I didn’t just go to a movie the other night, I was “in the movie”. That’s what maker of new cinema technology 4DX claims happened, at least. If Imax and 3D were the beginning of a new multiplex arms race, 4DX is the nuclear option, supposedly “a revolutionary cinematic experience which stimulates all five senses”. What that means in practice is a more rollercoaster type of cinema experience: the seats move in all directions, fans blow wind through the auditorium, there are water sprays, scented air, smoke, strobes, snow effects and more. Developed in South Korea, 4DX has been gradually rolling out around the world: first in Asia and central and south America, reaching the US in 2014, and the UK (in Milton Keynes) in 2015. Now the Cineworld chain has opened a 136-seat 4DX auditorium in Leicester Square, central London.

Needless to say, the treatment favours a certain type of movie. Future 4DX releases include Avengers: Infinity War, Solo and Jurassic World. At my screening, it’s Rampage, in which Dwayne Johnson and a giant white gorilla save humanity from skyscraper-toppling mutant monsters.

Rampage is not a subtle movie to begin with, but 4DX heightens every jump, jolt, roar, slam, crash, splash, bang and wallop to cartoonish proportions. Accompanying an early airborne mission, our seats judder along with the motion, compounded by machine-gun fire and the bowel-shaking roars of the giant wolf trying to bite it out of the air. Now what’s this? We’re landing near a river? Cue giant blasts of cold air and sprays of water (from nozzles on the seat in front). Trying to write notes, I feel like the woman in Airplane! who’s trying to apply her lipstick in the bathroom and ends up looking like a clown.

To be honest, rather than putting me “in the movie”, 4DX often threw me out of it. It’s more ghost train than flight simulator. The red velvet chairs regularly erupt into a frenzy of shudders, which make it harder to focus on the screen; there are those water nozzles and mechanics inside the seat prod your lower back. If you’re in the mood, it’s a novel thrill-ride; if you’re not, it’s like being assaulted by your own cinema seat. At the moment, the 4DX bells and whistles feel clumsily tacked on, but perhaps film-makers will start to incorporate it into their films more organically, or even shape their stories to the format’s strengths.

But is this the future of cinema? Perhaps not, but 4DX could be seen as a sign of cinema worrying about its future. In the same way that 3D and widescreen formats such as Cinemascope were partly a response to the threat of television in the 1950s, so the rise of quality TV, Netflix and other streaming sites –and quality TV screens to watch it all on – has pushed movies towards the big-budget, special-effects end of the market. This is of course where they started: cinema began as a fairground attraction; it was only later it came to be considered an art form.