AVATAR at SM North Edsa IMAX 3D – The Real Movie Review

If you haven’t seen AVATAR yet, don’t worry because there are no spoilers here. This is just to give you an idea on the kind of AVATAR experience you’ll get from Dolby Digital 3D theaters (Trinoma, Gateway) and IMAX 3D theaters (SM Mall of Asia (MOA) and SM North Edsa). Should you go with regular Dolby Digital 3D or IMAX 3D? What’s the difference? This will help you decide where to watch AVATAR.

My SM North Edsa IMAX “AVATAR” tickets with a free AVATAR magnet

This was my second viewing of James Cameron’s “AVATAR”. I saw the movie first at Gateway’s Digital 3D cinema last Thursday and have already posted my initial thoughts on it here but I will confess that I made a glaring mistake in that article. I need you to ignore everything I said there about Dolby 3D Digital Cinemas offering an experience close to the IMAX 3D experience. They’re not even comparable!

My AVATAR 3D experience at Gateway’s Digital 3D theater:

1. Hm… these 3D glasses are smaller than the ones at IMAX. Wonder if it’ll be comfortable on top of my own glasses. Wait, is that grease on the lens? Eww! They don’t properly sanitize their glasses!
2. (movie starts) Okay, I’m really getting a bit dizzy now and I don’t see the 3D effect on some scenes.
3. Too much ghosting. Maybe because this isn’t IMAX or maybe because I have two glasses on!
4. Blah! Blah! Blah! Enough talk! Where’s the action? Maybe it’s all just hype after all. Glad I didn’t shell out money for an IMAX viewing. Heh!
5. I still haven’t adjusted to these darn glasses yet! These people must be noticing my discomfort already and are probably laughing at me silently. I hate not having 20/20 vision.
6. (Thanador chase ends) Cool but I think it looked better on the AVATAR day screening last August. Oh man, please tell me that not all the action scenes will be like that or I’m gonna puke.
7. (wide panoramic shots of Pandora) WOAHHH!!! This Dolby Digital 3D isn’t so bad. I could actually watch here instead of IMAX. Finally adjusted to the 3D glasses. ^_^
8. This is good! This is really, really good!
9. They were right. This movie could make you actually cry and feel for blue aliens! Who would’ve thought?
10. (movie ends) That was… epic!

And this is how my AVATAR experience at SM North Edsa IMAX 3D Theatre went:

1. I always forget how huge IMAX screens are!
2. Okay, I’m having trouble adjusting with the 3D again but that’s to be expected… when you have poor eyesight!
3. Hm… the Thanador chase looks a bit better here but it’s still dizzying.
4. (Pandora scene) Now, this is THE WAY to see AVATAR! Pandora looks so much more amazing here!
5. (the infamous love scene) Ooookaaayyy… that never gets comfortable even after a second viewing.
6. So, I’m seeing scenes here that are definitely clearer than at Gateway’s 3D cinema. The 3D effects are more pronounced too. This movie was definitely made for IMAX.
7. (second half of the film) That’s 400 pesos well spent! I kinda feel bad already for those who chose to save 100 pesos or so instead of watching this at IMAX.
8. (the last 30 minutes) Yeah! More! More!!!
9. (the “My Jake!” scene) Jim is a genius to have thought of including a scene like this. It seems awkward at first but later proves to be an effectively emotional scene. *sniff*
10. (credits) I love you Jim! Bring on the sequel! But no more jittering during the fast scenes, please! I read that shooting at 60fps should fix that problem.

My rating: 9/10

I’m taking off a half-point for the less-than-original story (although it’s still good) and a half-point for all those dizzying scenes. What’s strange is that most of those blurry scenes are in the first part of the film. But the second half had little of those despite having more action. The final battle in particular looked more or less perfect to me at IMAX. So I get this feeling that the 3D in the latter half of AVATAR was more polished than the 3D in the first half of the film.

But there’s no denying that AVATAR definitely looks and sounds better at an IMAX theater. If you want to see this movie the best way possible, IMAX is the only place to go. You’re also missing a lot if you only see this in 2D. The 3D aspect is not merely a gimmick for a landmark in movie-making such as AVATAR.

So for those who have already seen the movie, how was your AVATAR experience? 3D or not, I’d like to hear it.