Word: formats
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...Avatar, his first feature film since Titanic in 1997, is the gotta-see event of 2009; and any film in the process by Spielberg, Jackson, Robert Zemeckis or Robert Rodriguez should be exciting, if only because the directors will be juiced playing with this marvelous toy. But can the format transcend its status as an event, or a gimmick, and become the way most people see most movies? Is three automatically better than two? That remains to be proved...
...audience, and instantly theaters were flooded with 3-D movies - more than 100 features and shorts in the next two years. Though the most famous ones were in the genres of horror (House of Wax, Creature from the Black Lagoon) and science fiction (It Came from Outer Space), the format also attracted A-list directors. The Vincente Minnelli musical Kiss Me Kate was shot in 3-D, as was Alfred Hitchcock's Dial 'M' for Murder...
...Here's Why Not Not since the Bwana Devil days has the industry made such a concerted push for 3-D as a standard movie-watching process. The big question remains: Can the format overcome its carny tincture and become as universally accepted as wide-screen has? The eternal kid in this critic thinks that'd be pretty darn cool; but the Luddite in me has his doubts. Here are three reasons for informed skepticism...
...people had to wear specs to see Gone With the Wind or The Wizard of Oz, or the 99% of movies now shown in color? The history of mass entertainment is to make consumption easier, not harder. Until we're in the post-goggles stage of 3-D, the format will be less a dominant form of movie-watching than a theme-park attraction. (See the 50 best inventions...
...lure people away from their TV sets for a unique theatrical experience. But now, the home market - DVD and pay-cable - is where most people see most of their films, and where Hollywood makes much more money than it gets from theaters. Where's the inevitability factor in a format that can't yet be duplicated at home? Even Jeffrey Katzenberg acknowledges that 3-D won't be a major factor in home viewing for quite some time. And he's talking only about DVDs. What about pay-cable? How would HBO show the 3-D version of Monsters...