LOS ANGELES — Tucked away throughout the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ "Stories of Cinema" galleries are many stations of respite — little built-in rest zones where you can sit and let your movie-loving eyes and mind wander.

One of these, a circular room titled "Behold," is essentially the museum’s version of a planetarium show, where you can envelop yourself in scenes from "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Blade Runner," "A Trip to the Moon," both versions of "Solaris" and other science-fiction touchstones, their otherworldly images playing out on a curved three-panel screen.

Another spot, in the deeply transporting Hayao Miyazaki gallery, is an artificial knoll where you can lie back and stare up at a patch of blue sky, much as the characters do in "Kiki’s Delivery Service," "Castle in the Sky" and other Miyazaki animated wonderments. Luxuriating for a moment in the faux grass, I was also reminded of the cloud-watching young hero of Richard Linklater’s "Boyhood" — a live-action non sequitur, perhaps, but also the kind of cinematic free-association this museum exists to encourage.

After an afternoon spent dutifully ooh-ing and ahh-ing at Rosebud sleds and ruby slippers, you will likely welcome these opportunities to stop, sit and process. I certainly did during the two brisk, overwhelming tours I’ve taken of the Academy Museum in recent weeks, ahead of its official opening at the end of this month. There is a great deal to see here, and even more to think about. There are ancient woodblock prints, magic lanterns and other early pre-cinema innovations, as well as matte paintings and miniatures from a later era of hand-crafted, pre-digital movie magic. There are "Black Panther" suits and "Star Wars" droids and "Alien" Xenomorphs, plus visual primers on the craft of first-rate artisans such as editor Thelma Schoonmaker and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.