Mugar Omni Theater — Attraction in Boston

Audio Experience : 5/5 Video Experience: 1/5

This is a surprisingly poorly designed video experience. I was really excited to watch a documentary in this theater. However, here are drawbacks.

The dome is quite small for the seating, which makes the image feel too close to you, and gives you a headache in under 5 minutes, at least for me.

There are only about 20 seats in this entire theater with an ideal viewing angle. All other seats would view the cinema at an angle where people are warped circles, or the horizon is at 30 degrees to what you perceive, or at a location where you have to continually scan the dome to figure out what you are supposed to be looking at which can get really tedious.

The seats are pointed in a direction like a regular theater with a rectangular screen in front of you, but the movie is projected on the ceiling. Therefore, except for the ideal rows at the back, you are either breaking your neck or your back to watch this properly.

There is a column of seats that are cutoff from part of the screen by the projector housing in the center.

For some reason, the movies that are shown here has a perceivable lower resolution (you can actually see each pixel) than on a regular IMAX theater, or even a regular 5 dollar screen in a small theater. Perhaps it is due to how close the dome feels in front...

This place serves a very specific purpose: to deliver knowledge about Science in the most visually stunning way possible. From that perspective, it delivers in spades. Huge dome screen and awesome sound make the experience immersive and very engaging. Be advised, some of the materials shown can (and do) scare small children, so inquire with the staff to be safe. Seating is comfortable and well maintained, though the theater is quite steep, which can make some adults uneasy. All in all a fantastic experience, and a great way to spend some of your day at the...

The Omni theaters really great things. I've been going there since it was built when I was a kid. I would strongly suggest getting tickets online ahead of time. You can do digital tickets on your phone which is nice. It's pretty loud so young kids I'm not really recommended. But somewhere 4 or 5 and up is good. Be aware you can't really get out to pee. You're kind of in it for the duration but the shows don't really last an hour there more like between 42 minutes...