Galaxy ups game ahead of "Deadpool and Wolverine" with floor-to-ceiling 4K screens

Moviegoers want more.

First it was better snacks. Then it was comfy recliners and reserved seating. That luxury turned to wine and blockbusters with a side of popcorn.

Now, it's 50-foot floating screens with resolutions that rival your OLED TV hanging on the wall in your living room.

Galaxy Tulare has upped the game.

In anticipation of the summer's biggest movie, "Deadpool and Wolverine," Galaxy took the end of June and early July to upgrade its biggest auditoriums. Aside from better sound and theater-shaking bass, now moviegoers will get closer to the action.

“The new DFX screens add 35% more image," said Freddie Gonzalez, the theater's general manager. "We installed a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling floating screen with a LED halo backlighting to accentuate the screen”

What does that mean?

It means crystal clear pictures from various viewing angles. Gonzalez also said gone are the days of curtains and blacks bars on the screen.

"All you get is picture, the curtains are gone forever," he said Thursday at the "Deadpool and Wolverine" premier in Tulare. "You are going to see a huge difference the next time you watch a movie in Tulare."

Gonzalez said the Texas-based chain upgraded the auditoriums ahead of the blockbuster Marvel movie, which is already setting records for R-rated films.

On Thursday, with theaters sold out to watch heartthrobs Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, the screen was all the buzz ahead of the action.

"Wow. That's the biggest screen I have ever seen," said a moviegoer as he walked into Auditorium 10.

Others looked up in awe to see where the screen ended. Many noticed the bright blue lights that traced the outline of the massive DFX theater.

"We aren't investing in our theater, we are investing in our patrons," Gonzalez said. "Going out to see a movie is an experience and we want to keep it that way."

Clawing back

Marvel superhero movies have only recently become acclaimed, Oscar-nominated, money-printing pop-culture bonanzas. We’ve been spoiled by the likes of “Black Panther” and “Guardians of the Galaxy" – back in the 2000s, and even before then, comic-book fans lived for “Blade,” the “X-Men” movies and even “Daredevil,” where angsty do-gooders in leather enjoyed a few influential highs but also some serious lows.

It’s that era that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman , decked out in colorful costumes and wielding sharp objects for endless stabbings, lovingly pay tribute to as the title frenemies of “Deadpool & Wolverine” (★★★½; rated R; in theaters Friday). Thanks to offscreen business dealings – satirized within the gut-busting narrative – Reynolds’ Deadpool and Jackman’s Wolverine (a 2000s staple making his grand return after a sacrificial swan song in 2017’s “Logan”) finally are tossed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe .

“Can you imagine the fun? The chaos? The residuals?” Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth says about the delightfully meta, proudly gonzo buddy-comedy team-up that’s extremely violent, often hilarious, occasionally touching and always a good time.

The best of the MCU outings since “Avengers: Endgame,” the newest movie is a similarly themed spectacle about life and legacy that's more interested in the past than the future, nodding to the 20th Century Fox Marvel films and others that kept the superhero fires burning until Iron Man and the Avengers came along.

Miraculously, the heartfelt stuff isn’t buried by the film’s commitment to nonstop shenanigans and giddy self-awareness. Director Shawn Levy is used to juggling characters and cultural references from his work on “Night at the Museum,” “Free Guy” and “Stranger Things,” but this is next level.

Most of the silliness lands, and the stuff that doesn’t is enveloped by the total chaos, anyway. That’s all to be expected with Deadpool around. The meat of the matter, surprisingly, is the loving closure given to the Fox movie run, plus a reminder how much an unleashed Jackman rules now, and always did.

USA TODAY contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Galaxy ups game ahead of "Deadpool and Wolverine" with floor-to-ceiling 4K screens