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Roger Ebert Hates 3-D, and Thinks You Should Too

by Amar Toor on April 30, 2010 at 04:05 PM

Whether you agree or disagree with him, Roger Ebert's opinion matters. If it didn't, he wouldn't be Roger Ebert. And that's exactly why our ears perked up and our noses began twitching when we came across his most recent Newsweek piece, in which he absolutely slams something so near and dear to our hearts: 3-D technology.

First, Ebert argues that human beings don't actually need 3-D, since when we're watching a film in 2-D, our minds automatically construct a third dimension anyway with our ability to understand perspective. The only thing 3-D does, in his opinion, is create distractions, and increase the chances of an audience being sent home with headaches. Ebert's biggest gripe with 3-D, though, seems to be the profit-based motivations he sees as spurring the entire movement. Citing the surcharge that 3-D movies allow theaters to slap on ticket prices, the critic outlines his belief that studio executives have begun exerting undue influence over directors, and have gone to absurd lengths to force the technology upon viewers -- at the expense of quality filmmaking. As Ebert says, "I'm not opposed to 3-D as an option. I'm opposed to it as a way of life."

No one would ever call 'Avatar' a serious movie. It's eye candy, it's childish, it's overt -- and everyone knows it. And if, as Ebert says, the aesthetic quality of 3-D films is really that poor, moviegoers will eventually catch on (once the honeymoon is over), and the industry will be forced to either churn out better 3-D spectacles, or abandon it altogether. As Ebert notes, Hollywood has always turned to technology whenever it's felt threatened by other media. At some point, people will tire of 3-D, and movies will enter a new cycle of evolution. We're confident, though, that there will always be room for "serious" movies, and that there will always be demand for great storytelling -- just as there always has been. [From: Newsweek]

Tags: 3-D, 3-d movies, 3-dMovies, 3d, Avatar, film, movies, Roger Ebert, RogerEbert, video

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