David Bowie as seen in Brett Morgen’s “Moonage Daydream."

If you never got the chance to see the other-worldly talent that was David Bowie in concert, head to the nearest and biggest screen you can and see Brett Morgen’s “Moonage Daydream,” a spacy and trippy movie that’s part documentary, part concert film and part philosophical fever dream told through the mind of Ziggy Stardust himself. Unless you have a time machine handy, this is probably the closest you’ll get to seeing him.

The film shines in stunning IMAX and is one of the few films that really uses the scope of the tech. It’s so well used you’ll feel like you’ve been transported throughout Bowie’s incredible career, feeling every note and beat in your chest and leaving the theater with your ears ringing in the best possible way.

Morgen uses archival concert footage and videos shot of and by the artist off stage. He then pairs it with narration courtesy of interviews with Bowie and other audio clips that guide the audience in this unconventional journey through his life.

“Daydream” isn’t some cut-and-dry music doc that starts at the subject’s birth and flows through till their death.

While it does deliver that information, we get little bits of it all in a very atypical way for a documentary. Through Bowie’s own words and deeply felt philosophies, Morgen tells us about Bowie’s approach to his various artistic endeavors, his anxieties, his professional evolutions, his thoughts on love and God and so much more. With such a wide swath of his contemplative personality to cover, it would have been easy to get lost among the large questions posed, but Morgen ties everything together well in this cosmically ambitious film.

Morgen chooses to split Bowie’s life into four parts: the Ziggy Stardust era that grabbed the world with not only his lyrics but also the androgynously wonderful persona, the more lyrically experimental, West Berlin-era that was more of a “f— you” to conventional artistry, the softened expectations in the 1980s and focus on art that brought joy, and finally the fully realized final act that was specifically and iconically “Bowie” later in life.

Beyond the archival footage, Morgen spices up “Daydream” with extra ethereal animations by Stefan Nadelman, which punch up whatever notion Bowie is waxing poetically on at the time.

The downfall of the otherwise pitch-perfect journey through its subject’s life, career and mind, is the film’s length. “Daydream” is just a hair too long. Because each act follows generally the same patterns, it drags in the middle. But don’t worry too much. There will soon be a banging Bowie tune to bring you back and make you want to dance.

It also runs the risk of being too philosophical at times. With all the heady ideas being bandied about in the film, it can feel a little overwhelming.

However, chances are good that if you’re seeing a movie about David Bowie, you already know there’s going to be some grandiose and erudite discussion.

We lose a certain kind of strong emotional connection to Bowie because of the mashup of genres. We marvel at his life and career, but there aren’t as many heart-stirring moments that stick in your head beyond the incredible amount of music and art being thrown at us.

But you’ll appreciate anyway. It’s hard not to when the film opens with a stirring live version of “Hallo Spaceboy” and keeps delivering more and more of Bowie’s hits and genuine passion.

For those of us who never saw the Thin White Duke live, this is an incredible chance to get close to that experience. And for the lucky ones who did see him, it will bring to mind putting on your red shoes and dancing the blues with the phenom Bowie was.

On screens this week: The behind-the-scenes gossip-riddled thriller “Don’t Worry Darling” premiers, family adventure movie “The Railway Children Return” chugs into theaters and the original “Avatar” returns to theaters for a limited run. On Netflix, Tyler Perry’s period drama “A Jazzman’s Blues” drops along with the Allison Janney action-thriller “Lou,” and on Wednesday, Sept. 28, you can catch the highly controversial and highly dramatized “Blonde” on the streaming site as well.

“Moonage Daydream”

135 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some sexual images/nudity, brief strong language and smoking.

3.5 stars