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I want to start by acknowledging that I am everything that's wrong with modern cinemagoers. Give me excitement, give me escapism, give me explosions.
Part of this moral failing includes an enjoyment of silly cinema gimmicks. Give me 3D nonsense or IMAX and I will at least try it. I am the audience William Castle aimed for.
Of the nonsense cinema versions, I like IMAX best because the films normally look good despite the technology. As one of my eyes is stronger than the other I get a slight green shift with most 3D films and I can normally tell when a film's been converted to 3D rather than made for it because the background goes all diffuse.
So when I see the adverts for 4DX, I am tempted. I know it won't be as good as advertised, I suspect it won't even be good, but I just have to give it a go.
But, in case it's terrible, I don't want to ruin a good film by distracting myself with the 4DX nonsense.
Then Dark Phoenix came out in the cinema and I thought, "that's it, that is my solution, because it is going to be terrible so it will not be ruined."
And I was right, Dark Phoenix turned out to be a good choice to try out 4DX (my review of that here).
4DX wasn't as distracting as it could have been - the biggest physical jolt was in the demo at the start, and any other movement was roughly equivalent to an unruly seven year old hitting your chair about three hours into a flight.
The smells were done with the usual sugar powder so there was no smell at all. It's noticable that the 4DX trailer used coffee, toast and orange juice. Because they're strong smells. Most films do not include strong smells (and those that do are mostly smells that no-one would want to smell).
I do not regret doing it just once, but it was a damp squib, especially for the price. It strikes me as the sort of thing I might do every 5 years for giggles, not because it's good.
Part of this moral failing includes an enjoyment of silly cinema gimmicks. Give me 3D nonsense or IMAX and I will at least try it. I am the audience William Castle aimed for.
Of the nonsense cinema versions, I like IMAX best because the films normally look good despite the technology. As one of my eyes is stronger than the other I get a slight green shift with most 3D films and I can normally tell when a film's been converted to 3D rather than made for it because the background goes all diffuse.
So when I see the adverts for 4DX, I am tempted. I know it won't be as good as advertised, I suspect it won't even be good, but I just have to give it a go.
But, in case it's terrible, I don't want to ruin a good film by distracting myself with the 4DX nonsense.
Then Dark Phoenix came out in the cinema and I thought, "that's it, that is my solution, because it is going to be terrible so it will not be ruined."
And I was right, Dark Phoenix turned out to be a good choice to try out 4DX (my review of that here).
4DX wasn't as distracting as it could have been - the biggest physical jolt was in the demo at the start, and any other movement was roughly equivalent to an unruly seven year old hitting your chair about three hours into a flight.
The smells were done with the usual sugar powder so there was no smell at all. It's noticable that the 4DX trailer used coffee, toast and orange juice. Because they're strong smells. Most films do not include strong smells (and those that do are mostly smells that no-one would want to smell).
I do not regret doing it just once, but it was a damp squib, especially for the price. It strikes me as the sort of thing I might do every 5 years for giggles, not because it's good.
