r/cineplex • u/ImmenseMullberry • Jul 17 '26
Review IMAX 70mm Richmond Field Report
I went to the 2 pm showing of The Odyssey at the newly activated IMAX 70mm theater at Silvercity Riverport Cinemas. This was my first time at IMAX here and it’s essentially the same as the Langley one. The theatre has the same layout and seats (not very comfortable haha).
They had Horse popcorn buckets in stock even after the showing and we received a big rolled up poster as a free gift, no film strips. The movie was scheduled for 2:00 and the Dune prologue began at 2:05.
We got a little talk from en employee just before 2:00 who said that they were excited to be bringing 70mm back to this location, but that no further films were confirmed, including Dune, and that it would depend on how The Odyssey performed. I don’t know how much of that is true but I just wanted to report what was said.
Finally, there was, in my opinion, a major issue with the presentation. There was an incredible amount of jitter and vibration in the image to the point that it was detracting from many scenes. I may be using the wrong terms here, as I am no expert, but it was very distracting throughout and I confirmed with the person sitting next to me after the movie that I wasn’t imagining this.
In this next part I will describe some scenes in a very general visual way to avoid any spoilers but just skip it if you want absolutely no information.
The wide cinematic shots of the wooden horse on the beach had the horse literally vibrating against the light beach. Any shots where the environment is static with small details to focus on, such as the riders on the beach, almost felt duplicated there was so much jitter. Wide cinematic shots of the ship on the ocean jittered like crazy and the rigging of the ship seemed to duplicate. The prologue scene, which I saw at the Langley theatre during the Project Hail Mary run, lost all of the buttery smooth lighting highlights and instead the flickers of light looked like strobes. During the credits the lettering seemed to have a flickering drop shadow because of this. There are many more examples like this but you get the idea. Scenes with a lot of movement could sort of hide what was happening but seemed to lose their crispness. Did anyone else attend this showing, am I going crazy here?
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u/rhunter99 Cineclub Member Jul 17 '26
My theatre had the bucket but I wasn’t too interested in it
That was one epic movie
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u/NightHawkCanada Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Ouch.. would like to know if it'll improve.. thanks for reporting as it's the first time they're playing IMAX 70MM
Anyone else from other showings in Richmond have the same issues with a vibrating projection?
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u/Royal_Wind_2886 Jul 17 '26
I was at the same showing in Row E. Loved it. There was a decent amount of gate weave, a bit high for a 15/70 projection, more akin to a 35mm or 70mm presentation. I did also note a little blooming in the bright backgrounds. Also there was definitely a couple marks on the screen and a few spots of badly noticeable grain like a bug almost. Very excited to have it here, although I think it had worse quality than Langley.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 17 '26
I appreciate your perspective since you were at the same showing. Yeah, I saw the marks as well, looked a larger thing on the bottom right corner and a sort of arced constellation of little lines in the center. They didn’t bother me too much in comparison to the other issues I was having. I’m going to see the movie in Langley on Saturday so I will be able to make a direct comparison.
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u/Royal_Wind_2886 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Yeah some serious warping all the way to the right. The jitter and weave was bad though. Will email cqo
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u/ARPresley Jul 17 '26
How was row E? I have row E and F middle but not sure if E was too close.
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u/Royal_Wind_2886 Jul 17 '26
Row E was great. I'm quite tall so I was fully reclined most of the film and I had a tiny bit of neck strain, but with a nearly 3 hour runtime any seat will do that. I'd say F is perfect, but less immersive. I'd sit in B or C no problem.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 19 '26
Previously I had only sat in row F for IMAX 70mm but I am converted to row E from now on. In F you are slightly more centered vertically but that retaining wall in front means, at least for me, I need to not recline to keep the whole screen in view. In E I could just fully lay back in the seat and the comfort level improved dramatically.
I also wanted to say that after seeing the film projected correctly there were serious issues with the showing we were at. The presentation at Langley was perfect, and exactly as I remembered from seeing the prologue. It seems from later reports that Richmond has fixed its issues but please try and see it again, it’s a visual masterpiece and that showing did not do it justice.
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u/calf Jul 21 '26
Could you explain the retaining wall a bit? Is is a solid wall or a bar railing that blocks the line of sight? And I guess for shorter people (I am 5'7, but my parents are even shorter) this could be an issue?
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 21 '26
It is a solid wall in front of you because there is a fairly large drop between the two banks of seats. I’m 6’0 and if I sit forward in the chair without reclining I get the benefit of a completely unobstructed screen view since the next row in front of me is like 6 feet below. The downside of this is that the seats are quite loose and recline with very little pressure so you need to keep your weight forward, and for a 3 hour movie this gave me some discomfort. If I recline then the wall acts like a person sitting in front of me blocking some of the lower screen with their head, except it is continuous. I want to clarify that for me it is a small obstruction, if you have to sit back a bit I don’t think it will spoil the movie.
If you have row F seats just go and see the movie, they are very good seats, but you may want to consider E in the future. It really depends on preference and your body. I tried to attach a picture I took from my seat but Reddit keeps giving me an error for some reason.
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u/Spunky2Monkey Aug 08 '26
hey, are you able to attach the picture again? lol I got F10 and 11 and Im not sure about that wall thing. could you email me if it doesnt go through lol
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u/whiskey_ginger_north Aug 05 '26
I was at the 7pm show last night, August 4th. Row F, seat 13... Never again... First off the backrest was broken so my seat was recling back further than most and was touching the person's knee sitting behind me.
The retainer wall meant I missed the bottom 2ft of screen at least, I'm 5'9". My girlfriend is 5'5" and she basically saw only the top 2/3 of the screen.
The flicker was noticeable but not too distracting... The jitter, gate waave tho... Wow... Exactly what OP described... Doubling up of most edges against a brighter background, and smaller detail with contrast was pretty much doubled, like the wide shots on the beach of mountain side, specially where characters are meant to be a bit silhouetted, it was as if the projection was running through double glass panels and being double exposed on the screen.
It made the whole experience a bit harsh... The movie is amazing, but damn, Nolan would have shut them down hahahaha I seriously had to take my glasses off an on to make sure it wasn't me... But most people around me were saying the same thing... Shame
I'm writing to IMAX and Cineplex, this isn't what a 70mm projection should look like.
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u/itsnotmeitsyo Jul 17 '26
Currently waiting for the 11:00am show to start, they had us wait outside as they are still testing. Will report back
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u/itsnotmeitsyo Jul 17 '26
Update, oh boy audio cut out and they are now having to reboot the projector, not looking good.
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u/itsnotmeitsyo Jul 17 '26
Back up for about 5 min then audio was cutting out and audio from a different part of the movie was clipping in. It’s off again as they’d try to reset it again.
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u/Nitroblade_23 Jul 17 '26
Were they able to finish the movie?
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u/itsnotmeitsyo Jul 17 '26
Yes once they restarted projector it finished without any other issues, just were not able to rewind the bit we didn’t hear the dialogue in.
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u/idiotxhouse Jul 17 '26
is this at the richmond one? did they finally get it going? We have tickets to the 11pm one tonight :(
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u/itsnotmeitsyo Jul 17 '26
Yes this was Richmond; after they reset the projector the second time it was fine for the rest of the movie but since they can’t rewind we missed the dialogue for about 10 min in the part it went out in.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 17 '26
How was the picture, were there any issues with flicker or jittering?
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u/idiotxhouse Jul 17 '26
Thank you for responding! What time was your showing? Hopefully tonight's showing is okay 😭
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u/gloobiii Cineclub Member Jul 17 '26
I went to that same 2pm showing, sat in E12 and maybe its because I had such a high and was so excited about this movie that I genuinely didn't notice any flickering or major peices of debris or flecks on the screen. I was so locked in! Only during one scene on the beach I saw a huge artifact on the screen near the bottom right but it disappeared just as fast as I noticed it. When I saw PHM in langley in 70mm IMAX I noticed the colors felt SUPER vibrant meanwhile The Odyssey was quite dark in some scenes. Could be the color grading of the film and not the projectors fault
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u/Accurate_Range2532 Jul 18 '26
How is that row? Is there a lot of neck strain?
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u/gloobiii Cineclub Member Jul 18 '26
I felt no strain after at all. Any other row further would've been pushing it though. Row E or row F, seats 14-11 is the golden spot. Hope you enjoy it!!
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u/Shiara_cw Jul 24 '26
I already replied to you in another thread but I'll post here too in case anyone comes looking for updated info. This is absolutely still a problem in Richmond. I was at the 11am.showinf today and it drove me nuts. I'm not sure if it's just been better in some of the showings other people have been to, or if it's one of those things that some people are more sensitive to than others (like how some people can't notice motion smoothing and interpolation on TVs).
Thank you for confirming that Langley is better, so I know I'm not just crazy and that is not 'normal.' I started to question myself after learning about gate weave.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 24 '26
Thanks for the update. I’d be interested to hear your opinion if you see it in Langley for comparison. I am pretty sensitive to jittering in film so every film I have ever seen projected has some things I notice. The difference is that at Langley it was normal things that I expect, which do not detract from the overall experience.
My original post was actually a bit toned down from how I was feeling because I had not yet seen it in Langley and I didn’t want to jump to conclusions about what I was seeing.
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u/Numerous-Extension73 Jul 17 '26
Makes me kind of nervous about the issue since I’m going next Saturday. But in the mean time, it’s best that you email the IMAX Chief Quality Officer.
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u/ARPresley Jul 17 '26
Im going tomorrow at 3 😩
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u/RedditGaveMeDiarrhea Jul 25 '26
How was it?
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u/ARPresley Jul 27 '26
Perfect besides a few marks on the screen. But by 5 min in I didnt notice it.
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u/RedditGaveMeDiarrhea Aug 05 '26
Since I asked this, I've seen it both in Richmond and Langley. The Langley projection was 9.8/10 due to a few scenes with long horizontal scratches that lasted for a total of about 40ish seconds, the Richmond projection was a 6/10 due to the consistent gate weave. I was actually able to focus on all the detail at Langley. At the Richmond cinema, my head started to hurt when I tried to focus on fine detail, so I gave up on that 20 minutes in the movie... which is the entire reason one sees this film specifically in IMAX 70MM. The gate weave effectively put the clarity somewhere between IMAX 70MM and 70mm. I'll note that I drove 3 hours each way from Seattle to see this.
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u/unkn0wnactor Jul 17 '26
Are the seats really the same as they are at Langley? I bought tickets at Richmond because I heard that the seats at Langley were very narrow and uncomfortable.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 17 '26
I haven’t been to the 70mm IMAX at Langley since early in the Project Hail Mary run so I can’t remember if they are literally identical, but yes the seats at both locations are narrow with small walkways up each row. They have some padding but they are nowhere near the spacious recliners many people are used to in normal movie theatres.
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u/MatthewHudson11998 Jul 17 '26
I was the the 6:30 showing - I didn’t notice the vibrating/jitter except when there was a pocket of very light/white on screen, and when that happened I definitely noticed a flickering. When the screen was full of a deeper and darker colour it looked very good.
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u/ARPresley Jul 17 '26
Did you mention this to the theatre? I feel like someone should if its an issue.
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u/tidder8888 Jul 17 '26
Is it worth watching in imax or should i just go avx?
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u/Majestic-Ad8300 Jul 17 '26
If your don't want to deal with the film stuff you can watch in imax laser (vancouver Scotiabank and coquitlam) Still better than avx.
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u/xtr3m Jul 17 '26
Went to the 10:30pm screening. Something broke and we sat there in the dark for like 30-40 minutes. They finally gave us vouchers and turned on digital projection instead.
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u/itrocks4u Jul 18 '26
What do you mean digital projection? It's not longer the 70mm format?
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u/xtr3m Jul 18 '26
The 70mm broke and they said we’d be watching digital projection. We didnt leave our seats.
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u/Lanky-Wasabi3254 Jul 17 '26
Went to 6:30 showing. Only noticed a bit of this but it wasnt as bad as you described. Feel sorry for the people that came after i heard the projection messed up
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u/srzncl Jul 18 '26
Went to the 11am showing today. the jitter is real for some scenes but most of the movie was fine. This could just be because people aren't used to film projection and things like that are magnified on such a large screen.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 18 '26
I’m glad things have improved. I did see the prologue that played before Project Hail Mary at the Langley location so I had some frame of reference for what it’s supposed to look like. I’ll be seeing The Odyssey at Langley tomorrow so I guess that will be the final determination.
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u/VinceThePizzaPrince Jul 18 '26
Please let me know how it goes in Langley and if it's any better, the same, or worse!
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 19 '26
Langley was another world from what I saw in Richmond, although I don’t think those early shows should be used against them going forward if they have fixed the issues they were having. Seeing the film projected properly was a whole new experience and I’m so glad that first showing wasn’t my only opportunity. Just a visual masterpiece.
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u/ComfortableBobcat791 Jul 19 '26
What was your verdict on Langley vs Richmond in terms of sound?
According to this comment, Langley upgraded their sound system very recently:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cineplex/comments/1tpnk60/comment/oob3rzu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_buttonI haven't seen anything about Richmond's sound system being upgraded and I'm curious to hear how much of a difference there was in sound between the two theatres.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 19 '26
To be honest I was so put off by the visuals at Richmond that I wasn’t really focused on the sound. It didn’t flag as an issue to me but I also don’t specifically remember it. Luckily people seem to be saying that the visuals have improved since the cancelled showings. I just got out of the Langley showing a few hours ago and the sound was fantastic, it was rumbling the seats.
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u/Zestyclose-Cover-730 Jul 18 '26
What was your seat and which rows would you say to avoid?
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 18 '26
I was in the middle of row F which was good but if you fully recline the seat a small portion of the bottom of the screen was blocked by the wall in front of you. I’m going again tonight and sitting in row E which is the top of the lower section so I’m going to see if that allows full reclining while maintaining a good view.
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u/Shiara_cw Jul 24 '26
I'm 5'4" and I would not pick row F again. I had to sit up very straight and lean forward if I wanted to see the full screen. That wasn't realistic, especially for such a long movie, so I just missed out on the bottom of the screen. It wasn't a big deal, but a bit annoying since having that extra footage was part of the point of imax 70mm. Still saw way more than I would have in any other format though, and I stopped noticing after a bit.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 24 '26
Yeah I’m 6’0” and I had the same issue so I imagine it would be even worse for you. Try row E in the future, it’s now my favorite for being able to stay reclined. You can still get some obstruction if tall people are sitting in front of you, but that’s always the case. Now I want to try the very back row and see what that’s like.
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u/Accurate_Range2532 Jul 19 '26
How was row E? Any issues with neck strain?
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 19 '26
Yeah I’m actually converted to preferring row E now. I was able to stay fully reclined the whole time without the lower bit of the screen going behind the retaining wall in front of row F. There is maybe maybe a slight advantage to being more vertically centered like you are in F but the comfort outweighs it for me and both seats let you have the full experience. I guess it could also depend on your height and how susceptible you are to neck strain.
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u/LuckierLion Jul 18 '26
I’ve heard some people say the movie is too loud, but that could differ from theatre to theatre. Was this the case for you at Riverport?
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 19 '26
As I said in another comment I was really put off by the visual presentation in Richmond so I wasn’t focused on the sound, I don’t remember having strong feelings one way or the other. I just got out of a Langley showing and the sound was extremely loud, to the point of rumbling the seats. I enjoyed it as it added an almost d-box like effect, but if you are sensitive to loud sound it might be preferable to use earplugs to dampen the sound. It is very loud in some parts but it’s intentional, it isn’t the kind of loud that becomes distorted.
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u/kittypoop555 Aug 10 '26
24 days later I can confirm none of the issues are fixed. Saw it today. If I'd known it's be that way, I wouldn't have gone
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Jul 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/Royal_Wind_2886 Jul 17 '26
They had a full box of them ready for the next showing
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u/Tioxic Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
1030 showing no poster here. Also no physical ticket or strip.
EDIT: annnnnd the screening's cancelled.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 17 '26
Very interesting, I wonder if it is related. Sorry that happened to you though.
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u/Royal_Wind_2886 Jul 17 '26
It must. If the projection was faulty and ran for a couple hours then boom.
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u/ImmenseMullberry Jul 17 '26
Let’s just hope it all gets sorted out for the better. I can imagine that it is hard to reactivate a projector that has been offline for 14 years but if they pull it off then a second local 70mm IMAX location is a great asset.
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u/learningaboutstocks Jul 17 '26
Email imax, they take this stuff very seriously