Monday, KidGlue is set to post a story about the future of kids cinema and how that future is 3D. I stand by that story.
However, there are times when 3D goes horribly wrong and in the interest of all your wallets, I want to urge you: don’t go see “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” in IMAX 3D.
See “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” itself, for sure. It’s a fantastic movie. But on Wednesday, the film was finally released in IMAX 3D across the country. And it is a horribly disappointing experience.
Months ago, when trailers for the film were released, it said with “select scenes in IMAX 3D.” Notice the pluralization. “Scenes.” Well, the reality is that the film does have several “scenes” in 3D, however, they just happen to be the first three of four in the movie. 13 minutes to be exact. That isn’t even as long as the climatic battle of “Order of the Phoenix,” which was also in 3D.
Plus, having these scenes in 3D is worthless. The first one is pretty cool, it’s the Death Eaters attacking London. After that, though, it’s just Dumbledore and Harry Talking to Slughorn and that’s it. We take off our glasses and the film continues.
BUT – the worst offense isn’t that we were sort of lied to. It’s that the 3D is bad. Really bad. Noticeable blue shadows are behind the characters during some of the shots and people all over the theater could be seen wiping their glasses off like it was just happening to them. It wasn’t. And even when there wasn’t any awkward shadow, the depth of field was almost invisible. It was like the 3D was totally an after thought.
So if you are looking for a movie this weekend and realize that, “Oh, Harry Potter is now at the IMAX theater..and in 3D!” save your money. Go see it on the regular screen. It’s several dollars cheaper and will be less crowded.
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