The more I think about it, the more Blade Runner 2049 was the best film for me this year so far. The aesthetic just clicks with me so hard. I only get to enjoy a real good cyperpunk thing every 5-10 years, so I tend to forget it's my favorite aesthetic. I never see movies twice but I may go back and rewatch that just for the visual/audio/atmosphere art.
Also, for a review of 4DX cinemas. So the biggest theater chain in South Korea CGV theaters has been opening theaters in the USA featuring 4DX. 4DX has seats that move like star tours + it has environment effects like wind, rain, snow, lights, etc...
As a film purest, I was ready to hate this so much. Sounded super lame. But when it worked, it was actually really fucking cool. When a character is standing outside in a windy area as their coat blows, having the wind blow into the theater in that same direction so it feels like you're there is awesome. When cars in Blade Runner are flying through the night rain and the theater is raining mist and wind on you as the seats move along with the direction of the flying, it's crazy immersive. When it's snowing and snow actually comes down in the theater omg. When you're on water and the seats move with the waves it's pretty cool. There's fog machines too but I thought fog was dumb and just puffed it in front of the screens at time kinda obscuring the picture which I didn't care for.
Oh and I gotta talk about the lighting effects. These are pretty cool if they can be used. Basically if there's a scene in the movie where lights are strobing, the theater lights will strobe to match. Or if blue lights laser across the movie screen, the theater will laser across blue lights as well. Because they can match the lighting color and frequency and intensity it can create a pretty neat effect.
There's also supposed to be smells, but our theater didn't have any. Considering what the world of Blade Runner probably smells like I am ok with that.
The biggest problem is that there's no consistency. Sometimes the seat movement + environment effects are really awesome and add to the scene. Other times it'll be like a serious dramatic scene and the seats are thumping around and it takes you out of it and is dumb. I'm kinda curious what it'd be like to see like a standard romantic drama or something although I'm kinda afraid to see a movie with a bunch of sex scenes because do the chairs rock back and forth like you're fucking? That would be very awkward.
Anyhow, I tried DBOX once like 6 years ago because a friend dragged me to see the Tron 2 movie in it which was just moving seats and none of this environmental stuff. I thought it was dumb and never went back. But 4DX? Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing movies there sometimes. It's a pretty interesting experience that can be quite cool when it works. If you live anywhere near a place that has one of these 4DX theaters (in CA it's Los Angeles and Buena Park by Knotts Berry Farm), I'd recommend giving it a try once.
Also it has the goofiest trailer:
