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12/05/2005: "SHARKS 3D .........Imax Australian Premier film."
On the positive side there are some some great scenes, good French modern orchestral film music, and sufficient shark material to give this one hour film a 7 points out of 10 rating, at least.
On the negative side is a silly idea that the narration belong's to the young sea turtle which makes regular appearances throughout the show, fortunately without an animated mouth, so we presume the British voice is the turtle's thoughts. This turtle knows everything about everything, and predictably exagerates the shark sizes, and sometimes gets things slightly wrong in the danger-rating department.
Non-divers might rate the film even higher. With 3D glasses it is the best look at sharks you're ever likely to get without being wet - until a better film with more feeding action is obtained. This is more an underwater natural history view of the sea with sharks comprising less than half the content minutes.
The manta ray sequence would look better if shorter. The schooling sardines and trevally were special. A worthwhile film if you sit in the centre of the theatre, too.
I made an observation which seems to have escaped Imax theatre design and presentation possibilities. It occured by accident. I'd left my special glasses at the front door and returned to get them before the film commenced. Valerie Taylor was about to start her personal introduction which centered on grey nurse shark protection and the as yet failure of the NSW government to gazette marine national park 'non-fishing area's' as per neighbouring state governments.
Valerie also likened the deplorable practice of de-finning live sharks to killing an elephant for it's tusks only, and a lot of that has happened.
My new seat in the back row was now 'on the floor' with a person's head obscuring the bottom 15% of the giant screen. Usually a head blocking part of the projected image is annoying, but here is where I made an astounding observation, which, if picked-up on will change the presentation of 3D in theatres for the positive.
What happens when you have a person sitting in front of you, with 3D, is the image on the screen now appears between your eyes and the person's silouette in front - meaning the shark seems to float in air space about one-half meter in front of your eyes!
It's an amazing visual sensation! But this is lost with extreme sloping Imax stadium seating. Small children would be the only 3D beneficiaries, and people who sit on the floor in the centre back row, which is not normaly allowed!
Pictured above: Ron and Valerie Taylor at tonight's Sydney premier screening. SHARKS 3D
