How Batman killed 3D Cinema.

I have just taken the family to see Batman v Superman in 3D. I had previously seen this in 2D and despite some slightly negative reviews I had enjoyed the special effects, glorious cgi and the story and was looking forward to seeing this in 3D. What a disappointment.

The beginning and end of the movie as is tradition both have big set piece battle scenes. These are a mix of spectacular stunt work and computer generated imaginary. However, none of this is shot in 3D ! What we do get is some bog standard 3D shots of a gun momentarily pointing out of the screen and the beads of a necklace getting caught in a gunshot movement and spilling towards us in glorious slow motion. Apart from some extra “depth” to the regular scenes I cannot recall any other special 3D moments.

Where were the 3D shots of the Batmobile chasing down villains, or Superman flying across the sky (usually having just rescued Lois Laine) ?

But it gets much worse than that. Batman is a dark story and it is filmed accordingly. However with our dark 3D glasses on we often experienced 75% of the screen being blacked out. It was impossible to make out any detail of the Batmobile, Batwing or much of the scenery.

Considering that there is often a price premium to watch a movie in 3D we are being served an inferior product. It seems that since the glorious Avatar, 3D film making has gone seriously backwards.

One final word, the cinema for the standard screening was 75% full while there were 8 people watching it in 3D. The people have spoken. Rest in piece 3D, like Superman, gone but not forgotten.