, at least on par with the first film which also favoured the "spy thriller" element to ground its story. Its abundance of butt busting action also easily trumps the last two feeble sequels.

Also like the first film, the faux technology is intelligently utilised with just enough realism to help us gloss over the implausible details - the technological principles are sound even if their implementation is a stretch.

Tom Cruise is starting to show his age but he's still remarkably fit for an old fella - hell, he's remarkably fit for a young fella! He's well renowned for personally performing as many stunts as his insurance policy allows (or is it as many as his agent allows?) and, again, he doesn't disappoint. The stunts are utterly breathtaking in their scope and application. They're thoroughly ridiculous in their credulity too but, you know, this is "Impossible Mission" after all.

The villain (Michael Nyqvist) is thinly drawn but it matters little. We know what we need to know: he needs nuclear launch codes and an operational satellite to bring on a holocaust. Why? Well, because he's bad, and that's what bad guys do! In a lesser film, this shallowness of character would be a distinct flaw but here our minds are kept busy following the affairs of our side of the team with their intricate plotting, their wild gadgets and their "almost dying at every turn" in their bid to save the world. Simon Pegg is also a most welcome addition on comic duties.

With its seductive combination of seat-of-your-pants action, fascinating gadgets and spy thrills, M:I4 is a holiday blockbuster winner.

8 out of 10

Posted by Frederick Lanoy (Member # 5416) on 12-31-2011, 10:13 AM:

I saw the movie on a very big screen (much more bigger than some LieMax screens here in France). The projector is a Barco DP2K32. Nice picture, very sharp. Even with a 2 K DCP and a 2 K projector, IMAX scenes (especially aerial shoots in Dubai) look better than 35 mm scenes.

I like the movie : entertaining. For his first live action picture, Brad Bird did a pretty good job.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-27-2012, 01:22 PM:

Well there is a link to a video review of this movie by Jennifer Pan on the tail end of page 1. I wrote this following post in response to her review before realizing there was another whole page of comments.

You need to split that review into two videos, one for the movie and one for the crappy Denver theater experience. Then send the latter to all the people in those companies you can.

Maybe the future of this industry IS the single screen theater. That way you only have one screen to worry about and you can manage to keep an eye on it and adjust things, and keep it working properly. Course there's not much money in it, but hey the world isn't perfect.

About the movie -- I liked it a lot. I was ready to hate it but was pleasantly surprised. I'm surprised they didn't put the Dubai scene more toward the end, considering that's the scene that got the most attention. I agree with all the comments that the story wasn't anything wonderful but the great action scenes made up for it. Definitely never a dull moment. Brad Bird sure proved he knows his way around live-action.

The Dubai tall building climbing scene reminded me of the scene in "Sneakers" where Robert Redford has to walk verrrrrry slowly through a room to steal a device.

Overall, great popcorn flick. It was funnier than I thought it would be, too.

The opening credits were great, I thought. Way to take the original TV show concept and update it for the 21st century. (They might have done this in the past couple of movies too, but I didn't see them so I don't know.)

Overall, 3.5 out of 5 stars for me. Plus a bonus [thumbsup]

for Paula Patton's cleavage.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-11-2012, 10:53 PM:

I'm going to give this 4.5 out of 5 stars. Sure some of the dialogue is corny and the scenarios are ridiculous, but as has been pointed out in this thread, this IS Mission Impossible and is to be expected.

Fantastic sound mix, well paced action and good performances by all.

Although I don't watch too many movies these days (like Joe, the Warhorse trailer made the movie look too awful to give it a chance), this may end up as my favorite film of 2011.