Friday, July 18, 2014

3-D Invasion

Let me admit, up front, that I have come to enjoy some 3-D movies. The first ones that came out in the latest round (so we're not talking from the 1950s, but the 2000s), were kind of overwrought and I tended to opt for the 2-D versions whenever possible. But, lately, I've been happy with more of the 3-D movies. 

In theaters. 

Yep. That's a huge point for me in this discussion. The whole "3-D in theaters" thing. 

Sure, some movies are still really gimmicky. There are a lot of action films where stuff gets thrown at the camera, or arrows go whizzing past, or stuff comes bouncing out at the screen. But there are others where the 3-D effects simply give the move more depth. Where it's not a movie with 3-D effects added, but it's actually a movie which just happens to be in 3-D. 

But... again... I still think it's best in the movie theater. 

You see, I don't expect to have a 3-D television any time soon, and so when you're watching a movie that was in 3-D in the theater - even the "serious" movies where they don't spend half the movie going "LOOK! IT'S IN 3-D!!" - I find that you can feel the moments where something was supposed to have happened. 

Why do I bring this up? Because, in the past week or so I have seen at least four movies on TV that were originally in 3-D. I honestly don't remember what the first one was - I just remember watching it and saying aloud at one point "Oh, that was a 3-D moment." The second movie was "Journey to the Center of the Earth" - the Brendan Fraser version - which is incredibly campy even without the effects. 

Then I tried to watch "The Great Gatsby" (the one from last year), but got massively bored with it because it was too slick and there were too many "look at this glorious 3-D scene" moments. 

And, without realizing it, I started to watch "The Legend of Hercules" just this evening only to watch arrows come flying toward the screen in the first few minutes alerting me to the fact that I could have seen it in 3-D if I had gone to a theater for it. 

Yes, I know it's kind of my own fault. If I had seen all of these in the theater (I did see "Journey" in the theater), then I wouldn't be going through all of this. But... still... The more I see the cheap versions of it, the more I long for the simple 2-D days. 

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