Monday, October 11, 2010

Warners goes with no 3D rather than bad 3D




It's amazing to me that Warner Brothers would rather miss out on the premium ticket sales that the 3D conversion would bring in than release their movie with a process that most folks regard as inferior. It's a bold move by one of the biggest movie houses with one of their biggest franchises ever. I'm happy with Hollywood this day.
Let's be honest. Hollywood is about money more than anything else. Everything they do is about making the big bucks. It's what goes into each decision made over the course of the day. If we make this how much will we get? If we get this person to star how much will we get? If we remake this flick... etc. It's refreshing to see a change in that mindset for once.
3D isn't going away anytime soon. Hollywood has found a cash cow in the process and they are going to milk that thing dry. I'm ok with it for now. As long as it stays being something we only see in CGI movies, action flicks, the random horror movie. But the second it starts popping up on the latest romantic comedy I'm fairly certain that will mean the end of things.
What I discovered I hated was the conversion process for movies not specifically shot for the 3D effect. What we got then was a cross between the old school 3D and a viewmaster. And to be honest, the viewmaster looked a lot better than Clash of the Titans did.
Warners decided to skip out on the crappy conversion while deep in the process already. They saw that it didn't look good and they bowed out. This sends a message. If you can't get it right then we aren't going to do it. I like that message. It's one I would like to see more of in Hollywood. If you can't do it right then we shouldn't do it. If this was also applied to some of the movie released these days then I think the world would be a better place.
The decision is especially surprising since this is effecting the biggest franchise Warners has had. Ever. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One ushers in the final installments of the movie series and for them to miss out on the massive income of the 3D tickets is a big deal.
This makes me wonder about the recent decision to re re release the Star Wars movies in the next few years with a 3D conversion. Will this make Lucas stop and think that maybe this isn't the best idea until the process is better or will he just shrug and do it anyway. My vote is that he doesn't really care about the quality of what he's putting out because he knows all the Star Wars fans out there will grumble the whole time but they will still pay out the nose to see his movies again on the big screen.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Exactly! I literally cheered when I heard this news. My house if full of Harry Potter fans (pretty sure The Dog is partial to Lupin) and this was the first HP movie we were not going to see in the theatre because of it being converted to 3D. Thanks WB!
And of course, we all groaned when we heard that Star Wars was getting messed with...again. I still have a hard time watching the SE with all the new CG and addtional scenes...and don't even get my husband started on putting Hayden Christiansen in the last scene of RotJ...unless you want to see a grown man cry in frustration.
If a movie studio doesn't have the budget to film 3D from the get-go (ala Avatar) then just don't. It really can ruin a movie.

October 11, 2010 at 8:52 AM  

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