07 Madame Tussauds and Experiencing the Marvel Super Heroes 4D Film

Captain America

Iron Man

4D Cinema Screen

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Super_Heroes_4D

While on holiday to New York with my family we went on a number of tours, within New York and others outside of the city. The tour within New York included visiting Madame Tussauds, the popular tourist attraction wax museum with a number of branches in major cities around the world. The museum has a Marvel section where wax figures of Marvel's characters were on display, towards the end of this was a showing of Marvel Super Heroes 4D. The New York version of this 4D film has a different plot to the one showing at London; Dr Doom and Loki attack Stark Industries, Iron Man, Spider Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America unite as the Avengers to stop Dr Doom and Loki's army of robots.

The 4D aspect of the film consisted a pair of 4D glasses, the interactive aspects were light sprays water, gushing wind, things beneath the seats that tapped the sides of viewers' feet, and seats with a hidden contraption to poke the back of viewers to match the actions of the characters in the movie.

Having experienced this 4D film first hand I'm confident in saying that personally, the 4D effects using water, wind, and poking was actually more distracting than immersing. On top of the water and wind being uncomfortably cold and the glasses not doing any significant effect when worn, I was also always aware that the cinema and the setting within the film were very different; Stark Industries was CGI and brightly lit whereas I was sitting was in a very dark room. It was probably the combination of cold and dark that made me feel more detached from the film.

Despite not being immersed in this film it doesn't mean that other 4D films will give me the same reaction nor does my own response apply to any other person. But for now, until I come across another 4D film, I will say that 4D might need some development in order to fully immerse their viewers.

The Hulk

The wax models themselves were crafted very accurately to the point that I found them eerily believable as flesh and bone beings (the human ones at least). There was a particular model sitting on a bench and my mother's friend genuinely thought it was a woman taking a rest. Whether it was the manager of NY's Madam Tussauds museum or personal decision, a person working in the museum took advantage of believable models by standing at the entrance of the Ghostbusters section in a mid-greet pose, and after tourists stand up close to his face he would surprise them with a "Boo!"

Ghostbuster's Slimer ghost

The room itself displayed a hologram of Slimer menacingly flying around and laughing behind a glass wall. To the side of the glass wall was a table with a red button and pressing the button would activate the Ghost Trap beneath Slimer, the hologram appears to get sucked into the trap and is gone for a while. The hologram itself was the first I'd seen in person and I wasn't sure if the hologram was projected to a clear wall, but the effect did as it intended.