4DX movie theaters are relatively rare, but rising in popularity. What is it like to watch a film in one? I saw Captain America: Civil War in 4DX and found it to be a fun experience.

Have you ever been on a theme park ride like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s Forbidden Journey, Disneyland’s Soarin’ Over California (RIP) or even Universal Orlando’s Shrek 4D movie? Then you’ve caught a glimpse of what it’s like to watch a theatrical movie in 4DX.

This weekend, I caught Captain America: Civil War (for the second time) in a top-of-the-line, new 4DX movie theater. As of 2016 it was only one of four in America, but the number of 4DX theaters around the country is slowly growing.

There are six points of potential engagement when you settle into your assigned seat: pressurized air cannons behind your legs, a vibrating plate beneath your seat, similar vibrating plates behind your back, pressurized air cannons just beyond your ears, the water spritzer affixed to the chair in front of you facing you, and the water spritzer affixed to the top of your chair, that aims to mimic the effect of rain. You can toggle the options between ‘Water On’ and ‘Water Off’ with a button on your arm rest. I’m a hard no on water effects, though my seat mates all left theirs on.

Below, I break down the experience of watching a movie while your body is constantly in motion, its pros, and its cons.

And… we’re off!

4DX is clearly built for action/superhero movies. Civil War joins other 2016 movies such as Need for Speed, The Huntsman and Batman vs. Superman that have been equipped for 4DX. No other movie genre requires such an experience. Thrill-seekers will find it hard to not break out into a grin during the first few minutes the seats are engaged. There’s nothing painful about the ride, no jerky whip-lash moves, but there are more jolts and vibrations to simulate movement than you’d expect.

These chairs move incredibly smoothly. So smooth in fact, sometimes you don’t even notice the subtle movements. The best (most natural) parts of the ‘ride’ were when there was transportation in the movie. Perhaps because we spent such a big part of our lives traveling, the car sequences, plane flights, and motorcycle rides felt the most natural to me. To feel the vibrating hum of a car as Captain America speeds through Berlin, then to feel my seat’s vibrating speed up as we see Bucky mount his motorcycle, felt completely normal.

If you wanted to catch dinner and a movie, make sure it’s movie first, then dinner.

Definitely do not see this movie as a post-dinner activity. You will get sick. I barely had a bowl of cereal and coffee and felt everything sloshing together in my stomach uneasily. I cannot imagine what it’d feel like to eat a filling meal, such as hearty steak and potatoes or even a salad, and then sit there for two hours. You are essentially boarding a long, constant roller-coaster, so be considerate of your fellow movie-goers, or bring a barf bag.

What’s that smell? Do you feel that breeze?

The 4DX experience is more than just your seat jostling you around and wearing 3D glasses. It messes with your olfactory senses as well. In a very subtle manner, at least three times throughout the movie I detected scents that were supposed to serve as a poisonous/knock-out gas (in the opening action sequence in Wakanda), burning rubber from tires in one of the early car chases in Berlin, and the scent of fire during the Vienna bombing scene.

There’s chilly gusts of wind when we visit the abandoned HYDRA base in a blizzard. There are strong breezes blowing your hair back as you watch Vision and Rhodie fall through hundreds of floors or the air respectively. When they crash-land, your seat jolts forward, like it would if you came to a fast and sudden stop in a car. But when Falcon takes flight, it’s smooth sailing… until a bullet hits him, and you feel a mimicked, albeit much less severe impact in your back.

There were also two fog machines at the front of the theater, deployed during multiple — and perfectly timed — scenes. The only time they served as an obstruction was when the smoke floated in front of Bucky’s close up, ruining the 3D effect.

Sitting there, I couldn’t help but wonder what engineering feats had to be made in order to create a 4DX experience (especially considering a little over a decade ago we were still watching movies with paper red-cyan glasses) How do you decide which bumps and hits the on-screen characters take that the sentient viewers should feel? How do you decide to engage the hydraulics during a tame dialogue scene? In the world of movies, where layers upon layers of SFX, CGI, ADR, 3D and all the other acronyms are applied, how do you decide to incorporate one more layer — perhaps the ultimate one — and pull viewers along for the experience?

Our brains aren’t smart enough for this yet.

If I had seen Captain America: Civil War for the first time in this atmosphere, I imagine I would feel very frazzled and frustrated. There’s a split second lag on the 3D that freaks our brains out and makes it hard to compute the dialogue, the meaning, the story, the action and what’s happening to our bodies all at once.

You may encounter some inner-ear issues. Messing with your balance like this (in an artificial way) is not something your brain can process. We’ve evolved to use our cochleas to gain a sense of equilibrium in our bodies. That dizzy feeling when you stand up after doing a somersault or standing up too fast is the fluid in your inner-ears getting sloshed around and then leveling out (and some other very scientific stuff happening in our brains.)

In a 4DX movie, something happens at a physiological level that we are simply not equipped to handle yet. Many of us will notice our bodies jump into parasympathetic mode. Thinking we’re in harm’s way — bullets are flying at us in 3D on the screen and our bodies feel the hits in some capacity — our heart rates speed, our senses become more fine-tuned, and our bodies tense. Multiple times throughout the two and a half hours, I was not surprised to find my shoulders clenched, up by ears, and only when I consciously relaxed did I feel myself settling down.

Some final thoughts…

There is nothing that will alter your appearance walking out than when you walked in. The water use was minimal, and even though I had mine off, still felt the mist of my neighbors’ seats. The air that would be deployed in short, yet powerful bursts to mimic bullets breezing past my ears was strong enough to blow my hair around a little bit, but there was nothing sustained or annoying to the viewing experience.

I didn’t read the massive warning sign posted outside the theater (they don’t make you sign a waiver, yet), but if I did, I’d have to assume a strong portion of the population would not be well-suited for a 4DX experience.

Similar to theme park rides, women who are pregnant, people with serious injuries, pace-makers, anxiety, motion sickness or the general slew of ailments should not view a film this way. Civil War is a phenomenal movie beyond the action sequences and is perfectly (if not more) enjoyable in a 2D theater, with stationary seats.

If you look at the $30 price tag less as a movie ticket and more as an event, the 4DX cost seems justified. (But that may also be NYC price-inflation at work.) This might not be the future of mainstream movie viewing, I’d imagine outfitting an IMAX-screen-sized theater with these seats might cost an extraordinary amount, as the theater I was in had maybe 30 and still felt like a lot, but with immersive experiences like VR headsets becoming more and more common, who knows.

All that being said, I’d happily enjoy a 4DX movie again, under the right circumstances.