imax movies california
Which are the best “real” IMAX theaters near San Jose, California?
I am looking to watch the movie “Avatar” in an IMAX theater. Since most of the local theaters which advertise as having IMAX screens, don’t have the real dome screens, I am looking for real theaters nearby.
If you have a link that lists all the places on one page, that would be great!
Thanks!
Avoid the IMAX theater in Downtown San Jose. Although it is the only “real” IMAX theatre in or near San Jose it sucks. First the screen is pretty big and not that far away so when you are looking up at it – yes, up at the ceiling – you have to literally look from left to right and right to left. I went and saw Superman Returns there and right from the start when the dialogue came up everyone has to turn their heads to the left then all the way to the right to read the screen and repeat this until we were done reading the sentences. Everyone was laughing at how ridiculous it was.
Plus you sit so close that your legs can not move. I am only 5′7″ and my knees were at a 90 degree angle the whole time. The chairs were angled but not quite enough, but it wasn’t that bad so my neck didn’t hurt. I can put up with a lot but I have never been back since and I never will to watch a movie there. It sucks!
The other theaters around San Jose, Eastridge, Mercado, Capital and the others do not have a “real” IMAX theatre, they are just theaters converted so I really didn’t notice a difference. I’ve seen Avatar both in 3-D and 3-D IMAX. I noticed very little if any difference at all. I think it was because the 3-D IMAX theater wasn’t a real true IMAX theater.
Dublin and San Francisco are the two closest “true” IMAX theaters. I haven’t been to the one in Dublin but I’ve been to the SF one in the Metreon and it is HUGE. I probably sat 10 rows down from the very back I was still too close. Really very awesome! If you are going to see Avatar in IMAX 3-D I would recommend either of these two theaters. Otherwise if you don’t go to one of these I would skip IMAX at the theaters around the SJ area that have just been converted because it is no where near the same thing.
http://www.imax.com/
Just type in at the bottom San Francisco, CA and it will give you the list of locations.
Again ONLY San Jose Tech Museum, Dublin and SF Metreon were BUILT from the ground up as IMAX theaters all the rest were just converted normal theaters recently. Not the same at all. But I really would avoid the San Jose Tech Museum theater.
Beauty and the Beast, Walt Disney Studios, special IMAX trailer
Tags: california, imax, movies, museum, science