The history of cinema is littered with failed gimmicks. Headache-inducing 3D glasses, earthquake-simulating Sensurround which came and went in five years, and, more recently, ScreenX, the 270° viewing experience. Audiences tend to vote with their feet in such cases, and after initial success (owing more to curiosity than anything else), the hype wears off and everyone realises the flashy new technology has nothing on an ordinary rectangular screen.
Against this backdrop, Vue Islington’s ground-breaking refurbishment, which has seen it become the upmarket chain’s first central London cinema with all-recliner seating, is a move that will undergo the strenuous test that can be softened by the comfort Vue’s luxury leather quasi-beds have launched.
All 788 new seats across the cinema’s 10 screens now recline. There is not a single inflexible chair in the venue. It’s a pretty comprehensive commitment to change. Vue obviously believes in its success, and its CEO, Tim Richards, reportedly wants to implement the seating revolution in other branches.
The foyer, toilets and corridors have also been refurbished, but most impressively, where cinema tickets in central London venues are often closer to £15 than £10, Vue has kept the most affordable tier of seats under that mark at £9.99. The seats do get more expensive the further back you sit, but there’s no change in quality of seating.
Crucially, though, do the new seats improve the cinema experience? “Obviously,” says Tom, who’s just come out of a Dune: Part Two screening. “It’s your choice – you can lean forward and you can lean back, no?” he adds, sensing a bit of scepticism in my questions.
Haiko, a visitor to London, said:
“It was very good, I didn’t know about these kinds of seats,” “We don’t have them in Germany, and this was better, the best seats I’ve ever sat in.”
Would they like more cinemas to use reclining seats? “Absolutely,” Haiko says.
For his own part, your humble reporter must confess he found it hard to match the overwhelmingly positive opinions expressed by others. As such, it falls on me to raise a few pedantic criticisms of the new seating arrangements.
“It’s comfy, it feels like you’re at home,” Tomer, another customer, tells me. But that is a matter of opinion – the chair is fantastic in full-recline, but it is not as well suited to being upright and dangles your legs awkwardly. To recline or not to recline – that is the question, and it forced me into the unpleasant choice between suffering achy knees and lying down in public.
I was not keen on the latter, so I engaged in a dance with the recliner’s built-in controller which was not popular with my neighbours. Nor were my fumbling attempts to reach my bag which, for obvious reasons, cannot be conveniently stowed under the chair.
These logistical considerations are not as sexy as an Italian leather chair that goes whoosh, but they must be raised. However, given that none of my fellow cinemagoers had any problems with the experience, it could just be a me problem, and a change to the norm at the movies might finally be passing the audience test.
