{"id":725425,"date":"2026-08-03T04:04:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/725425\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T04:04:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:04:28","slug":"why-you-dont-need-to-see-the-odyssey-in-imax-70mm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/725425\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you don’t need to see ‘The Odyssey’ in IMAX 70mm"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m just going to come out and say it: You do NOT need to see \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in IMAX 70mm.<\/p>\n

Sure, that\u2019s the way Christopher Nolan shot it. But I\u2019m here to say \u201cso what?\u201d Many movies (including Nolan\u2019s own \u201cOppenheimer\u201d) are advertised nowadays as being \u201cfilmed for IMAX\u201d and, to me, it\u2019s a gimmick designed to make you feel like a lesser viewer for missing out and seeing the movie in a \u201cregular\u201d format. A guy I was talking to recently was upset that he couldn\u2019t see \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d a movie he\u2019d anticipated for over a year. When I pointed out that it was playing in 7 gazillion theaters here, he said, \u201cbut the IMAX 70mm is sold out for weeks!\u201d<\/p>\n

I admit that I\u2019m an old school critic who prefers to see movies in a theater. And I\u2019m a big proponent for seeing movies on film whenever possible, which is rare in the era of DCP (Digital Cinema Package). However, neither of these are strict requirements that you must adhere to for every film; when I described my star rating system when I first joined the Globe, I said that two stars meant \u201cwait until it comes on cable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get Starting Point<\/p>\n

A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/p>\n

With that said, I\u2019ll still go to bat for any classic movie projected on film in a theater. Those 70mm festivals that show \u201cLawrence of Arabia\u201d and \u201cAmadeus\u201d are worth attending for the sheer spectacle of the filmmaking. This throwback to the past is too irresistible to resist. And a 35mm screening, the way these movies were originally projected, is always welcome. There\u2019s nothing like a crunchy film print that\u2019s been loved by projectors for decades.<\/p>\n

This notebook was originally supposed to be about a different topic; that is, movies I wish I\u2019d seen in a theater. (If you wanted that one, here you go: \u201cIt Happened One Night,\u201d \u201cMean Streets,\u201d \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain,\u201d and Disney\u2019s \u201cSleeping Beauty.\u201d) But then I read the informative recent Globe article<\/a> about why it\u2019s so hard to see \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in IMAX 70mm. This line set me off: \u201cIt\u2019s the combination on a massive IMAX screen and in 70mm film, that has made finding the movie as Nolan had intended such an odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Nolan had intended\u201d is the part that drew my ire, because it\u2019s true. When I saw \u201cOppenheimer\u201d at a critic screening, I saw it in IMAX 70mm. Most critic screenings, at least here in Manhattan, are presented in the format \u201cthe filmmaker intended.\u201d That meant that I had to suffer through all three \u201cAvatar\u201d movies in 3-D, a format that is as useless to this half-blind human as you-know-whats on a bull. <\/p>\n

The \u201cas the director intended\u201d requirement also meant that I saw \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d in VistaVision at one of four theaters in the world that was showing it that way. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket at the Coolidge<\/a>, you saw it that way, too. But VistaVision has only been revived twice since 1963, so I get why people were hot for that ticket. <\/p>\n

\"FilmFilm strips showing the size difference between 35mm film, 70mm film, and 70mm IMAX (from left to right)Celine Hijazi<\/p>\n

The funny thing about that directorial intent clause is that \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d was screened for critics at the same Manhattan theater \u201cOppenheimer\u201d was, but not in IMAX 70mm. I had a choice of either IMAX or 70mm when I signed up. \u201cI guess ol\u2019 Chris is still mad at me for that \u2018Oppenheimer\u2019 review,\u201d I joked. While some critics I talked to were torn between which version to select, I chose the IMAX one simply because the IMAX theater was bigger and more comfortable.<\/p>\n

Most major releases are \u201cfilmed for IMAX\u201d and thrown on whatever IMAX screen is available. Outside of the big directors like Nolan and Ryan Coogler<\/a>, it\u2019s less about filmmaker intent and more about the studio\u2019s ploy to get extra money out of you. Bigger scope doesn\u2019t help if a movie isn\u2019t good in the first place. And I question if the format is even necessary in some cases.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of my youth, when practically every movie projected on 35mm also had a 70mm version you could see for a few extra bucks. \u201cStar Wars,\u201d \u201cClose Encounters of the Third Kind,\u201d and the Rolling Stones concert movie \u201cLet\u2019s Spend the Night Together\u201d are three examples I can cite. Hell, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if \u201cMy Dinner With Andre\u201d had a 70mm print back then. Granted, a 70mm print has more detail, but outside of Jacques Tati\u2019s \u201cPlaytime,\u201d which has a \u201cWhere\u2019s Waldo\u201d-level of detail onscreen, I can\u2019t think of another movie that MUST be seen on 70mm.<\/p>\n

You can find other examples of special screening formats by going back in time to an era when Hollywood thought television was going to kill movie theaters. Fox invented CinemaScope because the Academy ratio could fit nicely into a TV screen. Paramount created VistaVision to rival CinemaScope. 3-D was born as a novelty that didn\u2019t work at home (at least not back then). <\/p>\n

None of these cost you extra money, by the way. Hollywood\u2019s equivalent of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d IMAX 70mm screenings was the roadshow edition of a movie, where the viewer had reserved seats, special souvenir swag, an intermission, and a slightly longer cut of the film. Not only did you have to pay more for the extra spectacle, you had to find a theater showing it that way and travel there. Quentin Tarantino recently did something similar for \u201cThe Hateful Eight.\u201d <\/p>\n

Keep in mind that I\u2019m not saying you shouldn\u2019t travel hours out of state or hold out for weeks to see a movie the way you want to see it. It\u2019s your money and your time. I am saying that it\u2019s not good to feel pressured or guilted into doing so just because the marketing told you that you had to do it.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned IMAX Globe article quoted someone at the Providence theater showing \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in IMAX 70mm: \u201cI\u2019m only here because of all my insufferable film friends,\u201d said Lola Alarapon. As your resident insufferable film critic, I say you\u2019re off the hook for IMAX 70mm screenings of \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d and for any other hyped up format the studios throw at you to trigger your fear of missing out. You won\u2019t be violating Zeus\u2019s Law.<\/p>\n

Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m just going to come out and say it: You do NOT need to see \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[239831,96,2839,239832,239833,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-725425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-_scene-167","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-msg-select","tag-spfx-reference","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}