Great Movies
From Thor Melsted, Los Angeles:
Being as appalled by the "new" IMAX as everyone else who loves real IMAX, I just sent this email to IMAX:
To whoever is in charge at IMAX:
You have been the leader in image quality for so long. Why would you set out to ruin your reputation with that small screen digital IMAX idea?
A double projector digital projection on a screen that is not 3:4 and is not many times larger than a regular screen, is NOT, I repeat, NOT IMAX.
Just because you put your name on it, doesn't make it IMAX. A VW Bug with a Rolls Royce grill, is still a VW Bug; it is not a Rolls Royce.
You guys are the Rolls Royce of moving image projection, and by labeling crappy small screen projections as IMAX without offering any differentiation between that an the REAL IMAX experience, you are damaging your brand - perhaps permanently. There are millions of people who have sadly never seen a real IMAX projection, and many of them will go see these "IMAX" screenings and not knowing it's a severely watered down projection that doesn't even match the quality of a properly projected 35mm film on a regular sized screen, will walk away thinking "what's the big deal with IMAX anyway? why should I pay more for that?" None of the people I have heard from, have felt the small screen digital image was worth the extra $ they paid for the IMAX label, which they previously had associated with enormous and spectacular.
Anyone involved in the decision making of this fiasco, should be removed from their respective positions or at least severely reprimanded, because they clearly do not have IMAX's best interest at heart.
I love the IMAX format, and I will continue going to see movies in the IMAX format -- and I hope people continue to shoot IMAX film.
That is why I can not and will not sit idly by while you damage your brand by putting to market a vastly inferior product carrying the same name without any differentiation.
Therefore I am making my voice heard in this way, and will be copying this message to anyone with a public forum who will listen.
Please end this failed experiment before it causes irreparable damage to your brand's reputation.
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
