The next big trend in blockbuster cinema could well be here, and it will stimulate your senses, spit at you and batter your spine.

Cinematic technology has advanced massively in recent years, and can greatly enhance the film-going experience.

Since seeing Avatar on a snowy December day seven years ago and feeling immersed in the jungles of Pandora, countless films have been adapted for 3D films, but I don’t think I’ve experienced it as effectively as that.

Avatar was made for 3D, whereas with many other films, it’s added afterwards – almost as an afterthought.

When done right, films in 3D can really bring to life new experiences and new worlds.

But it can also feel gimmicky and like a cheap attempt to cash in on a blooming trend and make you fork out extra for 3D glasses.

Surrey Comet:

4DX could be the next big trend to follow 3D in cinematic technology, and I was lucky enough to see the new Star Wars film, Rogue One at Cineworld in Wandsworth’s Southside Shopping Centre last night.

From today: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story review: 'An utterly joyous instalment'

4DX combines 3D vision, with moving and contorting seats, and water, smoke and blasts of air as part of a holistic simulation designed to transport you from seat to screen – at least according to the company behind it, CJ 4DPLEX.

But how does the reality match up to the PR on its website?

With my stomach still churning from my colleague’s driving from Sutton to Wandsworth, I made myself comfortable – tried to make myself comfortable – in my seat.

I’m five foot six (and a half!), so leg room’s rarely an issue anywhere for me, and it certainly wasn’t a problem here.

However, the layers of tough ‘padding’ on the back of the seat do inevitably cause some discomfort, even in resting mode.

Not that this is much of a criticism – the cinema imposing itself on the audience is all part of the intended experience.

Surrey Comet:
Felicity Jones as rebel soldier Jyn Erso​

The seats kick into action violently writhing, bending, vibrating or strafing side to side as the Tie Fighters take to the skies, characters are shot, cities crumble and planets are destroyed.

(The death-count is STAGGERING in Rogue One, by the way. The seats pummel your back A LOT.)

They even shoot air out either side of your head as the not-so-sharp-shooting Stormtroopers’ laser fire whizzes past your ears.

When the new - at least in terms of release date - heroes get stranded in a storm, water trickles from the ceiling and spits from the back of the chair in front of you.

Darth Vader ultimately appears and his entrance and fatal stalking of doomed rebel fighters are accentuated by dramatic flashes of light and smoke machines.

Surrey Comet:

It requires a wilful suspending your sense of disbelief, but overall this does make you feel more involved in the heroes’ quest to find the plans to expose the Death Star’s fatal flaw and more immersed in these exotic, intergalactic worlds.

The special effects are perhaps slightly overused, however.

Panning is occasionally accompanied by the seats strafing, and it can sometimes feel gratuitous.

It does also, perhaps inevitably, take some time to get used to, and at times it can divert your attention from the action on screen. But as you warm to the characters and the film, the moving seats and smoke and mirrors become less of a distraction.

In the end, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story comfortably merited the 4DX treatment.

What remains to be seen is how widely it will be used, and how necessary its use will be.

Given the popularity and – some would say, overpopulation – of 3D films in recent years ago, this could well be the next big trend in blockbuster cinema.

Got a story? Get in touch at craig.richard@london.newsquest.co.uk