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Japan Displays Movies Entertainment Technology

Iron Man 3 To Debut As a 4DX Film In Japan 158

adeelarshad82 writes "Marvel's Iron Man 3 will debut in select Japanese theaters later this month employing the 4DX system for the first time. Developed by South Korea's largest movie chain operator, the CJ Group, 4DX-equipped theaters deliver smells, seat motions, and additional effects such as strobe lights and fog, all in sync with events as they appear on the screen. Beyond South Korea, this full immersion approach to cinema is already in operation in countries such as Israel, Mexico, Brazil, and China."
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Iron Man 3 To Debut As a 4DX Film In Japan

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  • Smells? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bestgjs ( 2901263 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @01:55PM (#43485529)
    How can the movie theater product smells from the movie? What technology it uses, how does it work?

    I hope we get this tech on all desktop computers. Imagine farts over the internet.
    • Re:Smells? (Score:5, Funny)

      by tnk1 ( 899206 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:06PM (#43485711)

      They disperse LSD as a fine mist into the theater and then you start smelling the colors on the screen.

      They did have to remove a part where Iron Man fights a giant mechanical spider because well.... spiders... spiders... SPIDERSSSSS!!!!! GET THEM OFF!!!!

      • Re:Smells? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Stele ( 9443 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @03:58PM (#43486885) Homepage

        My wife and I once saw the Shrek 4D Experience at Universal Studios Florida. Every seat can emit mist, air blasts in your face, small water bursts in your face (such as when one of Donkey's kids sneezes on you), smells, and there are small air jets that can move up and down, positioned strategically at your ankles. At one point all these spiders drop down from the forest above, in 3D of course, and then they get the little air jets going on your ankles - it feels like little feathers (or SPIDERZZ OMG!) on your feet. My wife FLIPPED OUT. It was hilarious!

    • Re:Smells? (Score:5, Funny)

      by rwise2112 ( 648849 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:25PM (#43485965)
      We already have this in Canada, but it's currently limited to sweat and farts.
    • Re:Smells? (Score:4, Informative)

      by nametaken ( 610866 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:32PM (#43486055)

      They do this at Disney for a few shows. It's fun for those goofy little features, but I honestly can't see myself choosing to watch a good movie this way.

      • Re:Smells? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Zordak ( 123132 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @03:00PM (#43486333) Homepage Journal
        There's a theater at the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio that does this with a little 30-minute show about Texas. I took my kids to it. The 3-D gave me a headache. And there was a part where a big bull snorts and it sprays a bit of water in your face, which was just gross and off-putting. And the smells all smelled like artificial scents out of a Glade air freshener (which is more or less what they are). And the hallway outside of the theater stunk from leftover artificial smells. And despite the advertisement that it would be "4-D," there was no actual time travel, except for shifting me forward in time about 30 minutes so that I was about 30 minutes and about $30 poorer. And get off my lawn.
        • it must be a tourist-y thing. The atlanta aquarium has a theater that does this. The water spraying just pissed me off. The shaking seats were actually pretty cool, especially the first time. a big 3-D something coming out of the screen, with a big boom from teh speakers, while the seats give you a big jolt can add something, but I imagine that moderation is very important

        • by wylf ( 657051 )
          Not to be rude, but I imagine a few select theatres in Japan will be somewhat technologically superior to the equivalent in San Antonio...
          • by Zordak ( 123132 )
            I fail to see how slick Japanese gadgetry would improve the experience. Perhaps they could have used genuine bull snot? No, thank you. Maybe they could improve on the smells, but I don't know that I want super-realistic Iron Man sweat smell after he spends a while in that suit. Overall, it just felt gimmicky and obnoxious. It was fine for a one-time outing to show the kids something different, but I'm not going to consistently pay $20 per ticket or whatever to see summer blockbusters that way. (Assuming I w
      • by Anonymous Coward

        ...but I honestly can't see myself choosing to watch a good movie this way.

        Don't worry, you won't.

      • but I honestly can't see myself choosing to watch a good movie this way.

        That problem has already been taken care of.

      • we have a few in the usa testing this tec and to be honest it was annoying.
    • Re:Smells? (Score:4, Informative)

      by emag ( 4640 ) <slashdot@gNETBSDurski.org minus bsd> on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:36PM (#43486087) Homepage

      It's been done before... [wikipedia.org] The question is, is this implementation better?

      • It's been done before... [wikipedia.org] The question is, is this implementation better?

        If it's any good then porn will jump on it right away.
        Downside, you take plastic to the movie like at an old Gallagher show...
        Upside, getting the phone numbers of the girls that like to sit in the front row with their mouths open...

    • Re:Smells? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Megahard ( 1053072 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:38PM (#43486109)

      Internet-wired seats with the Glade Plug-In.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Smelling things is just the act of tiny molecules of an object falling off, wafting through the air and landing on a bundle of nerves. So, to make the smells of a movie you would just need a device that aerosols small containers of your chosen molecules into the theater at triggered intervals.

      Scene: Iron Man sits at a desk surrounded by complicated electronics, grilling bacon with a palm-beam, Pepper enters the room.

      Cue: 2 grams from vial 2 (bacon) , 1/2 gram vial 34 (pepper perfume)

      Suddenly, an explosion o

    • This was demonstrated in "Kentucky Fried Movie" . . . they called it "Feel-a-Round" . . . and they cut to the next sketch before the porn started . . .

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Actually there are pretty limited smells pallete (I went to see CROODS on 4dx and there was only 2 kind of smells, one for flowers and one for "rain")

    • This is actually a revival of old tech from the 60's [wikipedia.org] and earlier. I remember some Internet company (mercifully stomped by the dotcom bust) that wanted to sell you some USB attach-y thingy that could generate scents.

      The whole thing is to get asses in theater seats and not in front of your 60" tv at home.

    • How can the movie theater product smells from the movie? What technology it uses, how does it work?

      I don't know the technology of how they make it work, but when I toured Dover castle several years ago, they had tour of the secret bunkers used from WWII and they had some smell-o-vision thing where you could smell bread baking and other stuff that I forget now. I assume that the theaters will use something like this technology as well.

    • by jbengt ( 874751 )
      My old boss helped design a system like that, maybe 50 years ago (before my time) It had a tube to each seat hooked up to a central supply fan, with some sort of odor sources that emitted the smell into the inlet of the fan, timed to coincide with the movie. I'm not sure whether it had to have timers set up ahead of time, or it received a signal from the projection system. But either way, the problem was that there was a delay between releasing the odor and it getting to the seats, and you had to not onl
    • Smellovision [wikipedia.org] is over 50 years old, and people almost universally hated it.
  • by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @01:58PM (#43485575) Homepage Journal

    "Hey, you got your sushi in my wasabi peas!"

    "Hey, you got your wasabi peas in my sushi!"

    Two great tastes together!

    • I think there was a Sponge Bob movie like that once.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        You lie. If there was such a Spongebob movie, just knowing about it would make you shoot yourself in the face. Since you are still here, there was no such movie. QED.

  • better idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @01:59PM (#43485587)
    So there's that or a theater by me lets you place an order off a menu and you get a seat and table and then they bring the food out to you. I'd rather have that than fog and strobe lights in my face.
    • Re:better idea (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Endo13 ( 1000782 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:19PM (#43485879)

      Yeah we have one of those near where I live too. The food is actually surprisingly good and not overpriced. This one's called Movie Tavern. And like you, I'd prefer that over fog and strobe lights. In fact, I'd prefer just a normal theater over fog and strobe lights.

      • We have something like that in Mexico, you can drink a Whisky and order a Sushi or a Pizza if you like it. http://www.cinepolis.com.mx/_MARCAS/vip.aspx [cinepolis.com.mx]
    • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      I wish those would take off all over the country.
      Hell, even just serving adult beverages and snacks would be awesome.

      • "Hell, even just serving adult beverages and snacks would be awesome."

        Well, snacks are already pretty common, but you have my vote on the "adult beverages".

        If they can have dinner theaters and serve drinks, why not cocktails in the movie houses? It would probably be a lot healthier for you than the syrupy coke they currently serve. Unless you're mixing with coke I suppose.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Actually here (I'm from Mexico where Cinepolis has 4DX) you can place your order (food from a cart, wine, beer, etc.) on VIP cinema theaters anytime and they bring the food out to you. In the case of 4dx actually they limit the kind of food that you can bring to you (only popcorns and soda) and still they warning you.

    • i wonder how many people with a seizure disorder will walk in not away there bought to get strobes in there face.
  • The trolling potential for Smell-o-vision hooked up to the internet is... mind-boggling. It's like I'm seeing colours I've never seen before.
  • Gimmicks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:01PM (#43485635) Journal

    More gimmicks equals more expensive ticket prices. Yep, we'll see this happen in the US for sure.

  • Here in Seattle, at Christmas, the Seattle International Film Festival's Uptown Cinema showed Willy Wonka in Smell-o-Vision.

    Do you want fries with that? There's a hamburger place across the street.

    I'm not sure how keen I am on 4D, though, sometimes it gets in the way of the movie.

  • I've already seen a movie using similar effects: Captain EO [wikipedia.org]

    I'd rather see a low-budget 2D movie with a good plot than an expensively produced 3D movie with smoke effects and lasers but with a poor plot.

    (I do have some hope that Iron Man 3 will be worth watching on its own merits.)

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:15PM (#43485829)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Please replace all political references with car analogies.

    • my favorite theater wasn't built until the Clinton Administration you Insensitive Clod!
  • I wonder if they could remaster old films to use this technology. I can't wait to experience the Bog of Eternal Stench [wikia.com] from Labyrinth in 4DX
    • I think Zardoz would also be a good candidate.
      • by dwywit ( 1109409 )

        The Princess Bride - imagine RoUS in 3D, a blast of hot air while moving through the forest, some kind of muscle relaxant to empathise with Westley as he recovers, aerosolised alcohol so we can be drunk with Inigo, hydrogen cyanide gas to spend our last moments with Vizzini, the list goes on......

  • by ice-nine ( 149145 )

    it's somehow fitting that the fortune at the bottom of this article's page is "if anything can go wrong, it will."

  • by Anonymous Coward

    http://www.hapi-project.com/posts/view/29
    Feel-a-Round in Kentucky Fried Movie

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I know so many folks with smell related issues, particularly allergies, scent memory, and migraine triggers that this cannot be a good idea. I won't even go to a 3D film because of the potential eye strain issues, let alone the potential for migraines induced from volatile organic compaounds (VOCs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_organic_compound). I'll pass on all of that, thanks.
    sTc

  • Not for me ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:24PM (#43485953) Homepage

    4DX-equipped theaters deliver smells, seat motions, and additional effects such as strobe lights and fog, all in sync with events as they appear on the screen

    I already get headaches from 3D films, so I don't watch them.

    Smells, strobe lights, fog, and moving seats? No thanks.

    There's only a few movies I'll see in a movie theater each year (with Iron Man 3 being one of the planned ones), but for the most part I'd rather watch it at home on my own setup, which lets me enjoy the movie more and be able to eat/drink what I like and pause it to hit the head.

    My home theater and my lazy-boy sofa are fine for me for most movies.

  • So.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by geek ( 5680 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:26PM (#43485979)

    Basically this movie stinks. Got it

  • Japan? (Score:4, Funny)

    by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:29PM (#43486007)

    If you plan on going to see Iron Man 3 in Japan, remember to look under your seat to disable the robotic tentacles.

  • Yeah, like I want to smell Tony Stark's sweaty ass after battle.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The first, and only, thing I thought of when I read this: I wonder what a sweaty hulk smells like.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      You won't like him when he's sweaty...

  • 3D movies are a bit too gimmicky but "once in a while" an Avatar might appear and it might be fun to get a little more into it... it was yet another advancement of some sort of another, so trying out the experience is kind of a geek imperitive. But at the end of the day, it wasn't "all that" and certainly nothing that every movie production should do.

    Now this? I'm sorry, but I don't think I need to even try to to know it would be far too distracting to be immersive.

  • by TheSkepticalOptimist ( 898384 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @02:49PM (#43486217)

    I find it very annoying when some kid kicks the back of my seat, so I don't want to sit through a whole movie with that kind of "seat vibration" experience.

    Also while movie smell's might be a welcome change over body odor, cigarette's lingering stank from the smokers in front of you, and over buttered burnt popcorn, not sure any movie would be enhanced by the experience.

    Also in what reality would someone pay $50 for a night out at the movies only to have the theater fog up and have people dropping with seizures from strobe lights a;; around up?

    Pretty much 4DX encourages people to stay home to watch movies without all the excessive bullshit, unless Sony decides to shove this into the PS4 experience.

  • "These go to 11. It's one louder.'

    D does not stand for 'better", it stands for dimension. The 4th Dimension is time.

    A 4D show would be one that is different every single time you observe it, not something that childishly and stupidly throws in extra sensory experiences.

    At best this kind of marketing, should be called 4S shows - sight, sound, smell, and touch (water).

    When some marketing idiot calls it 4d, it just make think "Do you like making the world a stupider place?"

  • Just watch that award winning documentary, "Kentucky Fried Movie" to see it demonstrated. ;-)

  • I'll trade in... (Score:5, Informative)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @03:11PM (#43486437)

    ...smells and strobe effects gimmicks for the following:

    - A well maintained projector, screen and speakers
    - THX Certification, meaning mostly that everything is maintained and properly calibrated
    - A properly spec'd out 4K projector, or two 4K projectors with 8K upsampling

    It doesn't seem like much, but movie theaters like to pull the following:
    - Running the projector bulbs dim to make them last longer, or using a projector designed for a small screen for larger screens
    - Not maintaining their speakers at all - you can hear the broken cones rattling most of the time
    - Using 2K projectors for 4K material, or two cheap 2K projectors for 4K material. This is very common.
    - Not calibrating anything, especially their speakers. This is obvious when something is supposed to be moving from one side of the theater to the other, and it sounds like it's going over your head, or it sounds totally different. The surround array probably wasn't calibrated at all.

    • Re:I'll trade in... (Score:5, Informative)

      by iluvcapra ( 782887 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @04:36PM (#43487267)

      - THX Certification, meaning mostly that everything is maintained and properly calibrated

      THX certs haven't meant anything since the late 1990s, all THX really certifies these days is that the check from the theater owner cleared.

      IAAMPSD. I am a motion picture sound designer. The inventor of THX was my instructor in college.

    • "two cheap 2K projectors for 4K material" is actually the spec for doing IMAX Digital. Thanks, IMAX.

  • As it is now, I won't even sit in those D-Box seats. Just annoying. If I'm forced to smell shit then count me out.

  • Who is going to certify the chemicals they use for these smells? I barely trust the FDA to certify food additives, I'm not sure Iike the idea of sitting in a movie theatre inhaling whatever chemicals this company found that smells like strawberries and gunpowder.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Who certifies the chemicals for all the other things you smell every day?

  • I really don't want zombie rotting meat smells, nor assal-derived ones.

    I'm fine with Anne Hathaway or any other starlet's freshly-unholstered areolar or underboob scents, though, which I imagine is like a slightly musty fallen log found in the woods when you went on a hike some years ago.

  • Here in the US I usually pick the standard 2D version of a movie vs 3D, even if the price is the same. At our local theater, Sunday-Thursday they do not charge extra for the 3D movies but even for no upcharge 3D seems like more trouble than it's worth. A 4D movie is something people may do once so they can say they tried it.
  • Worst Idea Evah (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Thursday April 18, 2013 @04:12PM (#43487031) Journal

    Smell is really a personal thing. Something that smells wonderful to one person could be nauseating to another. I know someone who thinks the smell of gasoline is heavenly (no, she's not a huffer).

    I mean, I understand that the entertainment/industrial/advertising-complex are desperate to get people to come to theaters again because they are afraid that there is still a small amount of money left in peoples' pockets that they have not gotten their hands on, but until they can say they're making the best movies that they can, they should not be looking for gimmicks.

    If they want to get me back into a movie theater, and they really believe that the movies they make represent the very best possible quality, then they could start by tearing down the shoebox multiplex theaters and start building real movie palaces again.

    There's a theater here in Chicago, The Patio, that is a bona-fide movie palace. Built in the Pre-WWII period, it's got the ceiling with the stars and moving clouds and a balcony and all the trimmings. I used to go there when I was in High School decades ago. Saw the original Dirty Harry there, Charles Bronson movies, like that. Well, a couple of brothers bought the place some years back, before it was torn down, and they renovated it lovingly. Put in great seats, cleaned the place up, made everything sparkle. Put in an A-Number-One concessions stand with actual popcorn and reasonably priced goodies, and a great sound system. They play second run movies and carefully selected classics. Some rare Hong Kong and Kung Fu flicks. Charge $5-6 for admission. Goddamn, I love that place. It's not downtown, but in one of the neighborhoods on the Northwest Side. I can be there in 10 minutes on the Kennedy Expressway, so a lot of times my wife and I are thinking about Netflix or something, instead we hop in the car and go to the Patio. Twenty bucks and it's a great night out watching a movie on a whopping big screen. It's about a million times more enjoyable than going to a shopping mall and sitting in some nasty little multiplex closet with a bunch of assholes on cellphones. People who go to the Patio really love movies. The Chicago Cinema Society programs the place sometimes.

    It's not rocket surgery, getting people to go to theaters. But Smell-a-Vision is not the solution.

    • by dkf ( 304284 )

      It's not rocket surgery, getting people to go to theaters. But Smell-a-Vision is not the solution.

      But doing it right requires real money to be invested! Can't do that!

  • The vancouver Aquarium had a movie on penguins last spring (2012) featuring typical effects as well as in theatre snow, rain, fog, tentacle slaps behind the ankles and jiggling seats. We did miss the smells however.
    • by dkf ( 304284 )

      The vancouver Aquarium had a movie on penguins last spring (2012) featuring typical effects as well as in theatre snow, rain, fog, tentacle slaps behind the ankles and jiggling seats. We did miss the smells however.

      Miss the smell of millions of seabirds? No, you didn't. That might be an experience, but it isn't one worth experiencing...

  • I've seen a few 3D films every time it's "the new thing", and it's usually a letdown. Because it's filmed in 3D, there has to be "3D moments", like when a spear comes flying at your head. They don't add to the plot; they only add to the 3D part of the film. Because of that, they are distracting.

    I can only see this technology being used the same way. "Hey, let's add some scenes so that this new crap we are using gets used. Who cares if they don't add to he plot or make the movie better. We paid for this stuf

  • "Dogme 95"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95 [wikipedia.org]

    I'm such a grumpy old luddite who values plot and acting over just about everything.

    I'm a dying breed.

  • With the availability of digital copies, movies must start to sell experiences more than just images/sound that you can have already in your home tv or computer, with only the friends you want, and at your own pace. Big screens, good sound, 3D, and then this, could convince (if is well used, at least) people to go to movies instead of buying, watching them on cable or just downloading them for free.
  • The internet is a better place without the smellz. And I would not recommend googling for this post's title.

  • Next step is obvious: we will need action movies that are able to punch the spectator in the face.

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