Tuesday, February 2, 2010

TO 3-D OR NOT TO 3-D: THAT IS THE QUESTION?

BY FRITZ “DOC” FREAKENSTEIN
I was chillin’ in the lab today, reading a national magazine (yes, I still get some of my genre news from old-skool paper pubs) and I read that 80% of Avatar’s $550 million domestic gross has come from 3-D ticket sales. Anyone who doesn’t know about James Cameron’s record-breaking science fiction film is not only living fifty feet under ground under a rock, but probably found this blog thinking it was dedicated to Gene Autry. Reading this made me recall a conversation that I had just last weekend with my fellow Genre Guardian, Professor Photon, about the recent glut of 3-D films being released. We had seen Avatar at the local cinema – in standard 2-D – partly because the theater didn’t show 3-D films, but also because I wouldn’t want to pay extra money for what I believe I referred to as “an optical gimmick that doesn’t work with my corrective-lens glasses on”. The Professor asked me what was the last 3-D film I had seen and I had to admit it had been a long time (they still used the paper glasses with the red and blue lenses). The Professor assured me that the new 3-D process was superior to the old one and that the newer plastic glasses fit just fine over his corrective lenses. The Professor also told me that I should support these technical advances in cinema projection, because in the future the virtual-reality-vision films were going to be even better! I told the Professor that as a time traveler I’d have to take his word for that, but in future I would attempt to seek out a screening of a 3-D movie: As long as it wasn’t a sequel to Friday the 13th or Saw.

2 comments:

  1. How fitting you should predict SAW 3D in your post! Seriously, how hysterical is that DOC?

    I have no real interest in the Saw series. I remember the first one being pretty scary/ interesting, but all in all not real interested in seeing 3D films.

    I had to compliment your foresight in predicting the release of Saw 3D. Nicely done my friend.

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  2. I'm not in the predicting business, Sci-Fi Fanatic. My friend Phileas likes to act like he can predict the future, but of course as a time traveler.... he cheats!

    When I mentioned the Saw and Friday the 13th films, I was trying to think of films that I wouldn't see in the theater regardless of what revolutionary process was used, and those were the first two films that popped into my fuzzy noggin'. So, just a lucky guess on my part, because I could just as easily have said Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween or Hostel. I'm loath to admit that I've watched most of these "slasher" and "torture porn" films; but I sometimes wonder why, because I always end up feeling disturbed, dirty or disinterested... or all three! Still, I continue to watch many genre films that I know I'm likely to dislike, because occasionally I do find that one "diamond in the rough" that makes it worthwhile.

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