Makes me wish I had booked tickets when I spotted them go on sale. £25 a seat at the BFI though, that's over £100 for two of us to watch a film and get something to eat afterwards, which makes me a bit cautious.
I'm curious how well the "expand to imax" stuff will do. Didn't Dark Knight do that way back when? I've seen it on some TV shows and it is an interesting technique.
I doubt we will ever see dual formats (full aspect imax and then a 'normal' theater ratio) for more cg effects heavy stuff because it must be a lot of work rendering stuff that's normally in the matte area. Im all down for normal8zing imax screens though, make going to the theater a real experience. My TV and sound system at home is almost the equivalent to a normal theater, so I want to extra oomph of imax. Don't like the tight vertical rows of a classic imax though, I'm too used to the lounge chairs, so it's a tough balancing act for theaters.
Far cry from when I used to watch indie stuff in strip mall store fronts on folding chairs and a 16mm print with a mono mix. Damn, those were the days. Get us back to those grand elaborate theaters. Of course fewer and fewer directors know how to make stuff for that format these days.