- You can watch "The Last Jedi" in 4DX, where physical elements make the movie more immersive.
- Bring a hooded sweatshirt to protect yourself from the air spraying by your head.
- Otherwise, the 4DX experience is absolutely worth it, especially when the seats move along with the action.
- A spoiler-free review of the 4DX experience is below.
I was fortunate enough to watch "Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi" in both 2D and 4DX. The movie is great in both mediums, but the 4DX version is totally worth it and is reminscent of the "Star Tours" rides at Disney theme parks.
But there are some caveats.
If you're not familiar, 4DX is an option available in a handful of movie theaters in the United States. Basically, it's 3D, plus there are some special physical effects that you experience that coincides with what's onscreen. Your seat moves along with the movie's action, air or water may spray at you to amplify some special effects, and smoke might rise up in front of the screen during some explosions.
Most of it is fun. But first, we have to talk about the water-and-air-spraying thing.
Fortunately, each seat in the 4DX theater I attended — this one was in the Regal E-Walk Stadium 13 & RPX theater in Manhattan's Times Square — had an option to turn off the water-spraying function. Some people might enjoy it, but I wasn't in love with it. When you turn the water function off, you still get sprayed with spurts of air from the same places.
The air spraying part was mostly fine, but there is one part of it that sprays by your head, which I could have done without. The seats in the theater aren't height-adjustable or anything, so that air spraying kept hitting my ears.
Luckily, I had a solution at hand: I brought a hooded sweatshirt with me. To anyone watching a movie in 4DX, I highly recommend bringing a hooded sweatshirt, which can help block off any parts of the experience you don't like.
But for the most part, the experience was fun. The best part, by far, is that the seats move and rumble along with the action onscreen.
I don't want to spoil any of the plot, but the effect is especially cool when you're in space and flying around in the cockpit with Poe Dameron, or witnessing a spaceship crash-land on a planet. It feels a bit like a roller-coaster and absolutely makes the whole experience worth it.
It's worth noting that the 4DX experience is pricier than the other options. At the Regal theater in Times Square, a regular adult ticket cost $17.15, a 3D screening costs $21.65, and a 4DX ticket costs $30.65. Manhattan has among the most expensive movie ticket prices in the world, so you may have different prices at your own local theater. Through a communications agency, the company behind 4DX paid for my "Last Jedi" ticket.
I have a few more minor quibbles about the 4DX experience — the smoke effect cast a noticeable shadow on the movie screen sometimes — but for the most part, "The Last Jedi" is exactly the type of movie you should be seeing in 4DX.
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