3D and I

[rheasilvia]

Full disclosure: I've only seen a single movie in 3D (Avengers), and the only reason I did was because there was no non-3D version showing. After having finally dipped my reluctant toe into the three-dimensional CGI pool, I have to say: I certainly hope the fad for showing big-budget action movies in 3D dies down soon.

I did not find that the 3D effect added anything to my viewing experience, and did find it detracted from it in several ways.

• I wear glasses. It's a bother and a distraction to balance two sets of glasses on your nose. The friend who watched the movie with me also wears glasses. She said it hurt her nose to wear both sets. For half of the movie, she held the 3D glasses in place just above the bridge of her nose; then, she constructed a glasses-holding device with a tissue.


• The 3D effect did not always work for me. In some scenes, rather than a real 3D effect, things seemed to be arranged in several flat layers behind each other, like in a puppet theater (i.e., scenery painted on flat boards pulled to and fro at several levels of the stage).


• I felt like I had to keep looking straight ahead with my head in one position, because the effect only worked at a certain angle. Maybe because of this, the image sometimes blurred for me when I looked back and forth.


• In some scenes, I felt distracted by the odd choice of foreground object popping out at me – in Avengers, I remember being irritated, distracted and (later) amused by a pointlessly emphasized metal strut in one scene, and several equally senseless ears of grain in another.


• Even when the object popping out at me in the foreground was relevant to the scene as a whole, I found it distracting. I couldn't focus on the entire scene with things so scattered.


• There were some brutal changes in focus where the picture went from "background completely blurred out" to "foreground completely blurred out", or the other way around. Whether or not this had to do with the 3D technology, it was very annoying. I can choose what I look at myself, thank you; I don't want to be led by having everything except for one thing on screen being completely blurred.

So, what do you think about 3D?

Comments

[amalthia]

My husband and I avoid 3D because it gives us migraines. :( Plus not fun wearing two pair of glasses. If they don't have a 2D showing we just don't watch the movie. :(

[rheasilvia]

Argh, yes, I can imagine that migraines are a danger if you're prone to them - seizures too, I'd guess. Seriously, the more I find out about the problems people have with this technology, the less I understand how any cinema can ever only offer 2D. It can't possibly bring profits up, can it? For every 2D-fan who is coerced into 3D by the lack of choice, there must be at least one other cinema-goer who stays away entirely.

[amalthia]

most of my friends just don't see 3D. I think they should still focus on providing a movie in 2D and then have a few special showtimes in 3D for those that like the extra and don't get headaches from it. Right now it just doesn't feel like anything special.

[rheasilvia]

Yes, I agree entgirely! That would be the best solution. I hope that will be where we end up, once the hype dies down.

[amalthia]

I think the key is that if people do not like 3D they need to boycott 3D otherwise the studios will just assume people are okay with it.

I know in Anchorage the 2D showings are almost always all sold out and a lot of people do their best to avoid the 3D...But I don't know if that has to do with cost of 3D tickets or if the people truly do not like 3D.

[lilacsigil]

My girlfriend and I can't watch 3D at all (I have vertigo problems even with 2D and her eye issues mean she can't really focus in 3D) so it's good to hear that it's pretty much irrelevant even to the point of being a negative.

[rheasilvia]

It certainly is irrelevant (and negative, overall) to me! But then, I'm a plot girl. :-) I generally don't place much value on special effects of any kind, so I tend to warn people that their mileage may vary.

However, so far pretty much everyone seems to agree that 3D is not that special, and should be an extra option if anything, but never the only choice.

[carose59]

Until last week there are two things I would have been able to say about 3D: In the 80's I saw Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3D and took off my 3D glasses halfway through because they annoyed me so much. And Stephen King said that if he ever made enough money, he'd have a pair of prescription 3D glasses made. I hope he did, I like him. *g*

But last week I read a very interesting post about it (from a link on Joseph Gordon-Levitt's tumblr). http://rcjohnso.tumblr.com/post/24693276556/some-thoughts-on-3d

Personally, I have no need for movies to be "more realistic or whatever they're supposed to be because they're 3D. If the story isn't enough to pull me in and keep me, stuff flying off the screen at me isn't going to keep me.

And, of course, I'm a glasses-wearer. I really wonder if the movie people realize how many people wear glasses and/or have eye problems that make the whole proposition impractical and/or painful.

[rheasilvia]

Oh god, I remember the 80s 3D glasses - now that was pure dorkdom.

Personally, I have no need for movies to be "more realistic or whatever they're supposed to be because they're 3D. If the story isn't enough to pull me in and keep me, stuff flying off the screen at me isn't going to keep me.

YES. This exactly. I'm absolutely the same.

That's an interesting essay... and I see his point, the vision that filmmakers are reaching for in 3D is very interesting. But the current 3D technology is not much closer to achieving it than the 80s version was, IMO, and there's no use hyping this specific technology as something that it patently is not.

I really wonder if the movie people realize how many people wear glasses and/or have eye problems that make the whole proposition impractical and/or painful.

I suspect this is the kind of consideration that is handwaved in meetings where everyone is all gung-ho about the great new technology. Those few people with glasses, tsk, they can just get out their contact lenses. What, you mean there are people who don't have contact lenses? No way!