According to Collider.com (via Variety) South Korea is prepping the launch of Avatar in 4-D. Yup. 3-D just took off over here and they have already one upped us.

Read on for my thoughts.

Collider.com writes:

in Korea, they’ve taken it to the next level: 4D. Using moving seats, sprinkling water, laser lights, smells of explosives and wind, Korea’s leading multiplex chain, CJ-CGV, uses more than 30 effects during the movie and charges a much higher ticket price for the experience ($15.80 versus $6.90).

Really? Do we need to bring this kind of experience into a movie theater?

At theme parks this kind of experience is passable because the whole reason behind these parks (which i have to say I’m not a fan of in the first place) is to get jostled around, titled upside down, get dropped into water, and flung from one end of your comfort zone to the other. When I see a movie, I want to sit in the dark, and feel the thrill of the audience experience. Immersion in the film is the whole reason the the movie theater experience is so much fun. As an off-shoot to this, it’s also the reason why 3-D has taken off the way it has.

In my mind however, when you start adding elements to the experience that distract from the reason that you are there in the first place, the whole thing begins to feel cheap (even through the tickets will be ridiculously expensive). I don’t want to have to wear my bathing suit to watch an event movie or have to leave a movie while on a date soaking wet because the main character got caught in the rain or fell into a body of water. Nor do I want to be breathing ‘explosives’ smelling smoke or getting shaken in my seat at every rev of a car engine or bomb detonation. To me this ruins the movie experience and turns it into a theme ride.

I’m sure some of the more profitable and frequented theaters will inevitably try this for the sole reason that they’ll be able to charge more coin for each ticket. The only way they’ll get me into a theater with 4-D presentation is if they are able to wrangle my future children with intrusive marketing and they force me to take them while I kick and scream……………..

Crap.

Leave your comments below! Are you eager for the almost inevitable 4-D movie-going experience?

You can also find me on Twitter and Google Wave at billrusnak@googlewave.com.

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