The 4DX theater took a trip to 'Jurassic World' — how did it fare?

Welcome back to Jurassic Park. But this time, you’re going to need a poncho and some 3D glasses.

I recently saw “Jurassic World: Rebirth” in 4DX at Regal Winrock.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” took a movie franchise whose last installment I could not even finish and made it great again. “Rebirth” lives up to its name and feels like a rebirth of the franchise in the best way possible.

The new film, paired with the 4DX theater, made for an immersive movie experience that elevated an already top-tier summer blockbuster to an even higher level. I would definitely do it again.

The 4DX theaters are equipped with everything to immerse you in the world of the movie. The theater sprays scents, sprays water (which can be turned off), adjusts the temperature and has seats that move very similarly to a roller coaster.

The best part of the experience was how much the seats move. The seats do not move the whole movie, only during scenes where it makes sense for them to throw you around.

A Mosasaurus is chasing the characters? Hold your popcorn tightly and ensure your drink lid is secure. At one point, my drink lid popped off, and my Pepsi went from its cup into my lap.

The seats have sprays positioned right behind the head that emit jets of air, which are a bit too much. Every single time, and I mean every time, they scared me to death. The first time they went off, I almost jumped out of my seat.

My favorite part of the film, aside from the dinosaurs, was the cast. Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) are the two leading characters advertised in trailers, and they are brilliant. But who really shone through for me was the Delgado family, consisting of father Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his two daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda) and the tag-along boyfriend, Xavier Dobbs (David Iacono). The Delgados and Xavier made this movie for me.

Aside from the cast, “Rebirth” is packed with different species of dinosaurs, unlike “Jurassic World: Dominion,” as an installment should be. The dinosaurs are truly front and center in this film, especially when watching in the 4DX theater. Every interaction has the seats shaking from dinosaur stomps and chairs moving all around during chases.

Three dinosaurs are pivotal to the film: the Mosasaurus, the Titanosaurus and the Quetzalcoatlus. The cast embarks on an adventure that spans from sea to land to air in each of the dinosaurs’ respective habitats. 4DX brings these habitats to life with the addition of scents, temperature changes and sprays of water.

I was apprehensive about the smell aspect . The worry was that they would make the theater smell like dinosaur poop … and, to be fair, I was not far off. Instead of dinosaur poop, it was a dead dinosaur. Or at least what I think was supposed to be a dead dinosaur — one was on the screen and a character went, “What’s that smell?” and then the scent emission machines started going off.

But every time these machines went off, it mostly filled the theater with what I liken to the smell of window cleaner and chemicals. Sometimes, particularly during ocean and jungle scenes, a sweet smell appeared that made it seem as though it was supposed to be the ocean and the jungle; however, the underlying chemical smell was pungent to me.

The Mosasaurus was the scariest dinosaur. Do not mess with giant, deadly, prehistoric sea creatures. The Titanosaurus, on the other hand, I would love to meet. It is essentially a Brachiosaurus with an extremely long tail (no one tell my sister’s paleontologist boyfriend that is how I described them). They were also the dinosaurs used in the beloved pan shot with the original score’s refrain. Composer Alexandre Desplat struck a great balance between preserving John Williams’ original themes that audiences love and remixing pieces for the new film.

The score is a nostalgic callback to my childhood, when I watched these movies with my family, and the music swells as dinosaurs appear on-screen. It also always occupies another one of my favorite moments in every film of the franchise. The moment when the main scientific character, who loves dinosaurs, gets to approach them and touch them and their face fills with euphoria.

I think that’s something I genuinely appreciate about the “Jurassic Park” franchise: there is always a new plot line (if sometimes insane), but there are things you know will be in every installment. The original score, a wide pan over a field of dinosaurs, a paleontologist who loves what they do, and, of course, the T. rex.