Over the holidays I went to see Avatar at the Wachovia IMAX theater at Marbles Kids Museum. Yuck. While standing in line like cattle we watched as the people leaving the theater from the previous showing returned their 3D “glasses”, more like goggles, into a rolling metal rack. This rack was then rolled over to the theater entrance doors where the goggles were handed to us as we were herded through the cattle stalls into the viewing area. No cleaning, no sanitizing, and some even looked like they still had makeup on the nose bridges. That’s just gross.
The 3D goggles were horribly uncomfortable. Give me the regular, smaller, Real 3D glasses at a normal theater any day. They come in a sealed plastic bag which has a notice insuring they’re new or sanitized if recycled. So the IMAX screen is bigger. Annoyingly bigger in my opinion. I was expecting some type of other super surround effect because of all they hype. But aside from the size I didn’t see any difference between the IMAX screen and a typical 3D movie theater screen.
Then there was the warehouse. That’s what it felt like I was entering from the cattle stalls in the lobby, a warehouse. The theater did not strike me as comfortable at all and they seats quickly proved my first impression correct. They were no where near as comfortable as the seats at North Hills Cinemas.
For all the IMAX hype it was not an enjoyable experience. The goggles were dirty and hurt my nose, the seats were uncomfortable and the warehouse theater itself was inhospitable. I won’t do it again. I’ll go see every 3D release at good ‘ol North Hills and leave IMAX experience to those who buy the hype.