Star Wars Dolby SoHo experience well worth a drop-in

Star Wars, free, and New York City. Name a better trio, I’l wait. That’s what you have to look forward to at the Dolby SoHo Star Wars experience.

There isn’t a lot of free stuff to do in New York City, let alone anything Star Wars related. So the Dolby SoHo experience is already worth your time, just knowing that it’s free, and there is Star Wars stuff on display.

If you’re walking south down Broadway and cross Broome street, start looking for light sabers. That would indicate your in the right place. The Dolby SoHo workers leave nothing up to chance, guarding the door with their blue and red lightsabers and no self-respecting fan is going to walk past that.

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Which is how I ended up inside, along with hundreds of other people, with Star Wars music blaring and lightsabers hanging from the ceiling. The entrance hallway is populated with movie posters from all of the Skywalker saga movies and you’ll probably start feeling pretty emotional already.

There are so many things that will capture your attention at this Dolby SoHo Star Wars experience. The first room may seem missable, but don’t. If you fill out a quick survey, you get a free The Rise Of Skywalker poster with some excellent concept art. Don’t miss it.

Next up is a room with walls showing the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker. And I mean literally the entire walls. The whole room is the trailer. I think I watched it seven times before forcing myself to move one.

From there, you have choices, each of which is well worth exploring. From the room with the lightsabers hanging from the ceiling, you can descend into the basement, where you can enjoy a beanbag chair lounge surrounded by Star Wars orchestral music. Get comfortable. It’s not hard.

There’s also art and exhibits down stairs, including a montage of all the nine movies, a video on the artistry of the movie, and three Sith Troopers just begging to be selfied with.

Back upstairs, you’ll find a thematically decorated living room with The Force Awakens playing with Dolby surround sound. Obviously the end goal for Dolby is to convince you to experience Star Wars in your own home with this elite sound system and it’s pretty damn convincing. Except for the fact that my neighbors would hate me.

Across the hall is a long line, the one thing I didn’t personally get to experience, but it looked like a room where kids (or really brave adults) could reenact the Kylo Ren vs Rey Palpatine-Skywalker-JustRey lightsaber duel on the ruins of the Death Star. It’s something I would have liked to participate in, but the line was a bit prohibitive.

Finally, the last room has more lightsabers hanging from the ceiling, with screens that rotate between different The Rise of Skywalker characters. It’s more perfect photo opportunities, and  even for me, someone who dislikes taking excessive photos, my camera roll filled up.

This is well worth it for any Star Wars fan who has easy access to SoHo. It’s a quick stop, you won’t spend your entire day there, but it’s immersive enough (and free enough) to make it well worth your while.