40 Before 40
Feminine Rage in 4DX
40 Before 40
36. See a movie in 4DX
Have you ever been so unfocused that you’ve met a goal and not even realised? In my normal life I work a 9-5 office job of averageness, which on a Friday after a week of facing customer queries can leave a gal feeling a bit wrung out. My absolute favourite way to recharge is movies. If you’ve read the whole list there is more than one film/cinema based entry on there.
For me there is something safe in the dark of the cinema, always has been. It’s like being told a story at bedtime; it’s a warm dry place where I don’t have to wait to be invited in. It’s a place where I don’t have to think my own thoughts or feel my own feelings, unless that is where the movie takes me. Anyway, ramble over because I have finally seen a film in 4DX. It was weird and it was an accident.
Oh jeeze, that really was a bit of a ramble. Anyway, it was a Friday of a week that had left me feeling, well, not overwhelmed but definitely more whelmed than I would like to be. My plan was to try and double bill Wuthering Heights with The Bride! It felt like a good mix and I didn’t want to miss either in the cinema. I was running errands and catching up with Bestie Bean for coffee so it was going to be a low key evening.
Controversially, I loved Wuthering Heights. I have read the book a couple of times and I’m a fan of Emerald Fennel (side note: if you haven’t read her 2015 novel Monsters and enjoy your dark humour, heavy on the dark, then check it out). When I was trying to do too many things at once, like breathing, ordering coffee and booking the cinema ticket for The Bride!, I accidentally booked 4DX. Thereby unintentionally ticking off seeing a movie in 4DX. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever underthought something before. I use a bunch of random discount codes and tricks to buy cinema tickets, so I did realise it was more expensive than I thought, but didn’t think much of it. Even walking into the screen with the giant red 4DX sign - nope, not a click. Nothing, til I found my seat and felt like I needed a ladder to get in it.
The movie was 5 star brilliance for me. With or without the 4DX, I was moved by the film. Jesse Buckley was incredible and raw, the story was smart if a little obvious at times but I’ll forgive it. I think it’s intentionally obvious because the world (the people in power anyway) is not fucking listening!
The 4DX is not something I would rush back to on purpose. I think in other movies it might be more effective. A disaster type movie would be fun, or something car based? It might be fun to be fast and furious rather than tired and confused. I did enjoy the water spray masquerading as blood splatter, but overall it’s not something I go to the movies looking for unless it’s on the screen rather than my arm. It was fun, but when I went back to see the movie again in a regular seat I was able to relax and enjoy the experience a lot more without bracing myself for the next movement.
If you’re a fan of the All Killa, No Filla podcast all I could think about was the story host Kiri Pritchard-McLean tells of her brother’s experience of 4DX cinema making him need to poo (episode 86- Part 2 Guy Georges) Didn’t do that for me.
‘The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature’ - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley