Is 3-D Good or Bad for Cinema?

When an individual steps inside the theatre, he expects to have a real life experience and seeks to transport into an alternate reality during the course of the film. With the medium of 3-D, the experience that one is seeking for, is exceptional as one relishes the popping out effect. But with certain scheme of events, it has led to the elevation of a debate amongst the industry people and cinema lovers: is 3-D good or bad for cinema?

As one expected; Avatar stormed the box office in 2009, even surpassing Titanic as the highest grossing of all time. Avatar was highly appreciated for its motion capture filming techniques which, when seen in 3-D was touted as a breakthrough in cinematic technology. Though many movies were released in the 3-D format before, Avatar is widely regarded as the film that brought resurgence of 3-D in mainstream cinema. Also, it’s the first ever 3-D film to win an academy award for the best cinematography.

But the following year saw a string of deplorable films in 3-D, which were criticized for not being filmed in 3-D, but converted after being filmed. Some of these notable films were Clash of the Titans, Conan the Barbarian, Mars Needs Moms, The Last Airbender and many more.

James Cameron (Director, Avatar) had his views on the conversion of 2-D to 3-D:
“After Toy Story, there were 10 really bad CG(computer graphic) movies because everybody thought the success of that film was CG and not great characters that were beautifully designed and heart-warming. Now, you've got people quickly converting movies from 2D to 3D, which is not what we did. They're expecting the same result, when in fact they will probably work against the adoption of 3D because they'll be putting out an inferior product.”
Despite stating the above, Cameron recently re-released Titanic in 3-D as a commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic in 1912.

Another criticism that postdates the 3-D format is the issue of inflated ticket prices, particularly for this format. One also experiences dizziness and headaches while watching the film. It does not allow viewers to experience more intense emotional reactions, thus, does not offer any sort of advantage over its 2-D counterpart. Another unfortunate implication of the 3-D format is that it does not make the understanding of the movie better nor does it make the movie more meaningful.

As per the analysis of box-office, the performance of 3-D films has started to decline significantly. For instance in the case of Kung fu Panda 2(domestic box office only) its total revenue from the 3-D screening was a mere 45% whereas for Cars 2(domestic box office only) it was a disappointing 37%. According to some critics, the approach of 3-D which is extracting more money from few people, has turned into less money from even fewer people.

But despite such staunch criticism it has received, there are a lot of positives that are there in its favour. There are 6 movies that have crossed the 1billion mark since the resurgence of 3-D cinema. In 2009 it was Avatar, in 2010 Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3 achieved this feat whereas in 2011 three movies achieved this feat namely Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: on Stranger Tides.

In the year 2011 3-D movies like The Adventures of Tin-Tin, Hugo and Transformers: Dark of the Moon were met with great reception for their visual appeal in 3-D. Point to be noted here is that all these films were shot with 3-D cameras. Martin Scorsese was appraised for his intelligence in Hugo for the sequence in the Méliès' studio, by showing in 3D how those early two-dimensional films were made. Tin-Tin was highly applauded for making its characters look photorealistic; the fibres of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They made their characters look like real people. On the other hand, Transformers: Dark of the Moon which was also created in 3D from the ground up has been considered for the best use of 3D since Avatar.

Who knows what’s there in store for the future of the 3-D format. Some believe that this is the future of cinema while others totally disagree. Only time will tell, is 3-D good or bad for cinema?