It’s been a long time since I’ve written here– busy and filled with a lot of transition in my family’s life. We are in the process of relocating to Nashville, and we’re super excited about it.
That season of transition has had a lot to do with my radio silence here. As I’ve thought about starting up the old blog post engine again, I’ve wondered what might flow forth first. Would it be what God has taught me during a major vocational move in my late 30’s? Would it maybe be a celebration of fifteen years of marriage to a wonderful woman? (Love you, Lisa!) Would it be a boast, dressed up in a pre-release review, concerning the fact that I have had Andrew Peterson’s upcoming record, Counting Stars, for a couple months now and I think it is ABSOLUTELY TOP SHELF! (Because it is.)
Nope. I just want to ask an honest question about 3D movies.
Do you prefer 3D over regular old 2D films when you are given the option?
I do not.
I have to confess I have driven 15 miles to the smaller theater across town just to see a movie the megaplex a mile from my house has, but only in 3D. I’m trying to understand what it is about 3D that turns me off, but I’m telling you I really don’t like it. Maybe it is because I have never been a glasses wearer, so the apparatus throws me off. Maybe it is that most 3D films today are ones I see with kids whose heads are just barely big enough to hold those suckers on. Maybe it is the upcharge and I’m just too cheap to get over the fact that the theater has found a way to make the cost of a movie even higher than they’re already asking.
Maybe.
But in all honesty, I think the problem is that what film companies call 3D doesn’t look 3D to me. It looks layered, like what you used to see through the old ViewMaster toy, but not deep. And I think it does something to my brain that causes me to process the information my eyes are taking in differently than standard 2D. I feel distracted pretty much the entire time the film is playing, as if my mind is trying to process too much information at one time, leaving little margin to really enter in to the story itself.
I don’t know. And I’d love to hear your input on this, because as it stands, it seems like half the movies I have been excited to see this summer are coming out in 3D, and I’m sort of bummed about the prospect of seeing “Dawn Treader” in 3D.
I think my major issue is that I don’t feel like I need that extra dimension to take in what I’m seeing. Well shot films never leave me wishing I could have seen it with cheap glasses putting that tree I already know is in the distance “actually” in the distance. Our minds learn to fill in what the screen lacks, and I contend that for the most part we take in 2D films in a more genuinely three dimensional way than a film shot in 3D offers.
Am I alone? Am I missing something?