THE FIRST IMAX THEATRE IN THE PHILIPPINES

by Mila delos Santos

I was so excited about the opening of the IMAX theater in the Philippines.  So during the grand opening of the Mall of Asia last Sunday, I gathered up all my courage and patience and watched Everest in IMAX format . The film was truly breathtaking (I'll cover Everest in a separate post) and you will truly appreciate the feat accomplished by Leo Oracion, Pastor Emata, and Romi Garduce in climbing the top of the world after you have seen this movie. The focus of this article is the IMAX Theatre in the MOA and I'll give you a "sneak preview"on what to expect if you enter this theatre:

-- You'll be awestruck by the sheer size of a 20m x 33m 8 stories high Wide Screen. I tried to capture the screen and give a perspective on how huge it is!
-- There are 560 seats in the theater and the show was sold out! Just see how big the theater is.
-- The rows are from A to P with A being the first row in front of the screen. Trust me, you don't want to be in A and we were seated in G but still it feels too close. My advise get seats near P and in the center around seat 20+.
-- There are two entrances in the first floor. The right entrance was supposed to be an entrance for seats 1-21 while the left was for seats 22-44. If you are on the wrong entrance, don't worry just tell the person that you don't mind entering the wrong entrance and walk all the way to your seat because it isn't that far to walk.
-- The exit was on the second floor at the back of the theater. I can imagine in an emergency you don't want to be stucked in the middle of the IMAX theater so make sure you position yourself near the exit. So if I were to watch again, I'll choose row P, single digit seats.
-- IMAX is located in the north side of Mall of Asia. So I suggest that you park in the north side open space. I'll posted a map of the mall of Asia below to give you the location of the IMAX. You don't want to be parking on the south side, which is already too far from the IMAX.
-- The regular IMAX shows are only  45 minutes long compared to the regular movies which are only about 1.5 to 2 hours show.
-- There are two shows available that is currently showing the Nascar Racing which is a 3d show for P200 and Everest which is a 2d show for P150. Superman Returns will be showing in late June, so this is the movie to watch in IMAX!
-- The IMAX Theater is sponsored by San Miguel and Coca Cola, so expect their ads  all over the theater. San Miguel Beer anyone during the movie? That would be a bad idea...
-- Food and drinks are allowed inside the theater. But  as a courtesy to the next people watching the IMAX shows, please clean your trash before you leave.

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Where is IMAX? OK, I'll orient you with this map. First, check photo no. 1 above..The South Parking (Yellow) faces the Church of the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Main Mall (Blue) is the center where it is directly in front of the Mall of Asia Globe. The Entertainment Mall (Green) faces Manila Bay. The IMAX Theater is located in the corner intersecting the North Parking (where the DELL call center is located) and the Entertainment Mall. There are open air parking spaces outside IMAX so find some parking slots there. I don't advise the 5 story parking towers... believe me this is the last place you want to park.

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 A big THANK YOU to Mila for this very lucid article on the latest Landmark in Manila. I enjoyed working on it and it seemed as if I have visited the place in spirit and for sure once I visit the Philippines again I will give it a look. The photographs are also very clear and the colors are unlike the ordinary digital photos I have seen.

Again to Mila, a big THANK YOU !!!

notes: The first IMAX ever built here in Ontario is found in Ontario Place, beside the lakeshore area. It was built around the '80s. The second one, I believe is the PARAMOUNT the theatre where I saw SUPERMAN RETURNS during the middle week of June. Segments of the movie were in 3 Dimension, that means you have to wear special glasses to see the effect..IMAX  movies are shot in a special film ( the final film being shown is about 100 mm big, compared to the 35 mm being used in ordinary theatres ). You will notice that watching the Real IMAX movies which are mostly documentaries, the screen image is so big yet the details are so sharp and clear..Sometimes it is so big that you could not see everything in the screen! Still the IMAX experience is really mind-blowing. Some feature films ( like Return of the Jedi or Superman Returns were not filmed in original IMAX; some prints were blown up into 100 mm size then run through the IMAX projectors which are different from the standard film projectors ).

So everybody,  once in a while, let us put the TV to rest and let us go to the movies!

--the editor