3D, the irritating, worthless gimmick of today’s cinema. There are just as many arguing for it as against it. But this week it suffered possibly the first blow that could really prove to be fatal. If there is one man is movie-making today whose influence is not only strong, but still growing, it is the man of the hour, Dark Knight and Inception director Christopher Nolan.
This week Nolan announced that the third installment of his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, will not be filmed in 3D, will not be retro-fitted into 3D and indeed, will never be shown anywhere, ever … in 3D.
Now, officially, this is because his is concerned about maintaining consistency with Begins and Dark Knight, but some of his other comments have led me to believe his real reasons to be a little more, shall we say, pointed.
His official statements have talked about wanting to create his third Batman movie in IMAX, because he wants the movie to maintain a “large canvas, operatic sweep“. The implication being that his vision of Gotham simply cannot be produced to the same standard in 3D. He speaks of an innate “intimacy” caused by the “spacial illusion” of 3D and the inability to portray scale realistically in 3D. Not to mention of course, that the 3D projection of movies is also unable to create the same crisp brightness which IMAX delivers so incredibly well.
For me, what this all adds up to is that 3D is an inferior format.
Many have believed this for a while, but hopefully in the light of Nolan’s recent statements, others within the industry will begin to speak out against it’s use. With any luck, the backlash will be in full effect by the time retro-fitted versions of much loved classics such as Terminator and the already-in-process Star Wars movies hit the shelves and everyone will be saved the hassle of yet another TV upgrade.
Related posts:
- Inception. Christopher Nolan, 2010. Every once in a while, a movie comes along that...
