THE FUTURE OF 3-D IS NOW

Yes, It is time to talk about one of the most highly discussed and controversial of art forms that has had a stake in films for a while...the art of 3-D.

Awhile back I predicted that Avatar would be the film that would forever change the art of making movies, I ended up being correct. I was talking about the impact it would have on the future of SFX, NOT 3-D. The SFX in Avatar were astounding, a fact I'm sure we all could agree on. I figured if filmmakers were smart, they would adopt the techniques used in Avatar to the films of today. I could never have predicted that they would instead latch onto 3-D and mark it as the reason for Avatar's success.

Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the big supporters of 3-D and believe that it can do wonders for a film if applied correctly and to the right kind of film. Here's a few examples of films that used 3-D in the way that it's meant to be used: How To Train Your Dragon in 3-D, Avatar, Monsters Vs. Aliens (First ever film that used 3-D to its full potential) Alice In Wonderland, Up, Beowulf, Meet The Robinsons, Nightmare Before X-Mas, Polar Express, Legends Of The Guardians and Coraline.

Now lets compare those to examples of films that missed the mark with 3-D: G-Force, Spy Kids 3-D Game Over, Clash Of The Titans, My Bloody Valentine 3-D, and Sharkboy and Lavagirl. The main way we can tell if a 3-D film is taking advantage of the technology is if the 3-D is being sold as a gimmick or is being used as a way to draw more audiences to the film. Look at the above titles and feel free to compare them to each other, see if you come to the same conclusion as I.

3-D started its life as nothing more than a gimmick, something used to make audiences jump out of their seats or duck behind the seat in front of them. Most of the early 3-D films were horror ones like Jaws 3-D and Dial M for Murder. Several decades later 3-D found a new life for itself in big name theme parks, used in such amazing attractions as Honey I Shrunk The Audience, It's Tough To Be A Bug, Mickey's Philharmagic, Muppetvision 3-D, Shrek 4-D, and the Spiderman attraction at IOA. For quite a while these had the most hi-tech 3-D quality, matched by none...until films like Monsters Vs. Aliens came out, films that boasted the best 3-D quality that any of us had seen in theatres for a while. Then, Avatar made it's grand release and changed the face of 3-D as we know it.

Major studios targeted 3-D as being the reason for Avatar's huge success and clamored to nab more 3-D films into their release schedule that would help them bring in a piece of the profit and thereby created film's newest, hippest trend to date. Films like Despicable Me, MegaMind, Shrek 4, Toy Story 3, Tangled, and Resident Evil: Afterlife were all green-lit to be shown in glamorous 3-D. Unfortunatey, the studios got it all wrong. The 3-D did help contribute to Avatars success, but the main reason it performed as well as it did was because of the technology that went into creating the planet of Pandora. Now, I've only seen Avatar in 3-D but I've heard from several others that even in 2-D that planet stood out as the films main star.bThe Studios should have spent more time advancing the overall technology in their films instead of choosing to focus solely on the 3-D aspect that helped to make that technology shine even brighter.

3-D has always been used as a gimmick, a device to draw more people into the theatre and get them to fork over more money. Films like Avatar, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Coraline, and How To Train Your Dragon have challenged the usual conventions of 3-D, daring the studios to fully develop this amazing technology and use it to its full potential. When viewing the films that correctly use 3-D, it makes it all the more upsetting when those films come out that aim to use 3-D the way it was used before...as a gimmick. If we continue on with our old ways and use 3-D solely as a gimmick we will lose this amazing technology forever.

Wherever you look these days you are bound to find 3-D there, Samsung has even started to create 3-D TV's. This overuse of 3-D combined with the studios idea to use 3-D as a gimmick is bound to result in the destruction of the 3-D technology that I, as many, have come to know and love. We owe it to ourselves and the future generations to fully develop 3-D technology and spend our time using it the way it's meant to be used: As a way to bring audiences into the world of the film and take them on spectacular flights of fancy that they cannot experience anywhere else. Save 3-D...Save the Future.

SideNote: Films to avoid in 3-D
Resident Evil: Afterlife- Uses James Cameron's advanced 3-D technology in the old gimmicky way.

Despicable Me: No reason to see in 3-D except for the rollercoaster sequence which alone could save the film in 3-D.

MegaMind: Could be a new Monsters Vs. Aliens...could just as easily be another G-Force. We'll have to wait and see.

Cats and Dogs 3-D: Are you kidding me??? If I really have to explain why not to see this flick in 3-D then there really is no hope for you.

Piranah 3-D: GIMMICKS!!! THE AUDIENCES DEMAND MORE GIMMICKS!!! umm...no, we don't.