Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater

I found 2001: A Space Odyssey showing here tonight and attended the only showing. Film started promptly at 6:30, intermission at 8, resumed at 13 minutes. No previews or IMAX trailer, whatsoever. Just a prerecorded welcome announcement. The classical music played pre show was nice. One would think the theater would have had slide shows or commercials for the Smithsonian museums, but nothing. Even though today was a holiday, I paid $2 just in case. Fortunately, there was no ticket on my window given the 2 hr parking time max.

Movie was digitally disappointing. Color was not vibrant or sharp. The picture was ok, no transferred film artifacts such as scratches or spotting. In fact, the readouts looked dull. What I saw in the 70mm print at the AFI Silver such as the red veins in Bowman’s eyes in the bedroom suite scene showed a vein, not tree of veins. Bowman’s eye color in the closeups looked green in one scene, opaque in another. Ship/pod readouts were dull, worse than the 70mm print at the AFI.

Even though I’ve seen this film many times, I would always hope there would be a change to one scene. When Bowman rescues Poole, he returns to the Discovery but lets Poole’s body go to get into the ship through the manual airlock. Well…the pod has 4 arms with 4 hands. Bowman should/could have held on to Poole with two of the arms and still have the other two turn those dials on the Discovery exterior to open the airlock, place Poole into the chamber and then enter, himself, as in the film.

Having read of Kubrick’s obsession with perfection, he’d be rolling around in his grave to find this film digitally preserved and presented the way it was tonight.

I wasn’t able to attend this presentation/Q&A, but I thought I just add this special screening of ‘2001’ just for the sake of retaining it here on Lockheed’s listing:

“Sci-Fi Sundays Special Event: ‘2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY’ featuring introduction and Q&A with Douglas Trumbull, Laser 2D, May 20th at 1:45 pm National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC

This special screening will be introduced by, and followed by a Q&A with, legendary filmmaker and visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull, who created many of 2001’s stunning, Academy Award-winning FX sequences. Trumbull also earned Academy Awards nominations for his work on the sci-fi classics Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Blade Runner."

Darth, it appears so. Check the Smithsonian’s webpage. It states that it opens here on Dec. 18. It should be spectacular. Supposedly, they filmed scenes in IMAX. Hopefully, it should look great here. Enjoy it and the museum exhibits, too. ^5.

RE: ST II. I guess the only way to find out is to boldly go and see it for myself. :) To be honest, my memories of the 70mm original theatrical run have always been in my mind more so for its soundtrack. Perhaps the DCP is from the newly released 4K remastering. It should look good in this theater. I’m hoping some of the sound fx are still there.

I saw that. Only the newer Trek films are in IMAX. I suspect Star Trek II is digital? And they’re charging the same $15 as the IMAX formatted NuTreks.

finally checked out the new laser upgrade today and I have some mixed feelings about it, more so about what and how IMAX remastered ‘To Fly!’.

The beginning which is a small section of the screen, looks hideous, it looks like blown up VHS quality (it never looked like this in it’s 15/70 print) – but when it expands to full screen, the difference is immediate and stunning. A couple of instances there is judder as the camera pans across tree shots. Very minor speckles appear, but in no way hinder the picture. It’s just odd that the remastering process didn’t digitally erase them. The scene with the skydiver, the skydiver is double imaged – that had me equally bewildered. It’s the type of anomaly you’d see in a 3D presentation when ghosting occurs, here it defies description as to why it’s present, at all (I never noticed it in 15/70 form).

The huge difference is the sound, it sounds glorious and even though the overhead sound cues are subtle and more atuned to in keeping and retaining it’s original 6-track sound configurement – the panning and placement of the music to the new side wall channels is astounding. It gave more appreciation and fondness to Bernardo Segall’s music score.

the Chinese is a legit IMAX system and install, the Seattle Cinerama which yes a custom installation: features a Christie 6P laser projector and Dolby Atmos. I got an email today stating the theater is up and running as of today. After the brief run of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (Fri-Sun) a return engagement the Lockheed will:

“Beginning in March, the theater will have “Sci-Fi Sundays” in which fan-favorites such as The Martian will play at 3:30 pm on Sunday afternoons. Experience The Martian in IMAX 3D March 6, 13, 20, and 27.”

according to the Air & Space’s theater website the theater is reopening on February 25th and will be showcasing the new laser system with ‘The Force Awakens’ (beginning on Friday) til Sunday night.

I haven’t yet Jodar – I’m eyeing seeing ‘The Force Awakens’ this coming Saturday here

I was under the impression that the aspect ratio “1.43 : 1 (some scenes: IMAX 70mm)” [as indicated on IMDB] meant full screen – right?

“IMAX 70mm” also pertains to the IMAX-laser systems that are projected on 4:3 screens.

from the Smithsonian’s Facebook page:

“Last chance to experience 15/70mm film at the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater!

‪#‎TheForceAwakens‬ will be our final show in film on January 10th. On January 11th we close our doors to upgrade our facility to the state-of-the-art IMAX with Laser digital projection system!"

sign of the times…

correction: the screen will get the conversion but it will not be in the claimed January – March 2015 timeline. The museum is slated for renovations in the next couple of years and at that time (or possibly sooner) the IMAX screen will then be upgraded.

My friend and I caught the last showing of Star Trek in true IMAX. Its been probably 20 years plus since I’ve seen any movie here. I remember when it opened back in ‘76 and 'To Fly’ was the first IMAX film to be experienced. There were warnings given to people about getting motion sickness from watching the movie but it was a treat and showed off the format quite well. The sound and overall presentation was terrific.

Star Trek was masked but not as badly as in the AMC IMAX-lite venues. The movie plays well in this format. Surprisingly, the print held up well with no noticeable markings or scratchings. Surrounds were present and distinct but, unlike the best THX-cert houses lacked oooomph, noticeably missing during the warp jumps and hand to hand contact hits. There were well over 100 plus in attendance, not enough to fill out the auditorium but a pleasant surprise given the fact it was super frigid outside, probably in the single digits factoring in for windchill.

As we left, we were thanked for coming, not by none other than the security guards as we filed out of the theater AND exiting the door.