BFI Imax Bond Review
Napoleon Plural
LondonPosts: 10,467MI6 Agent
Well I saw Goldfinger and OHMSS at the BFI Imax at London Waterloo, the biggest screen in the UK or Europe, they say, and v different experiences I must say.
GF was interesting but not enjoyable, you're better off with the movies that are widescreen, not the old style format.
Why? Well, it may be the largest screen ever but this is because it's so deep, it's a big square shape like your old-style standard TVs. The first three Bonds were also of that ratio, so GF filled this huge screen. Hardly a bad thing you'd think, but it was overwhelming really and along with the seats being quite close, it felt like watching it on a big TV with your nose just three inches from the set. In no way did it feel like how the film was intended to be seen, or ought to be seen.
It's even more extreme than the picture suggests.
That along with the fact that as with the Park Royal showing some years ago, the sound was weak, sterile and muted, lacking the sassy vibrancy that John Barry's score demands. The underwhelming sound combined with overwhelming visuals created an odd, unpleasant experience.
Even the rustling of the popcorn boxes nearby was louder...
My advice is sit near the back if you have to watch a movie in this format at the Imax.
BTW the crowd were good, after work suits with not too long suffering girlfriends except for the piggy looking girl with lank blonde hair and specs snuffling away at her popcorn box for the first hour, culminating in a prolonged coughing fit during the laser dissection scene.
OHMSS had a slight echo on the dialogue which I traced to the berk next to me, an enthusiast who had to anticipate the lines, not all the time, just enough to get you distracted and thinking, should I move or say something? Apols if any readers recognise themselves! Mildly amusing scenes with Bond camping it up on his arrival as Sir Hilly had him creaming his pants with delight and slapping his thigh. 8-)
Otherwise, this was superb, the letterbox format just right (row J gives the best view) and sound louder (I'd complained about GF the last time round) and cinematography the most modern looking (indeed OHMSS is surely the least dated of the Bond yarns; GF is very much of the Kennedy era). Things that often annoyed me about the film didn't this time round, it seemed far less claustrophobic around Piz Gloria, the love story worked better, it all came alive. Mind you, Lazenby's mole was magnified in all its glory (Blofeld had a mole too, maybe the source of their antipathy, like holding up a mirror to Caliban). With Bond's thick short hair, squinty brown eyes, certain swagger and smirk, with a start I realised he reminded me of the not universally loved former US president, George W Bush.
But only momentarily.
Only real crit is the scene where Draco is explaining himself and Tracy to Bond, very lethargic direction not helped by Barry's snoozy score at that point. Otherwise, even the girls looked lovelier this time round.
GF? Interesting to see the down on the golden girl's legs during the credits I suppose. A great film for referencing itself, the death by electrocution that bookends the movie, the laser used to almost dissect Bond showing up later to open up Fort Knox, the reference to the danger of guns in planes repeated.
Months after the Kennedy assassination the Fort Knox raid would have been quite spine tingling and ominous (though I'm still not sure - do the soldier's fake their fainting or is it different gas just knocking them out, not killing them?).
Jill Masterton is not quite as lovely, a bit cheap looking and like she's missed her vocation in porn (I'd pay to see that). Like a good many she is in the tradition of the cheap, blowsy, chatty girl in the first reel who doesn't make it to the end, a Sylvia Trench, Molly Peters type that continues up to Strawberry Fields in the last film. And I must say that while I like the colourful look of the film, the cinematography up close does have a thin, cheap look about it, like gold nail varnish. OHMSS is streets ahead in looks. Oh, and Connery seems to put on a stone in weight between the golf scenes, where he looks gaunt and pock marked like early Sinatra, to the Aston Martin scene that follows, where he seems to have a double chin! And he misses his chance to shoot Oddjob after he's swung his hat at Tilly and is unarmed, still Bond chasing after her is dramatically effective, shows he cares a bit. GF is a very courteous film generally, everyone is very civil to one another, rather like Casablanca.
I might see DAF, but in fairness though I prefer it I think it's better on telly rather than the big screen experience.
GF was interesting but not enjoyable, you're better off with the movies that are widescreen, not the old style format.
Why? Well, it may be the largest screen ever but this is because it's so deep, it's a big square shape like your old-style standard TVs. The first three Bonds were also of that ratio, so GF filled this huge screen. Hardly a bad thing you'd think, but it was overwhelming really and along with the seats being quite close, it felt like watching it on a big TV with your nose just three inches from the set. In no way did it feel like how the film was intended to be seen, or ought to be seen.
It's even more extreme than the picture suggests.
That along with the fact that as with the Park Royal showing some years ago, the sound was weak, sterile and muted, lacking the sassy vibrancy that John Barry's score demands. The underwhelming sound combined with overwhelming visuals created an odd, unpleasant experience.
Even the rustling of the popcorn boxes nearby was louder...My advice is sit near the back if you have to watch a movie in this format at the Imax.
BTW the crowd were good, after work suits with not too long suffering girlfriends except for the piggy looking girl with lank blonde hair and specs snuffling away at her popcorn box for the first hour, culminating in a prolonged coughing fit during the laser dissection scene.
OHMSS had a slight echo on the dialogue which I traced to the berk next to me, an enthusiast who had to anticipate the lines, not all the time, just enough to get you distracted and thinking, should I move or say something? Apols if any readers recognise themselves! Mildly amusing scenes with Bond camping it up on his arrival as Sir Hilly had him creaming his pants with delight and slapping his thigh. 8-)
Otherwise, this was superb, the letterbox format just right (row J gives the best view) and sound louder (I'd complained about GF the last time round) and cinematography the most modern looking (indeed OHMSS is surely the least dated of the Bond yarns; GF is very much of the Kennedy era). Things that often annoyed me about the film didn't this time round, it seemed far less claustrophobic around Piz Gloria, the love story worked better, it all came alive. Mind you, Lazenby's mole was magnified in all its glory (Blofeld had a mole too, maybe the source of their antipathy, like holding up a mirror to Caliban). With Bond's thick short hair, squinty brown eyes, certain swagger and smirk, with a start I realised he reminded me of the not universally loved former US president, George W Bush.
But only momentarily.Only real crit is the scene where Draco is explaining himself and Tracy to Bond, very lethargic direction not helped by Barry's snoozy score at that point. Otherwise, even the girls looked lovelier this time round.
GF? Interesting to see the down on the golden girl's legs during the credits I suppose. A great film for referencing itself, the death by electrocution that bookends the movie, the laser used to almost dissect Bond showing up later to open up Fort Knox, the reference to the danger of guns in planes repeated.
Months after the Kennedy assassination the Fort Knox raid would have been quite spine tingling and ominous (though I'm still not sure - do the soldier's fake their fainting or is it different gas just knocking them out, not killing them?).
Jill Masterton is not quite as lovely, a bit cheap looking and like she's missed her vocation in porn (I'd pay to see that). Like a good many she is in the tradition of the cheap, blowsy, chatty girl in the first reel who doesn't make it to the end, a Sylvia Trench, Molly Peters type that continues up to Strawberry Fields in the last film. And I must say that while I like the colourful look of the film, the cinematography up close does have a thin, cheap look about it, like gold nail varnish. OHMSS is streets ahead in looks. Oh, and Connery seems to put on a stone in weight between the golf scenes, where he looks gaunt and pock marked like early Sinatra, to the Aston Martin scene that follows, where he seems to have a double chin!
And he misses his chance to shoot Oddjob after he's swung his hat at Tilly and is unarmed, still Bond chasing after her is dramatically effective, shows he cares a bit. GF is a very courteous film generally, everyone is very civil to one another, rather like Casablanca.I might see DAF, but in fairness though I prefer it I think it's better on telly rather than the big screen experience.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Comments
Your account of the experience of seeing GF, with its smaller-scope box format, on such a huge screen is exactly how I felt when watching DN:- overwhelming, but bringing an awareness of physical details in the picture which I'd perhaps missed in other viewings (e.g. Strangway's squinting secretary's freckles and imperfect teeth!)
On the whole, the audiences have been pretty cool. There were some attractive young women around tonight and I was fascinated to clock what parts of TSWLM they found funny - it was mostly Rog's sluggish moves in the fisticuffs which amused them, in the first half of the film.
http://www.mi6forums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=46988&start=60
Roger Moore 1927-2017
On the big screen you can appreciate it more and still see the actors' expressions, but it can feel remote on the smaller screen.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Orginally, TB's print was faulty.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/thunderball_pg_digital
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I was also concerned, as you pointed out, that as the films were not originally made for IMAX dimensions they might appear "flat". A lot of what you say bears this out.
GF too, as you suggest, is easilt one of the films that looks really good on TV, while movies like TB and OHMSS do look much better on the big screen. It's definately a ratio thing.
Seeing the Park Circus re-mastered TB at the IMAX was an experience on a par with enjoying the other Bond screenings there. The sharp defintion on a large screen afforded the opportunity to savour a lot of pictorial background detail, especially in the busy Nassau scenes. The series of underwater sequences, prior to the terrific climatic battle, seemed to me to drag a lot less than they sometimes have in my viewings at home, though some of the film's crude editing / dubbing to wrestle the story into shape seemed more exposed by the big screen experience.
The film's 'soundscape' is very important, with a classic score by John Barry and many action sound effects - so I found it necessary to move several seats along my row to avoid sitting too close to a guy who was rustling his way through a slow consumption of his box of popcorn. At least when watching Bonds at the NFT there's the advantage of their 'no eating' rule! Otherwise, the audience (mostly serious fans, I think) were cool and well behaved!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
"My dear girl, there are some things that just aren't done. Such as kneeling down when you're
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017