I went to Lalaport again (third time in this week), this time for The Creator at BIG hall!
I think The Creator is more properly mixed for Dolby Atmos, and the sound imaging was the best I've ever experienced.

It's not the powerful / bassy type, but it's super accurate. I could actually hear the exact location in the hall where the sound is coming from - there was a scene the sound is coming from the side of the hall, I thought it was someone playing the music from their phone. It's really something I have never experienced in other halls before.

I also counted the number of speakers in the hall: 7 on each side, 6 at the back, and 14 on the ceiling. Not sure how many behind the screen.

This post has been edited by ericling: Sep 29 2023, 11:31 PM

That's the plan haha. I mean, even if Oppenheimer won't re-air in IMAX in Malaysia, let alone Bukit Jalil, I hope to meet you and the others there when it eventually opens.

@Katharsis thank you for the great review! Macam proud pulak that the closest IMAX hall to my house is also one of the best, despite being Xenon haha. Couple seating I don't have an issue with, since I just bring my best friend or cousin to watch with me haha (they cover their half of the ticket lol)

If IMAX Laser at TGV Pavilion BJ gets a bigger screen size than the one at GSC IOI City Mall East, that might be my new go to hall until TGV decides to upgrade Velocity to Laser as well.

I agree with this idea!! haha

This post has been edited by KaiHD: Sep 30 2023, 01:40 AM

I am also planning on watching The Creator, but not sure if I want to go watch in IMAX Xenon (TGV Velocity), or BIG Laser (GSC MyTown). Someone please do comparison of GSC BIG Halls between MyTown/LalaPort/Starling/Pavilion BJ haha

I think Velocity IMAX is not the right place to watch The Creator, given that the movie is shown in 2.76:1 aspect ratio (even wider/shorter than most films). There will be severe letterboxing in Velocity IMAX screen since the screen is so tall.

Apparently Pavilion Bukit Jalil IMAX is smaller than Velocity (but still big haha)



https://www.facebook.com/TGVCinemas/posts/p...176323852111796

hows the aspect ratio? apparently the creator utilize wide screen, does the black bar very noticeable?

It's noticeable but luckily BIG screen is quite big, so the picture shown is still big enough, so no issue.

theyve officially released the dimensions for tgv bukit jalil imax screen size. 20m x 11m https://twitter.com/TGVCinemas/status/17086...3688172/photo/1 for comparison the biggest is 19.4m x 25.9m for sunway velocity. so the old one with crappy xenon projector is more than twice taller than the new laser

This post has been edited by anip94: Oct 2 2023, 11:39 AM

Sunway Velocity is a tall screen, 4:3 ratio! Does this show the IMAX movies in 4:3?

Okay, considering The Creator is shot in 2.76:1 (so wide lol), definitely better to watch it at IMAX @ TGV Pavilion BJ or BIG @ GSC MyTown (21.6m x 11.9m) since those are wider 1.81:1 screens - not to mention they're slightly wider than IMAX @ TGV Velocity by 1m hahah. I'm gonna book it for this weekend then, thanks!

So whats the hype of Creator

Haha

October really dead month for cinema after Dune 2 got pulled out

Arghhh

Basically if you love spaceships, spacestations, robots, machines, all that stuff... it looks gorgeous haha. Plot is pretty good too apparently

TGV Twitter said that the screen is 1.9:1 so expected to be that size, but man that is quite small lol, I think it's similar to IOI City Mall's IMAX Laser in size given the SEA IMAX VP said IOI's is roughly 11m tall. This makes Bukit Jalil's IMAX to be smaller than 1U. Only thing going for it is the IMAX Laser projection and 12 audio channels. Kinda bumped out no cap.

No since the hall uses Xenon 2k IMAX projection, max at 1.9:1 aspect ratio. There are rumours that this hall will be renovated for IMAX Laser GT (dual lasers), so it could eventually display 1.43:1 IMAX films.

@KaiHD @skylinelover The Creator's aspect ratio is very wide and IMO not worth it for IMAX. I recommend Big Atmos mainly due to price. I watched the film recently in Lalaport Big (post soon) and the audio was surreal, definitely worth it there. You will get a similar experience in IMAX, definitely better image quality ala IMAX Laser, but just pure value wise, Big is great while costing less.

Side note, the movie is visually stunning, apparently cost USD 80 million to make, and the CG rivals films that cost more than 500m. Story however is a bit mixed bag imo, a lot of themes showcased but not properly explored leaving mixed messages, pacing is off as the events that transpire don't properly have time to shine and transitions awkwardly to the next. It's still an okay story but go in for the spectacles and audio presentation.

Lalaport GSC Big Atmos review - The Creator



Positives:

- Speakers are newer and are pretty awesome. Great surround imaging and strong yet comfortably loud

- Image quality is good as it should given the projector being Barco 4k Laser

Negatives:

- Screen size is pretty small. I think it's the smallest GSC BIG in Klang Valley

- Seats are slightly uncomfortable and the row's legroom is not that great

Personal notes:

- Best seat row is B, D is the maximum I would take.

- The screen is positioned slightly higher from ground (there's a stage so I guess to accommodate that), so you really have to sit at the last 3 rows to get a centered viewing, otherwise you'll have to lean your head backwards which can cause discomfort

- Travelling here is via MRT a bit of a mixed bag as there's a 15-20 minute walk from Bukit Bintang station to this mall, but there's a LRT station next to it, so if I were to return to this mall, I will have to research the transit lines.

Fun fact, during my screening of The Creator here, the fire alarm tripped during mid screening of this film, and everyone had to evacuate. We were told it was due to some guy smoking and we were able to return to the halls to continue watching. they did rewind to the scenes prior to the evacuation.

That aside, overall, the hall is good, not great however, mainly due to the screen size. Watching The Creator here, which already is a pretty wide film ala 2.76:1 was rough as there's not enough screen real estate. I definitely feel that this film would be better on larger screens, so my recommendations would be Starling's Big, then MyTown, then lastly Tropicana Gardens. Other films with normal/common aspect ratios of 2.39:1 (especially 1.9:1 as well if not gatekept by IMAX) would be good here.

Tropicana Gardens Mall Revisit - Interstellar

I wanted to watch Interstellar at Lalaport, but the only screening was quite late, so I chose Tropicana Gardens instead. I also wanted to confirm and reply to @anip94's statements of this hall.

First off, while Interstellar is an IMAX film that has tall aspect ratios (in Malaysia, max we can get is 1.9:1), that's only an IMAX exclusive and any other format of the film will be given the standard 2.39:1 version, hence there's letterboxing on the screen when viewing this film. I believe most screens we have here are 1.9:1, even normal halls as there are some films that only releases in 1.9:1. The Flash for example this year is in that aspect ratio and in MyTown Big where I watched this film, it filled up majority of the screen.

Secondly, I realized that BIG's Barco 4k laser's image while being clearer and sharper than normal halls and MAXX halls, it's still quite flawed with the blacks being a bit grey, while not able to project brightly. I remembered my John Wick 4 comparison post here of MyTown's Big and IOI City's IMAX Laser and said that the blacks in IMAX Laser were darker while the colours pop more than Big's. This confirms that IMAX Laser had better visual quality than Big, but I think that's to be expected since the IMAX Laser is like the 2nd best rated projector in terms of visual quality in theaters, only behind Dolby Vision which is unavailable in Malaysia.

In regards to the image quality of Interstellar in this film, I did notice the image being quite grainy in the earlier scenes (I know the film includes a lot of dust with it's narrative and all, but I mean like close-up angles on characters like cooper, and the image becomes quite grainy). I was confused since other scenes of the film looked sharp and great. I searched online and some viewers mentioned that it's widescreen (2.39:1) scenes has that problem while the tall ones did not.

Overall, I can understand anip94's criticism, but I think the image quality sentiment is an Interstellar/isolated case only as my prior visits to this hall with different films had excellent image quality.

Fun fact: This is my first time watching Interstellar, and I'm happy I saved that moment for the cinema experience. Back then in 2014, I wasn't really a big movie-goer and skipped watching this film. To finally watch it on a PLF was a great moment and honestly, the film itself was spectacular. I really wish it could be re-released in IMAX theaters, especially in Velocity when/if TGV renovates that for Dual Laser for that 1.43:1 goodness.

yeah, i think the image quality is just gsc being lazy and not entirely fault of the projector. they might have just use the 2k copy of Interstellar thats good enough for normal projector and standard hall. but when its projected into BIG screen its not gonna get as sharp. for reference i watched Inception re-release on GSC standard hall and i think the imagine quality was good. im also surprise that BIG have a fixed aspect ratio screen and not adaptive like standard hall. if anyone notices, the screen on standard hall can sometime shrink after all the advertising to fit the movie's aspect ratio hence eliminating any apparent black bar.


i think thats the max screen size for single laser projector, which sucks. if they wanted to match 1U and Sunway Velocity screen size then they had fit them with dual laser system. seeing how expansive that is i just cant see them being fitted in local cinemas. so if people actually wanted to experience proper immersive big imax screen then they have to watch blurry movies with the crappy xenon projector. and the end of the day the consumer still lose.

This post has been edited by anip94: Oct 4 2023, 04:32 PM

Thanks for the tip!

So which BIG hall do you think I should go - MyTown, LalaPort, or Starling? (or ONYX at Tropicana Gardens?)

Which one have best experience if considering screen size and sound quality? (no budget )

This post has been edited by KaiHD: Oct 4 2023, 05:37 PM

Starling is the best. Biggest Big screen in Klang Valley with awesome audio, then Tropicana, MyTown and Lalaport. MyTown's speakers do rattle at times so take that with a grain of salt, but the screen is the 2nd biggest. Tropicana's Onyx is great but I'm unsure about the audio quality. Last time I was there for Barbie but the screening had to be cancelled and refunded cause of (ironically) audio issues. I think it may have improved but will need to visit again for assessment.

Thks. Yesterday checked for half priced. Not bad.

Now i waiting the TDK WB100 yo.

Not the fan of Nolan spaceship in interstellar. Hahahaha.

Confirmed.
IMAX With Laser and 12-Channel Audio System is COMING to three existing halls within 3 month's time.
Sunway Velocity, 1U and surprisingly KLCC.
😁😁😁

I wonder which of the 4 places will be getting the new IMAX With Laser treatment?