Fantastic Beasts And How I Watched Them

The true Potterhead that I am, I had been eagerly waiting for another trip into J.K.Rowling’s wizarding world since I first watched the trailer of “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them” back in 2015. When the date approached, I realized that diving into this world had just become even more extraordinary, thanks to the 4D technology some cinemas in Dubai offer nowadays. An experience, in which more of your senses than just your eyes and ears are stimulated…

Reel Cinemas in Dubai Mall, where I watched the movie for example, call it MX4D, claiming that “the newest evolution in the 4D cinema experience, provides a totally immersive environment, where you actually “feel” the action on the screen from the built-in motion and effects in the seats and theatre around you.” In fact, in addition to the good old 3D glasses you put on, your seat moves in sync with the movie action and special generators in the cinema, allow you to “feel” the movie’s motion, jolts, pokes, wind, water and even scents.

If you ask me, though being a very extraordinary experience, the technology still needs improvement. Especially the scent generation. In fact in any scene scents were used, the same  bad chemical smell was puffed into our faces making me dread for it to happen again. Not only did fresh baked sweets smell the same as a beast’s fart (sorry for that), it was all rather nauseating. Also constantly being rattled around on your seat, bumped in the back and the occasional “thing?” touching your legs are fun but quite tiresome as well.

BUT the “wind” was amazing. Especially the night scene in the empty streets of New York, where the wizards were fighting each other, came to life with the cold wind sweeping through the cinema theatre. We were literally (I know not really literally but maybe magically) there, among them. Here the movements of the seats of course also greatly contributed to the experience.

To sum up, it’s definitely something you should go and test out for yourself. Especially if a movie is playing which is inviting you into a world you would fancy entering yourself but keep in mind, it’s not really perfect yet but very intense and also quite tiresome. By no means would I watch the new Resident Evil movie in 4D by the way. (You can if you want to!)

As to Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them… I need to see it once more for sure as my adrenaline level in the cinema was way too high to fully grasp and enjoy every part of the story. Still it was awesome and Im looking forward to watching it again and again and maybe even again..? Until of course the sequel arrives which I might even go and watch in another 4D experience theatre once more.

Bonus: 2 trailers and a behind the scenes video