Vue Leicester Square

I went to Vue in Leicester Square to V-​ue a film (They won’t be any more puns, I promise,) which I had booked online, on a recent trip to London in August 2015 and I was very disappointing with the cinema its-​self and the service from both the woman behind the till, and the manager.
This cinema also trades as «Vue West End» due to its location in Leicester Square, but this cinema is old fashioned, dark and not very nice, especially compared to other attractions Vue has to offer, even cinemas up north in Bolton and Manchester, and even to the Odeon just at the other side of Leicester Square.
This Vue is definitely the worst of the 2 cinemas, as it has no food or drink facilities attached, to the point where you would have to go to a coffee shop, or somewhere in or around Leicester Square, which could even mean going to the other Odeon cinema, to the Costa there.
The staff were very rude, and they treated me like a theif, as I didn’t have the card I booked on, I had to go to the checkout to sort it, the woman who served me spoken very poor english and she originally said I could pick up tickets, before not allowing me, even when the manager came, all they could offer me was pathetic excuses, and I found them to be rude, to the point where I’d suggest they had no training in dealing with customers at all, let alone at a busy Vue cinema in central London.
My nearest Vue is in Bury, and it goes right on some of the key areas this place doesn’t, it has more food/​drink facilities nearby, the staff seem politer and it is more modern, and although that cinema isn’t perfect either, it could really show Vue at Leicester Square how to do things, due to the experience at this Vue at Leicester Square, it is probably easier to drive 200 miles to that branch than come here, but I’m sure Vue have some good, closer branches too.
The prices here are also near enough double the prices at other Vue branches, including the one in Bury which has been previously mentioned, for example it would cost £7.29 or £8.49 for an adult depending on off/​peak on peak but here they charge a flat rate of £14.79, just for a normal ticket and normal seat, which is 50.7% more. A family of 4 at this Leicester Square cinema would cost £39.16 for off peak and £47.96 for on peak, when at Bury it is £21.96 and £25.96 respectively, which means this branch is once again around double the price of a store, all because of its’ location. I understand London is more expensive, but this cinema really isn’t a nice one, for both how it looks and the staff and is in need of refurbishment, so they is nothing to warrant such a high price rise. I understand a few pounds extra for London is okay but 50% is not.
This cinema certainly isn’t modern and is in need of a re-​furb, considering this and a lack of food/​drink facilities apart from the rubbish, overpriced stuff available in the cinema, and the staff, I can’t think of a reason for this cinema to warrant anything over than a single one star.

This cinema has nine screens. Plenty of premieres and press screenings are held here. There is a large bar area on the first floor which can be used for pre-​screening drinks and food, and on première days reserved for the stars and guests for pre-​drinks and after party.
Seating is always comfy and tiered so good view whether you sit.
Also plenty of toilets on the first floor, top floor and basement floor.

Although conveniently located I wasn’t impressed with my first experience at Vue Leicester Square. A fairly average selection of films were showing even though there were a few good films out and service at the kiosk to buy tickets was slooooow. It was a Monday night, empty cinema that smelled really bad! I suppose I am biased as the film we watched was so rubbish but even with a cheap ticket I was annoyed at the service here. At the normal price of nearly £20 I will not be going back!

Fairly decent movie-​going experience as UK theaters go. Here’s the thing, though. How/​Why is it that UK theaters don’t do butter on popcorn? WTF, people?! It’s weird enough that I have to tolerate no ice in my fountain soda, but no butter for my popcorn? And while I do enjoy the choices offered of salty or sweet popcorn, I want my artificial butter flavoring.
Staffers are nice, and I gather they get the butter request a lot. which is just another reason they should really start offering it. Nothing better than FRESHLY popped, salty corn with butter flavoring and a few m&m’s tossed in for the perfect ratio of salt-​to-​sweet. Yes. Freshly popped. That’s another thing you guys need to get on board with. Paying the equivalent of $ 14.00usd (9gbp) for a popcorn and soda only to have the popcorn be dry and a bit stale is such a let down. Especially when the ticket was equal to $ 25.00usd (16gbp) for a release in it’s second week in the middle of the afternoon. Wowza.

The only reason I came here is because it is close to work. And I had free tickets.
It is an expensive, smelly cinema. Completely lacking in charm and customer service. It’s really expensive, which probably explains why it’s never full. The screens are big though. And the popcorn is salty.
One of the staff members yelled at me for not mentioning that I had a free ticket BEFORE I told them what I wanted to see. Every single toilet cubicle was devoid of loo roll.
The only highlights were the movie, and the Spider-​Man who had fallen asleep outside the cinema.

Can’t see any price difference between student tickets and adult tickets, both very pricey if you compare with other cinema across Leicester Square, and the most unacceptable thing is when we enter the room, it has not been cleaned from the last film! There were bottles and cans scattered in between seats! Never come across such lousy cinema before l, it’s my first time to this cinema and might as well the last time.

Of the remaining Leicester Square cinemas, this one is probably the one I hate the least.
I have relatively fond memories of going to this cinema when it was still Warner Village. Luckily it’s all been refurbed since those days, but the silly amount of escalators remain!
The seats aren’t really very raked but they aren’t completely flat, either, at least not on screen 3, where we went a few days ago. The seats were relatively comfortable with wide armrests that meant there wasn’t any awkward neighbour-​elbowing.
It’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than the Odeon, and the seats are better. I used to love the Empire, but since the refit there to add the IMAX screen, the charm is lost and view isn’t great. Really, in all honesty, all of these touristy cinemas should be avoided but when they can’t be, there are worse options.

I’m not a fan of this place.
When it was new in the 90’s it was refreshingly different, being the most modern cinema on the block and a fresh faced brand (back when it was called Warner Bros West End).
Now it feels like a mess. Cinemas have moved on. The layout of this place isn’t very good and you will find yourself having to run out of the auditorium and up or down some escalators just to go to the toilet.
It’s pricey and the screens aren’t that great, though they are better than most of the screens in nearby Odeon Leicester Square.
All the cinemas in the area need to do better. This is supposed to be where our premiers happen, but it just doesn’t feel special the way Empire or Odeon Leicester Square do.

So, it’s expensive, but it’s also Leicester Square, and we couldn’t see the film we wanted closer to home at a decent time. But it’s also Wednesday which takes some of the sting out of buying a ticket (£20! for a Student!). In fact, I’d probably only ever go here on a Wednesday.
The cinema itself is good, it’s well appointed, the staff are friendly and service is fast. You can buy your tickets at the terminals or go to the food counter. I opted for the latter as there wasn’t much of a line. The bar upstairs wasn’t open — a little disappointing, and I’d grabbed some treats from work, so we headed to the screen. At least here, there’s no two tier pricing, looking at you Odeon. Film projection was good and the screen was clean, nothing in our drink holders, no sticky floors.
In my opinion, its a good cinema, just expensive. But if you’re in the West End, especially Leicester Square, you’ve just got to deal with it, the price is pretty much the same everywhere around here.

I recently had the Great misfortune of seeing The mediocre Gatsby but enough about that, what I would like to know is how a Vue cinema can charge £15 for a ticket? That is beyond me. The only reason they’ll charge prices this high is because this particular cinema is in Leicester Square and they think hiking up the prices is acceptable. It’s not. No Vue cinema is worth a £15 ticket. The ‘higher end’ cinemas (like Curzon for example) don’t charge this much despite offering a greater all-​round viewing experience. All this Vue has going for it is a huge screen but with that comes a much larger audience — all the more people to jibber-​jabber and rustle plastic food packets.
2 stars because the Vue fulfils it’s basic function as a cinema — it shows films in an acceptable standard and fashion and serves beverages and foodstuffs. Even though the service was slow and some of those foodstuffs are crisps and/​or nacho’s, how have the noisiest snacks become accepted as an appropriate choice for a cinema?
The Vue Leicester Square is a trap I will not be walking in to again.
TTFN,
Ian

Well, it’s certainly convenient.
Oh, and large. It’s a large screen that’s convenient.
But my god, the prices. And the service. All terrible. 100 percent terrible all around. You can pay up to £20 a ticket depending on time and it’s 3-​Dness. There are usually a ton of seats and I’ve never been turned away from buying a ticket. And it’s right next to the tube stop but beyond that, ugh.
And the service is so bad. They’re either rude or slow. All bad news.
And as many people have pointed out — no stadium seats. Sit behind the wrong person and you’re going to see next to nothing. Yikes.
I avoid this one if I can. Not always able to, but dammit, I give it a good try.

I’m sure that a portion of this is because I’m a complete cinema snob and hate people… but FOR REALS… I will never come here again. The location is fine, staff is friendly, theaters are spacious. Which is where the one star goes. But, I have never been so annoyed with people in all my life. At first, I wondered if it was a British thing (becuase it was my first film-​viewing experience), but no! It’s an annoying chick-​decides-​to-​go-​to-​the-​cinema-​on-​a-​tuesday-​afternoon thing. Between the 3 broads behind me who literally talked through the ENTIRE movie and the old women who were escorted in 30 mins into the movie with flashlights and sat in front of us, walked around passing nachos back and forth, and squealing for two hours I wanted to slit my wrists.
Come to think of it, there was a dude that sat waaaaaaay in front and I couldn’t figure out why he would do that. Now I know.

£20+ for an adult ticket on a Wednesday night for a 3D film on a screen that wasn’t even that big with seats that weren’t even stadium-​standard?
What the actual fuck?

It –must– be a sign that on the opening weekend of a new film, on a Saturday evening at roughly 2130, our showing was at –most– 30% full.
What’s most boggling is that this is directly across from the tube station (although there are mad road works directly in front of the entrance) and Covent Garden was otherwise thronged with passersby. Is it the economy? The hefty £17−18 3D film prices? Or something else???
I will agree, however, that for those kind of prices, one would almost expect a little extra somethin’ somethin’ for the money. If you know what I mean…

Dunno what people are talking about by tiny screens. Clearly they’ve never seen the Empire City Centre cinema here in Edmonton. Maybe I was lucky because I saw a big blockbuster (Battle LA). Though the movie sucked, It was a cool cinema. However, I didn’t like having to go up 2 escalators to go to the bathroom. And the trailer count was much worse there than over here in Edmonton. That said, it’s not a bad cinema at all.

Be prepared to pay upwards of 13 pounds for an adult viewing on a standard screen — and by ‘standard’ I mean small. Premium screening, which I believe to mean a normal-​sized screen anywhere else, would cost an adult above 14 pounds. Theater seats are rather small and there’s very little leg room especially for a taller guys like myself. Leicester Square is probably not the place to catch a flick.

This cinema has a large number of screens, I saw a film on one of the smaller screens. It was small, and intimate. Good job it wasn’t packed, but that’s what happens when you go to see Saw 6 2 weeks after it’s release date at 8.30pm on a Weds evening.
Good points are plenty of food for punters to choose, plus beers n wines. Bad points — toilets smell, and aren’t very clean, too many screens, too expensive (unless you do Orange Weds)
All in all, plenty of better film viewing sites in London (the Prince Charles is just around the corner), this serves a purpose for the masses ie; plenty of choice of film, and probably makes quite a bit of cash doing so.
Meh!

Perhaps I am spoiled by the huge suburban cinemas in the US but this was a perfectly decent but unremarkable movie theater. Sound and picture quality were very good.
We went for a 3D movie which made it extra expensive (£15) and perhaps that is why I expected something a little fancier… something like the Bridge in LA (see
) No cuddle seats nor stadium seating.
Finally, the bathrooms were rather far from the screening room. Perhaps they could have a toilet on each floor of the building.

As you’d rightly expect for a Leicester Square cinema, Vue is big. There are at least seven screens, and I can ascertain that screen seven is a large theatre with a good sized screen and sound capabilities. There is a certain pizazz about Vue, maybe it is the location, the amenities at hand, or is it simply grandeur?
I tend to think through my belly, so seeing the full range of cinema food offerings on sale made me happy, and a tad poorer. Hotdogs, popcorn, nachos and a huge container of soda… smashing!
The downside of Vue is the price of tickets. Prices range from £8-£12 depending on whether you can get a concession. Too much? Yes, I think so.

Expensive, outrageously overpriced, rip-​off, I always feel like I’ve been mugged when I go into the Vue. I know the West End cinemas are expensive but this place is a bloody joke. They charge more for premium films, how do they tell which are better than others?, they charge more for premium screens, so just bigger mostly, and charge more for 3D. The prices fluctuate wildly from £11 to £15 or more.
I had a run in with staff once when we paid the premium price and ended up in one of the tiny screens, I went out and complained that this was not a premium screen. The staff member argued that it was and we stood there bickering till he said I could wait for the manager but the film was starting and I was hardly going to miss the start, the credits probably cost 4 quid.
Having been to fantastic cinemas in Ireland where you pay less than a tenner (in euros people) to watch any film in any screen, I just think the Vue are having a laugh and wonder why they can get away with it. I also hate navigating the horrific zoo that is Leicester Square every time we leave.