Can 3-D Be More Than a Gimmick?

Before buying my ticket for "Pacific Rim" this weekend, I have to make an important decision: 3-D or 2-D?  If I don't see it in 3-D, I'll probably feel like I've missed the full experience, but lately, I've started to think that when I've paid for 3-D in the past, it's because movie studios have convinced me that I wanted something I didn't. It's only a few dollars more, so the easy solution is just to spend the extra money, but I'm a bit of a cheapskate, and I hate paying for special features that aren't particularly special.

Part of the problem is that my response to 3-D is colored by the fact that I want it to be something it's not.  When I see a 3-D movie, I want to duck to avoid being beheaded by a live chainsaw; dodge so the flying severed head misses me and hits the person behind me; and cover my face so I don't swallow a mouthful of blood, but sadly, none of this ever happens.  When I put on the glasses, I often think back to my first experience of a 3-D movie when 3-D made a brief comeback in the mid-80's and the Jaws, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises each had a part three in 3-D.  I was terrified of horror movies as a kid, so I missed all of these, but I did see "Treasure of the Four Crowns."  I remember nothing about the movie except that in several instances my friend and I screamed, jumped, ducked, dodged, and even knocked off our 3-D glasses to escape spiders, snakes, bats, birds, spears, spikes, and probably several other creatures and weapons that were coming out of the screen to get us. (The YouTube clip gives you some idea of what it was like to see this movie in 3-D.)  Now I often find myself wondering whether the movie is actually in 3-D and taking off the glasses to confirm that the screen is blurry without them.

 

To be fair, "My Bloody Valentine" and "Piranha 3-D" had some good 3-D moments.  During the former, there were several instances when I moved to avoid the killer's pick axe and a shot gun that protruded from the screen, and killer fish jumped out at me during the later.  Although I missed "Shark Week" in the theater, when I later watched it on DVD, I could tell that it, too, would have been worth seeing in 3-D.  But these movies are the exception, and although I don't like it, I understand why: for it to become an integral part of the cinema exprience, 3-D has to be more than a gimmick.  Whereas in the past 3-D was used almost exclusively for cheap shocks--which was why it worked best for horror movies--when filmmakers use it now, it's a tool for adding depth and texture and making the entire experience more immersive for the viewers.  This is why I resist it.  I've never needed 3-D to be fully immersed in the experience.  All this requires is a good story conveyed through engaging 2-D images.

I also understand why movie studios and cinemas have embraced 3-D: as large HDTVs have become more affordable, 3-D results in an experience that viewers can enjoy only in a cinema and thus gives them an incentive to pay ever higher ticket prices rather than waiting for the video release. But I wonder about the future of 3-D.  There hasn't been wide scale adoption of 3-D TV's because viewers aren't convinced that they want them, and I wonder if the same will happen with 3-D movies.  When 3-D is used as a gimmick to create cheap shocks in horror movies, it actually adds something unique to the theater experience.  I'm not convinced that 3-D adds anything when I'm just paying extra for depth and texture that I never felt like I was missing in the first place.  It just makes me feel like a rube at a carnival.

I wish that rather than insisting that every big action, adventure be released in 3-D, studios would stop trying to sell us snake oil and use 3-D where it works best.  I imagine there are millions of viewers who, like me, would gladly pay extra for the experience of squirming to avoid the slashes of a black-gloved killer while also knowing that there's no chance of having their throats slit in the process.

Since it's very unlikely that during the 3-D version of "Pacific Rim" the claw of a giant monster will reach through the screen and try to grab me, I've just resolved not to be a sucker.