I’m rewatching Final Destination.
And it dawned on me that all of the shots were choreographed for 3D animation.
I remember disliking 3D movies whenever we had those red and blue lens glasses.
And whenever the movie industry switched over to the new clear 3D glasses. I still didn’t see the point in 3D movies. I watch them and then threw away the glasses at the end of the movie. The experience sucked, just like always.
So I’m curious.
Did anybody actually want 3D movies? Or was this something that the movie industry was just trying to shove down our throats?
If a movie was shot in 3d and the CGI was designed in 3d and the movie was produced for 3d I’ve generally enjoyed them (Avatar, Gemini Man, Alita Battle Angel). If however the 3d is produced by an off shore sweat shot rotoscoping a 2d shot then layering everything over a parallax background that’s an immediate pass.
I’d love if there was a 3d movie distribution app/platform for VR headsets though. I had to buy the 3d Blu-ray release of a movie, a PC Blu-ray drive, Blu-ray ripping software, then render that to a stereoscopic player and set a VR app to copy my desktop in stereoscopic mode just to watch it. That cost like $100 for a movie, and it seems more people have a quest or some shit then ever had a 3d TV.
Oh man, Alita had some amazing sequences, so damned good in 3d. I’m still crushed we’ll never see the rest in theatres.
Good news! There will be a sequel! We (the fans) did a lot of stuff to I guess convince “them” to go ahead and make the two sequels. I wrote a blog about it - there is also a link way down to SCREENGEEK that talks about the sequels
I believe you can rent 3D movies in Bigscreen, but I’ve never tried it.
Alita in 3D was amazing
so was Dredd
That’s right! The slo mo scenes were tight.
I watched a 3DBR in PSVR but the quality was so bad I never bothered again.
They don’t even make 4K 3D discs so I guess that format is dead. High frame rate never made it either.
You’re either in the industry or a big nerd. I had no idea they did that to 2d movies. Might explain some bad experiences
I enjoy them, but only when they are well made and use the 3d to add proper depths to shots. Too many 3d movies tried to rely on cheap “object comes out of screen” tricks that get old very fast.
Best one i ever saw was the Animated A Christmas Carol… With Jim Carey as Scrooge. They did some amazing 3d depth shots in that one.
No for two reasons.
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I already wear glasses, these are just uncomfortable.
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My brain stops noticing the 3D effect after a few moments. I think it’s cool when concentrating on it, but it’s not worth the extra cost and equipment.
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Yeah ive always loved 3D effects, and never understand what folks have against it.
It’s not that I hate 3d effects, but I’ll avoid them if I can, for a variety of reasons.
As other people have said - I wear glasses, I having to put the glasses over my own glasses just makes it difficult. They don’t stay on and I have to hold them, it makes the image askew, it’s uncomfortable on my nose and ears when it does “fit”. They really should come up with a more inclusive way to watch these as a good portion of the population wears glasses.
For another, I suffer from migraines and 3d effects not done well tend to trigger them, and I already have enough triggers that I can’t avoid.
A strange one needs a little bit of backstory - I was never great a sports as a kid, could never quite catch a pop-up or hit a fast ball, but I was great at throwing or other aspects. People wrote it off as just “unathletic” and I went on to live my life as a weird nerdy kid despite the rest of my family being athletic. Fast forward to my adult life when I was put on a very strong medication and needed a very thorough eye exam and a result to set a baseline to make sure the medication doesn’t end up damaging my retinas (thorough to the point that the exam was 5 hours and I had tests done I’d never seen it heard of before).
It turns out my eyes/brain only interpret half the depth perception of the average person. So what I’m seeing during a 3d movie is not what’s meant to be seen. And since this is not an eye exam that would be regularly given - who knows if it people that are complaining about the movies have the same issue I do? Cartoon-y 3d (like Disney world/theme Park things) is fine for me, but things like Avatar just give me migraines.I wear glasses, so 3D glasses on top of my regular glasses are annoying. Some 3D movies make me motion sick, too (not always, but sometimes). But i do it anyway because friends/family are worth a bit of discomfort . I don’t feel super strongly about it or anything, but that’s what I have against it.
It’s definitely the tech getting in the way of the experience. There’s comments to be made about the gimmicky nature of content made for 3d but if it really took off you’d eventually see stand out art and ultimately it would become so standard and expected that even for a film not taking particular advantage it’d probably be there, literally, adding another dimension to the experience of the film. The problem is, in all it’s history we just haven’t figured out a way that isn’t clunky and irritating on the viewing side. A pair of plastic glasses may seem a pretty minor inconvenience but people balk at that type of thing and only have the desire and patience for it during brief spikes where it re-emerges as a fad.
It also, from memory suffers from making the films seem darker, the glasses are prone to being lost, or scratched. To make them comfortable you’d really have to make them as good as actual glasses, which are expensive. It’s also problematic from a theatrical perspective because a session has to be 3d only, you can’t have people in the same session watching it without glasses, the screening is unwatchable without them so you have to tie up 2 screens with a 3d and 2d version. I think I recall hearing about advances the last time this fad was big, where they finally didn’t need glasses, but it resulted in narrow viewing angle requirements.
If you’re picking up a theme here, it’s that all the complaints are about the practicalities of the tech, not necessarily the entertainment value of 3d itself. The trouble comes when that entertainment, while fun, isn’t worth it.
I dont think its the glasses, I remember plenty of people hating on the 3DS’s use of 3D.
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Because it’s pointless.
- the effect wears off after the first or second scene. So then I’m just watching a regular movie where a handle occasionally comes out of the screen.
- it’s gimmicky. It just doesn’t add anything of value for me.
- it’s a hassle. I don’t want to wear (and eventually toss) a cheap pair of plastic glasses.
VR on the other hand. Rules.
That’s just like your opinion man
I don’t understand where the VR comment comes from. It’s not like 3D and never has been. They’re 2 wildly different things.
I definitely don’t. They give me a headache.
Nope. I fidget a lot. Turn my head sideways and it all goes blurry. Usually it costs more money. I don’t want the discomfort of wearing scratched up glasses. I think I can go on and on. It’s just not a value-add to me.
Dredd in 3D was mesmerizing
When done right, yes. But i will say whenever i see a 3d movie i also see it in 2d either before or after.
Once i saw avatar and saw that this 3d wasn’t just “popping out” 3d like the red/blue kind and instead more like using the screen like a window into the world of the movie I thought it was brilliant. Still didn’t stop some films using it as a gimmick though.
I still kinda wish 3d took off more past the gimmicky phase. I was too young to get a 3d tv at the time and I wish I could experience some of those movies again in 3d. But even if I had a 3d tv now they haven’t released 3d versions of movies outside of the cinemas in like 10 years. I would still like to get one to experiment with 3d gaming though. But will probably result in me being disappointed because it’s potential was never fully realised, like 2 screen async gaming on the wii u.
If you haven’t found the 3D movies, you’re probably not looking in the right place.
That probably is the case to be honest
It’s flopped and dead to me. I think it was definitely something to raise ticket prices.
And yet they never fell after that, did they?
…they were a premium exclusively for 3D shows. There was no change in price for regular shows, beyond the usual inflationary increases.
Avatar 2 was ridiculous in 3D. One of the most visually impressive things I’ve ever seen. Sure, the movie was garbage but damned if it wasn’t absurdly pretty garbage. Watching rain scenes through droplets, seeing my whole row reflexively flinch when we got “splashed” just, goodness gracious.
I love it! I searched long and hard to get a nice 4K 3D TV from 2015 a couple years ago and I have no regrets. I love watching movies on Blu-ray 3D. But yes, I recognize that I am very in the minority here. 🤣
Do they still release current 3d films anywhere? Would love to see the lijes of spidercerse in 3d again
They’re rare, but 3D releases still come out on occasion! Sometimes you have to buy them from the UK or Japan, but thanks to the internet, that’s not difficult to do. Into the Spider-Verse is amazing in 3D. :)
Oh. I’m from the uk but i still don’t notice them around when shopping for blurays. Might have to think about picking up a 3d tv more now
Oh, in the U.S., no brick and mortar stores are carrying them anymore. You’ll have to buy them online. Amazon is a great place for them!
I watched Tron : Legacy on release at the local IMAX in 3D. It was epic. Not seen anything else in 3D though.
Tron: Legacy was my first 3D movie. At the beginning of the movie I was like “huh, this 3D thing is absolutely not worth it” then, the guy goes into the grid and everything turns 3D and I thought about the people that watched The Wizard of Oz in cinemas for the first time, and how cool it must have felt to see a movie turn into color. That’s how I felt.
Almost my exact reaction… the Grid was so epic
Personally love 3d movies. Obv many are built around the 3d and that can feel gimmicky, but many like the marvel ones just add an extra element of depth which is nice.
Used vr headsets for 3d, and have had a series of protectors that do 3d for it. Thought it was dying out, but newer 4k projectors keep adding the feature.
But I agree the general public opinion is it’s not worth it, so the studios will follow the money. If people vote with their wallets I’ll just have to accept the limited library I have so far.
I also feel like I need to add that many people either don’t see 3d (and don’t realize it, my father and daughter included), or have poor depth perception making the effect headache inducing. This accounts for a reasonable amount of the public, making the effect either worthless or not worth the strain.
This. I was surprised to learn how bad many people’s depth perception is. I used to work in VR and it seemed like a quarter to half of the people I showed it to could not see the depth.
I think it’s amazing when done right.
But
Almost every time I’ve been to a 3d showing they have the screen adjusted wrong or in the wrong aspect ratio and it messes everything up.
I have a buddy with a home theater and a 3d projector with synchronized LCD glasses and 3d blu rays in that context are great.
I avoid them at all costs, even the 3D rides at Disney World. I don’t even put the glasses on and just let my family enjoy the ride.
They give me the worst headache!
I think certain movies are 3D worthy. Like I would I loved to watch Interstellar or Gravity in 3D. When full immersion is something that adds value.
I find that most movies aren’t worthy of it.
