Does Size Matter?
This is not going to be a review of “The Odyssey” (2026), which I saw at an AMC Dolby Digital theater on opening weekend, and have already reviewed in a previous column (SPOILERS). This is about the experience of seeing “The Odyssey” in IMAX 70mm. Director-screenwriter Christopher Nolan went to great pains to shoot his entire 173-minute film in the full open frame IMAX format, with an aspect ratio of 1.43:1. That ratio is only slightly wider than an old CRT TV set, but the exceptionally large film size projects with incredible detail within the massive heights of an IMAX theater.
The screens for IMAX 70-mm projectors are proportioned at 1.43:1, making their images far taller than a traditional movie theater screen or even a modern TV, which typically use 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 dimensioned screens.
Celluloid film is rapidly going extinct in favor of all-digital projection, and IMAX 70mm film projection is in decline, as fewer technicians around the world can service this aging technology, let alone manufacture replacements. Apparently the blueprints for creating new IMAX film projectors have been lost in the decades since IMAX first debuted back in 1970. This is hard to believe in an age where I can still pull up exacting blueprints for the RMS Titanic with a simple Google search…
This is the AMC Dolby Digital theater where my wife and I first saw “The Odyssey” over a month ago, with a projected image of 1.9:1, and in comfortable reclining seats… as well as one of the worst audiences I’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting with.
The Dolby Digital auditorium where I first saw “The Odyssey” had a respectably large screen with typically booming sound, though the image wasn’t shown in true IMAX proportions. The image at that first screening was in a ratio of 1.90:1, which shaves roughly 20-odd percent off the top and the bottom of the image. The film geek in me felt slightly cheated. And not because half of that dismally rude audience-from-hell were watching the World Cup on their smartphones, but because the film’s full breadth wasn’t there.
Was I seeing “The Odyssey” at its best? After all, I live only about 20-odd minutes from one of the largest IMAX screens in Southern California; the Regal Cinema IMAX, at the Ontario Mills mall–one of only 25 remaining theaters in the United States that can still accommodate IMAX 70mm film.
70mm IMAX
My quest to see “The Odyssey” in 70mm IMAX was easier said than done. The Regal’s IMAX screen is massive; 67 ft/20 meters high and 91 ft/28 meters wide. This was as good as IMAX gets in my area, so naturally, my fellow movie anoraks (to borrow some Brit slang) were buying up tickets weeks or more in advance. As of this writing, “The Odyssey” has already pulled in $1.4 billion in worldwide ticket sales just over a month after its release. Not bad for a movie based on a 3,000-year old poem…
Welcome to the Regal, formerly Edwards IMAX cinema at Ontario Mills mall, in Ontario, California. Yes, they also have 4DX here as well on select releases, but if I want a damn ride, I’ll stick with Disneyland, thanks…
I’d already seen a few IMAX 70-mm films at this 30-year old Regal Theatre (nee: Edwards); “Avatar,” (2009), “The Dark Knight Rises,” and “Interstellar” (the latter two being Christopher Nolan films). However, “The Odyssey” is making history as the first full feature-length movie shot entirely in native IMAX at 1.43:1 (with no scenes cropped for narrower cinematic aspect ratios). Naturally, being a movie geek (or cinéaste) I had to take a look. After repeated, frustrated attempts on my Fandango app, I finally managed to book a decent seat a couple weeks ago.
The entrance to the massive IMAX auditorium, with promotional material for “The Odyssey” and a wet floor pylon marking a spill from an audience member exiting the previous showing… hey, life happens. The showing I attended at 2:20 that hot Wednesday afternoon was nearly sold out.
The lobby of this nearly 30-year old Regal Cinema (nee: Edwards) is very colorful, with a high ceiling, and gobs of open space recalling the 1990s in which it was built (the older I get, the more the 1990s feel like the apex of our civilization). This theater holds personal sentiment for me, as it was where my wife and I first met 29 years ago (among a group of mutual friends) when we went to see “Batman & Robin” on its opening weekend in the summer of 1997. “Batman & Robin” was one of the worst movies I’ve ever paid to see, yet it also yielded the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. To quote William Shatner in Airplane 2: The Sequel; “I guess irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.”
Top, Bottom: My photos of this 67 ft/20 meter-high screen don’t do it justice, but it’s bigger than it looks–roughly six stories.
I got to my scheduled 2:20 pm screening of “The Odyssey” early, as I always do; a habit born in the days before reserved seating. My seat was in Row G (a bit left of center), which was roughly halfway between the very top and bottom of this humongous auditorium, which is so tall it has elevators and escalators to better reach its uppermost levels. My arthritic knees were tempted to take the elevator, but holding onto the safety rails made the hike up to my seat a bit easier. This IMAX auditorium has older, non-motorized chairs with small yet annoying headrests that push one’s head slightly forward–making it difficult to take in the very top of the tall screen (especially if you wear glasses). The headrests are not the worst things ever, but they’re a ‘feature’ I could easily lose.
The slightly forward–jutting headrests in the non-motorized reclining seats are less comfortable than they look.
The movie started about ten minutes late–not for any obnoxious trailers or promos, but to accommodate the people still pouring in to the huge venue. This audience, who each paid around $30 for a premium IMAX ticket, were the polar opposite of the audience I saw this film with a month ago. This was a quiet, respectful crowd looking forward to the cinematic experience of it all. From the murmured sounds of various Asian languages before the movie started, I gathered some of them came a long way to see a genuine 70mm IMAX movie, and I love that. That’s exactly what going to the movies is supposed to be; a shared cultural experience among strangers in the dark…
At about 2:30 pm-ish, the movie began, minus the usual glut of local business ads, trailers, concession pushes, and in-theater promotions. This welcome omission occurred because those promos aren’t shot on film stock anymore, and can’t be used for an IMAX 70mm film screening. Woo-hoo! Instead, the screen went from darkness directly to an IMAX film clip from the upcoming “Dune 3,” courtesy of director Denis Villeneuve. I won’t spoil it here, but yeah… it looks great. Can hardly wait until December 18th. Anyway, after that welcome bit of distraction, “The Odyssey” began…
Note: The above and following images taken during “The Odyssey” IMAX screenings are not mine, and came from various other sources, including an account on Instagram. Credits at the bottom of this column.
The Trojan Horse awaits, with an army of marauding Ithacans inside.
As the movie unfolded, the IMAX 70mm film stock provided incredible detail, warmth, and fine grain resolution. However, something apparent on this screening was that the extra vertical space above and below the center of the IMAX frame was usually occupied with extra helpings of sky, ocean, land or architecture; no vital visual information seemed to be missing from the version I saw a month earlier. Though in fairness, I’ve not seen the widest screen version, which is cropped to a much narrower 2.39:1 ratio. Nevertheless, the extra image space does give a better sense of immersion.
One sequence that really benefitted from the IMAX’s vertical space involved the giant cyclopean shepherd (Bill Irwin). When the giant rises to full height (a seamless combination of puppetry and CGI-blending), he is literally towering six stories or so above the audience (!). However, the six rows of seats below mine meant that my field of vision towards the bottom was slightly obstructed. I suppose the optimal seats for IMAX viewing are as close to the very top row as possible, but I couldn’t book any seats that high up. And at 20-odd bucks a pop (no senior discounts–bah!) I won’t be seeing it in IMAX again before the inevitable Blu-ray release.
Another scene that stood out at this IMAX screening (for good and mixed reasons) was the sequence where Odysseus and his crew are charged by the giant, armored Laestrygonians, who are (like the Cyclops) also sons of Poseidon. Visually, of course, the sequence is amazing, with the retreating warriors played by smaller female doubles carefully disguised as Odysseus’s crew while very tall male actors played the formidable Laestrygonians. Even at IMAX scrutiny, it’s uncanny. However, this was also one of the sequences where I finally came across the issue others have reported regarding the movie’s sound mix–the foley effects and music became so loud that they drown out dialogue from Odysseus and his men.
Matt Damon as Odysseus does career-best work in this film. Even at IMAX size, his performance holds up beautifully.
At both screenings, there was excessive reverb during scenes such as towing the Trojan horse across logs into the city, or that near-deafening retreat from the Laestrygonians. I thought some of my dental fillings might fall out. I don’t remember this being as prominent an issue during my Dolby Digital screening in July, as it seemed far louder here. Maybe I’m just too used to watching movies at home on my digital projector these days (?). All the same, the quieter moments such as those between Odysseus and Calypso (Charlize Theron) and the image of Athena (Zendaya) retained their subdued intensity.
Nearly a month and a half after its release, “The Odyssey” in IMAX 70mm got a healthy round of spontaneous applause from the appreciative and respectful audience. Another marked improvement over my previous screening. This was the kind of audience I wish my wife and I saw the film with last July.
Summing It Up
“It was the delicious itch you go to scratch and find it’s under the skin. You can’t reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable.”
This quote from Odysseus (Matt Damon) after being lashed to the mast of his ship as it passed through the sirens’ song about sums up my own curiosity for seeing “The Odyssey” in IMAX, after previously seeing it in Dolby Digital on opening weekend. Being a hopeless retrophile who enjoys a rare chance to view movies projected from actual celluloid film (as they all were back in the day), seeing “The Odyssey” once more in true 70mm IMAX became that “delicious itch” I had to scratch.
The IMAX screening affirmed what I expected to see (the organic warmth, the monstrous size, the fine-grain resolution, etc), though it came with a few issues of its own (the overpowering sound-mix, those damn headrests). Overall, it was certainly worth seeing. Though to be honest, “The Odyssey” is such a strong story (3,000 years on) that I can imagine it’s just as good at nearly every theatrical venue–though size does matter. I wouldn’t want anyone to see this film for the first time on a smartphone, computer screen or tablet. That’s a cinematic crime. The movie gods might punish you with a wrath worthy of Poseidon…
The immense lobby of the Regal (nee: Edwards) Cinema at the Ontario Mills mall in Ontario, California is one of only 25 theaters in the US fully equipped to show 70mm IMAX film. I thank the staff for their continuing expertise in this sadly waning art form.
As an experience, “The Odyssey” is engineered for the silver screen. However, at the end of the day, a good story is a good story. If you’re absolutely unable to see the film theatrically, watching it at home isn’t necessarily the dealbreaker its reputation suggests (bookings were surprisingly more challenging than I expected, even a month after its opening). Whether one is watching on a TV or perhaps via digital projector, just dim the lights, shut off all distractions, and enjoy. The immersiveness may not be IMAX-level, but it will happen. That’s what good movies do.
However you can, scratch that delicious itch…
Where to Watch.
As of this writing, “The Odyssey” is still in theatrical release in multiple viewing formats (IMAX, Dolby Cinema, Standard Digital, etc), but might become available to Peacock when it comes to streaming, given that it’s a Universal release.
