The Marty Feldman Experience

Well, I've seen my second full length 3-D film and I think it's going to be my last. I saw Up! in the summer and, whilst I enjoyed the film and felt that the 3-D technology worked well, I found that my eyes were very tired afterwards. At first, I couldn't quite place why this was, but it must be remembered that the 3-D effect is an optical illusion and that the images are really a flat projection on a distant screen. When looking at a real 3-D object ones eyes will move and focus accordingly however with the 3-D film the eyes must still focus on the screen 20 metres away whilst thinking the object is at the end of one's nose. I'm not sure what I look like when this is happening but I expect I must appear like Marty Feldman.

We went to see Avatar yesterday. As my eyes were so tired after 90 minutes of Up! we had planned to watch Avatar in 2-D. Unfortunately, by the time we were able to go to the cinema, only the 3-D version of the film was still showing. I was expecting to feel like my eyes would drop out by the end of the film but what I didn't expect was that I would feel like vomiting half way through.

The film itself is really worth seeing. The story is simple enough - essentially Dances with Wolves set on an alien planet - but the special effects really are special. James Cameron has developed new types of video capture techniques to realise the alien creatures in a way that gives depth of expression and makes the movement so natural that it is easy to forget that it is an animation rather than live action on the screen. Additionally, there is imagination in the make-up of the alien fauna and flora. Whilst it is obvious that Earth animals have been used as a basis for the life forms, there are intriguing adaptations (e.g. separate breathing holes in the body) which have a consistency across species and gives some hint into how these creatures may have evolved. Obviously, the whole thing was fantasy but I'm impressed when some serious thought has gone into this.

But 3-D is the movie industry's latest wheeze - in fact it's their third attempt at it. I can remember seeing Jaws 3-D in the 1980s and it was utterly dire. The latest bash at 3-D still requires the wearing of glasses, with polarised lenses, but the effect is phenomenal - at least for the first 10 minutes and after that you have either become engrossed in the film or lost interest. Unlike Up!, Avatar contains both animated and real life sequences, and it was the real life sequences that caused me so much discomfort. In fact, at one point I had to leave the theatre for 5 minutes for fear of actually throwing up.

I think I've seen my last 3-D film for a while. I can strongly recommend Avatar and I will probably watch it again on its DVD release but I think I'll be leaving the second pair of specs at home in future.