The Three-Dimensional Gimmick

Home 3D is the next big thing, if you listen to the entertainment and gadget world (or rather, the bigwigs that run the companies that run the entertainment and gadget world). If you listen to common sense, it's a giant load of hooey.


After the success of "Avatar" in 3D last year, everyone in the entertainment biz has been scrambling to put out 3D crap. Now I'll admit up front that I haven't seen "Avatar" in 2D or 3D yet, so I don't know exactly how good it looked. A few 3D movies here and there have been released in theaters, to
Then, a month or so ago, a few TV manufacturers decided to make 3D-capable televisions, so you could have cardboard cutouts/immersive fantasy worlds in your own home!
Here's the problem: 3D is a gimmick and a short-lived waste of time and money.
My wife and I saw "UP" last year in 3D (because it was the same price as the 2D version and we wanted to try it out), and were nonplussed. Sure it looked cool, but it was gimmicky and didn't add that much to the movie (again, I haven't seen "Avatar," which is apparently the gold standard for this new technology).
So I've ridden the wave of rave reviews and fiery dismissals the past year and finally got to try out a 3D TV by Samsung. Here's my strain of consciousness while trying it out.

"Oh cool, a 3D TV! Well, I gotta try this out. Let's see, here's the big clunky glasses...well these are stylish. Okay...I put them on, why is the picture still blurry? Oh yeah, I gotta turn the glasses on...uh...holy crap."

At this point, the active-shutter glasses (which blink in time with the picture on the screen, changing eyes about 60 or so times a second) synced with the TV, and my stomach synced with a roller-coaster at Worlds Of Fun.
Since the glasses blink so fast, it's incredibly disorienting. I was able to watch about five seconds of "Monsters vs. Aliens" (the only 3D BluRay in existence) before I needed to rip the (very expensive) glasses off my face in disgust.
I realize that people have different reactions to the technology. In fact, a tech podcast I listen to had a guy on there that watched the whole movie in 3D. I definitely couldn't handle that.
But here's my problem with it. It's an incredibly expensive technology. The 3D BluRay "Monsters vs. Aliens" is sold with two pairs of glasses is being sold for $350 at amazon.com. Each individual pair of glasses costs $180. The TV itself is more the $2000.
It's simply not worth it. Since the digital switch of last year, people have generally just upgraded to HDTV. The general public is not going to be willing to switch major technologies yet again, so soon after they just bought a new system! It's like if DVDs were released in 1993. People had just bought into VHS, so they weren't about to switch again.
The entertainment industry is pushing this for two reasons. One mistaken, and one sadly true.
The first is that since "Avatar" did so well, their 3D movies would do well also. This of course was proven completely false by "Clash of the Titans," branded by many as the "worst use of 3D yet." The words "cardboard cutouts" and "South Park-esque" were thrown around a lot.
The second is that they can make a ton of money. This is sadly very true. Some early adopters are buying into the gimmick 100%. A 3D ticket at a local multiplex is now $4 more expensive than a 2D one. The studios will make a mint off this.
Maybe I'm just turning into an old Luddite, but 3D is a gimmick, plain and simple. Call me when they invent immersive VR that works.
Or when they invent the Matrix.