First off, as of this writing, IMAX has been around for, what, about 15 years now? I hadn't really seen a lot of IMAX features myself, due to the nearest IMAX theatre was a good half-hour drive away...I saw a couple probably the first year Houston got an IMAX theatre--back in 1988 or something--and a couple here and there over the years since then, and that was about it.
Until an IMAX theatre opened up not even 10 minutes away, depending on how the traffic was.
I immediately saw the new Phantasia movie before it hit the regular theatres and Cyber World...and then THIS movie appeared in the listings.
I had never even heard of it; this was just suddenly dropped in our laps here, with no promotion or anything...but then again, upon looking at the date in this IMDB listing, it was two years old when it appeared here in Houston.
Anyway, when the Star Wars scrolling intro appears onscreen, it appears this is going to be light-hearted fun, as some aliens are looking to settle elsewhere. They end up landing on Earth, picking a yet to be opened amusement park, which they don't even realize. The aliens looked pretty cool, and I thought it was terrific that, not only did they NOT speak English (for once), but their speech is never translated, which was brilliant, as you could pretty much guess what they were saying anyway.
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie consists of just watching their scouts down on the planet experiencing the park's roller coaster rides, which we get to see in a first-person, 3D perspective, and that's pretty much it.
Even though I was surprised that there was a box-office tally in this entry, this probably could have made more money if the whole alien angle was dropped (or at least had the movie renamed into something NOT sci-fi) and it was just advertised as to being a 3D roller coaster ride...after all, there's people out there who don't watch sci-fi movies, but like roller coasters that are going to miss out on this, which is a shame (after all, *I* was the one expecting an "alien adventure", but didn't get one!). After all, if they go on a roller coaster ride and it scares them half to death, they may never go on a roller coaster for the rest of their life...here they can just close their eyes if they feel dizzy, the sensation will go away, and they might consider a roller coaster another day.
Speaking of which, the rides were pretty cool and the graphics are pretty much what you'd expect from a computer generated movie: outstanding. But the movie's too short (35 minutes) for the overpriced eight bucks of an IMAX film (don't even TELL me new movies are $7.50: the few times I see a movie just as it's released, I see it in the early afternoon for only $4.50! There's no matinee price for the IMAX, no matter what time of day you go, so that's too much!). At least Cyber World was an hour and ten minutes or so, which is actually long by IMAX standards, and I enjoyed that one a lot better.
Hopefully the company that made this will make longer IMAX features in the future.
Until an IMAX theatre opened up not even 10 minutes away, depending on how the traffic was.
I immediately saw the new Phantasia movie before it hit the regular theatres and Cyber World...and then THIS movie appeared in the listings.
I had never even heard of it; this was just suddenly dropped in our laps here, with no promotion or anything...but then again, upon looking at the date in this IMDB listing, it was two years old when it appeared here in Houston.
Anyway, when the Star Wars scrolling intro appears onscreen, it appears this is going to be light-hearted fun, as some aliens are looking to settle elsewhere. They end up landing on Earth, picking a yet to be opened amusement park, which they don't even realize. The aliens looked pretty cool, and I thought it was terrific that, not only did they NOT speak English (for once), but their speech is never translated, which was brilliant, as you could pretty much guess what they were saying anyway.
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie consists of just watching their scouts down on the planet experiencing the park's roller coaster rides, which we get to see in a first-person, 3D perspective, and that's pretty much it.
Even though I was surprised that there was a box-office tally in this entry, this probably could have made more money if the whole alien angle was dropped (or at least had the movie renamed into something NOT sci-fi) and it was just advertised as to being a 3D roller coaster ride...after all, there's people out there who don't watch sci-fi movies, but like roller coasters that are going to miss out on this, which is a shame (after all, *I* was the one expecting an "alien adventure", but didn't get one!). After all, if they go on a roller coaster ride and it scares them half to death, they may never go on a roller coaster for the rest of their life...here they can just close their eyes if they feel dizzy, the sensation will go away, and they might consider a roller coaster another day.
Speaking of which, the rides were pretty cool and the graphics are pretty much what you'd expect from a computer generated movie: outstanding. But the movie's too short (35 minutes) for the overpriced eight bucks of an IMAX film (don't even TELL me new movies are $7.50: the few times I see a movie just as it's released, I see it in the early afternoon for only $4.50! There's no matinee price for the IMAX, no matter what time of day you go, so that's too much!). At least Cyber World was an hour and ten minutes or so, which is actually long by IMAX standards, and I enjoyed that one a lot better.
Hopefully the company that made this will make longer IMAX features in the future.