In 2009, cinema returns to … the third dimension!
January 9, 2009 at 11:56 am by Curt Holman in NewsLooking over the films scheduled for 2009 release, the thing that most strikes me (apart from worries that a studio lawsuit could delay the March 6 release of Watchmen) is the omnipresence of 3-D. A theatrical gimmick that has proliferated over the past few years, 3-D exhibition and the funny glasses look to be inescapable in the upcoming year. More theaters will have the capacity to show films in digital 3-D thanks to the increased conversion to digital projection, and Hollywood clearly believe the gimmick to be worth the investment.
3-D can turn a lousy movie into a fun experience: I vividly remember having a blast seeing Friday the 13th Part III when I was in high school. The New York Times suggests that 3-D could revitalize the horror genre. This summer’s bloody thrillers include Piranha 3-D and a sequel with possibly the best title in movie history — Final Destination: Death Trip 3-D. The trailer for next week’s My Bloody Valentine 3-D (a remake of the 1981 slasher flick) makes its “date movie” value its major selling point:
Putting aside the schlock, at least three of the most potentially stunning films of 2009, including the latest from Pixar and the director of the highest-grossing film in history, will employ 3-D effects.
Coraline (Feb. 6)
This eerie fairy tale marks a collaboration between Neil Gaiman (creator of the ingenious Sandman comics and scripter of the 3-D Beowulf film) and animation director Henry Selick, who helmed one of the best stop-motion features of our time, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (which has been re-released in 3-D several times). Dakota Fanning voices the title character, a girl who discovers a door to an alternate world where the wonders turn out to have a gruesome edge. It’s billed as “the first stop-motion animation to be shot stereoscopically with a dual digital camera rig for digital 3-D exhibition.”
Monsters vs. Aliens (March 27)
The trailers are kinda lame, but I love the idea of 1950s-style movie monsters fighting otherworldly invaders. It harks back to Cold War-era features like It Came From Outer Space, which were some of the first films to use 3-D. Plus it has a great voice cast, including Reese Witherspoon, Will Arnett, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson and Stephen Colbert as the U.S. president. As the commercial above shows, Dreamworks plans a televised 3-D stunt to coincide with the Feb. 1 Superbowl. I’ve never had luck with 3-D on television, but maybe this will be the exception. Dreamworks has announced that all of its future animated films will be in 3-D, starting with this one.
Up (May 29)
Pixar films like Ratatouille and WALL-E reliably provide the high points of any cinematic year. Monsters Inc. director Pete Docter will offer what looks like a change of pace story about an elderly, non-superpowered retiree (voiced by Ed Asner) who goes on an adventure without leaving his home, thanks to a zillion balloons. This Pixar’s first film in Disney Digital 3-D, a format that originated with, ugh, Chicken Little. Much of Up’s competition will also be in 3-D this summer, including Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and G-Force (a live-action film with talking CGI guinea pigs). Incidentally, Pixar’s first film, Toy Story, will be released in a 3-D version on Oct. 2.
Avatar (Dec. 18). Two high-profile films will try to advance Polar Express-style “performance capture” animation technology: Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol, which stars Jim Carrey as Scrooge, and reportedly all three of the ghosts; and James Cameron’s secrecy-shrouded Avatar. Avatar is Cameron’s first non-documentary film since Titanic became the biggest moneymaker of all time and its Wikipedia entry describes it like this:
In director James Cameron’s original script treatment of Avatar, a man tries to make his way as a miner by combining with an alien during an interplanetary war in which aliens can make themselves manifest by possessing human bodies – avatars.
When Avatar was titled “Project 880″, a casting call was put out in June 2006 with a plot description provided, saying, “In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.
The film features Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, and promises to offer nothing left than a paradigm shift in film special effects. If not, there’s always The Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience opening Feb. 27.
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