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The Weekly Geek: “Super 8” rocks and rolls

If you’ve been to a theme park in the past few years, it’s likely that you’ve experienced what J.J. Abrams is planning for select audiences of his latest sci-fi thriller this summer. I’m speaking, of course, of those schlocky movies that literally move the audience with seats that bounce, drop, and or/poke unsuspecting audience goers in an attempt to make the experience “immersive.”

According to Underwire, Super 8 (Abrams’ upcoming Area 51-themed thriller) will be shown in theaters with special “D-Box Motion Code seats” that have “pitch, roll and heave movements that shift audience members up, down and sideways in their chairs.”

That sounds like the Shrek movie at Universal Studios. Only, instead of friendly ogres, here we’ll have shaky camera effects, and maybe some creepy aliens to boot. One thing is for sure: If you’re going for the full experience, you may not want to load up on the popcorn or you’ll be wearing it later, in one form or another. Needless to say, if something like Blair Witch or Cloverfield made you queasy, you should go for the cheap seats.

All joking aside, this could actually be cool, and Super 8 looks like it could be stellar. I scoped the trailer for the first time last week, and it seems to have all the paranoia of a classic X-Files episode, which could make jumpy seats extra-fun. The plot concerns a group of geeky film-obsessed kids in the late ’70s witnessing strange paranormal activity when an area 51-bound train crashes in town.

The movie is slated for June release. There are only 50 or so theaters with motion seating, so if you’re interested in being lurched, check out this site for one near you.

On an entirely unrelated, but still very geeky, note, Jezebel writer Anna North wrote a fantastic post on women in Computer Science at Harvard University. She comments on a recent finding that numbers are up for females declaring CS as their major — but, unfortunately, the upper-level classes are still total sausage fests.

It’s well worth a read, no matter what your major or brand of geek.

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