July 07, 2008
Must-see movie alert
I rarely go to the movies anymore, preferring the respectful audience and razor-sharp screen images at my home, where I know loutish audience members won't be answering ringing cellphones, talking constantly and driving me batshit insane.
But there are exceptions to the rule, movies that benefit from being seen on a really big screen, and there are two opening soon that are on my list: Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, featuring the late Health Ledger's last completed performance in a bravura turn as the Joker, and Hellboy II, director Guillermo Del Toro's first film since his Oscar-winning Pan's Labyrinth.
There's an enthusiastic essay on both films over at Ain't It Cool News; the spoilers are in the second half, so you can safely read most of it.
If you’re a fan of film -- not just comic-book movies, and not just nerd genre movies, but film of any kind -- then you owe it to yourself to see both THE DARK KNIGHT and HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN ARMY in the theater, on the best screen you can find. These are big theatrical films, huge in scale, obviously high-tech in terms of film craft, but they’re more than that ... these films are art. Real art. Undeniable art. Adult films about adult ideas. Richly imagined, beautifully acted by some tremendous ensembles, these are both films that represent the very best of what can happen when the right filmmaker gets hold of the right source material and then makes all the right choices.
[...]
With both THE DARK KNIGHT and HELLBOY II, you can tell that the filmmakers are aiming high. They respect the audience and they respect the characters they’re writing, the worlds they’re creating, the moral landscapes they are dealing with. It’s almost disconcerting how little they bow to the conventions of the genre so far with these films.
[...]
The action sequences [in THE DARK KNIGHT] are inventive and grand-scaled, but the character scenes and the quiet headgames are even more engrossing. The score by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer is one of the year’s best, with the Joker’s themes coming across like razors being dragged across harpsichord strings. Wally Pfister’s photography is, as expected, stunning, and in particular, his work in IMAX is revelatory.
Oh, yeah, the IMAX. Have I said “Holy shit!” yet? Because if not ... holy shit. I’m sure you’ve read that Nolan decided to shoot six major sequences in the film in IMAX. This is the first time a major studio narrative film has lensed sequences in the format. The cameras are a nightmare to move, they hold only three minutes of film, and they’re so noisy it makes it almost impossible to record dialogue live. Even so, I’ll bet we see Nolan work in the format again, because the results are so immersive and startling that they’re worth whatever headaches are involved.
The way it works is the IMAX sequences are all projected full frame, so they fill the entire eight-story screen at a ratio of 1.44:1. When the IMAX sequences end, the movie pops into a 2.40:1 letterboxed ratio that’s still pretty damn gigantic. And for regular theaters showing the film, you’ll see everything at 2.40:1, although I’m willing to bet you notice a marked visual difference for certain scenes.
It’s not just the size of an IMAX frame ... it’s the clarity. It’s the way you get lost in it and no matter where you work, there’s some detail you can notice that might otherwise be lost. It’s the way each motion of the camera pulls you in and makes you feel like you’re moving with it. But more than anything, it’s the way the faces of the actors tower over you, the operatic emotion of this piece cranked up even further by the sheer scale of things.
When you look into someone’s eyes, you get a sense of who they are. And in IMAX? It’s like you can see right inside them, which only makes Ledger’s work more disturbing.
Take a look at The Dark Knight's trailer. Then head over to Hellboy's page and check out its trailer, too.
I'm going to try and see Dark Knight on an IMAX screen, and, if I'm lucky, I'll catch the other flick at Grauman's Chinese Theater, down in Hollywood, the kind of movie palace that makes a film into an event.
Posted by Mike Lief at July 7, 2008 09:26 PM