The 3D revolution; Cinema has changed!!

I've not been to the cinema for an age, so this week i went twice. First was to see District 9 which was essentially The Office, Alien Nation, Cry Freedom, The Fly, Robocop, Mac and Me, Terminator 2 and the latest Rambo all combined together - then shot at until all that remains is a mist of spattered blood. All the reviews were terribly excited about this film, whereas it seemed to me to be exciting, but terrible.

It set itself up as a documentary formatted telling of an analogous group of aliens whose craft ceases working over Johannesburg and who are received by the city as unwelcome refugees. Hhhmmmm, inter-stellar racism and posing of the classic "And who is my neighbour?", interesting. It then gets political in exposing the humans' pursuit of control of alien weaponry. This therefore highlights our addiction to power, control, militarisation and violence. Wow, plenty to explore there too.

Then, however, it abandons it's documentary styling in favour of a heavy action shoot 'em up, which undermines and ignores all that it had suggested it might have been attempting to do. The main character, Wickes, who undergoes a gradual and grotesque transformation into one of the alien race through the course of the film, is clearly left unchanged in his personhood by the end. Thus the point is made: "see how we're all the same underneath really". This point is fine, but it's a far cry from the discussion it looked like was going to be had.

Next up was Up. Not just Up though, Up in 3D! I've not seen a 3D film until now, well, not since the green and red lensed glasses nonsense. I've since remained a sceptic and sided with those who say it's not the next big leap in film-making, it's just a gimmicky, defensive reaction to stem the popularity of cinematic piracy.

Up was preceeded by a 3D trailer for the forthcoming Jim Carrey ladened A Christmas Carol. The trailer looked amazing! It seems that the 3D version of the film will be a real showcase for the effect. Up also looked incredible, and it struck me that if used sparringly and with the appropriate films (CG animation primarily) 3D might be a very welcome boost to cinematic experience and film-makers' tool belts.

There is, however, more to consider than just the boost of effects that are presented on the screen though. Up begins with a staggering and beautifully moving 10 minute sequence. As this part drew to a close i found that i had been robbed. Where i would usually (as is part of the lore of cinematic wonderment) turn to check the response of kelly to what was being shown, and see her either half smiling, laughing out loud, jaw dropped with shock, or perhaps, her face wet with tears reflecting the lights of the screen, i saw instead that i was sat next to one of the blues brothers. Her glasses, too big for her face and completely concealing any physical expression of emotion that might be happening deep beneath, had stolen a moment of transcendance and replaced it with a cheap piece of slap-stick. I'm not sure the whole 3D thing is worth that.