I Watched BARBIE in 4DX: A Review and Recap

For the first time in its theatrical run, BARBIE is playing on 58 4DX screens in the US this weekend. 4DX is an immersive theater that uses wind, water, fog, light flashes, and chair movement in sync with the action on the screen to create a one of a kind experience. It basically turns the movies into amusement park ride – although a rather tame one like TOUGH TO BE A BUG at Disney’s Animal Kingdom or that Jimmy Fallon ride at Universal Orlando.

Prior to today’s BARBIE screening, I had only seen one other film in 4DX: A QUIET PLACE 2. And I basically walked out after 10 minutes. At that time, I technically thought this newly opened theater’s 4DX screen was an “ICE” screen. I like ICE – another different immersive theatrical experience – which is basically everything in 4DX without the chair movement but with the added screen extension and shadings of ScreenX. So when I realized I had wandered into something different, VERY different, and the chair started moving, I bolted. It was the first time I would have been watching A QUIET PLACE 2 and I found the chair movement to be too much of a distraction.

But I am OBSESSED with BARBIE – and I’ve already seen the movie 8 times. I already wrote in depth about why the film means so much to me here: “How That Barbie Movie Logo Cracks The Deeper Themes of Greta Gerwig’s Film“.

And, as a big theme park fan, I’ve been wishing for a BARBIE ride recently. I know that dream is at least a few years away (Mattel’s theme park in Arizona is projected to open in 2025 with a Barbie area, attraction and restaurant) so in the meantime I thought this would be a great time to use the 4DX experience as my version of “BARBIE: THE RIDE”.

First off, I had a much better experience seeing BARBIE in 4DX than I did when I went to see A QUIET PLACE 2 a few years ago. Part of that may have just been a difference in anticipation. A couple of things helped: first, I KNEW what I was getting into with 4DX and with BARBIE (again – this was my eighth time watching it overall); and second, BARBIE’s 4DX presentation did not use a ton of chair movement (though it does occasionally in well placed ways).

So here are some of my favorite ways that the 4DX presentation synced up with BARBIE (spoilers for the movie and 4DX, of course):

• THUS SPAKE (yes I’m one of those people) ZARATHUSTRA Opening and Intro
  • When gigantic monolith Barbie shows up in front of the children, the seat vibrates for the first time. That was cool when combined with the sound effect in the movie.
  • There was also a faint pleasant perfume smell when gigantic Barbie first appeared.
  • The chairs moved around when the children began to break their older dolls in two.
  • The chairs also seemed to float when the child tossed its older doll into the air.
  • The chairs continued floating and rotating as all of the different Barbies through the ages were introduced in the following scene
• BARBIELAND Sequence
  • When we fade into Barbie’s bedroom through the roof opening up, the chair tilted down
  • There was a general perfume smell when we’re in Barbie’s bedroom for the first time
  • When Barbie floats down from her bedroom roof to the car, the seats rotated to simulate a floating and falling feeling.
  • As Barbie drove around in her car, the seats vibrated.
  • The chair generally vibrated and moved and shifted throughout this entire montage.
• DANCE PARTY Sequence
  • The chairs swayed in beat with Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night”
  • The chairs came to a DEAD STOP for the first time since the Barbieland sequence began. This was a great use of NO chair movement.

• BARBIELAND GOES WRONG Sequence
  • When Barbie wakes up having a bad day and goes to the shower and the water is cold, you are gently spritzed with cold water.
  • When the butter squirt misses Barbie’s toast, the seat jumped, which was so well placed – it was one of my favorite uses of 4DX in the film.
  • When Physics Barbie tells Stereotypical Barbie to go see Weird Barbie and we get the Weird Barbie flashback, there is a faint burning smell (as the girl burns Weird Barbie’s hair).
• WEIRD BARBIE HOUSE
  • When Barbie arrives at Weird Barbie’s house and sees Tanner the dog pooping, the seat jolts with each of Tanner’s poops (another one of my favorite 4DX moments).
  • When Weird Barbie shows up, that burning smell hits again.
• BARBIE LEAVES BARBIELAND
  • After Ken pops up in Barbie’s car, and Barbie swerves and flips the car, the chair goes absolutely nuts – spinning around, tilting, etc…. It makes sense here and is short and only lasts the duration of the crash – maybe 5 seconds (and this effect is pretty much the entirety of the first 5 MINUTES of A QUIET PLACE 2 – see what I mean).
• BARBIE AND KEN ARRIVE IN THE REAL WORLD
  • Overall the seat motion really toned down once Barbie arrived in the real world but there were a few noticeable movements.
  • When Barbie gets slapped by a passerby in Venice, the seat jumped
  • When Barbie drank water (and missed her mouth) at Mattel headquarters, the seat was sprayed with water.
• BARBIE RETURNS TO BARBIELAND
  • As Barbie drove her car around Barbieand, the seat jiggled again
  • When Barbie punches the tree in frustration, the seat jumped
  • There was a quick push of air when Weird Barbie rouses Barbie after she lays down on the ground
  • Overall, there was not much seat movement here again, though WHEN the seat moved, or there was a gust of wind, it was all magnified (which I think is the BEST use of 4DX) because you REALLY felt it.
    • It is noticeably and appropriately quiet when Ken confronts Barbie and when Gloriagive her great speech about being a woman.
• BATTLE OF THE KENS
  • Now the seats really started going again – for the first time since Barbieland back in Act One. The seats jerked around in sync with each blow the Kens as they fought each other but ALSO little vibrations in the seat pulsed with each (plunger) arrow. That was pretty cool.
  • When Kens finally broke out into their big dance sequence, the theater lit up with strobe-like flashes – the “lightning effect” – which was also excellent.
  • Much like in the Dance Party earlier, the final Dance Sequence featured seats swaying in motion with the song.

In summary, BARBIE on 4DX played out very well. The screen and sound were also on the level of RPX (though not quite the level of IMAX or Dolby) which as an added bonus. And after an initial bad experience with 4DX 3 years ago, I can’t lie, I really enjoyed seeing BARBIE in 4DX. I’m not sure if I would do it for every film, but BARBIE was a great choice for the format. This was mostly because it did not overplay or oversell the theater’s capabilities and instead featured appropriate and some pleasantly unexpected (perfume smells, water when BARBIE misses her mouth when drinking) moments.

I also think that BARBIE being a comedy instead of a horror or an action film helped. Not that I wouldn’t want to see an action or horror film in 4DX, I just think that both from my experience and from what I have heard from others, the 4DX programmers overdo it a bit when the film lands in one of those genres. I also think this 4DX experience was aided because this my eighth time seeing BARBIE – so I knew what was going to happen and could enjoy the 4DX moments as an “add-on” without any pressure that all the seat movements, wind, water, smells, etc… would distract me. In that sense, maybe I would recommend a 4DX ticket for someone who has already seen the movie once or twice and loves it and is just looking for something extra. In the case of BARBIE, the 4DX experience here really added to the experience, which is the most someone can ask when buying their ticket.