What I learned about ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ by seeing ‘Wicker’

Avengers: Doomsday is coming, and it’s presumed to be one of the biggest movies of the year. And that’s saying something in a year when Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey became a hot ticket. Since opening in July, it’s grossed more than $1.7 billion dollars worldwide, making it the eleventh highest-grossing movie of all time.

But you know what’s number one? Avengers: Endgame. And sure, Endgame boasted an almost obscene amount of superheroes, including not only the titular mighty collective, but also the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man. And yet, Avengers: Doomsday will boast even more.

Fans of Captain America, Thor, Hulk, the New Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men have reason to get giddy. And fans of Robert Downey Jr. were gifted new reason to rejoice, because just as his time as Iron Man in the MCU has ended, Doomsday sees the American icon return as the nefarious Doctor Doom.

With all these reasons to revel, I have still be pretty ambivalent about Marvel’s next chapter. Yes, after duds like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts*, I am superhero fatigued. But then I went to see Wicker.

How Wicker got me pumped to plunge back into the MCU.

The TLDR version of this story is I went to see Wicker in theaters, and the trailer for Avengers: Doomsday made me excited to see more. The more accurate version in the story involves one specific detail: 4DX.

Yes, I saw Wicker in its one-night-only 4DX experience. And it’s not that I’d never enjoyed (endured?) 4DX before, but the last time was a bad time. Yes, that was probably my fault, and for more on that, read the linked article above. But before my theater seat was rocked by Alexander Skarsgård as a lusty Wicker Husband, it was rigorously rattled by Doomsday.

Ahead of the feature presentation, the cinema unfurled an Avengers: Doomsday trailer with the 4DX treatment playing along. The audience around me tittered with laughter as we felt the first tiny rumble that warned us the seats had activated.

When Victor Doom lands that classic superhero pose after a mighty leap, the seats shuddered with the impact. As dust kicked up on Thor’s landing, the seat rattled again, but this time a bit of fog shot forth from under the movie theater screen. When Thor is thrown back by Doom’s powers, the seats bucked to the left, so violently I instinctively clutched the arm rests.

As I wrote in my review of the Wicker 4DX experience, it was a thrilling preview of the capabilities of the immersive elements of this motion-enhanced theater. As the hits kept coming, I couldn’t even focus on the screen between the jostling seat and my own riotous laughter over the amusement park thrill of it all.

And yes, I realize my ennui about superhero movies may not be widely shared. I realize there’s plenty of valid reasons to anticipate the return of the Avengers for another adventure, even more stuffed with stars. But for me, it took the added kick of a rattling theater seat to reconnect to the fun of seeing these moves on the big screen.

I have since reflected back on the times before I crowded into a packed press screening, where the pressure was on to turn around a review and as many editorials as I could for the ravenous MCU audience. I remembered going to see the first MCU phase at midnight screenings on Thursday nights, so the surprises wouldn’t be spoiled. The audience around me in 4DX bucked and laughed in unison with me, and I remembered the communal joy of seeing Tony Stark kick butt for the first time, or Captain America brandishing his shield, or Thor pounding his hammer.

And with just a rigorous shaking of a 4DX theater, I am seated for Doomsday.

Avengers: Doomsday opens in theaters on Dec. 18.