Preface

I can somewhat remember the first time I saw the movie 10 years ago. Every year, my family tends to spend Christmas afternoon at the local theater to enjoy a nice popcorn dinner and a movie. That year, we decided to watch Interstellar in IMAX. Little did I know how much I would enjoy the movie and how important I hold it today.

Those 10 years ago, it seemed to me just like a really nice, very pretty, space movie. Although at the time, I was a little over 10 years old, so I couldn't really get as deep into the movie as it was probably meant to be. However, over the years, through re-watches in different places, different TVs, different sound systems, I've come to call it one of my favorite movies, and perhaps my favorite.

I most recently saw the movie sometime in April of this year on my apartment setup, being a 55-inch LG C2 OLED with KEF LS50s, some random Yamaha satellite speakers, and a random JVC subwoofer. This was perhaps the best way I've watched it since I saw it in the theater. Sure, I have watched it once or twice in a home theater, where the sound is better; however, this movie puts more importance on the video experience in my opinion, which a 1080p SDR projector isn't going to do well. In my apartment, the sound was amazing and crisp, the display had deep blacks and bright colors, and everything in the dark room just blended into the movie. Any time I watch something outside of a theater, I feel like I need to watch it on an OLED, just so I’m not distracted by any darkness or dynamic range issues.

The Idea

When I heard of the Interstellar re-release in theaters, I expected I would go see it in the biggest IMAX theater in Georgia, being Regal Mall of Georgia. However, when tickets first dropped, this theater didn't have any showtimes. Another issue is that this is the only theater in Georgia allegedly capable of 70mm IMAX. So if they're not showing it in general, that also means no 70mm.

Unfortunately, the time tickets went on sale was peak end-of-semester time, where I forgot to book tickets at another theater at a good time. When I did eventually get to booking, there were some good seats right back at the original theater I saw it at. There was something nice about seeing the movie in the same place 10 years later; however, I also knew I wanted to see it in the 70mm IMAX version that I've always wanted to see.

Looking at where the closest theaters with 70mm were, I found the closest was in Fort Lauderdale. Looking more into this location, it looked to be a museum, and it also looked like it had no assigned seating.

When I was originally looking at booking, there weren't any showtimes past the week of the 9th, which proved to be very difficult as I had a finals only ending in the morning of the 11th. It was looking like the only way for me to see it in 70mm IMAX would be to book a flight immediately after that final and go see the 6 p.m. show, which was the last showing at the time, but unfortunately, none of the times worked well for the prices.

I thought I had lost, so I simply picked up a ticket at that AMC that I originally saw it at. However, in the coming days, it was announced more showtimes were added. When I first checked back at this museum, I didn't see any new times. However, after my most difficult final was over, I checked again, and they added new showtimes. So instead of studying for my next final, I went on Google Flights and saw what the cheapest way for me to get to FLL was. Since I was only a week out, I thought the prices would be insanely high, which many were; however, there was a 6:40am Frontier flight that had a round trip price of some $81 dollars, returning the next day at 9 a.m. After some careful deliberation (5 minutes), I decided to buy the tickets.

I had previously decided I would never fly Frontier again since when I used them to connect to get to Europe for a spring break, they delayed my outbound flight where I would miss my 4-hour connection, and they entirely cancelled my return flight. A good 0/2 for flying on them. (Fortunately for these trips, I could book a last-second Delta ticket and still make it to my destination and to home; however, that did come at a significant cost.) There was a Spirit flight at a similar time for $20 or so more; however, from some research and asking around, it seems like the Frontier flight would have higher odds of being on time and actually take off.

Well, here we go!

Seems like the bet paid off.

As I'm writing most of the story so far above, I am sitting in row 19 seats A-C, as the row was empty and they said I could move up from my seat all the way back in 29C, the last row on the plane passengers can sit in. So some bonus points there. The flight also had an on-time departure, leaving the gate at 6:33am instead of 6:40. Quite surprising!

Wasting Some Time

After landing around 9am I had to find at least 7 or so hours to kill so I could get in line at around 4 p.m. to be one of the first people in line. At this point, I've only eaten a microwave breakfast sandwich and some trail mix, so I decided to find a nice local coffee shop to get some work done and waste some time. Looking at the local bus route (because Uber is expensive), I found a little café called Java & Jam. I stayed here for a few hours, having some nice black coffee and a wonderful ~$16 breakfast bowl.

I continued looking at what to do after, and I realized I had to go to the beach at some point because I'm in Florida after all, and the conditions are good for some short beach time. Oddly enough, an old family friend owns a resort a little up the street, so I took a bus to get close. However, once I got there, I realized the ocean was a little choppy, so all I could really do is just sit around or find a place to sit.

I wanted to go on a short shore dive, but I was sorely unprepared with no towel, gear, certifications, swimsuit, etc. As I was walking on the beach, it started to pour rain (and it did a good 5 other random times during the day), so I went for some shelter and saw a nice little beach bar I could waste some more time at, as well as get a small snack before the movie since I knew I wouldn't be eating until after 9. At this little beach bar, I found nice $10 Mediterranean Grape Leaves. This combined with some Modelo and some discussions with the people at the bar with me was a great way to wait for the 3 p.m. bus to get to the theater at 4.

After I wrapped up there, I hopped on the 11 bus and went to the Museum of Discovery and Science to wait.

The Movie

Arriving at the theater, I was quickly told I had to put my bag in a locker, which was a tad disappointing since I had 2-ish hours to wait to enter and I wanted to do some laptop work; however, I (unfortunately) filled the time scrolling Reels instead.

After waiting a long time, we were finally let in, and I went immediately to the 3rd to back row as close to the center as possible. I was in the front of the line; however, I made a split-decision mistake and decided to look at the bottom rails instead of the projector placement to find center, so I was around 2 seats off from center. All of this waiting to not get center!

However, after the movie started, everything sort of blended together, and it didn't really matter. A small part of me hoped they cared as much about the movie as I did since they got the center and I didn't, which played out nicely since it looks like we all teared up multiple times, so it felt fine that we all got to sit close enough to center and all truly appreciated the film.

I've never seen this movie in its full 1.43 reproduction, and the moment the first full-frame scene appeared, my jaw quite literally dropped. This extra element seemed to add even more immersion and emotion to the movie, which I didn't think previously possible. I could have probably seen this in 1.43 in a non-70mm screening; however, something feels more right seeing it on film. The little changes in grain, the bright and dark spots, and occasional splotches all make it that much more real to watch.

After the movie ended and it was time to leave, I went up to ask the staff the question I like asking at every film showing: "Can I see the film reel since it's the last showing?". The people there seemed like they wanted to let me; however, the management who could make that happen were allegedly not there, so I could not. Not a big deal; however, I was hoping the possibility could happen since it did locally for Oppenheimer in regular 70mm.

The Second Movie

At this point, my whole purpose for coming down to Florida was now complete. I just needed to waste time until my flight at 9 a.m. the following day. So, I decided to go to the local AMC to get some food and watch another movie to waste time. Unfortunately, there were not many good movies to be seen, so I selected a 10:15 p.m. showing to Kraven the Hunter. Unfortunately, as I predicted, this movie was quite terrible given its choppy edits, audio, and not very clean-sounding voice lines. Anyways, the movie served its purpose in wasting more of my time so I could spend less time in the airport, which is where I am now finishing up this writing.

In total, it seems like the costs of this journey have added up. Apart from the $30 ticket price and the $80 flight cost, there were 3 or so meals, each being around $30, as well as some transit. So although the box office is only a few dollars, I spent probably near $200 to see the movie.

Was it worth it? Probably not. Was I glad I did it? Totally. Seeing the movie in 70mm IMAX is likely something I won't get to do again, or never get to do for a very long time, so I'm glad I could do it while I could.