BFI IMAX Reviews Summary

Seating Comfort

Pros:

• "Comfortable seats with excellent views everywhere except, I imagine, the from 2 rows."
• "The screen is huge (as expected), seats are comfy and the staff are friendly."
• "Armrests are wide and seats (particularly premium) are very comfy and clean."
• "New seats are really comfy watched Avatar 2 and the seat was comfy throughout."
• "We had VIP seats with plenty of leg room and very comfortable."
• "The seats are so comfortable and spacious. The sound system is so rich and the visuals so impressive."
• "Chairs are large and comfortable with plenty of space for snacks and leg room."

Cons:

• "However the seats are uncomfortable for long projections."
• "Seats were so packed with very little hand rest space."
• "Cramped legroom between seats."
• "The standard ones are EXTREMELY narrow, and with VERY little leg room."
• "But the seats was not so comfortable, there's not too much space for legs, my knees was almost touching the seat in from of me."
• "The seats were a bit uncomfortable and not much legroom."
• "The seats were horrible with no legroom."

Screen and Sound Quality

Pros:

• "The screen was brilliant, absolutely enormous with a sound system to match."
• "The screen is spacious with comfortable seats. The sound system is immaculate for the 3D experience!"
• "Biggest screen I seen, sound is also really is amazing you can't hear any distortion like in other cinemas."
• "The screen is indeed impressive, and the audio/video was irreproachable."
• "The screen is so huge like very big. Is actually the biggest cinema in the UK and the sounds are literally so good like you could actually feel the bass."
• "The screen was massive and the sound was incredible."
• "The biggest screen in the UK. Incredible sound."

Cons:

• "Film projection causes a pronounced flickering."
• "3D is very bad I see nothing when is moving some object in movie."
• "Image quality was way lower than expected."
• "There were also many times when the film reel obviously had damage and artefacts obscuring the image quality."
• "It seems that some people do not notice this flickering and see film projection as moving images, other unlucky viewers see this effect as a strobing effect."
• "Minus one star because I don’t think the film I watched The Boy and The Heron was in HD."
• "Main problem was the sound is just too loud, I don't know how people can enjoy it."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Absolutely amazing experience at the IMAX. Staff are really friendly and the screen is legendary; it's a well-decorated and spacious foyer with Ben and Jerry's, a bar and a Costa."
• "Staff super friendly."
• "The staff at the cafe and the rest of the staff around the cinema were really nice and welcoming."
• "Staff were great and definitely a cinema experience to have."
• "The staff has a great sense of humour."
• "The staff were very friendly & helpfull."
• "The staff are absolutely amazing."

Cons:

• "Absolutely awful service. Will not be returning. Feel completely scammed."
• "Very surprised to have such a bad experience though staff nice."
• "Categorically the worst service I have ever experienced. The extremely junior and wildly rude manager is missing fundamental skills in communication and operations."
• "AVOID Terrible customer service."
• "When I informed the box office the clerk was extremely rude."
• "Shocking service. Downgraded to digital with less than 24 hours notice."
• "Really disappointed."

Location and Accessibility

Pros:

• "The surrounding area feels a bit dodgy at night especially the tunnels to access and exit the theatre At night."
• "Location is great just outside of Waterloo station."
• "The location of IMAX cinema is so close to the Waterloo station that our trip back home was also super smooth, as getting onto the train was very quick and easy also."
• "Very well located, although if you don't like dealing with tourists you may want to avoid it."
• "The place is a very short walk from the underground station."
• "Location not far from Waterloo Station 👍🏻🤗😊"
• "Its near to Waterloo station. ....😊😘😍"

Cons:

• "You have to climb down what feels like thousands of flights but is actually only 6 to get to the entrance."
• "Navigating to the cinema was a real challenge!"
• "There is no indication sign about how to enter the building."
• "The walkway to the cinema wasn’t well lit and didn’t feel safe to get to."
• "The entrance walking in from the outside is also somewhat sketchy at night."
• "The venue entrance is a little hard to find."
• "Grim underpass which you have to go through to get to the cinema. Wouldn't want to be walking there alone at night."

Facilities and Cleanliness

Pros:

• "The toilets were all really clean."
• "Really nice and clean!!!"
• "Staff were friendly and accommodating."
• "Great choice of refreshments!!!"
• "The place was clean and staff helpful."
• "Brilliant screen and sound, great location a few minutes from Waterloo Station, nice quiet Costa down stairs."
• "The screen is really huge which is great and sound quality is nice for IMAX movie."

Cons:

• "Unfortunately the outside and inside are looking a little tired these days and the concession stand could do with a bit of imagination."
• "Candy is stale and the popcorn is rubbish."
• "The most creepiest thing was the blue tunnel which is super dirty."
• "The exterior of the cinema is quite grim. You have to go in the underpasses to get there but it's in dire need of cleaning up."
• "The subway tunnels accessing the venue are dark and intimidating at night time."
• "The toilets downstairs were packed before and after the showing. A bit messy too."
• "The venue could do with a revamp as it shows signs of jadedness and it's a bit rough around the edges."