4. "No Director Worth Their Salt Likes 3D"
Lots of critics of the format like to paint the early days post-Avatar when 3D was forced onto filmmakers and then handled poorly and rushed out by studios. There was a time when studios had the final say on if a film would be post converted, even if the release date was 6 weeks away. The reality of the situation is much different in this day and age. Many of the world's greatest directors have been experimenting with it and have had good things to say about it. Obvious cheerleader James Cameron is leading the charge but there is support from Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo Del Toro, Sam Raimi, JJ Abrams, and Ang Lee to name a few (that is six Oscar winners for those keeping count). Each recognise the potential of 3D, as well as its limitations, and are excited about the choice of using it. These guys are not dummies. In fact they are some of the strongest filmmakers to ever grace the silver screen. Of course, for some of you, there is an elephant in the room. The king of the modern franchise, Chris Nolan, is often cited as "hating" 3D. However, even this is exaggerated. While it is clear that Nolan has reservations about the tech as it is at the moment, he is quotes as having a "wait and see" approach. To illustrate my point, here is an elongated quote from
Deadline's interview with Nolan back in 2011 about Inception:
"We looked at post-converting it, actually did some tests, and they were very good. But we didnt have time to do the conversion that we would have been satisfied with. Inception deals with subjectivity, quite intimate associations between the audience and the perceived state of reality of the characters. In the case of Batman, I view those as iconic, operatic movies, dealing with larger-than-life characters. The intimacy that the 3D parallax illusion imposes isnt really compatible with that. We are finishing our story on the next Batman, and we want to be consistent to the look of the previous films. There was more of an argument for a film like Inception. Ive seen work in 3D like Avatar thats exciting. But, for me, what was most exciting about Avatar was the creation of a world, the use of visual effects, motion capture, performance capture, these kinds of things. I dont think Avatar can be reduced to its 3D component, it had so much more innovation going on thats extremely exciting. 3D has always been an interesting technical format, a way of showing something to the audience. But you have to look at the story youre telling: is it right?"
While Nolan has talked on the subject since citing it makes the screen smaller and having to shoot digitally, (both things I have issues with) it is clear that Nolan doesn't "hate" 3D. Hell, if they had had more time, than Inception could have also been in 3D.