I have not followed every detail of the astounding James Webb Space Telescope’s beginnings but I have been aware of some of the bigger events. I knew when it left Earth atop an Ariane 5 rocket on December 25, 2021, and I listened to reports of its eighteen gold-coated mirrors being unfolded and aligned. I marveled at those first images shared with the world on July 12, 2022. They were impressive on the tiny 6-inch screen on my phone, more so on my compact laptop’s 13-inch screen, and better yet on my small-by-modern-standards 42-inch TV. I need a bigger word than impressive now that I’ve seen some of them on a 72-foot OMNIMAX screen.

Deep Sky was released on October 20, 2023, and has been playing in several theaters spread around the world for a while. It began its run at Cincinnati’s Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX® Theater with an 11:30 showing on Friday, February 2. I was there.

The front end of the movie covers the telescope’s construction, launch, and deployment. Some big numbers were tossed out concerning distance, number of people involved, etc. One that caught my attention was the count of Single Points of Failure (SPOFs). A SPOF is something that causes an entire system to fail if it does. It’s a concept I’m familiar with from my working days in software. A definition found online ends with “mission-critical systems should not have a SPOF”. According to Deep Sky, the deployment sequence for JWST had 344 of them. Not one caused a problem.`

There is a fair amount of computer-generated graphics in the film to illustrate the operation of the telescope in space and other impossible-to-capture views. They are wonderfully done and visually quite stunning on the big dome. Giant images from computers are great and may even equal those produced by the telescope in terms of visual impact but knowing that something you are seeing is an actual capture of something in the real world generates a whole different type of awe. 

There is a lot of awe present in the movie itself. It is apparent in every one of the program participants who put in an appearance. These are people who are truly excited to be part of a project that is advancing mankind’s knowledge of this world and their enthusiasm is more than obvious.

Much of the buzz generated by JWST comes from never-before-seen objects it has captured such as galaxies older than any previously recorded. These are well represented in Deep Sky. JWST has also provided better images of things that have been studied for some time. One example is the supernova of 1604 which was observed by Galileo. Another is the “Pillars of Creation” first imaged by the Hubble telescope in 1995. A JWST-generated image of the Pillars is in the movie poster that begins this article. A Hubble version can be seen here. NASA has made bunches of information about JWST and a huge number of images collected by the telescope available here. As I said, those images are truly impressive even on a display screen that fits in your pocket. You don’t have to attend a showing of Deep Sky to be gobsmacked by those awesome pictures but a 72-foot diameter dome jam-packed edge-to-edge with glowing galaxies will gobsmack you a bit differently and maybe a little harder.

While I was at the Cincinnati Museum Center, I took in Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope which was showing ahead of Deep Sky and I snapped a picture of a promotion for the upcoming Pompeii: The Exhibition. All images in this article other than the first two are of a dynamic promotional display in the museum. I very much enjoyed the Goodall movie and there are some sections that take advantage of the IMAX format. I already have my ticket for the Pompeii exhibit which opens February 16. Coordinated with that opening is a return of
Volcanoes: The Fires of Creation which was the first movie shown in the Lindner Theater following its conversion to digital in 2018. I reported on seeing it here.

For both movies that I saw, the familiar psychedelic light tunnel video that traditionally kicks things off was replaced by a video that points out some of the theater’s features while entertaining eyes and ears much like the light tunnel. An attendant told me they have been using the new video for about a month and that the light tunnel is still around and used for some movies.  

A new film will open in the reworked all digital Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX Theater on June 7. A few previously shown films have appeared as part of the theater’s classic series but Cuba: Journey to the Heart of the Caribbean is only the second new production to be shown since the theater reopened in December following a long closure. A post on the reopening and the first film, Volcanoes, is here. There were two members-only showings of the new movie on Saturday and I jumped at the chance to attend. Volcanoes is an awesome movie; Cuba might be even better.

It’s the work of Golden Gate 3D, which I’ve now learned was responsible for two of my favorite 70-millimeter real film IMAX movies: Jerusalem and National Parks Adventure. The images are superb, from scenic panoramas to the microscopic; From world stopping slow motion to the super acceleration of time-lapse. The three storylines do a fine job of holding the film together and moving it along. Then there’s the music. ¡Ay caramba, the music! It grabbed me from the start and never let go through slow soaring overhead shots to frantic-paced dance scenes. I expected to see a long list of contributors when I scanned the credits but it appears that just two men composed all the original music: Andres Levin, who was also the film’s music supervisor, and José María Vitier. Wonderful stuff, fellows.

The storylines involve Havana’s official historian, an aspiring ballerina, and a pair of scientists. Eusebio Leal doesn’t just study history, he preserves it. He is responsible for saving and renovating many of the city’s numerous endangered buildings. He is also responsible for the only direct quote I recall from the movie: “Architecture is frozen music and we are a people who love music”.

It was a major surprise to me to learn that the world’s largest ballet school is in Havana. The movie follows Patricia Torres, one of the Cuban National Ballet School’s approximately 3,000 students, as she works to realize her dream of joining the Cuban National Ballet Company. Fernando Bretos and Daria Siciliano study Cuba’s coral reefs to discover why they are actually recovering while those in other parts of the world continue to decline. Their work provides the filmmakers an opportunity to show off their considerable underwater skills in recording some beautiful scenes.

Two of my favorite scenes are the result of underwater microscopic time-lapse recording. Siciliano tells us that the coral is not inanimate stone but is simply living at a different pace than us. The cameras then demonstrate. The scenes instantly reminded me of liquid light shows I saw in the 1960s. The great music certainly encouraged the idea that I was watching a brilliantly colored high-def high-tech version of hippy era stagecraft.

There was another flashback of sorts in plenty of shots of the legendary 1950s American automobiles that resourceful Cubans have kept in operation despite the long-standing complete embargo on parts. Of course, keeping the mostly brightly colored vehicles running is not the only place where the embargo and generally poor economy have led to uncommon ingenuity. Agriculture is one such area that is highlighted in the film.

The lack of money and materials is evident in the film from the aforementioned “classic” cars to the deterioration of buildings. Cuba: Journey to the Heart of the Caribbean doesn’t avoid or downplay this aspect of the politically isolated island but the bright and crisp images somehow make it less sad. The music might also have something to do with that. The faces certainly do.

The movie is filled with smiling faces, dancing feet, and drum pounding hands. Most of the people seen in the movie are happy. Of course, this is partly due to the fact that parades and other celebrations are frequent subjects. Not every face is smiling and not every scene is a happy one but there are a lot more grins than grimaces. Somewhere near its beginning, the film talks of Cuba existing in three different periods. There is its glorious past, its uncertain but promising future, and the present. The present is what it is. This movie might make things look a little better than they actually are but I don’t think that’s an intentional misrepresentation. I think its creators wanted to make a joyful and entertaining movie that included some seriously representative images. They used some of the best of the present and included a little bit of both the past and the future. When you see it, and I really recommend you do, be prepared to tap your toes and maybe dance in your seat a little. It’s gonna be hard not to.

On Thursday, I made a nighttime visit to the Cincinnati Museum Center. It wasn’t the first, but they’re not at all common. Most of my visits take place in the light of day. A new IMAX film had premiered at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. On Friday, it would open in about forty theaters across the USA. A handful of theaters were permitted to hold screenings on the day in between. Cincinnati’s Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater was among them, and, by accident or an act of kindness, I was invited to be among those attending.

Immediately after seeing National Parks Adventure, I sent a Tweet calling it spectacular. “Spectacular” is a word that fits virtually all Omnimax presentations. The screens that wrap around the viewers are huge. Quite often so are the subjects. Mountains, canyons, oceans, and starry skies are popular and fitting. National Parks Adventure is certainly spectacular in the immense-scale grandiose sort of way naturally associated with the word. There are plenty of mountains and canyons, but early in the film I was struck by not just the size of the images but of their beauty and technical quality as well. I believe it was a shot of mountains reflected in a lake that first triggered the thought that many of the images I was seeing did not require a five-story dome to be spectacular. Printed on flat and comparatively tiny pieces of paper, scenes from the movie could yield a very impressive coffee table book. Even six-inch postcards made of images from the film would probably be stunning. I can’t quantify the difference or even prove it exists but I thought the images in National Parks Adventure had sharper focus, more vivid colors, and better composition than those of any of the many Omnimax features I’ve seen.

Stunning visuals are the reason that Omnimax theaters exist, but a little storytelling never hurts. National Parks Adventure tells a couple that help put things in perspective. Some historical perspective comes from the inclusion of old photos and some well-done recreations. Without getting in very deep, the movie offers glimpses into some of the threats to our nation’s natural treasures and into the role of John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt in protecting them.

Size perspective is provided by following three friends as they visit several national parks. The trio is not plucked randomly from tourists at a park entrance. Renowned climber Conrad Anker leads the group, which includes step-son Max Lowe and family friend Rachel Pohl. Max is a photographer and Rachel is an artist. Both are experienced climbers. As you might expect, the group climbs just about everything from seemingly bare rock faces to vertical sheets of ice. They also go biking, hiking, skiing, and probably do some other things I’ve forgotten. This is, I assume, the “adventure” of the title, and it is all captured beautifully by an IMAX camera that is often high above the adventurers.

I could ramble on and on, but I’m even less qualified to review movies (This is my first attempt.) than to review books and CDs. Using the universally accepted “a picture is worth a thousand words” exchange rate and assuming 24 frames per second, the movie’s trailer provides the equivalent of 171,360,000 words.

Cincinnati Museum Center is a founding member of the seven-theater Giant Dome Theater Consortium, which was a major supporter of the film’s production. Not only did that allow them to be one of the theaters hosting advance screenings, it undoubtedly played a role in having one of the film’s stars, Rachel Pohl, in town during the opening week. Following Thursday’s screening, she was introduced by the museum’s Vice President of Featured Experiences and Customer Services, Dave Duszynski, and happily — nay, joyfully — answered a number of questions from the audience.

On Friday morning, Rachel rappelled down the front of Union Terminal, a.k.a. Cincinnati Museum Center, to draw local attention to the film. It’s pretty obvious that the happy adventurer seen in the film is not an act. Her artistic side gets all the attention at RachelPohlArt.com. On Saturday, Rachel put her recently obtained fine arts degree to use working with even younger artists at the Children’s Museum inside the Cincinnati Museum Center. Sorry I missed it.

The Lindner Family Theater will be temporarily closing this summer as part of a $212 million Museum Center renovation. Older films will be shown as part of the classics series, but this is the last new film to be presented before the closing. It is anticipated that when the theater reopens after a couple of years, it will be with a new state-of-the-art digital system. That means that National Parks Adventure is probably the last new film to be shown here ever.