Why Some People Don't Like 3D

Tomorrow, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is going to hit the cinemas, and I plan on watching it the next day, on Thursday, with a group of friends. This involves some organization, done via face book, and also brought up the question “3D or not 3D?” which spilt everyone into three groups. A few people said they didn’t like 3D, because it “takes away from the movie”, others prefer 3D, and some just didn’t care. In the end, we decided to watch it in 3D, but it got me thinking.

Does 3D really take away from the movie? Or is it just because we are not used to it, and associate movies with a flat, 2D experience?

Everyone has grown up with 2D movies. We watched our first episode of Sesame Street, our first anime and our first Star Wars movie in 2D, spend hours in front of a 2D screen, either the TV or the computer. We stare at words and pictures printed in two dimensions every day. When we look at graphs or charts, most of them are in 2D, because it is just easier to represent, and understand, them that way on a two dimensional surface.

We are spending an increasing amount of our time focused on something in two dimensions instead of three.

So maybe that’s the reason why some of us prefer watching our movies in 3D. Because we are used to it. We are used to experiencing everything outside of reality, everything outside the  tangible world, be it newspapers, books, television or computer games, in two dimensions.

Maybe, however, it is something different. I have heard may people say that the technology is simply not good enough to create a convincing three dimensional effect, that they dislike the way closer objects appear to float above others. It is distracting, and some even say it actually makes the illusion of three dimensions, which many producers have excelled at creating in a two dimensional movies, seem less real.

But then, we would just have to wait. New technologies are produced and also improved at an exponential rate. We have seen this with computers and mobile phones, television and modes of transportation. In a few years, then, we should have perfectly convincing 3D movies, without any floating layers. Surely a few not so well done movies in three dimensions are worth it, while movie makers, engineers and techies figure out new ways to make the 3D technology more effective and more enjoyable?

  

But maybe it’s none of that. It has got nothing to do with the various studies that claim that 3D movies may cause nausea or headache (just in case you have forgotten – anything in 2D slowly ruins your eyes), or the fact that 3D movies are more expensive. Maybe it’s just the old story – no matter how amazing, or how great a new technology is, we are still humans. And humans just don’t cope very well with any sudden changes.