Moved by "Fast and Furious" 6

by Terisa Thurman

Will motion seating bring audiences back to the movies?

D-Box is a motion seating system in select movie theaters that simulates an infinite amount of movements including tilting, trembles, and sudden impacts that coordinate with the action on screen. 

The technology is featured with huge blockbuster hits including “Fast and Furious” 6 which I saw just for the D-Box experience.  It turns out back in 2009 D-Box had its commercial theatrical premiere with the original “Fast and Furious” at the famous MANN Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  Last year, I noticed that the technology had made its way to my local movie theater when I went to see “Snow White” yet to be honest the 2-3 minute demo in the lobby did not present the full potential of how the technology adds to the experience of the film.  First of all it was in the lobby; I saw “Fast and Furious” inside the darkened theater which adds a whole other level; secondly the subject matter was Snow White…sure she gets on a horse and runs around for a bit but “Fast and Furious” is packed with action.  You almost have to see a film like “Fast and Furious” to get the most out of the extra dollars one has to shell out to have the D-Box experience.

[I’ve reworded this paragraph so many times trying not to sound perverse but we are talking about movement.  Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t feel perverse but I have to say I liked feeling the vibrations of the cars…see, here we go!]

My point is you really can imagine what it’s like to be Vin Diesel ripping through the streets in a bullet fast car.  And every time we entered a scene with a bird’s eye view the seat would tilt like you are the bird in flight.  If I may be so simple…it was super cool!

However, there were cons…one was a biggie and the other not so much.  The lesser con was that the movements on my head rest were a bit too much.  I did not care for my head being shaken around and it may have been a result from the rest of the chair moving and not that the head rest had added motion but I simply lifted my head away from the seat which wasn’t a big deal as I was still able to rest my back in the chair comfortably. The other con was a bigger deal for me.  There is a scene in which The Rock (Ha! I don’t even know his character’s name) is interrogating some thug and he begins to punch him around and my seat jerked me around as if I was getting punched by The Rock.  I guess I automatically put myself with The Rock and this surprise of being punched by The Rock counteracted my perspective which I didn’t like.  Who wants to get punched by The Rock?

As I said, I’ve never seen any of the previous “Fast and Furious” movies but I really enjoyed the technology presented with the film.  As for the film itself, I had a few eye rolling moments but there were a couple of laughs and I really did enjoy it, oh…{spoiler alert}…and I have to see the next one as Jason Statham popped up during the credits.  Love him!