AMC Lincoln Square 13

xbs2034 on January 13, 2017 at 9:24 am

I remember thinking the IMAX Laser 3D glasses were pretty poor when I saw Force Awakens in San Fran, and while it didn’t ruin the movie, it did bug me in a few scenes. But they didn’t bother me with Rogue One here, I don’t know if they were slightly redesigned or I just got used to them.

I will also say from Force Awakens that I thought the 1.43 15/70 shot sequence looked stunning and was a huge jump in quality from the already good looking 35mm DMR footage (I had previously seen the film in Real D at 84st and Dolby Cinema at the Empire 25 and that scene didn’t really stand out from the rest there). It probably was some blind digital hater who trashed it (and I get the love and nostalgia for film, but digital is clearly where things are going, and particularly on the projection side I’m very impressed by some of the things they can do now digitally), cause the idea that IMAX wouldn’t let that their native aspect ratio and footage look anything less than great with the biggest R&D endeavor in company history is nonsensical.

alpinedownhiller on January 13, 2017 at 12:09 am

@Movie_time – hmm so you think your left had the issues? not left side of screen but left eye? are you sure it was not left side of screen but issue caused by the right eye? what side of the theater did you sit at? left, center, right? on my friend and I’s glasses I managed to clearly see a major defect of similar nature on both right lenses (the left looked a little dodgy since the coating seemed to fade from green to near clear at the far edges but that said the left eye seemed to work totally fine as far as I could tell; the right lens though didn’t just fade from pink to clearer it faded from pink to starting to shade green like the eye eye is supposed to be; also note these colors only apply to looking at the spectrum of the fluorescent light bulbs they have there, under full spectrum light or with laser primaries there is no tinting)

was it really just a little blur and ghosting at the left corner or over a much wider area of the screen if you looked all around?

if yours was just a left eye problem and just on one corner then maybe my friend and I simply got a really, really bum pair here and wished we’d known in time to go ask for a new pair.

at the very least it seems the QC for their glasses here is dodgy. And the 3D part of the previews is show sort it doesn’t give a lot of time to go down ask for another pair and perhaps repeat a few times. what a mess that would be too, disturbing everyone again and again and if half the theater is needing to do that….

alpinedownhiller on January 12, 2017 at 11:30 pm

I had been looking forward to a special trip to Rogue One in Laser IMAX for a long time and was disappointed at the total mess this new installation has made of their Laser IMAX system. During the previews (well once they switched to the 3D ones, the 2D ones looked great as expected) I was like wait what is wrong? Why do I see ghosting and lack of detail on the left side of the screen??? Laser IMAX in Boston was PERFECTION, I’d been going on about how it was literally like you were there looking with your own eyes, the most amazing and 100% ghost free 3D I’d ever seen, so great it was almost like a new experience.

So I spent the first half the movie concentrating more on what the heck was going wrong, swapped glasses with my friend a few times and the other pair was only very marginally different was really kinda stunk. That’s not was I was looking forward too and had paid for.

I was wondering if maybe they switched the lasers to new frequencies and some quirk in my right eye was somehow still registering some of the left eye frequencies since I saw it with both pairs.

Then I went to the rest room and looked at the glasses under the fluorescent light bulbs in there and noticed that the right eye lens seemed odd, it seemed like only a skinny band in the middle was pink tinted and the rest looked plain or green like the left eye lens. Then I put them on and closed my right eye and looked through the left and everything from looked green tinted, although even there some patches were a bit closer to normal, but at least anywhere at all near the center had a strong green tint and even the edges had at least some green so it seemed possibly OK (and during the movie closing my right and looking only with the left it seemed like the entire screen was pretty much ghost free). Then I closed my left eye and looked through the right and was horrified! Everything dead center looked pink but to the right it looked only slightly pink with a few hints of green and to the left it looked green! That means that large portions of the right lenses in the glasses here are missing the notch filter to cut out left eye signal for at least one or more of the primaries.

So I think they set up this premier theater location to show off their new Laser IMAX system and didn’t even bother to check the darn glasses and I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire batch they gave this center have the right eye lenses manufactured totally wrong!

If your eyes are more wide set than mine, you’d probably see ghosting on both left and right side of the screen and fine in the middle and a large area to either side around the center. If they are like mine or more narrow set though from center to the farthest right edge will look perfect, fantastic, but slightly left of center ghosting and/or general lack of detail/dusty feeling starts and it gets worse as you look farther left.

It was ultra noticeable on those transparent screens in the rebel base that had minty green lines and stuff on them, through the right eye you see extreme double vision on the entire left half of the screen, the a pair of minty lines and then a second, highly offset pair off off-yellow lines (which was some of what was supposed to be the signal for the left eye only).

I think they were either trying to be so cheap with the expensive coatings to try to get away with only coating them strongly in the center and way, way overdid for the right eyes or simply had a major manufacturing errors that applied the coatings to the center of the right eye and barely at all across the rest of the lens! I can’t quite remember if these were the same type the Boston Laser IMAX had. I almost thought the Boston ones had even a bit smaller and more curved lenses. Maybe people complained and they went to slightly larger ones but the Boston ones at least had proper coatings across the entire surface of each lens.! Way better. They worked so perfectly it was crazy.

I don’t know if it’s all tje glasses, some, most, just a few and my friend and I were that unlucky to both get pairs. But I’d hope our luck wouldn’t be worse than 1 in 10 in which case at least 30% of the glasses are totally messed up at this supposedly premier installation that has the most expensive tickets of probably any theater in the whole U.S. and a theater that costs a lot of money just to even get to if you come in from out of the city.

I see someone mention a problem above where they saw lower left all blurred and ghosted. Not sure if that means the really saw the upper left fine and maybe it’s random how bad and patchy the coatings are and some are perfect, some terrible, some varying degrees of inbetween.

But man, mega bummed after all that waiting and expense and time.

I did find that if I turned my head to face the left edge of the screen and then looked towards the right, so my eyes are now basically looking near dead center, looking at the screen with side look, that I was able to see the entire center of the screen fine and the whole right side fine and much of the left not too badly although a few bits woukd still have a bit of defect especially toward far left edges. So I did end up watching the last half of the movie like that. (trying to slide the glasses over left on my nose to center my right eye in the pink strip didn’t work since if I slid the glasses far enough over to rid all ghosting and defects on the left side of the screen then the right side got those problems instead since the right side of the right lenses also didn’t have all notch filters applied properly). It was sort of awkward, having to hold my eyes in extreme side look for an hour and I had to always face my head towards the left and was not free to swing my head to look around. Held like that it was sort of OK, but….

I will say where the glasses did work perfectly the display was fantastic and as I recalled from Boston te 3D was just so utterly naturally unlike anything you see in any other type of 3D projection.

It’s a huge shame and really disgrace that they have such a serious problem with the glasses at this theater. How this could pass the installation quality control I have no idea.

I have to say I shocked to not see post after post above raving about how insanely fantastic IMAX Laser projection is for 3D. Maybe this explains it. Maybe all the glasses here are bum and none of you have seen what IMAX 3D Laser is really supposed to be like. None knew how utterly perfect it is supposed to be so didn’t even try to do weird maneuvers to force the glasses to begin to sort of work correctly.

Basically if you just view through the glasses straight on normally and don’t have extra wide set eyes and just look around and view normally half your field of visions will see small to major (like larger than I’ve seen from any other 3D tech ever) ghosting and varying degrees of loss of detail and fidelity.

They need to fix this ASAP. Either stop cheaping out and use full quality glasses like in Boston or toss this perhaps simply instead bad batch of glasses in the trash and send them a new working supply. This will not show case Laser 3D IMAX the way it should be and will hurt their brand name.

People should be going insane over how beyond fanstatic the 3D is. This place should be filled with post after post raving about it. Instead I see like no raves and already a few complaints were people seem vaguely unsure what was going on.

optimist008 on January 4, 2017 at 7:17 pm

Was the showing of Dunkirk a test, advanced or just a private screening??? I previously went to a few tests screenngs here when they were more common, and have not seen the folks outside from NRG or wherever doing the invites lately…or maybe I am looking at the wrong time of day???

vertigoman on December 31, 2016 at 12:59 pm

I saw the 10:30pm showing of Rogue One on December 15th, and again, I can confirm that Dunkirk was shown in 70mm IMAX. I corresponded with IMAX CQO David Keighley after the show and he further confirmed that Dunkirk was shown in 70mm, and he was personally in attendance to supervise the first screening of it.

There was no significant delay due to the switch of projectors. The running order was such: first they played the usual AMC/IMAX trailer welcoming people into the theater. Then, it appeared that the house lights and IMAX wall lights were manually switched off (they turned off suddenly, as opposed to a slow dim), and the 70mm projector was turned on immediately. Following Dunkirk, the IMAX wall lights and house lights came back on (again, this appeared to be done manually as they simply flipped on rather than fading in), and then trailers were shown on the laser projector.

During the switch as Dunkirk began, I looked up and could see that the dual laser projectors were stationed in the center of the booth, towards the top of the glass window. The 70mm projector was stationed below the laser projectors, between the two. When on, the projection beam from the 70mm projector came from underneath and between the positioning of the laser system. So it would have appeared that it was installed below and between the two laser projectors and not on a rail. The changeover between projection systems was practically instant – it did not appear that anything was physically moved during the presentation.

The email address for the IMAX CQO is displayed following all IMAX presentations – you can write to them directly if there is still any doubt regarding whether or not Dunkirk was shown on film.

Doctor on December 24, 2016 at 7:26 pm

with todays movie, i think i have seen all possible combinations of IMAX

1.movie shot using normal camera => projected using 70 mm IMAX projector (Inception)

2.movie shot using normal camera with some scenes shot using 70 mm IMAX camera => projected using 70 mm IMAX projector (Dark knight, Dark Knight rises, Interstellar)

3.movie shot using normal camera with some scenes shot using digital IMAX camera => projected using digial IMAX projector (Transformers 4)

4.movie shot using normal camera => projected using digital IMAX projector (Mission Impossible 4)

5.movie shot using normal camera with some scenes shot using 70 mm IMAX camera => projected using laser IMAX projector (Dunkirk Prologue)

6.movie shot using normal camera =>projected using laser IMAX projector (Rogue One)

FDJC38 on December 24, 2016 at 1:13 pm

Is the seating set up basically the same? Any opinions on the best rows/seats since the renovation? Wanted to check out Rogue One this Monday, but A – D only thing left with center seats. E and F could be serviceable if not too close? Last time I was there I was in row H for Batman v Superman. Saw Force Awakens in J. Stoked for the new format and the movie. Just wanna make sure nothing’s changed too much before I grab tickets (ie. Rows the same, just less seats, etc). Thanks

moviebuff82 on December 22, 2016 at 1:41 pm

the lincoln square imax is the closest theater to see imax with laser. Last time i went there they used 70mm imax 3d and that was in the mid to late 90s.

Imax123 on December 21, 2016 at 11:13 pm

CHH32- I know Dolby cinema offers a better picture quality than IMAX laser, when a movie in IMAX laser is presented in 1:43 it looks better than the non IMAX scenes in an IMAX laser presentation but do the 1:43 scenes of IMAX laser look better than Dolby cinema ? that’s my question. I have scene a movie in IMAX laser which was Batman vs superman and the 1:43 scenes looked awesome but didn’t look as good as IMAX 70mm but it does get close in terms of picture quality. And I know sully was shot with arri Alexa cameras and presented in 1:90 and Batman vs superman was shown at 1:90 at the tcl Chinese theatre but which offers a better picture quality BvS shot with real IMAX cameras presented at 1:90 in IMAX laser (some IMAX laser theatres project at 1:90 only) or sully shot with arri Alexa camera presented at 1:90 ? like I’ve said I heard IMAX laser 1:90 looks better than Dolby vision even though IMAX laser doesn’t support HDR yet. You probably saw the prologue of Dunkirk in IMAX laser, do think the 1:43 sequence of the Dunkirk prologue looks better than Dolby vision ? Sorry for asking the same question again but I would like to know since I’ve seen IMAX laser only.

Imax123 on December 21, 2016 at 3:11 pm

I’ve also heard IMAX laser has a better picture quality at 1:90 than at 1:43 because it’s native aspect ratio is 1:90 like the IMAX digital, so when they present a movie shot on the Alexa 65 in 1:90 aspect ratio it looks better than an IMAX laser presentation shown at 1:43 but on 1:43 on IMAX 70mm it beats a 1:90 and 1:43 laser presentation in terms of picture quality. I saw Batman vs superman in IMAX laser and the 1:43 scenes didn’t come close to IMAX 70mm resolution. This will my first Dolby cinema presentation during Rogue one, and of course it will look better than IMAX laser movies with non IMAX scenes but will it beat the 1:43 or 1:90 picture quality of a IMAX laser presentation I don’t know. So if I’m correctly estimating than best picture quality is 1:43 IMAX 70mm, 1:90 IMAX laser, than it will be IMAX laser 1::43 or Dolby vision, and I read and article about Batman vs superman being shown in 1:90 at the tcl chinese theatre and the IMAX scenes beat the picture quality of a Dolby cinema presentation, so does a movie filmed IMAX cameras being shown in IMAX laser 1:90 looks better than at 1:43 or the opposite ? This all hard to figure out but I’m curious!

sharkypuffs on December 20, 2016 at 1:17 am

Happyman: I stand corrected. Though I’m still puzzled how they are able to fit both a 15/70 projector and a Laser projector up there, even with a rail system. Even the IMAX CMO, Eileen Campbell, stated on Twitter a few month ago that there was no room for both. I’d still prefer confirmation from the projectionist over the theater manager, (you’d be surprised how clueless management can be), but if that’s what they told you, I’ll take your word for it.

Saw Rogue One opening night (Thursday Dec. 16), first show, 7:00 pm and again on Friday at 6:00pm. I wonder if the latter showed the DUNKIRK preview on 15/70 film?

xbs2034: At least yours started late. Thursday night, I thought I was late, arriving at 6:45, for the 7:00pm show. There was still a long line, overflowing all the way to the top of escalator and they’d barely let anyone in. Plus, they were in the process of unboxing the 3D glasses manufactured by Dolby for IMAX Laser. I got inside at 7:00 on the dot. Theater was practically empty because tons of people were either at concessions or waiting to get their tickets taken. Rather than delay the show by a few minutes, (as they did several times with Episode VII last year) the DUNKIRK preview started promptly. Many people missed it as well as trailers for Transformers 5, The Mummy, Fast 8, Pirates 5, Spider-Man & GOTG 2. (So many sequels/remakes.)

xbs2034 on December 19, 2016 at 5:22 pm

Happyman: very interesting, and that confirms that there still is a rail system in place.

Also, when I saw Rogue One, the previews (beginning with Dunkirk) started about 10 minutes late, which I wonder was a consequence of doing some Dunkirk prologue showings with film (even with a rail system it probably takes a few minutes to switch between projectors, so they may have been falling behind schedule if they were doing the earlier prologue showings on 15/70).