Note: I wrote this as a double feature for other publications. Since there is no facility on this site for flexibility, I will place this under both films. Thanks for your indulgence.
Double Feature by
BlackEye
If you live in the abyss of a large metro area of sprawls, malls, and road rage free-for-alls, where the rent is high and the mortgages astronomical, take a moment to look for the silver lining in the overpopulated mess of urban suburbia. Just maybe you can find a Cineplex in your area that has an IMAX screen and Digital Projection Screen both under one roof. If you do, you may be able to strike gold in one afternoon too. And if you go on a weekday, you can attain this sunken treasure without standing in line for such seaweed as 2 Fast, 2 Furious, 2 Dumb and Dumberer. Bliss will be yours and when you re-surface from your adventure, the roadways should be clear as well. It doesn’t get any better.
Ghosts of the Abyss
I have enjoyed film experiences on the IMAX format for well over a decade and have had some awe-inspiring experiences, but this is the king of the sea. Using James Cameron’s talent for blockbusters and his obsession with the Titanic, combined with improved technology and very cool lightweight 3-D glasses and you get a thrill ride second to none. The entirety of the Titanic experience is yours. You are the king of the world!
Using Bill Paxton, a cast member from the film Titanic, as our guide is a wise choice. He puts us in the adventure by showing his trepidations in agreeing to participate in this groundbreaking endeavor. He asks many of the questions any of us might ask and he fits in to the diverse cast naturally with none of the “Hollywood” attitude. Most importantly, he knows when to explain and inform and when to run silent, run deep and let the breathtaking visuals do the talking.
And the visuals ARE breathtaking! Leading edge IMAX camerawork in 3-D, with the exquisite new glasses replacing the cumbersome goggles, grabs you from the get go. The detail of all of the gadgets required in accomplishing the feat of exploring the ship over 2 and a-half miles beneath the surface is so precise you can read the small print on the equipment’s labels. You feel affected by claustrophobia as you follow Paxton down the hallways of the mother ship. You are there, without needing seasickness pills. Yes!
Then the fun really begins. Take this gorgeous IMAX format and add state of the art computer graphics where apropos, footage from the movie Titanic, with fresh recreations of what it was like in 1912, AND transpose them, using the depth of 3-D to overlay all of these styles simultaneously, WHILE showing underwater camera footage of the actual sunken Titanic, and you have a screen full of drama so artfully exquisite, that I am incapable of describing it in words. Add to that, tight editing and crisp informative dialog between submersibles and the surface vessel, and not even the most extremely video game-addicted teen has time for boredom. If this wasn’t enough, the one-hour time limit on IMAX forces the editor to give us the greatest hits CD in the tightest most effective way. You literally beg for more, as every step of the journey is enlightening and fascinating.
The film shot in and around the Titanic is fabulous. No waiting for Al Capone to come out of the vaults, this one delivers. Actual blue prints overlaid on what’s left of the magnificent ocean liner makes every thing crystal clear. This is where the film goes beyond 3-D and actually borders on realistic time travel. You cannot doubt Einstein or Hawking after experiencing this unique event. Jake and Elwood, the 2 aquatic robots, perform amazing “aquabatics” (a new word necessary to describe what occurred) in gathering immense amounts of data from inside this monster of the deep blue sea. I could describe every nook and cranny the crew filmed, it is so well etched in my mind due to the exacting clarity of this movie, but you need to see this, not live by words alone. If this is the future of film, we won’t have time to do much else.
As I was experiencing this international excursion, which made use of much Russian MIR technology and personnel, I was struck by how ridiculous war looks compared to cooperation. Combining cultures to make exciting discoveries and explore new worlds beats the crap out military madness. The fact that sheer expense prevents many endeavors of this sort from occurring, while the cost of military machinery dwarfs the expenditures spent on this project, puts things in real perspective. A little later in the film, the events in NYC on 9/11 take place knocking the wind out of the team’s sails. But after some reflection, they correctly decide to finish what they started and show that humanity can reach it’s potential on occasion. This was certainly one of those occasions. It provided for a perfect documentary.
Finding Nemo
After walking on solid ground from the IMAX to the Digital Projection Theatre by Texas Instruments, we found Nemo. And what a treat we found. Pixar is unrivaled in animation today (except for Master Miyazaki, who produced the best film of 2002, Spirited Away). I still get a kick out of the bouncing light logo. This presentation also included Pixar’ s first short, “Knick Knack,” which is highly amusing in it’s own right. Now, on to the main event.
Although they create wonderful experiences for the little ones in the Disney tradition, Pixar has writers capable of entertaining adults simultaneously in the tradition of the Simpsons as well. This Pixar effort is no exception to that standard, but exceptional when compared to most other fare in the marketplace at this time. Especially on a Digital Projection screen!
After spending adequate time on dry dock between films, we are ready to take the dive back into the briny. After a few minutes of mommy-daddy foreplay in a spectacular setting, we are plunged into the abyss once again with a Bambiesque moment. At least this time, there is a single dad, perfectly realized by Albert Brooks, getting real dialog for a change after the indignation of the In-Laws remake. The trauma-affected dad is of course an overly protective paranoid parent paralleling the U.S after 9/11, removing all rights from the ever-growing son, Nemo. This combination can only lead to disaster (and a reason for the rest of the film to exist) and predictably does.
Although disaster, in the right hands, can be turned into opportunity as fast as you can say Ellen DeGeneres has short-term memory loss. I’d love to have seen Brooks and DeGeneres in the sound studio. Strange seabedfellows to say the least… From this point on, it would be a real spoiler to relay anymore of the adventure, as it is best to experience it yourself, dude! Ride the shell. And check out the extremely fine attention to detail. These creatures can act!
I can say, the coloring and shading are so good, that the look on the screen transcends animation and film, producing a unique world that I want to live in. Vibrant is much too dull an adjective. The sound track is well chosen, as usual, and the surround sound is detailed and smooth. You are ensconced in full-bodied atmosphere without being crushed by a tsunami. Every contributor to this fine effort deserves kudos and every moviegoer should leave with a smile on their face and a tear in their eye. What are movies for anyway?
In the summer of 2001, director James Cameron lead a historic expedition to one of the most fascinating shipwrecks of all time, the Titanic.More at HotMovieSale.com
James Cameron, the Academy Award-winning director of the Titanic is joined by his personal friend, Bill Paxton (Titanic) and a team of the world s for...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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