I’m back at it again.

Last year I took myself to Cineworld cinemas to finally experience their 4DX format. The one that throws water in your face and shoots air at your ears (y’know, fun?) and it proved quite insightful. Did I say insightful? I should also say “resoundingly negative.” But you don’t know until you try. Read the full “review” of 4DX here.

4DX is quite a common fitting for Cineworld cinemas. I doubt there’s one without it. But for a while I had also seen adverts for their ScreenX offering. Admittedly, it sounds like a window cleaner when said aloud. But the premise was more appealing than 4DX’s lambasting of the senses.
With 4DX, I chose a film I felt would justify the format. Twisters. It also helped I’d seen it before, in case it ruined my movie-going experience (which it would have). For ScreenX, I had intended to see Top Gun: Maverick. If the associated RAF adverts were anything to go by, it seemed like a good fit. Unfortunately, ScreenX are not available everywhere, and I missed my chance.

Luckily, director Joseph Kosinski sensed my anguish, paired up with the Formula 1 governing body and spent $200 million to make another similar experience for me. F1® – The Movie. Which was nice of them.

This time I would be going in blind; I hadn’t watched F1® – The Movie ahead of time. My confidence in the format was showing. I made the time and the journey (through some impressively polarizing Scottish weather) to experience ScreenX. I can now report to you… a resounding: Eh.

Entering the theatre, I was surprised to find it quite small. Considering the adverts, I expected a larger sized auditorium than the one I got. Also obvious were the walls: They were an unassuming matte grey colour; the surround sound speakers were up by the ceiling; and two large projectors lurked, tucked as neatly away as possible. The two extra projectors pointed to their opposing wall.
The seats were… fine. A sort of firmer leather recliner. Not electric, but you could easily push back and lean forward to adjust. They were quite narrow seats, I thought. Luckily though, the showing was in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, so it wasn’t crowded like the 4DX showing I saw.

I sat myself in the middle of the middle. Classic cinema-viewing position. This seems relevant to the experience; since sitting further back will expose the three screens to scrutiny, while too far forward would prevent you from seeing the side screens at all. What I got was the “peripheral” exposure to the additional projections.

The audience and I were treated to trailers and the same RAF advert from the 4DX showing. The advert proved as effective at demonstrating the ScreenX experience as the 4DX one did for that format. As in… it did extremely poorly. The side projections weren’t harmonious with the middle screen at all. It was very disorientating and muddled. I wonder how Cineworld itself is so bad at creating tailored experiences for their own formats??

But the Jurassic World: Rebirth trailer showed a bit more of what was to come. To be critical, the ScreenX format appears to only be a bigger aspect ratio projected over a wall too small for it. Imagine a movie with “letterboxes”, top and bottom, because the ratio is too wide for the screen. Now “fit” that movie on the wall, and wrap the two edges lost over the other two walls.
Seated as I was, in the middle, I could mostly enjoy the “wrap-around” effect you would get from a curved TV or indeed an IMAX screen. The side projections looked distorted as if to accommodate this (which might look worse if you were further back!) The problem I experienced (though I don’t know if this is seen in every ScreenX cinema) was two black vertical bands where the walls meet. It wasn’t a harmonious screen.

What does it mean for the film though? Fortunately, only select scenes were shown on all three walls. Director Kosinski has had direct input for these formats in the past, apparently, and therefore only action scenes benefited from the it. So the more private, quieter, character moments weren’t “ScreenX”, while the action scenes were. The transition was a subtle “fade to/from black” for the side screens.
The other notable difference with ScreenX is how bright the cinema is. When all three projectors are going, the theatre is basically bright. You can see all the seats and people around you. Maybe if you want a more secluded, private showing of a film… don’t go to ScreenX!

But how did I get on with it? Honestly, with F1 – The Movie, it was quite a good time. It has been a while since I’ve seen a movie in IMAX, but I can confidently say IMAX is very much superior. ScreenX gives a sense of immersion but only if you literally “don’t pay attention to it”. Which, considering this cost me £7 Sterling (that’s 8 euros and nearly $10) on top of the standard ticket… is insane. The more you look at the side projections, the more you see it warping.
Which compounds the issue that you can’t really see all of the frame. Mileage will vary with directors’ care over these formats, and you may be paying more to see less. An IMAX showing in the same cinema chain is not much more money.

So… it was a fun experience. It didn’t make me angry like 4DX did. But it is mostly wasteful. The movie itself was what I enjoyed out of it. I don’t see myself traveling forty-six miles again for it. Whenever Dune: Messiah arrives I’ll be seeing it in IMAX or iSense or something similarly big. Not this.

Honestly, if you are making ScreenX big, maybe ensure it is installed in big auditoriums?