u/4DXReviewer

The new dinosaur caper, The End of Oak Street, starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as parents who must protect their kids when dinosaurs mysteriously invade their suburban neighbourhood, was set to take over premium screens on Friday 14 August and was even filmed for IMAX. But due to the massive box office success of The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it now finds itself jilted from premium screens, not being scheduled at all at my local IMAX and given a desultory single-screening per day in 4DX and ScreenX screens. It was logistically impossible for me to see this in IMAX yesterday and I couldn’t be bothered to sit through another un-air conditioned ScreenX screening at Didsbury, so it’s back to just a basic 4DX review for this one.

The film itself - ★★★☆☆: Dino-lovers might feel I’m being harsh on this one but there are so many issues weighing it down despite the competent dinosaur action. The film is what should be a tight 99 minutes but it’s surprisingly slow for such a short film. It’s technically a spoiler to describe the premise of the film as it takes about a third of the runtime to set-up the basic situation. And yes, there’s something to be said for a gradual build-up of tension as this worked well for the original Jurassic Park, but it’s ridiculous to unveil at such a stately pace that your dinosaur film has dinosaurs in it - we know.

Once that’s over with, the film then waits another third of the runtime to provide the characters with an objective to work towards, leaving the characters and plot to flounder for another large chunk of the film. I did think the conclusion of the film was pretty satisfactory though and it pulled back my opinion of the film quite a bit.

I don’t think dinosaur films are famous for characterisation and there are limits to what even the original Jurassic Park achieved in this area but it was really quite dry in this one. Anne Hathaway is a really one-note girlboss who barely parses as the lead character for a large part of the film. Ewan McGregor is just there. I was really confused by the atheism vs Christianity sub-plot which saw the cast divided along gender lines as to whether they believed in God but did not actually explore the theme in any sort of interesting or meaningful way.

The premise of the film is such a strong existential threat to the characters that any attempt at character drama comes across as completely ridiculous. Is this really the time to explore the issues in your marriage/some random conflict with a random boy from the street? No. No, it is not.

It’s not like nothing works and the dinosaur action and back end of the film are pretty decent. But this premise for a dinosaur movie required the characterisation and plot to be very carefully crafted around it in a bespoke way to be truly successful and it feels like they popped out a lot of tropes and Jurassic Park call-backs instead.

The 4DX experience - ★★★☆☆: This film was apparently produced with an estimated budget of $80-90million, not particularly high for a dinosaur film, and the 4DX version ends up drawing attention to some of the ways the budget was kept down - basically by keeping the dinos off the screen for a lot of the film.

The seat movement is pretty additive in the dinosaur moments and there’s a bit where a particularly large dinosaur is quaking the house that really sells what’s happening in a way the image alone cannot. But it does take quite a long time for the film to get going and it’s not always packed with 4DX effects once it get there.

In terms of water, there’s not absolutely loads but the rain sequences have solid, lengthy bursts of the rain effect, there’s a nice back-firing spray when someone gets hit by a water balloon in the intro and there some nice bits of splash when characters get uncomfortably close to dinosaur’s mouths.

In terms of other weather, fog popped up once or twice pretty unmemorably, strobe is used one or twice (there is a plot point about bright lights so this is pretty appropriate) and the wind effect is used to create a general sense of being outside. There were also a couple of scents - the briny scent when the family find their basement is flooded and a floral scent while the characters are walking around outside. I’m pretty sure there was also some airburst when people used their firearms against the dinosaurs.

Overall, the programming is good in the moments where there is synergy, there’s just more downtime and less general fit with the 4DX format than you might expect with this kind of film.

Conclusions: Despite not being overawed by the 4DX, I do think it’s a decent way to watch the film if you want to go see it, I just wouldn’t make a special effort to see it purely based on being a 4DX aficionado. Of the two 4DX films currently available, I would definitely see Spider-Man: Brand New Day over this given the choice. Also, expect to see this get turfed out of premium formats quite quickly, so if you want to see it in a premium format go ASAP.

It’s a big one this week as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey finally hits every premium format under the sun. But how will the 4DX hold up versus Nolan’s favoured IMAX format?

The film itself - ★★★★★: Having lost his way on his attempted return to Ithaca from the Trojan War, Odysseus gradually remembers the end of the war and his journey so far in flashback. Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Odysseus’ wife Penelope and their son, Telemachus, must navigate deadly danger as their house is beleaguered by dozens of suitors hoping for Penelope’s hand in marriage as soon as Odysseus is finally presumed dead.

To me this combined a languorous adventure epic with perhaps the highest budget folk horror ever committed to screen. It’s meditative without ever being boring. The ordeals of Odysseus and his crew are genuinely horrific. If you’re a horror fan and weren’t previously considering watching this, I would genuinely recommend checking it out for something a bit different.

This isn’t going to be everything to everybody - it’s not non-stop cathartic action - but it’s bang on in terms of what it set out to do and is a new instant classic in the epic genre. It feels kinda insulting to say when it’s currently playing in IMAX but this would actually make a great Sunday afternoon film when it eventually hits home video.

Also, John Leguizamo gives a really standout performance in this and I hope he gets a Best Supporting Actor nomination out of it.

Side-quest: Manchester not only has one of the very few 70mm IMAX screens in the country but it’s also currently hosting pages from the first known edition of The Odyssey in book format. I popped over to The John Rylands Library to have a look before my IMAX screening. It’s definitely a cool accompaniment to the film but I was expecting a bigger exhibit. It was just a single glass case and there wasn’t a huge amount of information on the background of this copy of the book (there was actually more information in the press release about the exhibit). There is a whole table of merch in the gift shop though (I bought a postcard).

The IMAX experience - ★★★★★: I mean what can you say, this is the IMAXiest film to ever IMAX. The entire thing’s in 1.43:1 but actually the IMAX bass also has a massive impact on the experience - you can feel the film through the bass vibration through the chairs as much as watch in on the screens at times. I felt like this actually added more immersion than the 4DX effects and I was quite frustrated by the more weedy standard sound in the 4DX screen.

Having seen the film in both 1.43:1 and standard widescreen, it’s impressive how well-composed the frame looks in both versions - and it’s easy to take for granted 1.43:1 frame composition because it’s ‘just’ bonus footage at the top and bottom but The Mandalorian and Grogu did a very mediocre job of it recently with notably boring top and bottoms during some 1.43:1 sequences.

I went to a 70mm screening because Manchester Printworks is simply the easiest IMAX for me to get to. I never heard the projector during the film but it was clearly audible in the silence before it started. During the brightest outdoor scenes, there was a noticeable l’il flicker from the shutter as well. There’s a scene where there’s a haze over the image because it’s being shot through the threads in a loom and that really highlighted the additional texture from being projected in film, so that was a nice bit.

After the film, some people apparently had a brawl as they were leaving, which wasn’t very Zeus’ Law of them but ho-hum.

The 4DX experience - ★★☆☆☆: Regrettably, I thought this was a pretty anemic experience in 4DX. This is for two reasons - firstly, that the film is generally not a great fit for the format and, secondly, the implementation is ever so slightly conservative, as though a bit too in awe of the film as a serious cinematic experience.

There’s very little in the way of major 4DX effects sequences except for a couple of bits with the boats and the climatic scenes. But even in these bits I would have traded the effects for the IMAX sound system.

A big disappointment for me was that the effects implementation was very conservative with the seat movements for the rolling of the boats in the sea. This was often implemented but there were many scenes where the boat was obviously rolling around and there was either no seat movement or overly subtle seat movement that didn’t seem in line with the image.

There’s one scene in this which has a lot going on weather-wise and consequently had a lot of use of water splashes, the backsplash, the rain effect, wind and the strobe. While this was mostly satisfactory, I felt like the water splashes should have been saved up for moments where individual characters got drenched by waves in fairly close-up shots - it always felt a bit silly when those moments weren’t accompanied by a splash.

In terms of other weather, wind was used often to create a breeze indicating the outdoors. Fog popped up a couple of times but never felt like it was particularly augmenting the image on-screen. Scent was used once but felt slightly random. There was the occasional airburst in action scenes.

Overall, this was a bit a miss in 4DX - in fact one of the biggest recent disappointments as most of them have been fairly solid recently.

Conclusions: If you want immersion, I recommend watching this with a decent sound system rather than 4DX. I’d pick IMAX or Superscreen.

The air con is still out at Didsbury although the 4DX screen was a perfectly cromulent temperature so my strategy to go first thing in the morning paid off. I actually managed to get a seat with working water splashes this time, although I ended up moving to the seat next door as its splash seemed to be working better than mine. Would’ve sucked if I’d had no water as this is Water: The Movie!

The film itself - ★★★☆☆: I’ve seen some viciously negative reviews of this but an aggressively mediocre but faithful live action adaption doesn’t magically make the story of Moana terrible.

It really is mediocre though, with bland direction and so-so performances (although in fairness the singing is fine). This has been described as a shot-for-shot remake but the script has definitely been diddled around with and, without rewatching the original to check, the changes seem to be for the worst, with the opening feeling more expositionary than I remember the original being.

It says a lot that the only truly visually appealing sections are when the film blooms into brightly-coloured CGI fantasias during You’re Welcome and Shiny.

I was annoyed that the pig and the chicken were CGI characters instead of ye olde film-style real animals. What’s the point of adapting something into live action and then leaving real-life animals as CGI? The pig isn’t even that anthropomorphised!

Overall, a totally pointless live action adaptation that makes the film worse.

I was shocked and appalled at the end of the movie when Moana gave up the Heart of Te Fiti to the care system. You can’t keep getting away with this Disney!!

The 4DX experience - ★★★☆☆: This is a real dilemma as there’s a pretty plentiful effects package that’s pretty additive but at the same time if you look at it as a whole, does it add up to a real experience? For me it falls slightly short. This is very borderline and some people - particularly people who don’t have my taste for maximalistic 4DX - will be very satisfied and be a bit non-plussed I didn’t give it a four.

Let’s talk water. For a heavily water-oriented film, the implementation isn’t bad. There are frequent splashes, back splashes and use of the rain effect to emulate sea-spray. That said, although there aren’t any ridiculous omissions, there is still some conservatism at play. If there are multiple water splashes on screen in quick succession, the splash will miss every other one and hope you don’t notice, for example. There’s definitely real-life water in every watery scene but there isn’t necessarily real-life water for every watery moment. For films like this, I wish they’d just make it an out-and-out water-fest and put up a poster saying ‘Hey, this screening has WATER, if you don’t want WATER then GO AWAY’ instead of trying to appease people that inexplicably don’t want 4DX effects in their 4DX screenings.

There’s also a decent amount of seat movement, particularly when Moana’s boat gets tossed about on the sea. For me, this is where the dilemma comes in - like yes, this is additive but there’s never a moment with the boat that feels roller-coastery enough to pretend to yourself the film could have been made for 4DX. Even the climax, where the motion is strongest, doesn’t feel like an especially thrilling thrill-ride. But again, people that don’t like the seats to hurl them at the wall will probably disagree with me here.

I don’t remember there being any scents, although there is a salty-sea scent in the 4DX repertoire that would have fit well. Fog pops up a few times representing various things. There’s a nice supernatural scene where the fog is used at the start and then makes the scene look more ethereal as it floats around the front of the auditorium and adds a haziness to the projection. I don’t specifically remember the air flow being used but it surely must have been when the coconut things use their dart guns. (There’s also quite a funny backpunch effect when the coconut things are victims of friendly fire.) Wind is used literally as wind and also to represent Maui in flying form. The strobe is also used a couple of times to augment bright lights on screen.

The 3D is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is frequently perceptible but, on the other, it makes the film look darker and desaturated in a way that clashes with the aesthetics of the film and I’m not sure the trade-off is worth it.

Overall, there’s a decent diversity of effects and good consistency of usage - it just falls very slightly short of being genuinely interesting or thrilling for me. I’ll reiterate one final time that this is pretty subjective and some people will be perfectly happy with this. Even for me, it’s very borderline - this is the absolute top end of three stars.

It’s also worth noting the original Moana had a 4DX release when it originally came out so, again, nothing about this is strictly necessary.

Conclusions: This one was very borderline. If you were hyped up about seeing this in 4DX or the kids are nagging then I would still go. There’s definitely a reasonable bang for your buck here. But if you weren’t already thinking of going, I don’t really want to persuade you to see it in 4DX because - especially with money being so tight at the moment - there are probably better things to splash the cash on.

The bad news: the air con is broken at Didsbury again.

The good news: I managed to nab some of the Minions & Monsters retro film postcards that I was so cruelly not offered when I went to see it, so that injustice has now been corrected.

The film itself - ★★★☆☆: How well you get on with this is going to largely depend on how much gnarly horror imagery can carry a film for you - you can basically add a star if you don’t mind horror imagery coming at the expense of some of the traditional qualities of a good film.

It feels like we’re living through a bit of a golden age of horror at the moment and we’ve had some really decent, very original-feeling films this year like Obsession and Backrooms. There’s quite a noticeable step back in raw creativity coming from those to this - if horror films were Pokemon, I’d say this is like Rattata. It’s Normal-type horror. It’s your standard commercial horror film. It’s well-executed, but that’s what it is.

The characters are paper thin. It would be wrong to say there’s nothing going on thematically because there is some topical social commentary going on but, again, it’s very shallow. It feels tantalisingly close to having enough plot, characterisation and themes to be a legitimately good movie but it just doesn’t quite get there.

But the gnarly horror imagery is really very good and there’s some effects sequences that are really quite impressive. I’m generally quite insensitive to horror but there’s some genuinely nasty bits in this. It’s a mean film!

As a product, it achieves what it sets out to do and I imagine a lot of horror fans will really enjoy it. I just wish it was a bit less of a product and more of a genuine piece of cinema - it’s not a million miles away as it is so it’s frustrating it didn’t go a bit further.

The 4DX experience - ★★★☆☆: This was a bit borderline so it was very frustrating that the water splash wasn’t working at Didsbury yet again as there’s clearly many places it was meant to be used. I think I’m going to email the management if I can find an address.

Starting with the remainder of the water effects, there’s a fairly lengthy rain sequence at the start that unfortunately only has a quick burst of the rain effect at the beginning and end - this maybe needed another burst in the middle to really sell it. The backsplash also pops up a couple of times.

The struggle for horror films is seat movement is it’s often best when it’s not directly dealing with human movement - for example, vehicular action is often a great fit for 4DX. Here, there’s a decent helping of seat movement, particularly towards the end, but it does tend towards the generic shake-shake-shake. That said, there is an interesting little bit towards the end that I enjoyed.

In terms of other effects, airflow pops up a couple of times. Wind pops up a little bit, mostly to give an impression of being outdoors, although due to the air con failure there wasn’t any difference between hot and cold for me. Fog pops up a couple of times representing mist and smoke.

There was actually some decent use of the strobe in this - it’s used to deliberately disorientate in several places and it’s actually really effective. It stood out as a good use of it.

In terms of quantity of effects, there’s a decent amount, perhaps a bit more than the average horror film, it’s just a lot of it is fairly generic seat shaking.

Conclusions: This definitely isn’t a total waste of the extra money, even if it doesn’t quite break out of the mould of the typical 4DX horror implementation. I would save your pennies for something better if you only want to do the cream of the crop in 4DX but if you were really interested in seeing this in 4DX for some reason then it might be worth a look.

Due to the heatwave and air con failure at Didsbury, I’m not going to see live action Moana tomorrow as my only screening option coincides with the peak of the heat and will be a nightmare. I’ll try to catch it over the weekend.

Sorry I’m a day late with this one, I was busy trying to book a show at the Rivoli yesterday.

You can get a free postcard set of 1950s-style Minions movie posters featured in the film if you see it in 4DX or ScreenX until 8 July but I wasn’t offered one even though I looked at them significantly multiple times during my interaction with the ticket guy. 😭

The film itself - ★★★★☆: I’m being mildly generous not giving this three but I felt like it was pretty successful on its own terms. Apparently the Old Hollywood setting and somewhat cinephile-oriented in-jokes (I don’t think the five-year-olds will recognise Maria the Maschinenmensch from seminal silent film Metropolis or care who George Lucas is) have provoked some mixed responses with the intended audience but, y’know, sod it, I liked them and that’s what matters (to me).

Compared to some of the recent fun-oriented films, this seems a bit more comfortable in its skin as it doesn’t have any pretensions to epic-ness. The humour could have done with a bit more punching up as I felt there was room for it to be a bit funnier but generally it was an enjoyable, amiable time.

The 4DX experience - ★★★★☆: The 4DX effects package ended up being pretty solid with a fairly diverse range of effects.

As usual, seat movement is the bread and butter. There are some decent seat moments scattered throughout the film, including some interesting interpretations of stuff happening on the screen, and then the seat movement also builds satisfyingly towards the climax of the film, which is something that doesn’t always pan out even with otherwise decent 4DX films.

There’s a pretty full suite of weather in this - there’s rain, snow, fog (mainly representing smoke), strobe (again, mainly representing industrial electricity and lights rather than natural lightning) and wind representing various things including monster breath and popping up in various temperatures. There’s also a sweet scent in an early monster summoning scene.

I think the water spray might have been defective in my screening as it was never used despite a couple of moments that seemed like good prompts for it. There were one or two backsplashes though as well as the previously mentioned rain. Airflow is used at the end but it would be a spoiler to give the context.

The 3D is best use of the format I’ve seen since the last Avatar film and has almost constantly noticeable depth - this seems to be the only way of watching it in 3D at my local Cineworld so if you’re a fan of 3D it’s worth checking out.

There are quite a few sections of 4DX downtime but the effects are genuinely additive in the mid-film when they get going and they ramp up more consistently at the end so I think it amounts to a decent package overall.

Conclusions: If you’ve got Unlimited, yeah, I think this is a pretty easy recommendation both generally for the film (if you like classic films, it might be worth a look for a change even if Minions isn’t usually your thing) and for the 4DX uplift. Plus you should consider the upgrade if you love 3D. If I didn’t have Unlimited and I was thinking about the full whole family with popcorn thing I’d be a bit more reticent since it’s a lot of money for a somewhat trivial experience - Toy Story 5 might be a better investment in that regard. But in general, the 4DX gets a thumbs up from me.

My attempts at doing multi-format premium format reviews for DC superhero films have now been cursed by heatwaves for the second year in a row.

I had intended to do 4DX, ScreenX and IMAX for this one but the air con at Didsbury has broken down, so I tolerated 4DX (the wind effect helped) but my feet were swelling by the end and I couldn’t be bothered to sit through ScreenX as well and then I decided I couldn’t be bothered faffing getting to and from the IMAX in Manchester in the heat and gave up. Please stop releasing your films during the peak of heatwaves, DC!!!

The film itself - ★★★☆☆: I simultaneously thought this was perfectly OK and yet also have no sympathy whatsoever that this is bombing.

This film is basically a Supergirl side-quest where her dog gets poisoned and she has to beat up the bad guy to get the antidote, joined by not-superhero Ruthye, a young teen seeking revenge on the same bad guy for the murder of her family.

It’s fairly fun and there’s action and some attempt at themes and stuff. But it’s also very drab-looking and kind of listless. The stakes feel quite small and even if this wasn’t set to perform badly commercially I’d be surprised if the events of this were ever called back to in future DC films.

Like it’s fine and if you want an excuse to sit in an air conditioned room for a bit (if it’s working!) then go. If you enjoyed The Mandalorian and Grogu and Masters of the Universe, you’ll find this similarly fun.

I just don’t know how you could look at the state of the superhero movie genre these days and think this was a good idea to put out. People want to see something really special if they’re paying a million pounds to take their family and get popcorn and see a premium format or whatever. This is literally just Supergirl doing a sidequest with a not particularly amazing script, not outstanding action and effects sequences and a villain seemly fished out of the bins.

To sum up, it’s OK. It’s Mandalorian and Grogu and Masters of the Universe-tier. Take from that what you will depending on how much you liked those.

The 4DX experience - ★★★☆☆: Unfortunately as a 4DX film, this isn’t on the same tier as Superman.

There are some decent seat movement moments but there are also lengthy sections of the film that don’t call on the effects (it opens quite ominously with multiple scenes where the seats vibrate to diegetic music - I feel like it’s never a good sign when the programmers have to pad out the effects with that). The action bits are pretty decent but not as standout as Superman and some recent films - I wasn’t like ‘woah, this seat movement makes it a must-see in 4DX’.

In terms of water there’s a very brief rain to represent what I think was supposed to be a spaceship’s engine and a couple of water sprays representing spittle and such.

Wind pops up a bit representing movement, although with no air con there wasn’t really any hot and cold for me. Scent pops with a kind of tangy scent in a space bus scene. There’s also some airburst for gun type stuff. I think the strobe popped up once.

There was no fog in my screening but I have to assume it was because the air con wasn’t operational to clean it up as there was a big dust cloud at one point that was a screamingly obvious prompt for fog.

The 3D was for once pretty decent with quite a number of instances when it was noticeable.

Overall, this is the top end of three stars but I can’t quite recommend it strongly enough for four.

Conclusions: If you have Unlimited, the film is reasonably worth checking out if you want to sit in an air conditioned room for a bit. The 4DX is in that awkward zone where the uplift isn’t a waste of money but also isn’t that special an experience. If I didn’t have Unlimited, I wouldn’t be taking my entire family to see this full price in 4DX with popcorn and stuff, save your hundreds of pounds for something else.

Me and the Toy Story franchise have history as Toy Story 3 ended up being one of the most profoundly emotional experiences I’ve had at the cinema. (Toy Story 3 spoilers:) >!I’d heard in the news about how adults had been crying at the ending and then the night before I was due to see it, I saw a Facebook post that said “Did anyone else cry at the incinerator scene at the end?” and I was like “Dammit! That’s the ending spoiled. The toys get incinerated at the end of the film and that’s why everyone’s been crying.” So I watch the film and it’s my birthday and I have an early morning IMAX screening all to myself and the incinerator scene comes along and I’m literally weeping, genuinely 100% convinced the toys are about to be burnt to death… I think it’s the one time a spoiler has actually improved the film for me. But can Toy Story 5 in 4DX beat that emotional rollercoaster?!<

The film itself - ★★★★☆: I was braced for the worst after seeing some rocky reviews of this and for a large section of the film it is the weakest Toy Story, with what feels like three B plots struggling to make an A plot.

But it ends pretty strongly and my eyes may have leaked a little bit towards the end. Or maybe it was just the water splash effect? Yes, definitely just the water splash effect.

It’s hard to discuss too much in depth without getting into spoilers but overall I thought it was a flawed but ultimately good film.

The 4DX experience - ★★★☆☆: As usual, much of the effects package consists of seat movement. There are various antics and action sequences to provide opportunities for seat effects, although there are also pretty long portions of the film that are dialogue-based or light on action.

There is some quite odd overuse of the strobe in this. It shows up when light is shining on Woody’s head, which is quite funny and a good use of it but then it also shows up randomly any time anything vaguely light-related happens. Evidently the programmer decided that it is time for the epileptic children to die.

In terms of water and weather, the water effect pops up a few times, mainly representing spittle. Wind pops up a bit representing movement. Fog pops up a couple of times representing dust clouds.

Overall, it’s a fairly reasonable package, with steady use of the effects and a decent portion of the suite getting an outing but it doesn’t come together into an experience as such.

Conclusions: There’s a drip-feed of effects throughout this so in that sense there is some value for money. On the other hand, it doesn’t cohere into a particularly memorable experience. Not a waste of money if you’re desperate to see it in this format but I wouldn’t especially recommend splashing the cash on it.