Imax brings larger-than-life U2 so close
When music takes place in a sports stadium, it usually means one inevitable bummer: If you don't get a ticket up close, your eyes are relegated to the LED screens.
Which, in the new IMAX movie "U2 3D," is not a bad thing. The 89-minute concert film allows viewers to share the stage with the epic rock band during the South American leg of their 2005-06 "Vertigo" tour. Bono and Co. have come to define the larger-than-life gestures that accompany their spacious music, but the illusion of 3D gives the viewer a rare chance to live with the intimacies that make both happen.
Overhead shots of Larry Mullen Jr.'s drumkit, for instance, give the layers of cymbals and small drums an exotic texturing. You find yourself living with the drummer, watching him choose what to strike next. And that large tumbler of water to his side? Watching it dissipate during the concert becomes, at such close proximity, high drama.
There is some irony having a 3-D presentation of the "Vertigo" tour considering that the band made a concerted effort to slim down theatrics and present a show that featured just the music as the grandest asset. Where were the 3D cameras during the "Popmart" tour of the late 1990s, with the mirror-ball lemon, giant toothpick and McDonald's arches?
But to the credit of the filmmakers, this more demure U2 is majestic subject matter. Even though footage was cut and pasted from different stops, one song fluidly enters the next, striking certain moments that give the abbreviated concert presentation the feeling of a beginning, middle and end. For some songs, they also add overlays of animation -- a gentle shower of colorful letters or drawings created by Bono's finger -- that help flesh out the image's dimensions.
For converts, there is no better access to watching how this band operates. Watching the band give each other eyeball cues is a window into the years spent playing together.
Filming in Mexico City, Brazil, Chile and Argentina helped. The outdoor venues in South America are three times the size of U.S. football stadiums so when fans jump in unison or light up the wraparound IMAX screen with cell phones, the effect overwhelms. Unlike many concert films with stock interaction between performer and audience, this one allows audience reaction to happen separately with little prompting from the stage. The 60-or-so thousand people become a fourth character.
It's no surprise that charismatic lead singer Bono plays like a character from a pop-up book. He and the rest of the band perform as if they're unaware of the camera except for the single moment, during "Sunday Bloody Sunday," that Bono turns directly to IMAX viewers and sings to them.
You're tempted to reach out and shake his hand.
"U2 3D: The IMAX Experience"
....
out of four
Opens Wednesday
Starring As
Bono Himself
The Edge Himself
Larry Mullen Jr. Himself
Adam Clayton Himself
Directed by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington. A 3ality Digital Entertainment release. Rated G. Running time: 85 minutes. Showing at Navy Pier IMAX Theatre, 700 E. Grand Ave., Chicago.
Note: The U2 cover band "Elevation" will perform for free at 8 p.m. today outside the IMAX theater at Navy Pier, leading up to a 12:15 a.m. Wednesday showing of "U2 3D."