Yesterday I received an invitation to see a sneak preview of the ‘Imiloa Planetarium‘s upcoming Friday Music Show featuring the music of U2. Produced by the Clark Planetarium, the “digital dome experience” features “U2’s timeless classics and modern hits, set to lighting and animation effects using the latest in CGI and laser technology”.

U2′s timeless classics and modern hits are there. Lighting and animation effects using the latest in CGI are not. The CG effects look incredibly dated — watch the trailer and tell me that those effects aren’t at least ten years old. Everything I saw looked like it could have come from a video card demo CD from 1995. Honestly, the videos could have just as easily come from a computer graphics class’s final project. I can see it now… “your final project is to take a U2 song and make some graphics for it. Don’t worry if the graphics don’t fit with the song, everybody loves flying through tubes when they’re in a planetarium!”

And if it wasn’t 3D computer graphics it was something out of an iTunes visualizer — except those usually have some kind of musical feedback so they change with the music. Not so the U2 videos, the effects were essentially random.

The video for Sunday Bloody Sunday really stuck out. It was CG, but in an incredibly ham-fisted over-the-top with symbolism kind of way. Kids playing chess and the pawns explode? Kids being stamped into soldiers on an assembly line? Isn’t that all a little cliched? And again the CG, it’s old! Seriously, it’s on the level of Anniversary, a CG short produced for the National Film Board in 1989! And that had more charisma and style!

I don’t remember seeing the “latest in … laser technology” either.

The only two things I can say about the whole thing is that the songs were good (although the sound quality was lacking) and that it was free.

I’ve found one other review and his verdict was that it was crap.

My verdict: save your money and go see a movie in the theater instead.

U2 at the ‘Imiloa Planetarium opens on 9 January 2009. Shows are Friday nights at 7:30pm and 9:00pm. Admission is $8 for members and $10 for non-members.