The Dark Knight IMAX Experience

Batman has never looked better.

As the gloomy and menacing opening credits dissolve high into the Gotham cityscape, the giant BFI IMAX screen threatens to engulf your face as it floods your field of vision. To your left, to your right. Straight ahead. It's all you can see.

A skyscraper window smashes and two men in clown masks ride a zipline 50 stories high. As you peer down at the specs of light packing the busy streets below, your stomach jumps and you can't help feel for the floor. Just to make sure. This is immersing cinema IMAX style and it's as real as it comes.

The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger as The Joker is the first feature film ever to be partially shot with 70mm IMAX cameras. Meaning for six incredible action set-pieces (over 20 minutes of footage) traditional 35mm letterbox screen is replaced by a full-screen experience, with unparalleled detail. It gives director Christopher Nolan a fitting canvas to paint his superhero masterpiece.

T3 was lucky enough to experience an advance screening of The Dark Knight at the BFI IMAX in London, The UK's largest screen, which has sold some 27,000 tickets ahead of Thursday's opening.

Without casting judgement beyond our remit, TDK will fast become an iconic piece of cinema to eclipse perhaps any other superhero outing. You'll see for yourself just how good. But The IMAX Experience puts you inside this picture, makes you part of the action and captivates in a way few cinematic experiences ever have. As Gotham's Guardian perches atop a cloud-cutting building, you're right there with him. Waiting. Blazing 18-wheelers fly towards you causing an intake of breath soon taken away by an exhilarating helicopter ride.

The foreboding switch from letterbox format to full screen IMAX is a cue to brace yourself for an assault on the senses. Perhaps it gives the game away? You know relative calm will soon yield to carnage, but in many ways anticipation is further built for some awe-inspiring action sequences. It almost becomes too much at times, inducing an unsettling motion sickness. But with Heath Ledger's maniacal Joker (He's better than the hype and better than Jack) on the loose there's plenty more to unsettle the tummy.

The Dark Knight is as good as anything the genre has ever produced. This is no surprise. All the cards were in place, namely The Joker. However, while exceeding expectations was impossible, the IMAX experience adds an intangible level of astonishment.

Posted by Chris Smith on 2008-07-21

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