Not in Kansas Anymore

The Wizard of Oz reformatted for the immense 16K wraparound screen of the Las Vegas Sphere is a technical marvel. Very flawed, but worth seeing.

To start with, the screen is amazing. It’s not a full hemisphere but as your neck won’t go back that far without you falling out of the seat it doesn’t matter. It produces enough light to illuminate the entire space and that first moment you see the sepia coloured skies of Kansas expand around and above you it’ll bring a smile to your face. It did to mine. The sound is clear and feels hefty. All of this comes together well in the immersive tornado sequence that delivers Dorothy to Oz.

The flaws start creeping early because of the changes required to format a movie shot in 1938 on film stock for a massive screen which wouldn’t have been dreamed of during production. I saw poor lip animation, perhaps where characters were repositioned to fit in a scene. Frame interpolation failed to combine film shots and the new computer-generated backgrounds, creating nausea-inducing judder. And some shots looked low resolution and soft. These are forgivable because the presentation is so impressive.

My attention started to wane about 60 minutes in, but for pure spectacle? Outside of the Grand Canyon, there’s nothing better in Las Vegas right now. You don’t have to be a fan of the movie to marvel at this experience. I did.