Thor 3D Is a Post-Conversion Dud

Thor 3D Is a Post Conversion Dud Image

Thor is Marvel's comic book movie that commences the summer film season with a roar. And that roar is definitely seen in the 2D presentation of the picture. The three dimensional presentation of this show is more like a "meow". When moviegoers get in line to discover Thor in the theaters, their primary impulse will be to see an action-packed super hero film in 3D. And why not? The trailers for the flick make it apparent that this show is going to be a thrill ride, so it seems sensible that they would want to view it in the newest and greatest format. The problem with the 3D throughout this film is that the movie wasn't originally shot in the format, so many of the scenes in this particular movie had 3D special effects added as an afterthought. This is the perception I had when watching this picture in 3D, even though I loved this movie to death. I simply wish I'd spent the few extra dollars on Twizzlers, instead of wasting them on the 3D glasses.

My first expectation of a 3D movie is for things to pop out of the screen. Ever since 3D has been used, the audience has come to count on a three dimensional pop out effect as an element of the 3D experience. So there may be some basic anticipation of a 3D pop out to be expected here, but it can't be found in Thor 3D. However, considering that the director didn't record this show in 3D, there wasn't really a technique to prepare any 3D shots within this movie. Personally, the best pop out 3D effects in this picture happened to be the Pirates of the Caribbean movie trailer along with the movie's opening credits. That's about it.

3D special effects can also be looked at as having a window effect. While several effects might pop out of the screen, others are intended to give the screen some depth. When Thor and his band of adventurers are zipping through the fantasy realm of Asgard, the 3D window experience is wonderful. However as soon as Thor heads to Earth, it seemed like the 3D effects remained behind. Earth's display was incredibly flat, and several moments I found myself pushing my eyeglasses up to see if there were any 3D effects on Earth. Thanks to the substandard post-conversion procedure, what I saw was a crisp, non-blurry 2D display of Thor's escapades on Earth. I suppose I could really stretch my creative thinking and claim that this was purposely done so that the fantasy world seemed more magical than Earth, but I think that would really be reaching.

One common complaint of 3D flicks is that they make the film darker. I would need to concur with this comment, simply because it does seem like you're wearing a pair of shades in the movie. With the "sunglasses effect" from the 3D glasses taken into account, a movie director may plan his or her shots ahead of time to compensate for the dark perspective. As you can imagine, when a movie is converted to 3D after the fact, most of these scenes can't be adjusted with the glasses in mind; in which case dark scenes come to be much darker than they were originally shot. This became visible to me from the beginning of the show, as Odin and his warriors battled the Frost Giants on their dark wintery planet. I found myself again pushing my eyeglasses up to see what was going on, and was cursing myself for not watching the 2D edition of this film.

To sum this 3D movie review up, it isn't worth the expense to check out Thor in 3D. This is an extremely first-rate comic book movie that I think ranks as well as the first Iron Man, and nevertheless the 3D special effects are what sink this film. If you're going to see Thor, do yourself a favor and go see the 2D presentation of this film on the biggest screen that you can. Save yourself the few extra dollars that the studios obviously wanted to get from your pocket for this one.