A Thor Point

Look, alright, I know it's a terrible pun but I couldn't resist it, and it is pertinent.

As a long time comic book reader this is definitely my Summer. Coming soon we have films of Green Lantern, X-Men:First Class and Captain America but first out of the traps is Thor which I saw yesterday. It certainly has the look of the comics. As adaptations go it could hardly be faulted. The Asgardian scenes are huge and epic, the Earth scenes are contrastingly small and human and clearly designed to set it all firmly in the Marvel Films Universe. The story is also pretty damned good, merging Norse myths almost seamlessly with the modern world.

So why the terrible pun?

In a word, no, in a letter and a number - 3D.

I watched in in glorious 2D because 3D gives me a headache but 3D is stamped all over the production. And stamped is very close to the right word. Perhaps "3D tramples all over the production" would be a better way to put it. The CGI Asgard is magnificently realised but the constant swooping, diving, tracking, panning, in-your-face motion of the point of view just makes you dizzy and makes it almost impossible to focus on any single element of the shot. The battle scenes are relentlessly cut/thrust/poke/slash towards the viewer. Even a scene where an angry Thor dashes all the food from the banquet table has him upsetting the table towards the viewer with the food bouncing and rolling into the camera.

Every single shot in the movie seems to have composed with dramatic impact playing a distinct second fiddle to the potential for 3D effects and this means that when watching it in 2D the way that this is so much at odds with conventional ideas of dramatic staging is startlingly clear.

I had hoped that this 3D fad would, as it has been in the past, be a passing thing but more and more films seem to be being released in both 2 and 3 dimensional versions so it looks as if it's here to stay. All I can hope for now is that directors stop pandering to the perceived need for everything in 3D being into or out of the screen and return to letting the narrative and the drama determine the framing of the action.

I won't hold my breath though.

To Put Away Childish Things #26

Well... not really, but it's as good a title as any for the post.

Ever since I was a small child, and for reasons long forgotten, there has been a standing family joke repeated so often it's almost become a conditioned reflex. Whenever my Dad asked me what I wanted for Christmas or my Birthday or whatever, I have always replied, "Can I have a penguin?"

Yesterday my brother and his wife visited and, because I am now going to be working overseas, brought a mascot for me. 

And here he is, relaxing in his favourite room in glorious 3D. (And he's in glorious 3D to publicise the fact that my other blog, The World Through A Lens, will soon have a whole series of these 3D pictures.)

Apologies if you are one of the small number of people who can't see what are technically known as "stereoscopic free-viewing images".

Look at a point somewhere in the middle of the picture, allow your eyes to become unfocussed so that the two halves seem to slide towards each other, eventually they should merge giving you the 3D image of my new friend.

You can click on the image to get it on the screen without the rest of the post. You can (probably) adjust the size with Ctrl + and Ctrl -.