A lot is being said about Christopher Nolan’s new film The Odyssey and as it is the first feature film to be shot entirely on IMAX film cameras, we took a trip to our local cinema to see it. As a film The Odyssey is very much Jason & the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans meets Gladiator – Geek myth, spectacle and enormous scale.  It is an 8/10 from me, and strong reason to put the fodder of Netflix aside and visit the flicks ( even if it is digital in Edinburgh ).

Our local cinema is not showing the 70mm IMAX film version on a full height 1.43:1 screen ( only a few of those are available in the UK ). Instead, we had to suffer a gigantic screen showing digital IMAX at 1.90:1 – all in a day’s work.  Having seen the 18m wide screen ( 10m high) in Edinburgh we will need to make a trip to London for the true aspect ratio on a 26m wide screen ( 20m high). It is quite something to see an image that size, but its success does depend on the content being shown. For The Odyssey many of the shots are amazing, Nolan understands cinema and that is very clear when you watch his work. The colour is fantastic in its use, and the screen highlighted the different quality of shots – Dan and I both felt that some of the later scenes looked better than comparable shots earlier in the film, although that may simply have been our eyes adjusting to the image.  Close ups of faces were amazing. During the faster moving scenes, we were probably sitting too close to take it in properly but the wide shots at sea or on the beaches were simply staggering.

Good cinema does this though and it is not just a Nolan film that deserves a trip to the (really) big screen. There are lots of films without eye watering budgets that immerse you in the content and show off the quality of the filmmaking.  Finding a cinema to show it off is the struggle;  maybe it is cost constraints, or perhaps the lack of care in the presentation but many commercial cinemas leave us with dim images and lack lustre sound in my view.

IMAX does offer a counter argument, but it is not the be-all and end-all of cinema.  Certainly, in the Edinburgh IMAX it was just too loud. I understand that IMAX is meant to offer scale and impact, but this went well beyond turning the dial to 11. On the way out the people around us were all complaining about the volume. There was none of the usual, “How good was that?” chatter. Fingers in ears after a film and people covering their ears during it is hardly a positive sign. We wore earplugs given our past experience with Dune and I am glad I did. Even with 15db of reduction there were moments when the sound was still uncomfortably loud. Those who know me will appreciate that is a high bar.

This is my wider concern with the IMAX. On one hand it is great to see a busy cinema and so many people having chosen film as their pastime; I cannot endorse that enough. On the other hand, IMAX is regularly pitched as the pinnacle of cinema production and that really sets the wrong tone in my view. The idea that bigger and louder is better misses the point, IMAX is only one interpretation.

At The Sound Counsel we can happily deliver you IMAX levels of sound at home ( the 10m high image is a challenge for most rooms though ) and still have headroom for that assault of sound should you want it. What we can also do is deliver impact and violence combined with detail at lower volumes all alongside a picture that astounds. The IMAX we experienced was like a rally car, and I personally don’t want to be driven around like that.

If you are looking for a cinema to thrill and engage you but also unravel the beauty of film, contact us to see what we can offer. We build cinemas with performance from a love of movies.