I visited auditorium #9, which was a smallish but extremely well-designed stadium arrangement. We found the two center seats in the first row of regular seating, behind a low railing, to be just about perfect, with the added bonus that nobody at all sits in front of you -- the floor space is reserved for wheelchairs, and typically allows human traffic to flow from one side of the theater to the other. (I suppose this could get tiresome awfully quickly if there are a lot of latecomers, but it wasn't a problem for us; the bottom of the screen is fairly high off the ground.) In front of that empty space were another two rows of seating that were probably too close and low for anyone but teenaged boys, who thrive on the up-front experience.

The picture was bright, clear and stable, with no apparent projection problems. The front-of-theater design allowed the placement of a towering screen that was perfect for a 1.85:1 image. Judging from the look of the lobby, some of the theaters are bigger than the one I attended, with #12 looking like it might be especially large. If we're lucky, at least some of the screens have been optimized for widescreen (2.35:1) projection, a la the Sony Lincoln Square. (Anybody know for sure?) The sound was excellent, with solid deep bass and great directional effects, even from way up front. (In a couple of scenes, the dialogue had a weird directional characteristic, as though there were a delay between the front center and front right speakers, but I don't know enough about theater sound to properly diagnose this -- maybe I was sitting too close for the separation effects to work properly.)

Anyway, I had a great time (saw Toy Story 2) and noted that the whole complex was uncommonly quiet for a NYC megaplex on the first night of a big holiday weekend. This will probably change over time -- recalling that it took about a year for the Sony Lincoln Square to reach its current mania, I figure it just takes New Yorkers a while to get in the habit of visiting a new venue. The whole block-long stretch will get busy before long, with an HMV record store opening across 42nd Street, right next to a new AMC 25-plex, the chain's first incursion on Manhattan real estate. If those screens give the E-Walk a run for its money, Manhattan moviegoers will have reason to rejoice (if we can convince them to give even one or two of them over to "art films" we'll really be in business!). My only fear is that Loews might see this as just cause to shutter the cavernous Astor Plaza completely, which would be a damn shame.

One more note -- the woman who sold us our tickets was shockingly friendly. Granted, she couldn't have been on the job more than two weeks (the complex opened November 12, 2023), but happy staffers are often an indication of good management, something that local theaters could frankly use a little more of. If any of the other screens improve on the one I've seen, expect this grade to jump to an A. A-.(Frazer)