April 1, 2018

4DX Review – Ready Player One

This is a *mostly* spoiler-free review of Ready Player One in 4DX format. This isn’t designed to a be a review of the movie as much is it’s a review of the 4DX experience for this movie.

Ready Player One is an overwhelming crash course into everything pop culture of the late Twentieth Century and just as the film threw everything possible at the audience so did the 4DX. Slow camera linked motion in sweeping scenes was used, but it was more intense racing scenes that made the motion seats really sing. The use of fans and seats helped sell these scenes even more than similar ones in Cars 3, the use of the leg ticklers also added a great addition sense in more intense racing scenes. The ticklers made it feel as though we were just out of the grasp of those who were after us.

The wind effects were used in large swaths of the film but rarely not in a fitting way. In dream like sequences, the wind effects helped enhance the scenes even more than in more apparent scenes, such as the racing ones.

The racing scenes often led to crash scenes, and here the smoke effects were timed perfectly. A poorly timed smoke effect can give away an upcoming scene or linger way too long, a problem that nearly ruined Geostorm. Here the smoke seemed perfectly timed so that it appears just when needed and disappears before the scene changes.
Many of the effects were used more sparingly. The strobe effects, while only used a few times in the film, brought the action of the screen into the theater just as 4DX intends. The air cannons in the seats were rarely used, even in scenes that could’ve been enhanced by them.

What may be the least used in-theater effect for 4DX overall is easily the snow effect. While no scenes in Ready Player One called for the effect to be used in its traditional sense, here it was used similarly to Blade Runner 2049 where paper scraps were simulated with the snow. Here it was sold even more than in Blade Runner 2049 thanks to the paper in the film looking so similar to the snow in the theater.

The water effects were used in nearly every scene even remotely featuring water, possibly to the point of becoming repetitive though still not the level of Kong or even Ghost in the Shell. But the water effects do get more of a pass than other effects since viewers can turn the water off if they desire. Ready Player One did see the water effects used to simulate blood but it was much less gruesome than how Kong or nearly any horror film has used this same effect, but that could also be thanks to the much less gruesome action on the screen.

Overall, Ready Player One, while not in the upper tier of 4DX films, due mostly the repetition of certain effects while little use of others is definitely in the top quarter of 4DX films. The use of certain effects, while possibly only once in the entire movie, still help place it just above many other films of a similar style, including A Wrinkle In Time.

Ready Player One is a must see movie for any film or pop culture buff, and it’s an excellent introduction to the power of the 4DX experience.

 

-Review Summary-

  • Use of 4DX Effects- 4 out of 4
  • Movie Overall- 4 out of 4

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