Prior to yesterday, I had never had any use for movies in 3D. It didn't matter that the technology had taken a great leap forward with James Cameron's Avatar. I still found it to be a distraction that film didn't need, more of a ploy to raise ticket prices and put movie theaters back in the news than any sort of tool with artistic merit. The 3D films I had seen, including Avatar, all looked like grotesque pop-up books to me. What was supposed to feel immersive only reminded me that the world I was watching was fake. Or in short: I'm a grumpy old man and didn't need no stinking 3D.
And then yesterday, Gravity happened to me. Alfonso Cuarón's outer-space thriller is a masterpiece — a tense, emotional thrill ride, centered by a fine performance by Sandra Bullock and stuffed with some of the most amazing visuals you'll ever see. And the most surprising thing? Those visuals aren't hindered by 3D; they are enhanced by it. In fact, Gravity is the first movie that I'd strongly urge everyone to see in 3D. IMAX 3D, if you can. (I chose to see it in that format because friends I trust demanded it of me. They were right to do so.)
There are a couple of reasons why I think the 3D works so well in Gravity. For one, the outer-space setting lends itself to the format. I get so annoyed when I'm watching some fantasy film in 3D and every flower, butterfly and blade of grass is given its own depth of field. It's overwhelming. For large stretches of Gravity, however, the 3D is only used to distinguish between three depths of field — Sandra Bullock's astronaut, the space station or shuttle nearby and the Earth off in the background. It's simple but effective. And when there are other objects floating around the screen and in front of your face, it serves a strong narrative purpose. Cuarón uses 3D to highlight the fact that each one — from a shard of metal to a spark of flame — could spell certain doom. It's an ingenious use of a format that I wasn't sure had any good uses.
I still think 3D is going to be a bad thing for 99 percent of the films to which it is applied. Before Gravity, I saw a 3D trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and it looked terrible — the worst type of "living" pop-up book. But Gravity has proved that 3D can be used for the greater cinematic good. Cuarón was smart enough to figure out how. Hopefully others will follow suit.
