IT was my favorite movie of 2017. I have loved the book since I first read it when I was 12, loved the mini-series from the 90s, and was anticipating the new take on it for a long, long time. So, when an opportunity to see IT CHAPTER 2 came up in the ScreenX format, I jumped on the chance.
This will be less a review of the movie itself (you can read Norman’s thoughts on the film here, and mine closely mimic his) and more about the ScreenX format. Which, to be honest, I was very skeptical about before heading into the film.
First things first: what is ScreenX? There are plenty of “premium” movie experiences, like IMAX, 3D, and 4DX to name a few. ScreenX tries its best to immersive you into the action. Instead of a traditional movie theater, where just one projector projects onto the main screen, this one uses five. This allows the film to expand beyond the main screen onto the two sides walls, all the way to the back of auditorium. Your peripheral vision during films is usually just dark due to the normal movie-going experience. Here, it is taken up by extra stuff.
The main action still takes place on the main screen, but the sides are essentially just extra stuff to extend the scene. These extra bits are shot with a special ScreenX camera rig.
During the introduction to the ScreenX format, a short little film plays moving through a cityscape. By way of how it moved around and centered us, I was a little nervous. To be honest, I got a little nauseous watching it, and I really hoped that wouldn’t be the case throughout the rest of the film.
However, once IT CHAPTER 2 began, I noticed how seamlessly the ScreenX experience was to the film itself. It wasn’t used throughout the entire film, but during select scenes. To me, this heightened the tension more and really brought the film to life more. I thought it was going to be distracting, but it actually was not.
It really did highlight the film further…for example, when Bill is in the mirror maze during the Derry Canal Days Festival (as seen in the trailer), it was a lot of fun. Not only did we see his reflection on the main screen, but also on the sides, making the mirror maze truly look like it went on forever. When a cavalcade of balloons filled the screen, they also extended to all sides of the theater as well. When Richie faced off against Paul Bunyan, the park scenes surrounded us. And so on and so forth.
I actually kind of loved it. And my son, upon leaving the film, exclaimed he wanted to see ALL movies like this from now on. It was a great way to enhance the movie-going experience and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was very effective for a horror film, and I would definitely check out other genres to see how that goes, too.
All in all, I really did like the ScreenX format, If you’re an avid movie-goer, and want to immersed into the world a little bit more, I definitely suggest you check it out.
Find the closest ScreenX location near you at: https://www.regmovies.com/screenx#/
