Phenomena — Attraction in Barcelona

Yesterday I watched the „Oppenheimer“ movie at 20:10pm. I was not sure if the theatre was the right choice as the reviews are quite „wild“, so here are my thoughts:

This may sound rude but this cinema in total is a bad joke and I do not understand the hype it gets - especially, as it is considered as one of the best cinemas (timeout article) in the world.

First of all the, the tickets are quite expensive for what you are getting. To not number the tickets is bad and I have never seen this anywhere else before.

I mean, I get the reason, the owner wants to sell all seats and avoid empty seats but for the customers it‘s not fair, as you pay premium and you do not know where you end up. There should be at least categories, even better, numbers.

To visit movie theaters should be something exciting and not full of stress. Waiting in the line for hours (it started to rain yesterday) before the movie starts, running into the theatre in the hope to get a decent seat is just not how it should work.

Also the fact, that cards for payment are not accepted is not very 2023 and getting snacks / drinks before the movie is almost impossible if you want to have a proper seat.

I feel very sorry for people that work very long and just want to enjoy a movie and end up in the worst seats.

For comparison, I know another 70mm premium cinema from my hometown Munich. It‘s called „ASTOR Film Lounge“, there you get tickets with numbers, service (drinks and snacks), popcorn in sweet and salty (only salty at Phenomena) and the equipment - especially the sound and seats are way, way better than the experience you get in Phenomena. Also, it‘s bigger and the cinema is a lot cleaner - we have spotted lots of dirt and popcorn on the ground when entering the cinema hall.

To me, as someone visiting this cinema for the first time, it feels more like some sort of „scam“. I would not recommend to go there and we will not likely go there again, as long as it remains like it is.

Two stars because there was no commercial before the movie, no issues during the movie and the lady selling popcorn and drinks was very nice; the rest was...

I will try to sum it up as much as I can, that is not it. I mean, as good as the cinema may be, as good as the movie selection seems to be, there is an obvious downside to it. I mean, more than one (Being forced to buy your tickets online if you can't pay in cash, given that this is the only option if you want to buy the tickets there, paying and additional commission, just to get started) but the obvious problem is one specific person: they seem to enjoy screaming on top of their lungs "Móviles"(Shut down your mobile phones) over the course of random moments during the movie projection (I've been going for quite a while, it happened a lot and it seems to be the same person) and, regarding my personal experience, some time ago they literally started yelling at my direction (My fault, I was using the phone to send a urgent message, but that's on me) and they spoke so fast that I do not know whether or not they were speaking Spanish or catalan (They clearly did not want to communicate, they were just blurting out random words, threatening to kick me out of the cinema.) Nice, right? Also, keep in mind that I was not disturbing anyone (Again, my fault for using the phone, it was important, but I totally understand the request of turning it off; However, the basic respect for a human being did not seem to be even remotely contemplated, they kept ranting off, rambling on a few topics regarding my total disregard for respect of the experience for the others, meanwhile screaming like that other people started to get worried obviously). And that was not the worst experience, wasn't it? I guess that I was a fool to give a second chance to the cinema, whatever. I strongly do not recommend it, it's not worth it (Several other cinemas offer good cinema in VOSE and are not as expensive; Ah, also you will not get screamed at, not bad, right?) It's also impressively expensive, if I did not point that out already. But that's for...

Only downside is getting there late

Since you cant choose seats when buying the tickets fisically or online, if you don't get there 1h before your movie you wont have seats in a centered area.

Due to this there is a neverending queue of people outside the cinema waiting to get in fast, where you and everyone are blocking a parking, a bar and half the block rotating the cinema itself, and I wouldn't mind the queue if it weren't for the fact that they have such big empty spaces inside the establishment that you literally walk trough while making a single person line to go in.

The layout of the screening room has to be the weirdest one I've seen worldwide (it might very well be due to the Dolby Atmos functionality but since they don't explain or say anything about it i was just personally left with confusion) the access staircases or "entrance" are located in the middle of the room itself so the actual seating sports are weirdly distributed, because it felt like there were only like 6-10 rows in the front and middle areas (the ones you want to sit in) and the rest (80% of the remaining ones) are scattered trough the remaining of the room.

If you do seat on a edge like i did last time You don't get the 360 experience because the speakers are literally over you aimed at the people in the middle, you will get the most bass in the whole room tho, with is cool in its own way but prepare to have your ears covered in some (or most) loud scenes because they get louder than disco speakers.

If you do manage to seat in the middle area of the room, the experience of watching movies in this different way makes it worth it, Since the thing they do manage to nail is the immersion by the time you've got to leave, all the bad and strange starting experience are just deleted from your mind and you'd just want to book another session in...