The Dark Knight - Incredible IMAX shots

I watched The Dark Knight on Blu-ray for the time on a 55" FHD screen and I was both impressed and disappointed.

The picture quality of those IMAX camera's are ridiculous. Every scene shot with them just blew me away. But then the film decides to switch to letterbox and not only are the black bars distracting, but the picture quality is noticeably worse. The constant switching between full screen and letterbox is irritating and distracting as it's very noticeable and kept resetting the level of immersion I was experiencing.

I don't understand what they were thinking in doing this.
- Distracting transition
- Ruins immersion (flow)
- Noticeable difference in picture quality
- All this results in inconsistency

Why not just shoot the whole film in fullscreen IMAX? God Knows that if any movie deserves it, it's The Dark Knight.

Not sure if I've ever seen the screen actually change on my own disc. The size format is constant throughout.


As for IMAX itself... filmmakers tend not to use it too much as the cameras are huge great beasts of burden and are notoriously difficult to manoeuvre.

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Christopher Nolan explains that they decided to leave the IMAX scenes in their original aspect ratio for the Blu-ray remaster. I'd post the video but I can't yet. Is your copy Blu-ray or DVD?

It's such a shame! How am I suppoed to revert back to regular camera's now that I've been teased with the beauty of the IMAX picture?! Can't wait to see a quality action movie shot entirely with IMAX.

Mine is the DVD. Not a fan of BluRay.


BluRay are messed with too much. As you've learned with TDK and their messing with the ratio of the screen mid-film.

I appreciate the quality of Blu-ray. The tweaking is completely unnecessary though.

If you enjoy the IMAX experience, there are films out there that have been filmed fully in IMAX...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IMAX_films


There's a high number in 3D though since 2000, which I don't like tbh, I hate 3D...and a lot of them are documentary types too rather than feature films.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IMAX_DMR_films is a list of films that have been digitally converted to IMAX.

I have the Warner Bros. Blu-Ray disc and a 55in HD Sony Monitor. I saw it in a True IMAX theater in Seattle when it was released originally. I found this commentary in a review of the Blu-Ray disc online:

"Presented theatrically in both standard 35mm and IMAX formats, 'The Dark Knight' is framed here in alternating aspect ratios. The majority of the film is 2.40:1, while the IMAX-filmed segments open up to 1.78:1. Personally, I found the flip-flopping at times slightly distracting. While the jump between compositions isn't that jarring when it comes after long scenes (such as the opening, which is 1.78:1), there are times when a single shot will be presented in its own aspect ratio (such as the beginning of the "love boat" sequence), and that can irritate. The upside is that the IMAX material does display a noticeable uptick in clarity and resolution. The 35mm-based footage is certainly no slouch, but there is an added sharpness and depth to the IMAX-originated footage that raises the bar for what Blu-ray is capable of."
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1825/darkknight.html

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You have to think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human being.

They didn't use the IMAX cameras for the whole movie because it is, as mentioned, too big and hard to manoeuvre AND they are too noisy for dialogue scenes (that was the main reason according to Nolan).

And I agree it's freaking annoying with the aspect ratio changes!!!

They're not "messing with it", they're presenting the film as it was originally shot. The blu-ray is the true representation of the film and you are watching the "messed with" version.

I have never found it jarring in the Nolan films because he shot entire sequences in IMAX and the shifts between them aren't very frequent. That said, yes, there's a huge difference in quality and I hate that, but the aspect ration changing doesn't bother me at all. It's also done in The Dark Knight Returns and it doesn't bother me there, either.

Hopefully you're not a fan of the Transformers films because Age of Extinction was partially filmed on IMAX and, unlike Nolan's films, Bay didn't pick certain scenes to shoot on IMAX, he just sort of randomly sets up the IMAX camera. That film will shift aspect ratio constantly, not just during certain scenes, but back and forth in one scene throughout the entire film. Also, that movie is almost 3 hours long...

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Hopefully the recent increased implementation of IMAX technology in high-impact action movies will push toward the development of smaller and more maneuverable cameras. I'm honestly finding it hard to be satisfied with regular cameras . Watched Iron Man on Blu-ray last night and I couldn't help but think how amazing it would look in IMAX!

Plenty of 4K cameras are coming out now and there is 4k bluray .. but most people are moving toward streaming and downloading content. Even studios now are spending more money on television than films

yeah! this was the problem but after all the difficulties this movie was a big hit and I loved the acting of Tom Hardy Most as compared to Batman.