My brother picked me up at our place at 11pm and we drove to the Mall of Asia (MOA) to watch the last full show of Superman on its opening day. I felt a sense of childish excitement in seeing back on the screen the super hero of our times — Superman. This time, we will be watching it in a 8-storey high IMAX theater and we were excited to see Superman in a 3D form! I can proudly say that we belonged to the Superman generation and there was a sense of nostalgia with Superman Returns. We arrived at MOA, 30 minutes later, and immediately felt the excitement in the IMAX theater lobby amongst the people patiently waiting to go in for the midnight show. There were all kinds of people in the lobby: the people who proudly wear a dark blue superman shirt inside their jackets with the superman logo peeking out of their chest, the personalities who appears to come from the Preview party last weekend, barkada patiently waiting in line to get a popcorn and the usual girlfriend and boyfriend sweety couple. It was already 12:40pm when we were able to sit on our reserved seats. The show schedules were messed up by the press so they were only able allow people to go inside at around 12:30pm. You can tell that everybody was excited to get their nice 3d glasses and everyone started to take their own pictures via their mobile phone, or digital cameras (which were allowed only at the start). The sense of excitement, and anticipation is in the air, including that of my brother, Rommel and his friend, Igi who were an IMAX first timers and was amazed by huge screen in front of them!
Then the “Lupang Hinirang” national anthem was played, and soon after, the green goggles sign appeared on the bottom of the IMAX screen. This signals you to wear your 3d glasses and our jaw literally drop with just even the bumper count down, 4, 3, 2, 1 with concentric circles rotating around the numbers in 3D! Then the next 10 minutes was an awesome showcase of what IMAX 3d is all about specially when the trailer of T-REX was shown. You can actually see the T-REX breathing down your necks — Awesome! You can hear the oohhs and aahhs from the audience, and shouting of “astig”, “the best”, and “ang galing” culminated with a wild applause from the audience. We thought that the 3d rendition of the trailers were the best even versus the 3d clips in Superman.
We were seated on row C which is the third row from the screen. Watching the commercials made us very dizzy since they were not designed to be shown on IMAX, they had lousy picture resolution. Also, even for the 3D portions in Superman returns if the scene is fast paced action and it is dark, it was very hard to see. My eye hurt after watching the show either because of how near we were or because the movie finished at 3.30am. There were only four times I believe that superman was in 3D:
1). The first 3d scene was when superman after going back to earth, was reminiscing about his teenager days when he discovered that he has powers. He was running so fast in the corn fields and jumped with joy like the hulk when he gets angry.
2). The second scene was during the time Superman rescued the space shuttle which got stuck into the commercial plane upon its launch and dragged the plane into space. You would appreciate the 3d movie when Superman landed the plane in the middle of a football field, opened the door, greeted lois lane, and smiled to the crowd. Awesome 3d moment!
3). My favorite scene was when Superman rescued Lois Lane and his son who were trapped inside a sinking boat. He pulled the huge boat out of the water, suspend it in mid air, opened the door, pulled out lois lane + family and let go of the boat.
4). The last 3d portion was when Superman was revived again, and saying his famous lines to his son ” The son becomes the father, and the father becomes the son. ” Then he saw Lois lane for the last time in the movie and flew out to the night sky.
Aside from the 3d effects, I always felt a tingling sensation in my bones every time I hear the Superman theme song. It was both childish nostalgia of seeing the Superman of our childhood days and a feeling of extreme satisfaction. We felt that P350 was all worth it.
Superman IMAX 3D Rocks!!! For Reservations call 556-IMAX (4629)! Just a tip, reserve the last row seats if possible 🙂
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Superman IMAX 3D Craze
Technorati Tags: Mall of Asia, Manila, Philippines
I am now even more excited to watch Superman Returns when I get back on sunday. After what you wrote, I really have to watch it on IMAX!! Need to find a way to convince my wife to go to MOA. hehe.
though I love doing it on regular theatres, seating so near the screen is the last thing i wanna do on IMAX. I can imagine your head going up and down, just to see the whole picture, hehe! Di ba sumakit leeg mo? =) Awesome post, as usual!
i would like to watch it in imax kaso my friend said na sold out na ang tickets up to july1. when they played the superman theme i felt like wanting to clap my hands. amazing.
Thanks for the feature Anton, this will probablly be the most expensive cinema experience that I will be spending for (locally) should I get a ticket for that movie.
Oh, sorry to sound like your professor *grin* but the ” Bayang Magiliw” is officially known as uhhmmm…” Lupang Hinirang” . ;o)
Back to the show folks!
I seldom watch movies. I “escorted” my son yesterday to see the superman return. I would have love to see it in imax. The last time i saw one was in Singapore circa 1997.
Waah! I gotta see this on IMAX!
I felt exactly the same way when I heard the theme play at the beginning of the movie. Superman was the first movie I watched in a theatre with my parents. 🙂
I watched from the back and it’s not as dizzying as I thought it may be. However, the 3-D experience was compromised. =( I think it’s still better to sit nearer the screen to get that experience (maybe, mid row?) That actually answered my surprise on why the last rows were not filled up when they are the usual rows that got reserved first. Ha-ay. Perhaps, Ill try my luck with 3-D Happy Feet?!? 🙂