My Avatar IMAX 3-D Experience

[JakeFanGirl]

Yesterday evening I went and saw Avatar in IMAX at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.

This was the first time I had been to the IMAX theater at the Natural History Museum. The Smithsonian Institution (of which the Natural History Museum is a part) has two other IMAX theaters in the Air & Space Museum and the Air & Space Museum annex in Chantilly, VA (which is near Dulles International Airport). I have been to both the IMAX theaters in the Air & Space Museums and thought I would know what to expect when I went to see Avatar in IMAX last night.

However, when I went to the Natural History Museum and picked up my ticket at the box office, there was a sign that said “welcome to the largest IMAX theater.” I was a bit puzzled by that as I had seen the other two IMAX theaters the Smithsonian had and thought I knew what an IMAX theater should look like.

Well, I was wrong. The Natural History Museum has a *huge* IMAX theater! It is enormous. It must seat around a thousand people. The screen is gigantic. I was seriously impressed. There were a lot of people there to see Avatar – given that it was a Saturday night and this is tourist season in D.C., I was not surprised at the large crowd.

As for Avatar in IMAX…well, I have to say that if you have not seen Avatar on a true, real, IMAX screen, you really haven’t seen the movie at all. This is format that Avatar was made for. Forget about your local movie screen, and certainly forget about your home theater system. IMAX is what Avatar was meant to be seen in.

I can tell you that I had never seen Pandora like this! The shear stunning beauty of the forest took my breath away! The amount of detail I was able to see when Jake, Norm and Grace first landed in the forest was simply amazing. Pandora is real!! Not to mention Pandora at night, when Neytiri first sets her eyes on Jake to when she helps him defeat the viper wolves – Pandora at night came to life in a way that I cannot describe here. Words like “stunning” and “beauty” don’t seem to do the forest justice.

Avatar is a work of art. It is not just CGI, it is a masterpiece, a moving masterpiece that rightfully belongs in a museum. And IMAX is the vehicle that allows you to see Avatar and Pandora in all their majesty.

The characters in IMAX also seemed to come alive more and were even more believable and real – if you can imagine that. The destruction of Home Tree and the flights of the Ikrans were rendered in all their splendor on the huge IMAX screen.

I didn’t find IMAX to be hard on my eyes at all – in fact it was actually easier on my eyes then the normal theater screen. I sat on the top most tier of seats and not close to the huge screen. 3-D is so much more effective on that large screen. The only down side was the 3D glasses they handed out. They were large and clumsy and kept sliding down my nose.

This was my seventh viewing of Avatar, and my first time seeing the movie in three months. I very much enjoyed it. I especially loved my favorite parts of the movie, when Neytiri and Jake meet in the forest and Jake gets taken for the first time to the clan; and when he becomes Toruk Makto, and love scene between Jake and Neytiri (which I had forgotten most of the details of – it’s so sensuous!). I have to say though that subsequent viewings of Avatar do not match up to the emotions and excitement I felt on my first four viewings. But I love the film and it has a permanent place in my heart.

The shear beauty and magnificence of this film, coupled with a wonderful story and great characters just makes me so grateful to James Cameron and the folks at WETA Digital for making his vision come to life in stunning perfection. IMAX brings that perfection to you in all its glory.