6. Blade Runner
Ridley Scott’s seminal science-fiction classic Blade Runner is not just one of my personal favorite movies, but one of the most visually compelling films ever made. Scott and his team crafted an absolutely jaw-dropping vision of the future, one pulsing with life, detail, and depth in each and every frame. Bleak sci-fi landscapes are common to the genre; filthy, hopeless, decaying, and completely, utterly believable future visions like Blade Runner are singular, and I would love little more than to examine the film’s remarkable visual palate on the world’s largest screen.
Sound would benefit too, of course; who wouldn’t want to hear Vangelis’ landmark electronic score blaring through an IMAX sound system? Like Raiders, Blade Runner is coming to home video again later this year, making it the perfect time for Warner Bros. to plan some special IMAX screenings.
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey
While we’re discussing sci-fi, we may as well salivate over the thought of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, granddaddy of them all, on the biggest of big screens. This is another film that was originally photographed in 70mm, and that incredible resolution has always shone through. It would look better than ever on IMAX, where one’s appreciation for Kubrick’s beautifully prescient production design and special effects would rise exponentially.
One wonders if the twenty minutes of flashing neon lights in the Beyond the Infinite segment might induce life-threatening seizures at IMAX size, but that may well be a price worth paying to see one of history’s greatest films in the best format available.
4. Star Wars
Of all the films on this list, Star Wars is the one that seems like the biggest no brainer for IMAX. It’s Star Wars, for crying out loud. It has been released, altered, re-released, and re-packaged more times than most fans can keep track of. How has Lucas resisted the IMAX allure this long? With the film’s iconic set-pieces, effects, music, and sound design, Star Wars would absolutely kill in IMAX.
Just close your eyes and imagine the death-star run on the world’s largest screen. It would be unlike anything IMAX has ever hosted before, and that’s truly saying something. Star Wars on IMAX needs to happen. Who knows? Maybe the upcoming 3D re-releases of the latter prequels will flop, and Lucas will choose to go in a different, IMAX-themed direction for the original trilogy.
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