By now you’ve probably seen Avatar at a theater in 3D. If you were lucky, you found tickets to see it at the IMAX in 3D. If you’re one of the two people in the world who didn’t see Avatar in 3D, you may have seen something else in 3D. There haven’t been many 3D movies, but there have been enough. I myself have only seen Avatar and Up in 3D. I’ll give you one guess as to which one I liked better. (Hint: Up is one of the only two Blu-Rays I own and I don’t plan on buying Avatar.)
At any rate, Hollywood, or The Film Industry, or whatever you want to call it seems to think that this new 3D technology is what’s going to drive people back to the movie theaters, at an additional $3 – 5 dollars a ticket no less. And don’t get me wrong, this IS new 3D technology. You’re not just putting on flimsy glasses with a red plastic lens and a blue plastic lens. These are less flimsy plastic glasses with blurry lenses that somehow make it better. It is pretty cool. But aside from people checking out the novelty and grand scale of Avatar, is this 3D thing going to stick.
Survey says? Yes…according to Hollywood.
This past week I read that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were going to reprise their roles in the Men in Black series. After two fun movies that did well at the box office in their time, someone had the good idea to go for a third installment, eight years later. And not only is there going to be a new Men in Black movie, but it will also be in 3D! (Big surprise that a summer blockbuster made in the next year or two will be in 3D.) So what’s the tentative title of the third Men in Black movie?
Men in Black 3D
Really?
I can’t decide if I want to find the marketing guru who came up with that and punch them in the crotch, or find them and ask them for a job because they are making some easy money.
Aside from putting out remakes, using “3D” in the title of the third movie in a series is one of the top ten things I despise most about Hollywood unoriginality. Why couldn’t it just be Men in Black 3? That sounds fine. More often than not, less really is more. I suppose I can be thankful that they didn’t give it a subtitle. I’m usually anti sub-titled titles or quasi sub-titled titles to movies like the Die Hard series. Come on now? Die Hard 2: Die Harder? Die Hard With A Vengeance? Live Free Or Die Hard? The titles get continuously more ridiculous. The series would have been fine as Die Hard 2, Die Hard 3, and Die Hard 4.
I guess there is still time to actually call this new movie, Men In Black 3, sans “3D” since it’s in pre-production, but I doubt a logical person will get their say in the matter. Why do I think that? Because there are other movies set for release in the next year or two with “3D” in the title.
Piranha 3D, Step Up 3D, and Street Dance 3D, along with already released movies like My Bloody Valentine 3D. As you can see, these are the cream of the crop when it comes to movies.
Which is exactly why it pains me to see a decent movie franchise like Men in Black stoop to the level of crummy straight to video releases when it comes to the title.
I guess they are just tired of us all paying for a regular (overpriced) movie ticket when we could be paying for 3D. Also, you’re three year old HD TV seems to be getting a little run down. Why don’t you shell out for this wonderful 3D experience at home all the time?
Oh wait, the world is already in 3D. Your TV is fine as it is, and if you want to see 3D, look away from a motion picture screen.
Well ranted! Remakes for just the experience of 3D sounds almost as though Hollywood is running out of material and just wants to cash in on following the flow of technology. I really hope 3D doesn’t become mainstream. I haven’t bought my HD TV yet, but I really don’t want to have to shop for one with 3D technology just so I can keep my DVD collection current.
Sadly, your DVD collection is going to be worth about as much as your VHS and Beta collections soon. Though I wouldn’t jump directly to Blu-Ray with too much enthusiasm. I wouldn’t be surprised if we go to direct digital download sooner rather than later.
Ahh, Sony and their Beta. Speaking of Sony, I was in their Sony Style store this weekend and watched a 3D TV their trying to promote before it comes out in June/July. I was really not impressed. I had a headache from the screen. And the picture didn’t seem to pop out as much as expected. I’ve seen one or two 3D movies in theaters, and those objects seemed to nearly hit you in your face.