If you’ve just woken up from a coma, you may not be aware that Dune: Part Two is currently out in theatres across the world! I’ve already published my spoiler free review here on Screen Love Affair. In that review I described Dune: Part Two as a generation-defining film the likes of which I haven’t seen since The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s a sci-fi epic that must be seen on the biggest screen and with the best sound possible, so you can be transported away to the spice fields of Arrakis and immersed in the world that director Denis Villeneuve brings to life.  After reading such overwhelming praise you’re probably already grabbing your phone right now to buy tickets. However, you’re now faced with a choice: What format should I watch this movie in?  Depending on where you live, there can be a lot of choices too. On top of a regular theatre, you also have 3D, D-Box, UltraAVX, ScreenX, 4DX, 70mm, IMAX, or some combination of those formats, and each one of them is advertised as the best way to immerse yourself in the movie.  I’ve realized that many moviegoers face the same dilemma of choosing the best format for their viewing experience, so in this article, I’ll give you a comprehensive guide to all of the non-standard formats and give you my personal recommendations! For reference, a ticket to a regular screening of Dune: Part Two is $14.00. All prices are shown in Canadian dollars and don’t include taxes or Cineplex’s predatory “online booking fee”. It does however include the extra $1 that Cineplex charges for popular movies. If you want to read more about my disappointment with Canada’s largest theatre chain over some of these practices, check out that article here. The Formats Ranked #6 – D-Box: $22.00 D-Box is a normal theatre in terms of screen and sound, but some rows in the theatre are special D-Box seats that move and vibrate. These seats can vary in size and looks depending on your theatre, but in Montreal they were just slightly comfier standard seats. Each seat has a settings pad where you can lower or raise the intensity of the experience. The movement isn’t significant even at the highest setting and just more or less can tilt the seat up, down, forward, backwards, and side to side. The movement and vibrations are set for each movie to try and match what’s happening on screen to offer a more “immersive” experience.  Given that this is last on my list though, I can’t say that this makes for a very immersive experience. In fact, I think it actively detracts from the movie.  A certain meme came to mind when reflecting on my D-Box experience: I’m not sure what I can say beyond this is just watching a movie in a vibrating chair that also occasionally tilts. It’s a pure gimmick and is so distracting that if you’re actually trying to watch the movie, you’ll just want to set it to low or move to a different seat. Unlike 4DX, though, which is also incredibly distracting, this doesn’t change the experience enough to justify doing this after you’ve watched the movie in a more ideal format.   Verdict: 💔💔 I can’t recommend D-Box to anyone for any reason and for $8 more than a normal ticket you should just avoid this at all costs.  #5 – ScreenX: $20.00 ScreenX is a unique theatre experience with two additional projections on the sides of the theatre as if it’s extending the screen. The walls were specifically designed for this projection too, so it’s not just projecting on the walls of a regular theatre. There are two projectors in the middle of the theatre projecting on the opposite walls so the whole theatre is much brighter than a normal screening would be too. I took a picture just before the movie started so you can get a sense of what this looks like: On the experience itself, I’m more mixed than I expected. Of all these new gimmicky formats, this is the one that has the most potential, I suppose, but also has the worst implementation.  The movie starts with the side screens in full use for the entire opening sequence of the movie and I was very distracted by it. It definitely makes you feel more surrounded, but I caught myself looking at the side screens a few times, and they definitely don’t look great. I’m not sure exactly how they do all of the visuals for the side screens, because the movie certainly wasn’t filmed this wide, but it was clear that they used some very low quality digital effects to try and simulate what would be there. The image quality on the sides is also noticeably lower too, so the image lacks detail and clarity. To make matters worse, the colours on the side screens were noticeably different as well. Shots of the desert in Dune: Part Two are a bit more white than the two side screens, which had a consistent orange tint to them that didn’t match up with the main screen most of the time.  The other issue I noticed right away was that there were noticeable gaps where the edges of the screens meet, which looked incredibly wonky. As people entered the frame on the main screen from one of the sides, there were noticeable misalignments and slight delays that made it feel off. Because the side screens are more squared too, there were issues with shots not being lined up. For example a shot of the planet Arrakis from space very early in the movie doesn’t line up properly so even in my peripheral vision I could see the planet looked jagged in a way it wasn’t supposed to. It’s not the best example, but you can even notice a similar issue on a picture I took before the movie started: In spite of all of these noticeable issues though, I started to