Before I review Tron:Legacy, I wanted to post about 3D films in general. I recently watched both Saw 7 and Megamind in 3D, and found them to be complete opposite experiences. I'm not a big fan of 3D in general. Either it takes you out of the movie experience as you find yourself noticing the 3D and thinking "Wow", or you don't notice it, making the 3D pointless. I am finding myself preferring to see the film in 2D rather than pay the extra money.
Saw 3D had some of the worst 3D I've ever seen. It's not so much that the 3D was poorly done, it was more that it was non-existent. I couldn't spot any 3D effects, even when things were flying out towards me and had to take my glasses off to prove the film was 3D as the screen still appeared blurry. At one point, I thought my glasses must have been faulty, but watching Jackass 3D later in the day proved they were working fine. The film itself was the worst of the series, and the 3D only helped in it's crapness.
Both Jackass and Megamind had amazing 3D. Maybe it was because I wasn't so near the front but the 3D was stunning for both films. It's become a cliche when talking about 3D, but it added so much depth to the film which enhanced the visual experience greatly. Watching the films in 2D would have been just as enjoyable as it is all down to the storytelling skills involved (Storytelling skills in Jackass? Well, you know what I mean), but the 3D in both films just added an extra layer to an enjoyable movie.
The strange thing that I don't understand is this. Megamind had truly great 3D, yet the film was also available in 2D. Saw 3D on the other hand, had truly awful 3D, yet you could only watch the 3D version. I have found this is becoming an annoying trend recently. I read reviews slating the 3D in Clash Of The Titans, saying how it was badly transferred and ruined the movie. Because of this, I only wanted to watch the 2D version. However, the 2D version wasn't being shown anywhere. I had no choice but to watch the poorly converted 3D version. As a result, I've still not seen the film. The Last Airbender was also only available in a poorly converted 3D version, but I didn't watch that as it was supposed to be crap.
My question is this. Why do the studios think people want to pay extra to have their movie ruined. It seems they see 3D as a way to charge an extra 2 or 3 quid per ticket. If they can spend a few thousand quid converting the film, that money will translate into millions of extra revenue. However, if people watch these poorly converted 3D films, it will put them off watching the good ones. Because of that, 3D has a real danger of becoming a fad.
What are your views on 3D? Please post them in the comments so that I know people have found my blog and are reading it.
I am a 3D virgin and i value your opinions. How does having to wear glasses daily and watching 3D movies at the cinema affect your viewing?
ReplyDeleteWe have dramas as both of us have dodgy 3D vision in the real world and can't properly view 3D films. We either find it distracts, doesn't work, is blurry or makes us feel sick, headaches etc.
ReplyDeleteSee the infamous Dr Kermode, who has a pair of specs that convert 3D back to 2D.
ReplyDeleteEasy to make, simply buy 2 pairs of specs and swap a left and a right lens to make one set with both left lenses and the other set both right. Not tried but Dr K assures us its a success.
As my sister doesn't have a Google account, she can't post a comment on here, so has asked me to post the following.
ReplyDeleteI agree I took the kids to see Toy Story 3 in 3d and couldn't see the point of spending the extra amount of money. It's always the kids films where they rip you off! We also had trouble with the glasses (they didn't have children's sizes) and they kept falling of my Sons head. He actually preferred the adverts as it was better 3d and he was mesmerised by it. It was also my first experience of 3d so was disappointed after the adverts when the film came on!
I saw both Toy Story 3 and Up in 3D. There was a lot made about the 3D in both films, but I found it to be too subtle and not deep enough. To be honest, I was disappointed with Toy Story 3 on the whole. I understand how adults can rave about it, but it wasn't actually that funny and kept suspecting kids would find it quite boring.
ReplyDelete