3D: Is it worth it?
Share This Article:
3D in film has been widely criticised, beaten down and branded as unnecessary and pointless. So, why do directors still insist on using it?
I remember a few years ago when seeing a film in 3D was a special occasion, but now it is everywhere. It was maybe only available at a distant IMAX cinema that would cost a fortune to go and see.
Now of course, we expect 3D and more and more films are falling into this risky category. Even Titanic has been re-mastered so that we can once again see Rose leave Jack to freeze to death, this time with the action coming out of the screen.
Some films are made for 3D and some are not. The James Cameron epic Avatar, and we’ll see if he transforms Titanic with similar success on 6th April.
Avatar and other vertigo inducing films use 3D to compensate for a fairly mundane storyline, and it is necessary for them to do so.
Final Destination 5 is another one that was perfectly suited to 3D because of its fast flying objects and frequent gory, splatters of blood coming from the screen. Films like this require 3D to make them interesting, when you focus on visuals more than story, you’ve got yourself a good three dimensional film.
The history of 3D goes back longer than you’d think. In 1894, William Friese Greene filed a patent for a process that would allow audiences to view films three dimensionally. It involved putting two screens side by side which would be united in the eyes of the audience via a large stereoscope headset.
This is not too different to the frustration of today’s glasses, presently they don’t weigh down your face, however, they certainly darken the screen and provide an unwanted nuisance to your cinema experience. 3D eventually climbed out of the mud and raised its ugly head in the fifties to display such films like It Came From Outer Space and Creature from the Black Lagoon. The format then fell into cinema history until it was once again revived by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey in 1973; it then gradually became a permanent part of the world of cinema.

- Article continues below...
- More stories you may like...
- Trailer: Anna Paquin stars in melancholy drama 'Tell It To The Bees', set in a town too small for secrets
- Legendary actor Richard Dreyfuss and director Shelagh McLeod discuss Astronaut, humanity and space travel
- Too Old To Die Young review - Nicolas Winding Refn's cynical, gorgeous critique of modern America
You might also like...
People who read this also read...
TRENDING
TRENDING CHANNELS
CONTRIBUTOR OF THE MONTH