By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
IMAX's Biggest Hit: A Snooze in Space, Says Slate
Slate’s Brendan I. Koerner reports that IMAX’s biggest hit is the long running paeon to NASA entitled THE DREAM IS ALIVE, which has earned more than $150 million since its 1985 debut. It’s also kind of a snooze–despite some breathtaking shots of spacewalks and Earth views (yes, the astronauts really did lug an IMAX camera along on an early 1980s space shuttle mission). Writes Koerner, “these sublime moments are sandwiched between scenes of shuttle crews learning how to don their spacesuits and tedious footage of mission-control geeks with their endless rows of buttons. Every so often, narrator Walter Cronkite checks in with a corny declaration like, “Now that we know how to live and work in space, we stand at the threshold of a new age of discovery.'”
The NASA doc’s sustained popularity is due in part to the fact that IMAX theaters are attached to space-themed attractions, like the National Air and Space Museum and the Kennedy Space Center. For schoolchildren, these movies are often part of a field trip or family holiday. Another space exploration documentary, ROVING MARS–the first IMAX feature to use extensive animation to tell its story–got great reviews earlier this year, and it, too, is likely to have a long life as an educational film.
In 1992, IMAX theatres began showing regular features on their screens. As Koerner reports, some movies are being tailored specifically for the 70mm screen: SUPERMAN RETURNS had about 20 minutes of 3-D effects added during a remastering process.
