It’s coming up on a fortnight since the WRS staff and myself went to a midnight screening of Super 8. I still have distinct memories of spending all of my Thursday anxiously awaiting the latest epic from J.J. Abrams. Yet what I was actually anxious about wasn’t the reveal of an amazing new CGI monster, but the D-Box seats we had purchased in which to view the film. A D-Box seat is a motion simulation system used to enhance certain types of media, like movies, games, etc. This “motion feedback” is based on what’s going on on-screen; if something crashes into the ground near a character, you’re going to feel your seat shake. If a character floors it in a muscle car, you’re going to feel a simulation of those forces that the character feels. Unless you’re rich enough to buy one of these for the house, you’ll likely only encounter them in theaters and maybe arcades.

You see, I don’t do the standard amusement park/carnival rides too well. I don’t get standard motion sickness like some people get on regular modes of transportation, but once you start throwing multiple directions in the mix the dizziness quickly sets in. And on top of not wanting to be the one person in the row whose chair isn’t moving, I really didn’t want to waste the extra 8 bucks for the chairs.

On top of it all, the hype around it was basically huge to me. One of the first theaters in the country to have D-Box installed was Mann’s Chinese Theatre in LA, which meant a lot of my favorite comedians got to try them out before most of the nation. Doug Benson first tried them out during Jackass 3-D (RIP Ryan Dunn) and complained that a certain times they made him feel more nauseous, especially combined with the more graphic imagery. Yet Human Giant members Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel are infamously known for loving the shit out D-Box, even to the point of a news blurb existing about it.

One of the best parts about the D-Box experience isn’t even advertised surprisingly, which is the ability to buy a specific seat. While there are only two rows of D-Box seats in my theatre (Tampa’s Muvico Starlight 20, one of 22 locations in the U.S.), it’s still a great option, especially when it comes to midnight showings with friends. When you stroll into the theatre 5 minutes before the movie starts and have some of the best seats in the house, next to your friends nonetheless, then that bigger price tag starts to seem a little more worth it. And that’s all before your chair starts to move.

As much as I liked the experience, I wasn’t the only one who thought Super 8 didn’t have enough action to warrant the chairs. At first I was worried that they would look for excuses to use the motion, like during emotionally dramatic conversation. This was hardly the case, as there’s easily a 15 minute motionless period towards the beginning. Now it did provide an awesomely extra scare once it did kick back in, because it seems like everyone in the row had forgotten about it. This was followed up by a rumbling style vibration for the next 45 minutes every time a car started up, and unfortunately not much else. For a motion chair, it can be incredibly subtle with the smallest swivel motions. And on full power, it will feel like a quick recline in an office chair more so than a rollercoaster launch. The best thing I learned from this trip though, was choose a movie wisely. The most over the top action film is really going the be the best value on top of being the best time. I don’t even like the series, but I’m already excited for Transformers 3 in a D-Box seat.