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T-Rex: Back To The Cretaceous (IMAX)
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
An IMAX release that came to theaters in 1998, "T-Rex: Back To The Cretaceous" will always stick out in my mind as one of the worst IMAX features I've seen, a mixture of bad acting and unintentionally very funny humor, only partially redeemed by some decent special effects. The movie revolves around Ally(Liz Stauber), a young girl who finds herself largely ignored by her palentologist father. After returning to the museum where they work after a dig, Ally accidentally knocks an egg off the table and it hits the ground with a thud, but doesn't break. Instead (shades of "Cheech and Chong?") the egg releases colored smoke and (whoa,man.) Ally starts tripping out.
Soon enough, she finds herself transported back to the world of the dinosaurs (that's one bad trip.). Those effects I'd mentioned? The dinosaurs do come in and they do look okay - but they're around for about 5 minutes. The rest of the movie mostly focuses on the hilariously sappy relationship between Ally and her father, or Ally visiting her palentology idols from the past. The opening 20 minutes or so drag roughly as the set-up takes forever.
The acting all around is pretty awful - Stauber and Horton are completely corny and amateurish. The entire thing seems like a big-budget bad afterschool special (in theaters, it was in 3D, as well.). I've really begun to think that, after watching IMAX films rather consistently for about three years, that they really should throw out the idea of telling fictional stories like this, since they really never succeed at telling an even basically interesting story. Document something or someplace that we've never seen before and leave it at that - forget the 3D portion, as well - it's rarely done to much effect and those headsets in the theaters are irritating to wear.
The DVD
VIDEO: "T-Rex", like most IMAX features when they arrive in the home (theater), is presented in 1.33:1 full frame. Image Entertainment and a few other companies have presented IMAX films from various years with great success, as the picture quality looks often breathtaking. I'm still at a loss to explain why Warner Brothers has not been able to do that kind of job with their first three IMAX efforts. Although picture quality here is certainly good and often pleasing, the image quality lacks the kind of exceptional depth that I've seen in the image many times for previous IMAX DVD titles from other companies.
For "T-Rex", sharpness and detail are fairly good, if not outstanding. The picture has a smooth, clean look with no really noticable print flaws or pixelation. There's just a touch of edge enhancement. Colors looked bright and bold, well-saturated and clean throughout. Certainly not a terrible presentation, but I've also seen IMAX done better.
SOUND: One of the pleasures of watching IMAX films is that they almost always have heavy and agressive surround use. In "T-Rex", the creative and audio use made the story almost watchable when I saw this film in an IMAX theater and it's really the only entertaining portion of the viewing experience in the home theater.
Surround use is fairly agressive throughout the movie, but things really don't start up until Ally starts tripping out and finding herself in the prehistoric environment, where ambient sounds are well-used to immerse the viewer. There's also, of course, some more intense audio use during the action sequences, what few there actually are in the movie (if you've actually seen the trailer for the film, you've seen practically all of the action.). Dialogue sounded clear and clean, as well. This isn't the best use of surround sound I've ever heard in an IMAX feature (the IMAX concert documentary "All Access" still holds that title) , but it's at least enjoyable.
MENUS:: The menus are not animated, but some audio from the film plays behind the menu. It's unfortunate that there are no chapter stops durng the film.
EXTRAS: A promotional featurette, the IMAX trailer and the film's trailer.
Final Thoughts: "T-Rex: Back To The Cretaceous" is easily one of the worst (if not the worst) IMAX films I've ever seen - and that's saying something since I've seen some truly awful ones. Audio/video quality is fine, but certainly doesn't redeem the film itself.
An IMAX release that came to theaters in 1998, "T-Rex: Back To The Cretaceous" will always stick out in my mind as one of the worst IMAX features I've seen, a mixture of bad acting and unintentionally very funny humor, only partially redeemed by some decent special effects. The movie revolves around Ally(Liz Stauber), a young girl who finds herself largely ignored by her palentologist father. After returning to the museum where they work after a dig, Ally accidentally knocks an egg off the table and it hits the ground with a thud, but doesn't break. Instead (shades of "Cheech and Chong?") the egg releases colored smoke and (whoa,man.) Ally starts tripping out.
Soon enough, she finds herself transported back to the world of the dinosaurs (that's one bad trip.). Those effects I'd mentioned? The dinosaurs do come in and they do look okay - but they're around for about 5 minutes. The rest of the movie mostly focuses on the hilariously sappy relationship between Ally and her father, or Ally visiting her palentology idols from the past. The opening 20 minutes or so drag roughly as the set-up takes forever.
The acting all around is pretty awful - Stauber and Horton are completely corny and amateurish. The entire thing seems like a big-budget bad afterschool special (in theaters, it was in 3D, as well.). I've really begun to think that, after watching IMAX films rather consistently for about three years, that they really should throw out the idea of telling fictional stories like this, since they really never succeed at telling an even basically interesting story. Document something or someplace that we've never seen before and leave it at that - forget the 3D portion, as well - it's rarely done to much effect and those headsets in the theaters are irritating to wear.
The DVD
VIDEO: "T-Rex", like most IMAX features when they arrive in the home (theater), is presented in 1.33:1 full frame. Image Entertainment and a few other companies have presented IMAX films from various years with great success, as the picture quality looks often breathtaking. I'm still at a loss to explain why Warner Brothers has not been able to do that kind of job with their first three IMAX efforts. Although picture quality here is certainly good and often pleasing, the image quality lacks the kind of exceptional depth that I've seen in the image many times for previous IMAX DVD titles from other companies.
For "T-Rex", sharpness and detail are fairly good, if not outstanding. The picture has a smooth, clean look with no really noticable print flaws or pixelation. There's just a touch of edge enhancement. Colors looked bright and bold, well-saturated and clean throughout. Certainly not a terrible presentation, but I've also seen IMAX done better.
SOUND: One of the pleasures of watching IMAX films is that they almost always have heavy and agressive surround use. In "T-Rex", the creative and audio use made the story almost watchable when I saw this film in an IMAX theater and it's really the only entertaining portion of the viewing experience in the home theater.
Surround use is fairly agressive throughout the movie, but things really don't start up until Ally starts tripping out and finding herself in the prehistoric environment, where ambient sounds are well-used to immerse the viewer. There's also, of course, some more intense audio use during the action sequences, what few there actually are in the movie (if you've actually seen the trailer for the film, you've seen practically all of the action.). Dialogue sounded clear and clean, as well. This isn't the best use of surround sound I've ever heard in an IMAX feature (the IMAX concert documentary "All Access" still holds that title) , but it's at least enjoyable.
MENUS:: The menus are not animated, but some audio from the film plays behind the menu. It's unfortunate that there are no chapter stops durng the film.
EXTRAS: A promotional featurette, the IMAX trailer and the film's trailer.
Final Thoughts: "T-Rex: Back To The Cretaceous" is easily one of the worst (if not the worst) IMAX films I've ever seen - and that's saying something since I've seen some truly awful ones. Audio/video quality is fine, but certainly doesn't redeem the film itself.
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