I put a few hundred miles on the ol’ odometer today for one specific purpose: to see “Apollo 11” on an Imax screen.
Short review: if it opens on a good Imax screen near-ish you… run, don’t walk. More likely, drive, don’t run. I recommend it on about the same level I recommended “2001” on Imax.
There is no narration. The story of Apollo 11 is allowed to play out using film footage and audio recorded at the time, with some modern animation inserted to explain trajectories and whatnot. The animation, perhaps surprisingly, is not whiz-bang CGI, but simple line schematics showing simplified Apollo CSM and LM “icons” doing their thing.
Most of the movies features film which is really well short of Imax quality… it’s not like they had a 70mm camera in the capsule. But the first two minutes of the movie are worth the price of admission: it starts out with the crawler slooooowly making it’s way to the pad. It’s FREAKIN’ AWESOME.
I don’t have a 4K TV, nor a 4K player, but when this comes out on home media I’m getting the 4K version in the hopes that someday I’ll upgrade. It will sit on a small shelf along with my “2001” 4K set and gather dust until that day comes.