Imax: bigger, better, breathtaking. (Now Playing).

The American maxim that bigger is better is often uttered with a tinge of irony, but a new movie trend has so far proved the theory. Three Hollywood hits--Apollo 13, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and The Lion King--have recently been reformatted for large-screen Imax theaters, with promising results. And why not? After all, what's more natural than a bigger blockbuster?

The Imax genre has long been a cinematic wasteland, mostly littered with the sort of simplistic documentaries and childish dramas you wouldn't wish on the kids of your worst enemy. Governed by a mandate to make the most of the huge screen and state-of-the-art sound system, Imax films almost always emphasize spectacle over substance. Usually they don't even bother with a story, but in those few cases in which a narrative exists, the visuals crudely overwhelm it.

For all their love of spectacle, the best Hollywood movies know that story matters. Bringing those stories to Imax theaters, however, takes some reworking. For Apollo 13, the original 35mm film frames were converted into digital form, which enables technicians to remove the graininess, sharpen the images, and adjust the colors. Once the frames were remastered to large-format specifications, they were transferred to the standard 70mm Imax film size. (Since Attack of the Clones was shot with digital cameras, the producers of the Imax version didn't have to bother with the first step.)

In both cases we're given much more than a bigger picture. Apollo 13, a recreation of NASA's aborted and near-fatal 1970 trip to the moon, with Tom Hanks as veteran astronaut Jim Lovell, remains a stirring salute to the bravery and ingenuity of the pioneers of America's space program. What's emphasized even more in the Imax version is the immensity of their challenge. When Lovell and his men are stranded in space, the seemingly endless expanse of the Imax screen makes their predicament feel all the more dire.

The scenes with more visceral power--as when the Apollo 13's rocket flames engulf the theater--are exciting without drowning out the moments of quieter drama. Thanks to its gripping narrative, the movie is just as thrilling when the engineers at the command center desperately try to cobble together a rescue mission with little more than spare parts and a chalkboard. While heightening its audio-visual ...