The 3D in the original Avatar was a little immersive, but didn’t add enough that made it significantly more enjoyable than watching it without. The best thing it did was to NOT try the old 3d gimmicks of constantly throwing too much shit at the screen to make it noticeable that results it in being distracting.
Basically, if the 3D isn’t in your face it is forgettable, and if it is in your face then it is annoying and distracting. It just sucks for movies.
For my own experimentation I watched both the first James Cameron Avatar and Fury Road, in both 2 and 3D.
In Avatar I found the 3D really helped with background detail in scenes with vistas in the background (the 2D seemed to have a lower depth of field) which was nicer to see. The only “this is 3D!” moment is where the military baddie gets stuck with two arrows near the end.
In Fury Road it had one “this is 3D!” bit where the Doof Wagon crashes, again near the end, and that was overdone in both viewing modes. It made no difference to my enjoyment of the film.
I haven’t been to one yet, but I’ve heard about 4DX movies basically being entire experiences with water, moving seats, and other crazy effects.
I’d expect movies to kind of become mini theme parks in the future.
Edit: I did find this post on Instagram showing off how it works
I did 4dx for Paddington 3, it was a hit with kids, less so with the adults. There is a river scene and the water effect was used to great surprise. You could turn individual effects off.
As an adult I would not want these effects during a ‘proper’ film, they are a novelty only I’d say.
4dx for Spiderman films has been awesome every time
I still think 3D is good, it just highlights the shortcomings of 24fps. 3D movies really have the same framerate requirements as VR. (90 minimum, but preferably 120+) Also the glasses suck.
Fad did as fads do.
