The 3D Craze

3D glasses that hinder our movie going enjoyment

The 3D craze

Commentary by Frederick Cholowski

The first 3D movie came out in the 1950’s. Over 6 decades later 3D has taken off into what seems to be an untamable monster. Almost every big budget film is now in 3D and the craze doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. So inspired by a recent episode of Ebert presents At the Movies I have decided to give my opinion on the tech and where the future lies for 3D.

Let’s start with the positives before going all negative. 3D when used right adds an added sense of depth to a film. The depth effect (as I will call it for now) is most useful when used subtly like in recent Pixar films. The depth effect when used not well though can completely take you out of a feature such as in the new Harry Potter film.

Movies that are shot in 3D also usually look really good. The best example of this (and of the usage of 3D in general) is of course James Cameron’s Avatar. The film’s world feels large, expansive, and beautiful with the added depth that 3D can provide. Also Cameron’s Avatar avoids motion blurring and color dulling something that has plagued films that add 3D in post production.

Speaking of witch adding 3D effects in post production to a live action film should be banned outright. I have yet to see a single successful example of this. The problem with adding 3D in post production is that most of the time it’s just a cheep way to make an extra buck. The film usually isn’t filmed with 3D in mind and it falls into all of the generic 3D problems without any payoff at all.

The main problems that most 3D films run into are the issues of color dulling and blurring. The glasses you wear to view the 3D reduce the light amount of light that reaches the eyes. This significantly dulls the brightness and vibrancy of the colors that are present on screen. This is especially bad for animated films witch rely now a days on vibrant color.

Blurring is something that is apparent in almost all 3D movies especially ones with large action sequences. First off when the 3D focuses on one thing the rest of the images that would normally look just fine get blurred out. This problem gets even worse once the camera starts moving at a good pace like in an action scene. This causes the infamous motion blur, blurring that happens when the 3D cannot keep up with the movement of the camera. This is most apparent in the 2010 film Clash of the Titans when the camera moves fast and furious and the 3D cannot keep up creating a hard to follow picture.

So are there ways to fix it? Well glasses free 3D is on the market now for smaller screens. This would allow the picture to remain as bright and vibrant as a 2D film. The problem with this though is aligning it with everyone in a theater. It’s hard enough to get the 3D properly aligned for one person on the Nintendo 3Ds imagine trying to get it to work for 200 people in a theater.

Another way to fix it, abolish it completely. This is an idea I’m all in favor for. I mean when did we ever get the impression that 2D films weren’t good enough? We don’t need hands, feet and swords jumping out at us if it cost us more money and reduces the quality of the film we are watching. Brightness and color wins any day over that. I guess we are trying to move technology forward towards the virtual reality idea, but I get more engaged watching a 2D movie way more often then watching it in 3D. The little tricks pull me out of a film not help to suck me into it.

I do not like the idea of 3D nor do I pretend to. It dulls the colors and blurs the image. Most of the time 3D is just there to make a quick extra buck anyways. Really the only film I would watch in 3D instead of 2D is Avatar. Nothing before or since has enticed me to spend the extra $3 to see the 3D version. So next time your at the cinema save the cash and see it in 2D.