I can live without the 3D-cinema experience

I just came home from watching the movie "The Avengers" (Check out the trailer below). I was really looking forward to the movie and it definitely delivered. Good all round evening cinema, I would say.

But there is one thing, that is occurring recently, that really puts me off going to the cinema: 3D-movies. They really do not add anything extra for me. I like watching a movie in a row that is fairly close to the silver screen, so that my entire vision is filled up by the screen. Frankly, if I do that in a 3D-movie, I feel like puking. I remember, by some random accident, my wife and I watched Avatar from a front row seat (yep, that's right; row "one"). While I thought, I felt rubbish and dizzy, I then looked over to my wife and believe you me, she looked like death warmed up and about to share her evening meal with the rest of the audience via regurgitatory means.

Additionally, where I am currently at, a 3D movie is in fact about €4 more expensive than a normal movie. Personally, I find that a bit steep. I still reminisce about my student times in the UK, where I could go and watch a movie for £3. Currently, because I am not a student anymore and most movies are in 3D, I pay a whopping €11,50 for a movie. I am sorry, but that is just not on.

What makes the entire thing even worse is, that I sometimes get the feeling that there are hardly any 3D effects. Avengers had some, but if I am honest, I could have happily lived without them. Sometimes, one of Iron Man's rays went the audience's direction and the big fight scene at the end (if anyone thinks I just spoilt the movie by saying there is a big fight at the end of it, is officially a moron) had some effects, but nothing major. When I watched Alice in Wonderland, I actually felt cheated out of four euros, simply because I saw Johnny Depp do something once in 3Dish. The rest was just a normal frickin' film! It drives me bonkers!

Since I am also one of those people with less than stellar eyesight, I have to rely on glasses. Contacts never worked out for me, which isn't a problem... in a 3D cinema, this is a different story. Having one pair of glasses on is fine, two pairs on the other hand, is plain silly. Until my first 3D movie, I never thought that running out of "nose space" would be an issue. As a laboratory chemist who has to wear additional safety specs in the lab, I know what I am talking about and these far too large, wanna-be futuristic looking 3D goggles are just a hassle.

All in all, I can really say that I can understand why true cinema is going downhill. the 3D technology has been around for a while, but never caught on in Europe. Now trying it again, I have to admit to myself, that it pushed me out of the cinema. I used to love going to the movies. It was one of those things that I would do on my own and I would go home, wholeheartedly satisfied. With the advent of 3D-cinema this unfortunately changed, because the higher production costs (or whatever causes the excessive increase in ticket price) are making cinemas come up with strange ways to get more money out of the viewers pockets. Where I am at, they always (yes always, not only in very long movies) take a half-time break, "to give us the chance to go to the toilet". More like the chance to buy half a litre of coke for what feels like 5 euros... I am getting carried away and so I shall stop here with this ;)

At the end of this, all I can say is. Avengers: fantastic movie. 3D-cinema: fantastically overrated, overpriced and just not worth it. Bring back old movie cinema and old prices.