Earlier this week, I'd caught wind of the latest gimmick deployed for The Odyssey's (NOLAN, 2026) seemingly never ending marketing push in the form of six interchangeable formatting ratios to experience the newest trailer in (and ostensibly for the film's release as well). Billed with the bluntly fetishistic header "EXPLORE PREMIUM FORMATS" on the site's dedicated page, users are given choice to simulate each distinct format's dimensions & shape, slightly altering the visibility of details in the periphery of each shot.
Though I personally am not in the oppositional camp to this escalating trend of reemphasis on the nuances of theatrical exhibition (seen in the releases of One Battle After Another, Sinners & The Brutalist most recently), one cannot be at least slightly alarmed at the equivalent fallibility it presents to image composition and thusly, the intent of the art itself, in such a harmlessly pro-cinephilic gesture.
Whether switching between regular IMAX to 35mm or 70mm to "Dolby Vision," one damning thing is immediately made clear: the subjectivity of each image identifies as practically identical regardless of which scope its ultimately rendered in. The marginal differences in whether one sees more of Robert Pattinson's hairline in a close-up or even the perceived sense of scale of the Cyclops in 70mm IMAX would likely make no discernible or tangible change in how one would consume and digest the film at the end of the day. Even more egregiously, and what bothers me most here, is how this proliferation of "choices" might've informed the initial image making during production or the effects it may have on future ones.
If saving theatrical cinema means the further constriction of specificities a director must make when composing images to service ones with the most adaptable features, then what functional difference does it make from the existent gripes this tribe of thought yields for the Netflix productions that treat dialogue as pure information delivery for the multi-tasking viewer or the onset of the One Perfect Shot-ification of cinema to better serve an audience streaming on their phones? Some food for thought.
In my mind, I'm reminded of the all too persistent proverb, of the road to hell being paved with good intentions.
For your own reference, I've linked this feature here.
