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[ScreenNinja]

Not living under a rock, I have seen Avatar (twice, actually – once in IMAX) and have read innumerable articles discussing the possible future implication of Cameron’s technology. The majority of the industry seem enamoured with the very idea (of course they are - £3 extra a ticket? They aren’t stupid) and the electronics manufactures are planning a slew of TV sets to bring the ‘revolution’ into our homes. In theory, this all points towards a single conclusion, so why do some people still remain unconvinced?

The overwhelming reception for Avatar has been more wildly popular than anyone envisaged and has caused all the other major studios to commence chucking their films onto the 3D bandwagon. However, the question still remains – and won’t go away for several years at least – as to whether Avatar really does mark the third coming (Talkie, Colour) or whether the frenzy will fizzle out after a year or so.

Riding the coattails of post-Avatar goodwill we have ‘Alice In Wonderland’ from Disney and Tim Burton. As with many of the upcoming releases, ‘Alice’ was not shot in native three-dimensions, but converted using a post-production process similar to that which caused the delay for ‘Clash of the Titans’. In between these two we have ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ and later on in the year ‘Shrek Forever After’ and ‘Toy Story 3’: all animated fare.

In the pipeline we have one, (but probably three) Tintin movies from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson along with the final two Harry Potters, a Green Lantern adaptation and the reboot of Spiderman. The rumour mill says this will be followed by Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ prequel, The Hobbit, Twilight: Breaking Dawn, a Jaws remake, Dune, Underworld 4, Michael Bay’s third Transformers and Ghostbusters. 3D-revamps are also in the works for any number of big-budget films from over the years, including Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Titanic and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. That the last two on that list are James Cameron films is no coincidence.

It is obvious but overlooked that 3D will only succeed if the paying customer is willing to cough up extra for the experience. They were willing to do so for ‘Avatar’ because besides being first it was also, quite frankly, rather amazing. Whether this will stretch to movies like ‘Titans’ is less clear because once the dust settles moviegoers will once again demand strong films to go with the flashy visuals.

If 3D is to stay, ‘Alice’ word-of-mouth also seems to indicate that people can tell when the effect has been thrown on as an afterthought and is still, essentially, being used to throw things at the audience. If this persists with ‘Titans’, ‘Harry Potter’ etc, there is surely an underlying risk of cheapening the overall product and harming the hard work of Jake Sully et al.

We need someone other than Cameron capable of delivering the wow factor, and we need more movies actually filmed in 3D. ‘Avatar’ was fantastic, yes, but 3D will not hang around for long if no ones even comes close to knocking it off its perch. Visually, at least.

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