It sure seems like we’ve lived through this before.  Every decade since the 1950′s has had a run of 3D released titles and now, more than ever, it appears that theater owners and movie studios are relying on that trend to make them more money than the film is worth.  Most theaters have an option of showing both standard and 3D showings on separate screens, but some do not.  To this day there has not been a film released (including ‘Avatar‘) that has made over 50% of theatrical profits off the 3D phenomenon and I can tell you why.  3D, in its current form, still sucks.  It’s nauseating to most viewers and ruins the experience.  Every once in awhile it may be fun to witness something “cutting edge” and different, but overall the 3D gimmick is annoyingly uncomfortable and hurts the eyes.  Not to mention it costs a lot more money to see the same film.

The biggest problem, I feel, is that so very few movies are actually filmed using 3D cameras and instead rely on after-market conversion to “trick” the eyes into something it isn’t.  Recent conversions that have a horrible reputation for bad 3D conversion include the remake of ‘Clash of the Titans‘ and ‘Saw 7′.  As long as the audience is willing to pay an extra $5 a ticket to become SICK, the studios will keep churning it out.  And, ‘Saw 7′, thanks for the pink blood.  It looks fantastic on Blu-ray by the way…..no, not really.

It’s really interesting to rewatch older movies that were released in theaters as a 3D film because they look like total crap now.  For example, the horror genre is the main culprit when it comes to reaping cash flow from the public.  Back in the 60′s there was a cool little flick called ’13 Ghosts’ (later remade into a crapfest) that used 3D in a way that enhanced the viewing, but stuff in the 80′s like Jaws 3D (have you seen how bad this movie is?) and Friday the 13th 3D (the third one, not necessarily a bad entry in the series but you can tell on DVD and Blu-ray it was filmed for gimmick-effect) are cheesy and embarassing.

Bottom line is, don’t buy into a 3D theatrical release unless you know the film was shot using actual 3D cameras (go ahead and ask me if you want to know ahead of time) unless you don’t mind wasting your money.  And don’t get me started on 3D TV sets…..maybe some other time.

Hey, wanna see a nifty little timeline of every 3D movie ever released up to date?  Sure you do.  And it’s right here courtesy of none other than Roger Ebert.

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