Den of Geek thinks IMAX tops 3D every time

Den of Geek has this article on the merits of IMAX over plain old digital 3D:

I should declare my own feelings right here, in the interests of transparency. I’ve yet to be blown away by 3D. Avatar looked impressive, certainly, but I wasn’t one of those who felt that the 3D added a lot to it. The 3D fittings done to the likes of Up, Monsters Vs Aliens and part of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, amongst others, have impressed me not a jot.

Coraline worked well, because it used 3D for genuine effect that was relevant to the story. And I must admit to being really quite impressed with the execution of How To Train Your Dragon in 3D, too. But right now, the number of films with unimpressive 3D is firmly winning.

However, the very fact that the technology is proving so divisive surely proves that it’s not working anywhere near as well as it should, and that it’s got a lot of work to do to win people over (especially if we’re now all expected to buy the new generation of 3D televisions, too). For if this is to be the revolution in cinema that it’s being sold as over the past year or two, there should be something approaching unanimous appreciation for 3D. As it stands, head onto any movie discussion board, and consensus of opinion on 3D is best described as hard to find.

Now contrast that with a proper IMAX screening of a film. Not one of those IMAX-lite screens that seem to have popped up over the last year or two. I’m talking about a proper, massive IMAX display, the kind where your eyes can’t see anything other than the gigantic screen in front of you. Personally, I’d contend that it’s IMAX, rather than 3D, that’s the most effective enhancement that filmmakers can make to their movies.

And it all ties back to why I go and see movies at the cinema in the first place. There must be some reason, after all, why I put up with the chattering kids, the legions of text messagers who inevitably sit in front of me, and the man on the end of the row who turns the consuming of a bag of popcorn into an exercise in making the maximum amount of noise from the bare minimum of resources.

Read the full article here: Link >>

UPDATE: More commentary on 3D and the biz:

Montreal Gazette: 3-D movies could be viewed as a novelty

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