The journey of IMAX has been an interesting one. It started off as a very expensive way to shoot films — and almost solely reserved for specialized nature documentaries. It wasn’t until Christopher Nolan decided to shoot The Dark Knight in IMAX that the technology was showcased to mainstream audiences as a possible means of viewing feature films. But it still remained immensely expensive, so Nolan only used it to film grand action sequences and left some of the smaller scenes to the standard format. This resulted in a bit of a clunky experience as the dimensions of the film shifted back and forth.
In the years since, other filmmakers have experimented in using IMAX for their movies. Some films were even marketed as IMAX, but they were really only regular dimension films that were projected on an IMAX screen, a sort of bait and switch that tricked a lot of audiences. However, Nolan’s love and dedication to IMAX never wavered. He continued to push the technology harder and further, culminating in what many audience members describe as his masterpiece.
In many ways, Oppenheimer is the antithesis to an IMAX film. After all, in The Dark Knight, he reserved the IMAX technology only for the big action set pieces. All the other scenes — which were really just characters talking — got the standard treatment. And yet, Oppenheimer is almost completely filled with these quieter types of scenes. But there’s another component to Oppenheimer. A scientific component of power and raw energy. The movie is filled with mesmerizing visuals and profound sounds that explode in an IMAX theater. And that’s kind of the point when it comes to a movie about the father of the atomic bomb. The film perfectly encapsulates the dichotomy between the intellectual side of Oppenheimer and the scientific genius. With all these elements combined, and the history of IMAX taken into account, Nolan’s Oppenheimer experience is exactly what IMAX was truly made for.
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