At the Cinerama

I’m at the Cinerama in Seattle, waiting for the 9:50am showing of “Beowulf”. It’s the first time I’ve been here, and the first time in years that I’ve been in a “full-sized” movie theatre. I’d forgotten what it was like. Fake stars in the ceiling, a huge stage curtain which has just parted to reveal what must have seemed a huge screen… before the era of iMax.
The trailers have just started. There are just 12 people in this cavernous space. Time to watch…
UPDATE: I enjoyed the film; I’d probably rate it seven out of ten. You have to see it on a big screen – iMax or Cinerama – or you’ll lose most of the grand sweep of the action. On the other hand, I don’t mind seeing it in 2-D rather than 3-D; it was quite vivid and immersive enough for me. It’s rated PG-13, but that feels a bit of a stretch. The “swiving”, ribaldry and nudity are just fine, but the violence is very graphic, intense, relentless, and hyper-realistic.
Yes, Angelina Jolie is gorgeously, unabashedly naked. OK, so they smoothed off her nipples, and gold-plated her from the neck down, but so what. And the 30 foot flagellum works beautifully.
I read a few reviews of the movie yesterday, and none of them picked up on what seemed to me an obvious angle. This is a film designed to look like a videogame. The visual realism of the latest PS3 and XBox360 games is approaching that of film, but it still has a way to go… so now film is starting to bridge the gap from the other direction.