If you bought tickets for Avengers: Endgame on Fandango or another online ticketing outlet, you no doubt were presented with 101 different ways to see the film. Standard 2D, 2D with Dolby, 3D, Digital 3D, RealD 3D, IMAX, IMAX 3D, D-Box, 4DX, and probably a few others I’ve missed.

Do we really need this many options to see a movie? It’s enough to make you long for a Thanos snap to eliminate half of them.

But let’s talk about that last one: 4DX. I had only first heard of it recently, and I had the opportunity to see (experience) Endgame in this format. I was told – half in jest – to expect something akin to Star Tours for three hours. And that wasn’t much off the mark.

4DX is billed as providing “an immersive, multi-sensory experience, allowing the audience to connect with movies through motion, vibration, water, wind, snow, lightning, scents, and other special effects that enhance the visuals on-screen.”

4DX theaters have special motion-based seats that are synchronized with more than 20 different effects, ostensibly to “immerse” you within the movie, beyond the oh-so-traditional audio and video.

So yeah, imagine your favorite Disney or Universal ride but for the duration of an entire movie.

To prepare you for what’s to come, a longer version of this video (which loses a LOT without the shaky seats) plays between the trailers and the film and takes advantage of many of the effects.

It’s rough. You really get shaken up quite a bit. It truly feels like a Disney ride. I turned to my wife after that preview and said, “I REALLY hope the entire movie isn’t like that.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t.

Three solid hours of gimmicky effects and motion simulation would be nauseating. Nevertheless, Endgame does seem to take full advantage of the technology.

Water and air effect panels are in front of each seat.

So, what can you expect? A lot. You’ll get poked in the back and shaken up during fight scenes, you’ll feel like you’re floating while in space, you’ll feel Hawkeye’s arrows fly by your face (thanks to puffs of air in the headrest behind you), you’ll feel wind, you’ll get wet during rainy scenes (and feel blood splatter), and you’ll see snow/bubbles fall from the ceiling.

I have to admit that the experience WAS very cool. It’s certainly a unique way to watch a movie. And aside from the intense fight scenes, many of the effects were relatively subtle and didn’t detract from the actual film.

My complaints? The seats are decidedly LESS comfortable than the luxury recliners we’ve all come to expect nowadays. And for a three-hour movie, it’s noticeable.

This might’ve been a fluke with my theater, but the fans along the ceiling are fairly noisy, and they continue to make squeaky/creaky sounds while they stop spinning – long after the effect ends and while the movie might be much quieter.

Huge fans line the ceiling for wind effects.

Those are both relatively minor complaints, though. The only effect I simply didn’t care for was the water effect.

During rainy scenes, you get quite wet, so dress appropriately. Also, during a few select scenes when characters get killed, the water is used to simulate blood splatter. It’s actually kind of gross.

In a smart move, there’s an option to turn OFF the water effects in each seat. So if it’s not your thing, just toggle off the effect.

Don’t like the water effects? Turn them off from your armrest.

So is this the future of the moviegoing experience? Lord, I hope not. It seems like 3D is actually losing popularity and seeing fewer screenings than traditional 2D. And that’s a good thing. Very few movies benefit from conversion to 3D.

Likewise, very few movies would actually benefit from 4DX. It’s a novelty, to be sure. And it’s a fun experience for tentpole films like Captain Marvel and Endgame, but I can’t see its appeal going much beyond those huge action blockbusters.

Still, it’s a fun new technology. And for the right film (such as Endgame, which all of you nerds are going to see multiple times anyway), I would recommend the experience.

To date, 4DX theaters are in operation in 620 auditoriums throughout 62 countries. Click here to see if there’s one near you.