Cineworld, The Winter Soldier and the Mystery of D-Box

Having already posted an entry about my experience at the Grosvenor Cinema, I thought it would be a good idea to even it out and also talk about my experience at the less independent, multiplex cinema ‘Cineworld’ in Renfrew Street. Now, as a local of Falkirk I have little experience with this cinema and normally would not choose to go to it, choosing instead to go to my own local Cineworld instead but, seeing as this cinema promised a bigger screen viewing of Captain America: The Winter Soldier complete with Chris Evans’ muscles in high definition, I figured why the heck not?

This particular cinema is supposed to be the tallest cinema in the world and that isn’t hard to believe. After buying my tickets and getting told I was in screen 14, so began my journey up about twenty different escalators.  Believe me, when they say your screen is on the fourth floor, they really mean the eighth floor.

Now the fact that Cineworld food and drink is ridiculously overpriced isn’t lost on me but I worked up a thirst on those escalators, okay? Besides, I am a lot more willing to pay £3.00 for a bottle of water when I get 25% off it thanks to my handy Premium Unlimited Cineworld card, a gift to students everywhere. This investment costs only £16 month and allows you to see as many movies as you want without paying extra which as a frequent cinema goer myself, comes in very handy.

So after accepting my fate and handing over the money needed, I walked towards the screen only to be asked “Do you have a D-Box seat?” A what seat? My obvious confusion was answer enough and I was told to sit in any seat I wanted—as long as it wasn’t a red seat which, as it turned out, was the colour of the mysterious D-Box seats.

After a quick Google search on my phone (completely frowned upon when you’re in the middle of the cinema, I know) I found out that these D-Box seats are just the latest advancement in cinematic technology. They move with the action of the film, a real 4D experience. Given that this Captain America sequel was filled with action (and muscles, can’t forget the muscles) the people sitting in the D-Box seat must surely be getting whiplash from all the moving around, no? 

Apparently that wasn’t the case as after asking one person how their D-Box experience was after the film, the answer I got was ‘a waste of money’. As someone who already feels this way about most 3D movies with few exceptions (shout out to James Cameron’s Avatar) I wasn’t all that surprised. When will whoever is responsible for these ‘improvements’ realise that we can experience a movie just fine without all this extra dimensional nonsense? It seems like all multiplex cinemas fall victim to these advancements sooner or later which makes me appreciate the independent vibe of the Grosvenor that little bit more which, in my eyes, makes it the frontrunner in the admittedly non-existent competition for the best cinema Glasgow has to offer.