James Cameron, what have you done?!
Jul. 6th, 2010 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tj_teejaySo I went to see Shrek – Forever After in 3D last night. It was a sweet, little movie, and I enjoyed it very much. Probably more than the previous two. But what really irked me wasn't anything about the movie itself but the trailers that ran before the movie.
There was The Last Airbender, whose trailer was in 2D. I had actually seen it online before (the trailer, not the movie), and it made me really keen on wanting to see the movie. Now I'm not so sure, mainly because on the big screen the special effects looked kinda cheap. I have a feeling that would ruin the movie for me.
But what was much worse were all the 3D trailers. There was Die Konferenz der Tiere (The Animals' Conference, which until today I didn't realize was actually a German movie) and Despicable Me, both animated movies. And then there was Step Up in 3D. Can you say gag reflex? But more on that later.
First of all, I was really surprised to see that in this recent trailer of Konferenz der Tiere, it came across as just another one of those slapsticky, cuddly-cute, stereotypical animated movies that we've seen a million times before and that the animated movie industry seems to be spitting out by the dozen each year. The first trailer I had seen months ago made me think it was going to be much more honest and, quite frankly, a lot more serious. Who was I to be fooled into believing it wasn't just going to be another shallow, cute, loveable kids movie? I must say that I didn't really have much of an interest after the first trailer, but I have even less of one now.
I didn't find the Despicable Me trailer all that funny either. I'm definitely not going to pay money for seeing that one. I'm not really much into animated movies in the first place. I love Shrek because I think it's not quite working only on that funny kiddy level. (Boy, did I enjoy the "I see you" reference!) I loved WALL-E too, though (and probably because) that one's again a different kind of animated movie. I can't say I really liked any other animated movie I've seen so much that I would either watch it a second time or buy the DVD.
And while I thought Konferenz der Tiere and Despicable Me weren't particularly funny but bearable, the trailer for this dance movie absolutely wasn't. At first I thought: Oh God, no, please not another High School Musical movie! And even though it wasn't, it could very well have been if you switch "musical" with "dancing". But it wasn't so much the storyline or the acting that turned me off, it was the horrendous quality of the 3D effects. It really looked bad. And I mean bad. Add to that the fact that the dialogues were outrageously cheesy and every second scene had one of those in-your-face 3D effects, it made me scream inside, "Please stop! I can't take any more of this!" Bottom line: I wouldn't go see this movie even if someone paid me to do so.
The last straw that made me want to go grab someone's collar, shake them and go, "James Cameron, what have you done?!" was that when I left the theater, there was a barrage of posters for The Legend of Aang (in other words, The Last Airbender) in 3D. Does every single movie have to be 3D now? Just to go with the trend? Seriously, folks, while 3D is a great tool and can enhance the theatrical experience quite a lot, it is not a mandatory gimmick. If you have a good script, great actors and a solid story, believe me, it will work in 2D just as well as it will in 3D. I firmly believe 3D can also ruin a movie. I can't judge first hand because I haven't seen it, but I've heard people say that The Clash of the Titans in 3D was really bad because the special effects sucked big time. And I also think (please correct me if I'm wrong) the movie wasn't shot to be 3D, which is always a bad thing for a movie they're screening in 3D.
So, did I at least like watching Shrek in 3D? Sure I did! Just like I loved Avatar in 3D. But I feel that both movies didn't use 3D as a novel kind of gimmick to use just to be hip and trendy and new. It all felt very natural and there were only few effects where they gloried in the 3D technology. It was very much not in-your-face. But the bottom line is, I think I would have enjoyed Shrek just as much in 2D, which would have had the advantage that the cinema would have been only 25 instead of 60 kilometers away and the ticket would have cost almost half as much. Another lesson learned. Yay me.
There was The Last Airbender, whose trailer was in 2D. I had actually seen it online before (the trailer, not the movie), and it made me really keen on wanting to see the movie. Now I'm not so sure, mainly because on the big screen the special effects looked kinda cheap. I have a feeling that would ruin the movie for me.
But what was much worse were all the 3D trailers. There was Die Konferenz der Tiere (The Animals' Conference, which until today I didn't realize was actually a German movie) and Despicable Me, both animated movies. And then there was Step Up in 3D. Can you say gag reflex? But more on that later.
First of all, I was really surprised to see that in this recent trailer of Konferenz der Tiere, it came across as just another one of those slapsticky, cuddly-cute, stereotypical animated movies that we've seen a million times before and that the animated movie industry seems to be spitting out by the dozen each year. The first trailer I had seen months ago made me think it was going to be much more honest and, quite frankly, a lot more serious. Who was I to be fooled into believing it wasn't just going to be another shallow, cute, loveable kids movie? I must say that I didn't really have much of an interest after the first trailer, but I have even less of one now.
I didn't find the Despicable Me trailer all that funny either. I'm definitely not going to pay money for seeing that one. I'm not really much into animated movies in the first place. I love Shrek because I think it's not quite working only on that funny kiddy level. (Boy, did I enjoy the "I see you" reference!) I loved WALL-E too, though (and probably because) that one's again a different kind of animated movie. I can't say I really liked any other animated movie I've seen so much that I would either watch it a second time or buy the DVD.
And while I thought Konferenz der Tiere and Despicable Me weren't particularly funny but bearable, the trailer for this dance movie absolutely wasn't. At first I thought: Oh God, no, please not another High School Musical movie! And even though it wasn't, it could very well have been if you switch "musical" with "dancing". But it wasn't so much the storyline or the acting that turned me off, it was the horrendous quality of the 3D effects. It really looked bad. And I mean bad. Add to that the fact that the dialogues were outrageously cheesy and every second scene had one of those in-your-face 3D effects, it made me scream inside, "Please stop! I can't take any more of this!" Bottom line: I wouldn't go see this movie even if someone paid me to do so.
The last straw that made me want to go grab someone's collar, shake them and go, "James Cameron, what have you done?!" was that when I left the theater, there was a barrage of posters for The Legend of Aang (in other words, The Last Airbender) in 3D. Does every single movie have to be 3D now? Just to go with the trend? Seriously, folks, while 3D is a great tool and can enhance the theatrical experience quite a lot, it is not a mandatory gimmick. If you have a good script, great actors and a solid story, believe me, it will work in 2D just as well as it will in 3D. I firmly believe 3D can also ruin a movie. I can't judge first hand because I haven't seen it, but I've heard people say that The Clash of the Titans in 3D was really bad because the special effects sucked big time. And I also think (please correct me if I'm wrong) the movie wasn't shot to be 3D, which is always a bad thing for a movie they're screening in 3D.
So, did I at least like watching Shrek in 3D? Sure I did! Just like I loved Avatar in 3D. But I feel that both movies didn't use 3D as a novel kind of gimmick to use just to be hip and trendy and new. It all felt very natural and there were only few effects where they gloried in the 3D technology. It was very much not in-your-face. But the bottom line is, I think I would have enjoyed Shrek just as much in 2D, which would have had the advantage that the cinema would have been only 25 instead of 60 kilometers away and the ticket would have cost almost half as much. Another lesson learned. Yay me.
