3D Movies increasingly becoming a fad - Fact
Personally, ever since Real D movies started to hit the cinema screens, I’ve been quite a sceptic. I’ve seen quite a few, Monster’s vs. Aliens being the first and then Avatar, Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, Alice in Wonderland and finally for me was Clash of the Titans.
Out of all the films seen in 3D, it’s sadly true to say I’ve been totally underwhelmed by the “added” experience Real D is supposed to provide.
The effects it provides seem quite flat and “layered”, like you would see looking at a magic eye picture. Mostly the 3D is managed on only two levels; foreground/background, which leads to lots of dialogue type scenes where one character is sitting closer to the screen than another.
I’ve also found it difficult to make-out fast moving scenes, especially when small objects are subjected to 3D layering on screen; Alice’s scene with some small rocking-horse insect/bug type creatures were almost impossible to make out.
I’m told it’s due in the most part to adding the 3D layering post-production. Which is why out of all of the movies I’ve seen, only Avatar seemed to provide real extra experience when viewed in 3D due to being produced from the get-go 3D, it really shows.
My real scepticism comes from the following, monetary reasons:
- Movies in 3D are harder to pirate
- You have to pay extra to even with an “unlimited card” it’s an extra £1.50 per movie
- You have to buy the glasses, if you haven’t got/remembered you’re existing plastic Thunderbird-style pair
- They (Hollywood) can use it as a gimmick to up-sell movies that are utter drivel (Step UP 3D - 4.4/10 on IMDB & The Final Destination - 4.9/10 on IMDB to name a couple)
So after seeing Clash of the Titans, I made the concious decision to stop watching movies in 3D. But the cinemas are still make it difficult (mainly for the reasons above).
We took the family a couple of weeks back to see Toy Story 3 at Cineworld Didcot. Can you believe they only had one showing on a whole Saturday in 2D? Where at the same time they were showing the movie in 3D over two screens 10+ times.
I have to say, although Toy Story 3 is obviously a great, moving, flick. Seeing it in “normal” mode vs. 3D made absolutly no difference to our experience and from now on I’ll be opting for the 2D versions of all films.
It seems I’m not alone in this revolt, there’s been increasing stats on the interwebs backing up the fact that 3D movies are a fad and starting to wane in popularity.The following graphic has been taken from The Wrap, a Hollywood blog site.
There are some truly dire movies in that chart, The Last Airbender - 4.4/10 on IMDB is the stand out train wreck of a movie, take this classic line: “I knew from the moment you were born, you were would be a bender”.
But check out Toy Story 3 for-instance, one of the biggest releases of the year and there is a marked drop in attendance with the T-Bird goggles on.
It seems, at least some of Hollywood are getting the message.
Reading this article in the New York Times: Resistance Forms Against Hollywood’s 3-D Push it would show that a lot of directors and produces have had enough of the the whole 3D thing and are starting to push back:
“Out of 450 people surveyed, 450 don’t want 3D for ‘The Hobbit,’ ”
From the same article you see:
- Inception’s excellent director Christopher Nolan, stipulated that his movie must not be made in 3D.
- JJ Abraham’s Star Trek did $350m bucks in 2D
- Even newer films like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World all have dropped 3D from the production schedule.
So in conclusion, I’ve had it with 3D, there is no way I’m watching or paying for another film in this format, let’s just hope the rest of the world catches on soon.
