Tron: Legacy & More 3D Woes

January 17th, 2011

I finally got the opportunity to see Tron: Legacy on Saturday night – after two failed attempts. Expectations were pretty high, there’s been lots of positive reviews from friends on Twitter about the film, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack since it was released in December – it’s Daft Punk’s best work since Homework – and I’ve seen plenty of trailers, so I knew it would look good at least!

I wasn’t disappointed, the storyline moved on from the original and it flowed along nicely throughout its 2 hours. However, the 3D disappointed me yet again. It didn’t add anything to the film, and more than ever I noticed the amount the glasses darkened and desaturated the colour. At the beginning of the film, there’s a message stating that the film contains scenes in both 2D and 3D, but you should keep your glasses on throughout. No wonder, if people ignored this message and saw the difference, I’m sure they’d be just as disappointed as I am — and maybe even on my side!

If any of you watch a 3D presentation at the cinema in the future, have a look and remove your glasses and you’ll see the difference. The glasses darken the picture and desaturate a lot of the colour, I’d much rather see a film in 2D and get the depth of colour the film makers intended. Especially in Tron’s case – all that neon glow was lost, which was a shame.

My Worry For The Future

3D films have increased revenues at the cinema — which is great for the UK cinema and film industry, and I’m sure it’s mainly to do with additional tickets sold at the box office; but some must be due to the fact that cinema’s are charging more for 3D film tickets. My concern is that directors and producers that don’t want to work in 3D are going to be persuaded by studios to film in 3D, otherwise they won’t get the money needed, and films just won’t get made or they’ll have to be financed independently like Kick Ass was last year.

I can see the studio’s logic – an average film goer has two similar films to choose from, one in 3D and one in plain old 2D, I’m positive many people will select the 3D option, and I’m sure the studios think the same thing. Ridley Scott is filming the two Alien prequals in 3D, Martin Scorsese is directing his next film in 3D, but fortunately there are some directors holding out against 3D – Christopher Nolan believes 3D isn’t up to scratch yet and so far he’s been putting his faith in IMAX. Inception was one of the biggest box office hits last year and it was in 2D, I’m hoping the third Batman film in his series will be set in 2D – it would be a little strange to have a single film from a trilogy in 3D.

3D is turning cinema into a fairground ride. I’m not against having fun and being entertained at the cinema – I am against 3D becoming the most important factor in a films production; are there enough pointy shots, are they enough explosions with debris being thrown into the audience? When the need to have an object sticking out of the screen becomes more important that the storyline, that’s when I’ll be fearing the future of film and cinema.

This tweet from @rosssutherland says it all;

“Dear Hollywood, after all the 3D movies, I’ve decided my 3 favourite dimensions are: 1) width, 2) height, and 3) character development.”

Tags: 3d films, colour saturation, tron legacy