Skyfall: great film spoilt by a cinema that talks the talk but obviously doesn’t understand or care about reproduction quality.
Screen 4, the IMAX screen in the Odeon Wimbledon on Monday evening was a pretty sorry excuse for a quality cinema experience. I suggest you avoid making my mistake and pay less (we paid for the, admittedly more comfy but still not enough legroom premium seats) to see Skyfall locally.
First we were let in with the lights up to see the place as you should never see a cinema – think nightclub in daylight. Then we were asked to leave so the cleaners could finish. On being allowed to return the lights were still too high and it was a good 15 minutes before anything appeared on the screen to amuse us.
Twice they ran the IMAX – the picture and sound are so great reel. Have they no idea or do they think that if they tell people they will believe it?
The image was grainy and the image went soft when any serious motion was occurring. I thought we had got passed those poor motion artefacts years ago.
The sound quality however made the image quality seem irrelevant. It was too loud.
The sound had not subtlety at all and had a WAHH like character to the midband that remind me of over use of an equaliser. The sound had no transparency; it was solid and slab like and generally unpleasant. It distorted as it got louder.
Skyfall is a great film and the Bond legacy lives on but it’s difficult to believe that the Odeon Wimbledon and IMAX have moved on that much in 50 years.