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In a display of wild abandon (well, fairly tame abandon, actually, but just for the moment let’s pretend it was much wilder than that, it’ll make us all feel better), we drove up to Dearborn, Michigan this morning. Our destination: the Henry Ford Museum. Our goal: Star Wars on the IMAX.

So how was it?

Well, let’s just say they should give out clean pairs of pants on your way in, because you’ll need ‘em before too long.

With only one or two minor editorial quibbles, this is really the cut of the film that should have been released in the first place. Trimmed down from 143 minutes to a slick 119:36, the film is much tighter, more intense, and more “holy crap, this is great Star Wars!” than ever before. Even though the love story gets a lot less screen time, it’s almost more believable now that the more painful dialogue is gone. It moves very very nicely, and I am quite thoroughly impressed.

The transfer from 35mm to IMAX is beautiful. The image is a little soft in some places, and a little grainy, but it’s not really noticeable unless you are looking specifically for flaws in the image. Just sit back, relax, and you won’t care. In fact, thanks to the IMAX transfer, you should be able to make out the squintillions of background details that were just so much extra visual noise in the 35mm and DLP versions. And with 15,000 Watts of surround sound, the asteroid chase sounds pretty damn good as well.

My only “real” complaint? The IMAX aspect ratio is a lot narrower than the original 2.35:1, and I am an OAR purist. Most shots are still nicely framed in this different ratio, but there are a good handful of shots that just don’t look properly composed. Probably the worst offender was a two-shot of Anakin and Padme talking at her swanky Naboo retreat, with our stars’ faces just barely in frame to either side of the image, and a huge empty space — eight stories wide in fact — between them. Overall not too bad though.

After the movie, we briefly discussed sticking around for Apollo 13, also showing there in IMAX format, but nixed the idea in favor of popping over to Ann Arbor to visit Andy and Lauren. I got to get caught up on pictures, then we went out for a nice dinner, had an excellent bottle of wine, watched a man at the next table receiving the Heimlich maneuver, and ate an absolutely divine tiramisu. Once we were done with dessert, I was allowed to briefly visit the anime store before it was time for us to head back home.

All in all, a great way to spend a Saturday!

Tags: family  food  movies  star-wars  travel  weekends2 CommentsPrint This Post