Soliciting some comments on 3D movies
I'd like, if I may, to find out your experiences of recent 3D movies at the cinema. Not plot, acting or whatever, but your experience of the actual '3D-ness'.
The reason is that I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that 3D just wears off for me. I have discovered that my brain just filters out the 3D effect of the red-and-green glasses from my local cinema about 20 to 30 mins into the film. Thereafter that it just looks 2D to me, with the occasional 3D spurt if something is really, really, really in the foreground. So for instance, I saw Coraline and 9 in 3D and left thinking "Why did they bother? Where was the 3D 'oomph' to the movie?" And scenes in Avatar, which a friend described as "Wow! I almost fell out of my cinema seat!" I saw as "So what's the difference between this and any other 2D action movie?" (e.g. when the hero falls off a waterfall).
Thus my 3D experience at the local cinema follows the following pattern: (1) Spend 10 to 15 minutes feeling uncomfortable and with a restricted field of view because of the annoying glasses which are not well designed to wear over REAL glasses. The trailers and start of the movie look 3D.
(2) I become absorbed in the plot and filter out the fact I'm wearing annoying glasses. The movie appears 3D for a short while.
(3) My brain adjusts and the movie appears 2D (or possibly appears 3D in the way that the real world is 3D, and not in the Wow Fab Groovy way the movie is supposed to be). Every now and then something will drift by in 'super-foreground' (i.e. hovering above the cinema audience, and would in reality be BEHIND the cameraman if this was a TV news report or TV studio drama) and give a 3D blip to the 2D world.
It's a similar effect to when I get a new pair of specs, with a new prescription. The world feels amazingly crisp, clear and ultra-3D for a day or so, then I get used to 'em.
I've seen two 3D Imax movies (with polarised glasses rather than the red and green ones) and those remained 3D all the way through for foreground and midground subjects, but defintely not for all of the background stuff. Actually one of them (a thing about whales and dolphins) didn't look particularly 3D for some of the midground stuff, and it was only 45 minutes long, so can't be directly compared to Avatar or Up.
Beowulf in 3D Imax made me think that 3D was a brilliant idea. Now I am unconvinced that it is worth shelling out an extra £1.50 for the priviledge of a brief spurt of can't see the glasses, can see the 3D.
IMAX but not in 3D sounds like my best bet to appreciate blockbusters.
The reason is that I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that 3D just wears off for me. I have discovered that my brain just filters out the 3D effect of the red-and-green glasses from my local cinema about 20 to 30 mins into the film. Thereafter that it just looks 2D to me, with the occasional 3D spurt if something is really, really, really in the foreground. So for instance, I saw Coraline and 9 in 3D and left thinking "Why did they bother? Where was the 3D 'oomph' to the movie?" And scenes in Avatar, which a friend described as "Wow! I almost fell out of my cinema seat!" I saw as "So what's the difference between this and any other 2D action movie?" (e.g. when the hero falls off a waterfall).
Thus my 3D experience at the local cinema follows the following pattern: (1) Spend 10 to 15 minutes feeling uncomfortable and with a restricted field of view because of the annoying glasses which are not well designed to wear over REAL glasses. The trailers and start of the movie look 3D.
(2) I become absorbed in the plot and filter out the fact I'm wearing annoying glasses. The movie appears 3D for a short while.
(3) My brain adjusts and the movie appears 2D (or possibly appears 3D in the way that the real world is 3D, and not in the Wow Fab Groovy way the movie is supposed to be). Every now and then something will drift by in 'super-foreground' (i.e. hovering above the cinema audience, and would in reality be BEHIND the cameraman if this was a TV news report or TV studio drama) and give a 3D blip to the 2D world.
It's a similar effect to when I get a new pair of specs, with a new prescription. The world feels amazingly crisp, clear and ultra-3D for a day or so, then I get used to 'em.
I've seen two 3D Imax movies (with polarised glasses rather than the red and green ones) and those remained 3D all the way through for foreground and midground subjects, but defintely not for all of the background stuff. Actually one of them (a thing about whales and dolphins) didn't look particularly 3D for some of the midground stuff, and it was only 45 minutes long, so can't be directly compared to Avatar or Up.
Beowulf in 3D Imax made me think that 3D was a brilliant idea. Now I am unconvinced that it is worth shelling out an extra £1.50 for the priviledge of a brief spurt of can't see the glasses, can see the 3D.
IMAX but not in 3D sounds like my best bet to appreciate blockbusters.