I would say the worst 3D experiences I can remember include Clash of the Titans, The Last Airbender and Takashi Miike’s Hara-kiri, all for a variety of reasons including terrible 2D-to-3D conversions, 3D that hardly required glasses and the murky and muddy images caused by those cloudy lenses. The best 3D I can remember was probably Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. The best 3D experience combined with a great movie goes to Avatar. Oh, and that recent Ice Age short uses 3D quite well.
Outside of those three positives and three negatives I would say I’ve pretty much forgotten the 3D aspect of the rest of the films I’ve seen in the gimmicky format, and of the three positives I still wouldn’t say the 3D actually added to the film, though with Legend of the Guardians the 3D and animation did its best to make me forget how bad the film itself was.
And so we come to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which I will be seeing, in 3D, in less than three hours from the time of this post and as my regular readers already know, I am excited for it. Excited not only for a big dumb summer actioner that I hope will blow the doors off, but actually excited to see it in 3D. I’ve bought into the hyperbole and now I want to see the pay-off.
The concerns over 3D have prompted Paramount and director Michael Bay to make as much noise about the 3D projection of Transformers 3 as they can and it began at the New York Times where it said “Bay even called the chief executives of major theater chains to implore them to show Dark of the Moon in a way that burns out projector bulbs more quickly but makes 3-D look brighter and sharper.”
Tomorrow night, June 28, Transformers: Dark of the Moon will screen in specific theaters across the country with specific digital prints, which Bay recently told Variety these prints had “been mastered and color graded for the extra brightness” and that is the only way they will be allowed to be screened on Tuesday night. He added, “We have created a special version with extra sharpening, color and contrast. It is a superior look in the format. The brighter the image, the brain processes in a different way (sic) and the result sharpens and makes it more vibrant.”
Next is the letter that was sent to projectionists from Bay himself, suggesting the best way for the film to be seen. For a little explanation on some of what Bay is talking about in the letter here is David S. Cohen from Variety:
Standard brightness for a 2D digital cinema system is 14 foot-lamberts, measured off the screen. About 75%-90% of the light is lost in 3D, so the informal standard for 3D systems is 3.5 FL, measured through the glasses. That’s the light level for which 3D pics are color graded.
However, some theaters either dim their lamps to save money or don’t change them often and therefore show pictures below standard brightness. That gloom, which prompted grumbling from cinephiles for regular 2D, has generated significant pushback over 3D.
The special DCPs for “Transformers 3” have been graded for 6 FL, almost twice the brightness of the usual 3D standard. By comparison, the dual-projector Imax Digital system averages only 5.5 FL for 3D.
Bay also took to his blog, thanking fans and suggesting the best way to see the film. He wrote: “Dark of the Moon has some of the most technically challenging sequences ever shot. And shot in 3D. I must urge you to find the very best theatre and see this movie in that format. 3D was a forethought, not an afterthought in this movie… Many theaters are presenting it in the brand new 7.1 sound, which is awesome. This is the most complex, intricate sound track that me and my Academy Awarding winning sound team have done.”
Beyond that, Transformers star Shia LaBeouf has called it “the greatest 3-D film ever made.”
I did reach out to Fandango to find out what ticket sales for Dark of the Moon were looking like over there and it looks like 3D has the lead when you consider IMAX and traditional 3D together. So perhaps Bay and Paramount have pulled it off. Here are the Fandango figures for Dark of the Moon:
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 35mm – 13% of daily tickets sold
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 3D – 12% of daily tickets sold
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon in IMAX 3D – 8% of daily tickets sold
After all that hyperbole, salesmanship and sales figures can you resist seeing what all the fuss is about? I want to know, will you see Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 3D or does none of this phase you and you are more interested in saving some money and seeing it in traditional 2D? Vote in the poll below and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
