The 3D 'Revolution'

You go to the movies. You pay upwards of 10 or 11 bucks and that’s if you don’t buy popcorn or a drink. Then you sit down and for the next two to three hours you watch a movie with plastic glasses on your face that will give most people a headache before the movie is over.

I don’t understand the 3D movie craze. To me, it’s an excuse to make bad movies because let’s face it, you don’t have to make a good movie if it’s in 3D. The 3D is so distracting in most movies that the audience won’t be able to notice just how bad or unoriginal your movie is. Exhibit A: James Cameron’s Avatar.

In addition, making a movie to simply have it be in 3D means that you are never going to be satisfied with the home video release of that movie. Did you know that James Cameron is discontinuing Avatar on DVD and Blu-Ray just to rerelease it into theaters so it can be viewed the way he intended? That’s because in order for Avatar to be something close to good cinema, it has to be in 3D! And no matter what the companies that make TVs think, no one is going to buy a TV they have to wear special eyewear (sold separately of course) to watch!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not railing against all 3D movies. The movies that are simply released in 3D because it will add something to them (Toy Story 3, the next installment of Harry Potter) I have nothing against, mostly because I know that at the end of the day, I’ll be able to watch those movies in 2D and they will still be good movies! As a matter of fact, I saw Toy Story 3 in a drive in (where it wasn’t in 3D) and thought it was one of the best movies of the summer.

But the 3Ds that are made with gimmicks (things coming at the screen just so they’ll jump out at the audience) or are made in 3D as a distraction for them being a poor movie I have something against. I just wait for the day that 3D movies go the way of HDDVDs and BetaMax. Until then, I’ll be in line to enjoy the first part of the final Harry Potter at midnight in 3D. Because I don’t doubt that 3D won’t make or break that film.