3D Movies
I went to see James Cameroon’s Avatar last night in 3D. While the movie itself was good, I feel let down by the technology. I had just read Wilson Rothman’s experiences of watching the movie from the first row, so I knew that front-row seats were something to avoid. Instead, I booked our seats in the center of the back row.
Because I was sitting so far back, I could see a lot of the surrounding wall around the screen. It felt like I was watching the movie through a window. Everything inside the window (screen) was basically like any other movie. Then there was the occasional branch or animal that stuck out of the window at times. It was very hard to get into the movie when objects came out of the screen on top of other people or the walls. The 3D effects were more of a reminder of the fact that I was in a movie theater than something that made the movie more enjoyable.
My second problem with the 3D movie experience was the glasses. The glasses were too heavy and fitted me poorly. They would slide down my nose so I had to readjust them every few minutes. The glasses had an infrared receiver between the eyes, which meant that they lost sync with the movie every time I pushed them back on my nose.
The glasses were pretty big and far from the face to allow persons wearing glasses to use them. In my case, since I don’t wear glasses, the fact that they were so far from my face made them glare form the light of the exit sign behind me.
The last and probably most annoying issue I had with the 3D movie experience was that the frame rate was abysmal. Any fast movement turned into a slide show, which really ruined the movie for me.
I would definitely suggest that you see the movie in 2D if you want to enjoy the movie for what it is instead of distracting yourself with gimmicks. I’ll give 3D movies a second chance, but this time I’ll get a seat somewhere around the 4th or 5th row in center, so that the screen will cover my entire field of vision. Like Wilson, I feel that movie theaters are not trying to enhance the movie experience for their viewers, but instead only want to profit more per showing.
Tags: 3d, movies