Dubai: Get ready for a movie experience that goes beyond sight and sound. Coming soon to a theatre near you is a 4D cinema which lets you feel the action as it happens on screen.
For instance, if you are watching a sci-fi movie and a giant asteroid crashes into the Earth, your seat will heave back and forth simulating the effect of an earthquake. If there’s an explosion, the air will reek of smoke and gunpowder. Other special effects include strobe lights, fog, wind and spray blasts, leg ticklers and back pokers, all synchronised with on-screen action.
While the gaming areas of certain malls have been offering 4D simulations since 2009, the multi-sensory experience has been limited to a mere five-minute video clip. But with the launch of 4D cinemas, it will the first time in the UAE that the senses of the audience would be engaged throughout the movie. “This will be unlike anything cinema-goers here would have experienced before,” said an industry expert. “Theatres are looking for new ways to bring people back to the multiplex and a 4D cinema is the most logical step in this direction,” he said.
The locations of the 4D cinema has been kept under wraps but it is believed that they will be launched in two malls by this year end.
In the US, where 4D cinema has had a moderate success, the extra movie engagement costs around $10 (About Dh37).
4D films are not four dimensional in the geometric sense of the word, but a marketing term to describe an entertainment presentation system combining a 3D film with physical effects that occur in the theatre in synchronisation with the movie.
