Episode II Hits IMAX - West Nyack, NY
November 10th, 2002

On Sunday, November 10th, 2002, a friend and I made the trek to West Nyack, NY, to check out Episode II: Attack Of The Clones in its IMAX form- The theatre's capacity could accomodate 300 people, but for a late Sunday night showing (9:30PM), there were still open seats available. We decided to sit at almost the last row in the back, after hearing from other viewers that with this particular film, "dead center" wasn't exactly the prime real estate in the theatre.

The film had one trailer before it began, which will be an enjoyable update for Star Wars fans out there who are also avid Disney fans.. The classic film, "The Lion King", will be shown in IMAX theatres coming December 25th, 2002.. If you thought the movie looked clean before, you will HAVE to see it in IMAX, guaranteed. And now, the review-

Overall, the film is much more enjoyable in its IMAX form.. There were segments where the video quality seemed slightly blurry or pixelated (i.e. when Padme and Anakin discuss their feelings for each other by the light of a fire), but the amount of times that this happened could pretty much be counted on one hand..

Aside from those brief exceptions just mentioned, the film in IMAX was any true Star Wars fan's greatest dream-come-true.. The scale of the ships had my friend and I nearly falling out of our seats, and the sound was utterly, utterly, magnificent. During explosions, you could actually feel your lungs slamming back into your vertebrae..

 

The infamous Coruscant speeder chase in this version of the film is a must-see.. Due to the design of the theatre, and the angle at which the screen is positioned, any views up or down were enough to make you grab the chair rails, hoping you weren't going to fall "into" the film. This sequence alone made my kick-ass-o-meter jump up by at least 30%.

As a full-blown Star Wars junkie, I have seen Clones more than enough times to where I thought I'd seen everything there was to see- however, with the advent of the IMAX version, I can honestly say that I still managed to catch glimpses of things I'd never seen before. I don't know if it was simply due to the enlarged scale of the film on the 6-story screen, or because this version of the film is morphed from the actual digital version of the film. But, regardless of the reason, there will still be something new in it for everyone.

And now, the editing- the scenes that were removed from the film did help it in some respects, and as has been mentioned in other reviews, hurt it in others. We constantly discussed amongst ourselves a few scenes which we thought still could have been left on the cutting room floor, but overall the edits didn't do any "serious" damage to the film's logical flow. The classic wipes were still used in the new edit, which allowed the film to retain its nostalgic feel, rather than look like it just went through a mulcher.

I could go on and on regarding my thoughts on the IMAX re-issue, but I think I've answered most of the questions our readers would want to have answered.. If you have more, feel free to send me an email and I'll be glad to continue with my thoughts! Oh, there might be one more question lingering out there.. "My local IMAX is not showing AOTC- Is it worth driving X amount of miles to go see it??" If you want my true thoughts, step away from your PC right now, get in your car, and "go Go GO!"   - Jim