Marvel Superheroes 4D and Ghostbusters Dimension
Reviews by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
April 16/17, 2017 – Marvel Superheroes 4D and Ghostbusters Dimension
Kind of a cheat today. I found myself in New York for work that was pretty all-encompassing, schedule-wise. Also, I was blowing my per diem on Broadway shows and seeing Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, barely leaving enough for eating and travel…let alone movies. I spent Easter Sunday after work at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, where I saw two experiences that as far as I’m concerned, pass for movies. Expanded, interactive movies, but movies none the less, so with my time for something new each day, these two count for the 16th and 17th.
Ghostbusters Dimension is part of a Ghostbusters experience at Tussauds that I highly recommend. First of all, there’s a floor devoted to the new film, with Erin, Abby, Patty & Holtzmann on display and a few interactive exhibits like a ghost Slimer you can trap. But the pièce de résistance is Dimension, a VOID virtual reality event where you and your friends become Ghostbusters, shooting and trapping ghosts, including the Eldridge Manor ghost. This is a phenomenal experience. I’ve since participated in other VR films (that I’ll report on later in this thread), but they don’t hold a candle to what VOID has put together.
The biggest feat? A set. There is the same surround-vision film experience that you’d get with a home VR game, but at Ghostbusters Dimension, you move through different rooms. You’ll see, if you’ve never played a virtual reality game or watched a VR movie before, that there’s often little movement you can do. You’re in a room and you do things like move your head to one side and you fly left. Not here. When tracking down ghosts, you go into a number of different rooms not by clicking a button, but by walking, but who the hell knows what rooms I was actually walking into, all I saw was a crazy ghostbusting adventure. They had mapped out everything to where when the wall was torn away, revealing a steep drop with only a railing between us and certain virtual death, I could reach out and touch it in my virtual adventure, but actually feel it in my hands!
Interaction is a little limited just ‘cause it’s hard to hear everyone as you wear headphones that pump sound effects and music into ears, but the immersiveness is intense. We went in and out of elevators, up to different floors and at one point the whole roof was pulled off. This fifteen-minute VR movie is entombed in Madame Tussauds, but it a must-see for touristy things to do in New York.
Also at Madame Tussauds is a 4D movie (code for a 3D movie where they blow air and splash water on you) called Marvel Superheroes 4D. As you’d expect with Marvel, they pull out all the stops and pile on the characters you love. Everything seems normal as Tony Stark is unveiling his latest technology. Next thing you know, Dr. Doom and an army of robots show up and bam – Spidey, Cap, Hulk, Thor, Loki, frost giants and more all duke it out. The order of the day is fun, this is essentially a theme park attraction in the middle of Times Square. They waste no time throwing things from spider webs to Captain America’s shield into your 3D lap and it’s a blast. The only downside is that although the characters resemble the live-action Avengers, the voices are not provided by the MCU actors. That’s easy to get past and just enjoy Hulk beating up on robots. This is great added value to a place that’s otherwise a bunch of statues.
