Public Service Announcement

Here is a great tip for all of you who are thinking about seeing a film at an IMAX theatre. Get there early and sit near the top. We made the mistake last night of arriving close to the start of the movie (we saw Superman).
In my ignorance I thought that all IMAX theatres would be about the same. The only other one I have been to is in Denver. In the Mile High City the screen is about twice as big and the lowest row of seats in the stadium seating is positioned a comfortable distance away from screen. Contrast that with the Des Moines Science Center’s IMAX where the screen isn’t that much bigger than some movie theatres and the seats are almost close enough to the screen to touch it. I guess it makes it look bigger. Now I’m not sure of the logic behind this (and maybe they have to) but they projected the movie from about half way up the screen to the top of screen. That wouldn’t be so bad if the top of screen didn’t curve up onto the ceiling. I think we accidentally wandered into the planetarium…

So imagine us seated near the bottom having to crane our necks in a 90 degree angle just to see the action. I could have really used one of those hospital bendy straws for my drink. We finally figured out that if you slouched down far enough where your rear is completely off of the seat and your head was jammed into the back of your seat you had a pretty good angle – for about 5 minutes until your legs fell asleep and your neck cramped up.

So to help you all out, either get there early or beg the staff to point the projector down a few feet. Now if you will excuse me, I’ve run out of icy-hot.