Fake Imax

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with Imax?

When you think Imax, what do you think of?  You think of a big gigantic screen.  A screen so big that there is nothing else in your field of vision.  Well this weekend I went to go see Star Trek.  Which by the way was a pretty good movie, even for someone who is a closet trekie like myself.   A couple of my friends wanted to see Star Trek in the Imax experience.  Why not, it seems to be the perfect movie to go watch it in.  Plenty of action and lots of special effects. 

Well we went to the “Imax” in Burbank.  Notice the quotes because this was no Imax.  The screen may have been slightly larger.  Supposedly the picture was all digital and therefore cleaner and the sound was supposedly better.  But come on.  The screen was maybe 10% bigger than a normal screen and nowhere near the monster screens I’ve seen before.  To make matters worse, I paid a 30% premium on my ticket to go see this film.  Movie tickets are already way too expensive.  Add 30% on top of that and now you better have one hell of an experience. 

But the question is, why on earth would Imax do this to their brand.  Up until now, I thought Imax stood for something.  It stood for an experience you could not get anywhere else.  To sell out their brand like this to make a few bucks makes no sense.  It is like Coke making Coke Clear but even worse since Imax is not distinguishing these small screens from their much larger brothers.  At least with Coke, you knew you were getting something different.  With this I had no idea that the experience would be underwhelming.  In fact, the experience has left a bad enough taste in my mouth I’m pretty sure I will never go to another Imax film again.  All of that to just scam me out of $5. 

Have you been duped by Imax?  Do you think they are doing themselves a disservice by weakening their brand?