3-D: Revolutionary or Overrated?

Since the release of James Cameron's Avatar in 2009, 3-D has become very widespread, marketing itself as a very popular viewing option for moviegoers. But does it really serve a cinematic purpose? Or is 3-D just a way for the box office to make some extra cash?

Critics like Roger Ebert are very opposed to this film technique. You can read about it in his article "Why I Hate 3-D (and You Should Too)". He sees it as a dimension that contradicts the very fundamentals of cinema. While I'm not as radically opposed to it as he is, I have a problem seeing it everywhere. Before we know it, romantic comedies are gonna be using it and some stupid CGI effects. There are some films where the cinematography is better appreciated two-dimensionally. When people say 3-D is a way of enhancing the director's vision from a visual standpoint, it makes me wonder what exactly people look for in movies today. It's as if audiences depend on the flashiest techniques out there to draw them in. A good filmmaker should be able to capture the attention of the viewer in a powerful way without all the big, flashy, Hollywood tactics.

That's what I love about Christopher Nolan. He never uses CGI, and while his films are blockbusters and popular among younger audiences, he defies the Hollywood trend for moviemaking. If you have the Inception Blu-Ray combo-pack, I encourage you to watch the Extraction Mode feature, and look at how Nolan displays genius cinematic techniques. It just goes to show you that you can make a groundbreaking film, and a science fiction one for that matter, today without 3-D to utilize it from a visual standpoint.

What I'm getting at here is that I don't hate 3-D, but I don't love it either. There are directors like Michael Bay who rely way too much on it to enhance their visual effects. You'll see shots in Transformers 3 that were made just for 3-D, and were terrible with or without it. The widespread popularity of this dimension makes me concerned about the future of cinema, and if people ten years from now are even gonna care about a quality story.