The use of 3-D in a film is always a bit of a dicey proposition. While it can boost a film’s profits due to the enhanced experience of seeing a film in a new way, it can also be a distraction when it’s used in the wrong kind of film. Take, for example, the blockbuster film Avatar, which built its entire story around the intense visual and visceral experience it offered spectators.
In the years since, 3-D has become more and more common in filmmaking and, while some of the results have been quite exceptional, in several other instances they have been quite lackluster.
Worst: Sadako 3D (2012)
This is one of those films that, without the rather ridiculous use of 3-D and other CGI effects, might have actually been pretty good. It has a supernatural and horror feel to it that really does work well in some scenes, and the narrative itself is quite haunting.
However, it’s one of those times when it becomes clear pretty quickly that 3-D can be a cash-grab that ultimately harms the material rather than adding to or helping it.
Best: Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)
More often than not, 3-D is used in those types of movies that seem to lean heavily into the shock value that this technology affords (hence its prominence in the blockbuster market).
Every so often, though, it makes an appearance in a film where it really seems to add something substantial to the material, as is the case with this film (a remake of an earlier movie). In fact, this film has the distinction of being the first 3-D film to be screened at Cannes.
Worst: Dam 999 (2011)
On the other hand, there are those films that really do want to use 3-D for its shock value, and that is what happens in Dam 999. The film is a pretty standard disaster science fiction film about the dangers of outdated infrastructure, with some philosophical elements thrown in.
The film probably would have worked just fine with those elements, but the 3-D ends up making it into something both exploitative and a little ridiculous.
Best: The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
In addition to 3-D, the last decade has seen a tremendous advancement in the use of motion capture technology. Both 3-d and motion capture come together in the extraordinary The Adventures of Tintin. It’s a truly beautiful film, and it’s one of those instances where the technology and the story mesh together so perfectly that they really do bring out the best in one another.
It definitely helps that it was directed by Spielberg who, more than almost any other director in Hollywood, knows how to make technology work with a story rather than against it.
Worst: Creature (2014)
Creature is one of those films that leads one to wonder what, exactly, their intentions were in making it. Obviously, it’s intended to be a horror film, but the unfortunate reality is that the acting in the film is so overdone that it’s hard to take anything seriously.
Unfortunately, the 3-D does little to advance the film, and it most certainly doesn’t do anything to paper over the significant flaws in both the acting and the screenplay.
Best: Pina (2011)
While 3-D is most commonly associated with blockbusters and other forms of narrative cinema, it does also make an appearance in documentaries (which, as a rule, tend to know how to use it more effectively).
Take, for example, the film Pina, which focuses on the work of the noted choreographer Pina Bausch. What makes the 3-D in this film so powerful is that it effectively brings to vibrant life the movements of the dancers, immersing the viewer in this exciting and vivacious world of movement.
Worst: Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation (2012)
If Hollywood seems to love anything as much as it loves 3-D, it would have to be zombie movies. While there are a few zombie films that stand out from the pack and manage to inject some life into this tired film trope, this film is not one of them.
Aside from the fact that the plot is so predictable that it fails to generate any suspense, the use of the 3-D is so crude and transparent that it makes one wonder why they bothered.
Best: Gravity (2013)
Gravity was, of course, one of the best-reviewed films of 2013, and it’s hard not to see why. It features some truly splendid acting from Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, as well as a screenplay that is rich and sophisticated.
More than that, though, it’s also a film that seems to recognize that 3-D offers up new avenues of visual pleasure. As a result, the film invites the viewer to inhabit the strange, beautiful, and terrifying world of outer space.
Worst: Box Office 3D: The Filmest of Films (2011)
Some genres just…don’t really seem to need 3-D, and parody is one of them. While this film tries very hard (very hard) to be clever and quippy in its skewering of Hollywood blockbusters, the entire affair falls rather flat, in part because it tries to crowd too many parodies into one film.
What’s more, while the film also tries to be clever in its use of 3-D, the technology ultimately undercuts what little cleverness it managed to attain.
Best: Le Mans: 3D (2016)
It’s probably no surprise that one of the most effective and exhilarating uses of 3-D technology would occur in a film about a sport, and so it proves to be with Le Mans: 3D, which is about racing (naturally).
This film takes the viewer behind the scenes of this exciting sport and, thankfully, the immersive effect of 3-D allows for an intense and visceral experience, and the technology works with the film rather than against it.
