Sony
IMAX Theatres
Not everything in Manhattan
that is famous is all that great. A
perfect example of an over- hyped
attraction is the Sony IMAX Theatre.
The Downside
First of all, the IMAX experience is
expensive: all of the movies are $9 each
and none last more than an hour.
Secondly, the 3-dimensional effects do
not represent any great leaps forward in
technology. In fact, the effects are no
better than anything we saw twenty years
ago in standard movie theaters while
wearing cheap plastic 3-D glasses.
The headsets that IMAX
requires you to wear are somewhat awkward
and it takes a few minutes to adjust to
them. Finally, the movies are of very
inconsistent quality (see below).
A Few Redeeming
Features
All of this is a shame, since Sony
clearly went out of its way to build a
very impressive theater. The screen is
HUGE, although we suspect it may be a
story or two short of its claimed 8 story
height. The auditorium is steeply tiered
so no one's head gets in your way, and
the comfortable seats offer plenty of leg
room. The entire facility is bright and
cheery enough to make Disney World proud
(although it was not Disney-clean on a
recent Sunday night).
The Films
The first movie we saw was Across the
Sea of Time, a 55 minute 3-D movie
clearly geared toward tourists. The movie
is a highly contrived story about a
Russian boy who comes to New York to find
relatives who came here 80 years ago.
Much disbelief has to be suspended in
order swallow this weak tale, which
involves a haphazard search based on an
old photograph.
One encouraging aspect of
the movie is that most of the New Yorkers
the boy encounters are very nice to him.
It was refreshing to see that one element
of the media resisted the all-too- common
temptation to make New York look bad.
Most of the benefit of this gesture,
however, is spoiled by a scene showing
Donald Trump making a splashy arrival at
a Broadway opening. How did he get in the
film? Equally out of place were shots of
a Fuji Film billboard and an unexpected
fly-by of the Metropolitan Life Blimp.
Their presence is easier to explain since
they are corporate sponsors of IMAX. All
of this adds up to one conclusion: pass
on this movie.
Next, we saw Wings of
Courage which focuses on pioneers in
the early days of air mail delivery.
Starring Val Kilmer and Elizabeth
McGovern, this 40 minute movie is based
on the true story of a pilot who crashed
in the Andes Mountains of South America.
Unfortunately, the 3-D effects are no
better than those in Across the Sea of
Time. In both cases, the effects fall
far short of what we expected from such a
highly touted "state-of-
the-art" theater.
If you do go to the IMAX,
there is no need to scramble to a seat in
the middle of the theater. We sat in
different locations each time we went and
found the 3-D effects to be similar no
matter where we were. Nonetheless, the
IMAX staff encourages everyone to
gravitate to the center and the top of
the theater, even when the movie is not
sold out.
Better Alternatives
If you get the IMAX itch, keep in mind
that Sony is not the only IMAX game in
town: the American
Museum of Natural History
has an IMAX theater offering films
similar to those found on the Discovery
Channel.
We particularly enjoyed Destiny
in Space, which takes you aboard the
Space Shuttle and other spacecraft, and Titanica,
which takes you 12,000 feet below the
Atlantic and into the wreck of the
Titanic. Although the movies are not in
3-D, the large screen, the great sound,
and the outstanding photography make you
feel as though you are in the middle of
the action.
Details
The Sony IMAX Theater is
located on Broadway at 68th Street. Call
(212) 336-5000 for information.
The American Museum of
Natural History is on Central Park West
at 79th Street. Call (212) 769-5650 for
show information.
|
