Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler 'Polar Express'

Anybody get a chance to see this movie yet? We rented it a couple of evenings ago and whenever we first started watching it we looked at each other and said 'Uh Oh!' The movie turned out to be pretty darn good and the LFEs was really good, matter of fact whenever the train very first came onto the scene I was kinda startled ... 'Where in the heck did THAT come from!'

Neat little Christmas movie for those interested.

Cool, will have to check that out, I believe it is playing at our IMAX right now also.. May have to check that out when my EP500 arrives very soon..

Randy you're going to end up having to 're-check' all of your movies out whenever the 500 arrives. You are going to one busy fella for a little while.

Yep, I bought it from amazon the other day and watched it last night. Really neat movie. The sound was ok. I thought they could have done a better job with the sound effects though. Could have used more surround effects and such. I just felt like it was much better visually that it was with the audio. But ya, the train does rumble the house.

I thought the movie was good. They did a good job with keeping the feel of the original book.

The sound quality is very good, video too. A surprisingly good demo disk. Watching the first 5 minutes at near reference level demonstrates the dynamics of your system. Also the use of the surrounds as the boy goes outside to see the train for the first time.

I thought it was pretty good, the train that went right thru the livingroom at the beginning was fun and the sound of "real railroad" coming thru the surrounds was awe inspiring! It was just as I remember, riding in an open vestibule between the cars while going thru the switches in the yards back in the 60s.

Dang, those M3s put out a bunch of good sound back there!!!





ok, the sub and mains & center helped too.....
Rich.

I guess im the only one that thought the sound wasnt up to par with the visual. I guess im getting spolied watching War Of the worlds to much! haha

I loved the sound on DVD just as much as the movie itself. I also watched it with kids at IMAX last year and we were sitting too close - almost to the point where the snowflakes were falling right on my nose and the kid in the opening scene was sitting on my lap. At times IMAX experience was distracting. I personally loved it more at home with the visuals few meters away

Not a bad movie at all. 3 1/2 stars.

(Pros) The visuals were excellent. Audio as a whole was good. Loved hearing the train roar throughout the home theater.

(Cons) Really wanted to slap that kid with the annoying voice.

The 3D IMAX experience was pretty amazing (If I do say so myself). You definately don't want to be sitting up front though.

After seeing it in 3D IMAX I can't imagine being bowled over much by the DVD experience.

[shameless plug] BTW, It was re-released for the holidays only in IMAX. Got your tickets yet? [/shameless plug]

I would have loved to see the film in an IMAX theater. Unfortunatley the only one in Fresno was closed some time ago. No soup for me.

Funny thing, we were just talking about this movie this morning.
Plan on renting it next week.
I've heard it was a good story.

I am in the minority here but I really disliked that movie. I thought is was just plain boring. Then again, I easily grow tired or long drawn out Tom Hanks movies, like The Green Mile, Road to Perdition, Castaway, etc.

Flame suit on.

Greg

You forgot "The Terminal"

I did enjoy the movies you listed -- I thought they were better than average -- but I can totally understand where you're coming from.

The movie was on three times at our place, the first time I really paid attention to the sound track, the other two times, the kids just wanted to show it to their buds.

I'll have to actually watch it again to see what it's all about

I loved reading that book to our kids when they were younger. Good story and lush illustrations.

We saw the film at IMAX last year - loved it. I thought it struck a nice balance between making a big movie and being faithful to a really short book.

Just saw this 3D version at our new IMAX in our new Science Center. I was not very happy when it was all over. For starters the seats were way to narrow, felt like I was in 3rd class on a charter buss. Half way through the movie my legs where killing me as they don't offer enough room from the people in front of you. Finally, don't sit to far in the front, we were in the 5-6th row, and I found myself creating a neck ache as I was haveing to look up all the time, I think I created some forehead wrinkles. Also, I hated that you could not see the entire screen unless you moved your head from left to right. Guess I'm just used to standard Cinemascope throw/width ratios.

On the plus side, I really like the sound system they have in our IMAX. There was times the hairs on my leg seemed to stand up. It was some serious LFE's.

Can't wait to watch it in my HT and get my 500 a rockin...

We rented this movie just recently. We wuite enjoyed it. Unfortunately we don't have big-screen yet and had to keep pausing it to tend to the baby.

I am not sure if it is still out in our IMAX theater but the experience is great. Last movie we saw there was Spiderman 2. 12,000 Watts of audio, very nice.

Polar Express really lends itself to bigscreen and I think the visual effects were quite well done.

I will be playing this movie again over Christmas for my family. I sure wish the DVD had DTS. Dolby dosent even come close IMO.

Watched it last night. The DD 5.1 was more than competent. This soundtrack was rich, bombastic, full and immersive. A real winner, IMO. Also a greatly intentioned movie that was executed quite well.

The scene when the train show up was just plain awe inspiring. My wife, (not normally a sub-nut, let alone even a sub-tolerator) looked up at me when the train rolled in with a look in her eye that I was sure was going to be followed by the dreaded phrase "turn that down" but which was instead replaced with, "that sounds unbelieveable". The sub really thumps, literally - to the point where you can feel each "chug" of the train.... great stuff.

Yeah,....that bass stuff is awe inspiring for sure!

Another part that I found to be incredible was the surround sounds of the train going over the tracks and through the switches.

Fantastic!!

bombastic?

Yeah...you don't want to sit terribly close in an IMAX theatre, solely because of the having to look "up" thing. Having the screen encompass your entire field of vision though is the point, especially in an IMAX 3D movie.

If the seats sucked, that's most likely your particular theatre. We don't control that.

IMAX sound is indeed incredible. I just saw Harry Potter 4 yesterday for the first time. (Yeah...can you believe it?) I was very impressed if I do say so myself.

Thank you Peter, for correcting my overly bombastic writing.... Hoisted by my own pitard, indeed.

Besides, lawyers are allowed to make up new words and also use old words in different ways, thereby changing their essential meaning. You've obviously never been sued, have you Peter.

Of course, what I meant was loud, thumpy, rich, percussive, concussive, etc. (long-winded for awesome)

It's quite obliging of you to accept my lexical foible rectification endeavors so magnanimously.

eschew obfuscation.

btw, Peter, I do not see your avatar recently. Is it just me?

I am reticent to engage in this verbal carnage.....

Oh heck, let's get this thread back on course.

I have The Polar Express waiting to be watched and hope the train sounds as awesome as it did in the theater.

The train is bombastic. Seriously.

And here I thought we, the *true* south Florida crackers had a lingo all of our own.

The server is down. I need to tell my boss to kick it.