A new dimension in 3-D thanks to Imax with Laser

A first in the region – Vox Cinemas in the new extension at Mall of the Emirates brings the latest Imax technology with a laser big-screen projection system. We watch The Walk and discover a newfound tolerance for 3-D cinema.

The Imax with Laser at Vox Cinemas at Mall of the Emirates, claims to have the cheapest ticket prices to experience the new system. Courtesy Vox Cinemas

Great promises are being made about the new 3-D viewing experience offered by the Imax with Laser big-screen projection system.

The recently opened Vox Cinema in the Mall of the Emirates extension is the first cinema in the region to get the technology – and Andrew Cripps, the president of Imax for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, says that Dubai is the cheapest place in the world to experience it.

The cost of watching Imax at the cinema is between Dh50 and Dh75. At the Empire Cinema in London, where Imax recently demonstrated the technology, the cost is £19.95 (Dh112).

Even at this price, the big question is not whether it improves the viewing experience, but whether any improvement is significant enough to warrant paying the higher ticket price. What we all want to know is whether the 3-D is good enough.

Let’s be honest – until now, the 3-D experience has been largely disappointing. For the most part, 3-D has just involved boxy images laid on top of each other, creating a screen image rendered so dark by the glasses we have to wear that it looks like someone has added a layer of dust to the screen.

Even in Imax 3-D, which I felt was the best option of the bunch, I could never sit through a whole movie without, at some stage, taking off the glasses and rubbing my eyes as they started to strain.

Imax brought out the big guns to wow us and demonstrate why Imax with Laser 3-D is better than the old 3-D we’ve been watching up to now. In addition to Cripps, we heard from Brian J Bonnick, chief technology officer, and David Keighley, chief quality officer.

I admit, I approached the demonstration with a scepticism that came from years of being promised an unparalleled cinema experience – and being disappointed every time.

First, they unveiled “the black box”. It looked a bit like a rather fancy shoebox but was, in fact, the culmination of US$60 million­ (Dh220m) of research and development. It is, we were told, the reason why laser Imax 3-D is so much better than what has gone before.

Instead of a xenon bulb in the projector, which heats up and affects the computer chips, causing distortion, the use of lasers allows for the chips to work at optimum levels – and, most importantly, it makes it possible to project a significantly brighter image onto bigger screens.

The optimal width of an Imax screen in the xenon days was 80 feet – the new technology has been designed for screens that are 120 feet. This is the reason, Cripps told me, that the new technology will be rolled out to bigger screens first.

So much for the theory. What about the demonstration?

First, a nice graph was displayed that looked a bit like one of those printer test pages, with colours in bars and black and white lines next to each other. We were told the contrast is great and the colour range wider. No reason to doubt that. It certainly looked very nice in 2-D. They also showed an image with black-and-white squares that was apparently amazing, in a technical sense – but to the untrained eye looks just like a chessboard.

Then we were told about the new sound system. It’s rather clever, with microphones next to each of the 12 speakers that report back to a central system so the sound quality can be monitored. They also have a camera focused on the screen that checks the image quality, so that every time you go to the cinema, the projection is perfect. It’s hard not to respect the attention to detail – and the sound quality certainly was great.

Finally, the visual demonstration – first in 2-D and then in 3-D.

I have to say it was impressive, even to a cynical layman such as myself. One particular striking image of a fighter jet felt like it was going to land on my head.

Determined not to simply judge by the carefully staged demonstration, however, I went to a screening of The Walk – the first film to be shown in Imax with Laser at Vox in Dubai.

It was without doubt the best 3-D movie experience of my life. I didn’t take off the glasses once, the image was bright and clear, and the 3-D came as close to reality as I have seen on a screen.

My only gripe – the glasses are still awful and clunky. But I can't wait to see the new James Bond adventure, Spectre, on the ­new technology.

• Crimson Peak is currently screening in Imax with Laser at Vox Cinemas, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai, followed by Spectre from November 6