The Theater Formerly Known As Omnimax

jen Dec 17, 2012 11 Comments

I’m looking for more info on the old Omnimax and the D-Box experience. How does one get a D-Box ticket? What’s it like? How much does it cost? Is it worth it?

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11 Comments

Topper

about 8 years ago 

Personally I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe once just for the experience, but the way the seats are set up here in Duluth, they're in the very first two rows. You end up looking straight up the entire movie. Would be much better if located middle of seating, so you can take in the entire picture.

Lithis

about 8 years ago 

There are two D-BOX seats set up in the lobby of Duluth 10 (11?) that you can try for free. Last night it was showing clips from The Hobbit. Personally, I found it strange and distracting.

(D-BOX is a seat that tilts and rumbles based on the action in the movie, or in the PR speak of D-BOX Technologies Inc, "Taking you literally inside the movie." Literally.)

johnjaundice

about 8 years ago 

D-box: dumbest thing ever. Noisy as hell for everyone not in the thing and worse to be in it I imagine.

The 'ultra-screen' is also the dumbest thing ever.  If you want the screen to seem unnaturally big, just sit in the front row at the normal screen. We sat in a respectable 10th row or so for the 3rd Batman movie I think and I was hardly able to focus on the whole picture.  Total waste of money.

BadCat!

about 8 years ago 

There are D-Box seats up by the back rows as well (if you get your tickets online, you get to pick the seats that you want).

I saw Batman in those seats. I figured I'd experience the new tech at least once (which is also the reason I have seen one 3D movie. It was kinda cool during the flight sequence with the Bane fight (the chairs swooped and made you feel like you were on a plane), but other than that, were more of an annoyance (I turned it down to the minimum setting during the first big fight scene, lest I got thrown out of my chair).

So, worth the extra cost for every movie? Not unless you really like it. Worth the extra cost to try just once? Sure, but I doubt you'll do it twice.

BadCat!

about 8 years ago 

However, I will add that there are only four D-Box seats in the back (two on each side). Which if you're sitting next to normal chair people, will make you feel like a complete idiot while your chair goes wildly swinging around during each fight scene...

Danny

about 8 years ago 

It probably doesn't help that the theater doesn't pay to get the actual Imax version of the films to play in their IMAX theater.  I saw Dark Knight Rises over the summer and it was pretty noticeable that it was just a stretched out regular reel.  I can't imagine that the shaky seats thing would be any good either.  I remember reading that this technology was tried in the 1970s with 1977's Roller Coaster (an awesome movie, by the way) and nobody liked it back then either.

I'd be much, much more excited if a local theater had the capability to play the 48fps version of The Hobbit.  I heard it's pretty amazing.

adam

about 8 years ago 

I noticed a herd of D-Boxes roaming the street the other weekend...

jen

about 8 years ago 

Thanks for the quick, detailed reviews everyone! I am guessing we'll just opt for plain old Hobbit 3D, hold the D-Box tonight.

smackadoo

about 8 years ago 

Ditto on the not worth it. I just wanted to share my experience real quick with a little more detail. 

We went to see Expendables 2 for my first and last experience. The Ultra screen is a bit curved and made people look abnormally large. And when there was captions on the screen they were completely cut off so you couldn't even read it. 

By the way, the prices for the dbox seats were ridiculous for the worst seats in the house. You would think they would be in the middle of the theater since you are paying so much. 

By the end of the movie my neck was sore. 

So there are two seats in the back of the theater which I wish I knew, that might have helped with the sore neck. But who wants to sit way in back?

Just a terrible experience all around for the money.

Dave P

about 8 years ago 

What drove me crazy about this theater was the lighting. We saw James Bond in there and I kept waiting for the lights to go down; they never did. I suspect because the stairs are so steep they can't really darken the room or somebody might break their neck. As a result, the movie seemed really washed out and murky (particularly annoying during dark scenes). I turned to my wife and said, "I could read a book in here." I wasn't exaggerating.

emilymoesewco

about 8 years ago 

3D gives me migraines, so I opted for 2D Hobbit, but accidentally landed in the Imax theater. It's not a movie made for the screen. It just looked weird, and I had to be really careful not to look at the edges lest it trigger a migraine. 

If you have gone to Universal Studios and like those rides that put you in a platform and play a movie for you while tilting said platform jostles you about, it might be fun. But I find those terrible. Roger Corman did a failed experiment with this 'technology' decades ago. 

I wish I could see a movie that wasn't dim. Something bright and vivid. Film! Proper lenses. Someone that cared enough to make the movie look good! Why doesn't the film industry learn that adding hokey technologies that just cost people more money is not going to save the industry?

The dying of the light

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