I almost shrieked like a girly girl. There it was, floating a metre in front of me, within touching distance, if I just stretched out my hand I could probably feel it under my fingertips. I wondered if anyone would notice and, glancing around, I saw the same look of wonderment that I could also feel plastered across my face.
Yup, there was no doubting it. Floating in the space between my seat and the cinema screen, the Nickelodeon logo was slowly revolving and looking very 3D. Ohh sorry, very RealD.
It was quite awesome. I wish I could find some better words but, like, seriously, it was AWESOME!!
All very impressive and that was before the movie started. The movie, Ice Age 3D, was about Mammoths and Dinosaurs, some cute baby dinosaurs, a cute baby Mammoth, had no real plot but a few giggles and on that front probably met all its requirements, although to be honest, it was a largely secondary affair to the technological wonder of the evening.
I can remember when Jaws 3D came out and how underwhelming the experience was, there seemed to be a disconnect between the 3D elements and the movie which broke the suspension of disbelief, never a good thing.
But last night, once I’d gotten past the schoolboy amazement of seeing things float out of the cinema screen, it struck me (not literally, it’s 3D but it’s not THAT good) that it felt natural and connected to the movie I was watching. Ohh of course there were a few gratuitous “lets put some grass at the front to show off the 3D-ness” moments but pretty soon it stopped surprising me that some of the characters seemed to be sitting in the front row of the cinema.
I can also happily report that George Lucas will soon be remastering the entire Star Wars franchise in RealD. Well, if not, he probably should given that one of the chase scenes (featuring flying dinosaur type things) was a straight rip off of the Pod Race which was so FREAKIN AMAZINGLY AWESOME that I almost wet my pants as the winged dinosaurs flew past me, into the screen and beyond at a zillion blurry miles an hour. AWESOME!
So, all in all colour me impressed (which I believe is just a bright purple).
It’s not all roses though. Some of the trailers were in 3D whilst the animated movies looked OK, those feature live actors looked like the reality was being forced, like there was a deliberate effort being made to introduce depth where none was needed.
Safe to say though that I was hugely impressed and the novelty of watching items from the movie float around and leap past me easily got me through the movie. The fear is that it will be just that, a novelty.