3D in cinema, how common is it already?

Monsters University provides merry summer entertainment in 3D from this week. Last week World War Z be viewed with 3D glasses. At the end of 2009, Avatar overwhelmingly clear: 3D was back never to leave. We are now almost four years on and indeed, 3D is here to stay. Thanks to the digitisation of cinemas, flawless 3D projection has become routine. How common is it already? An interim review in ten observations.

1. That the animated film Monsters University in 3D hardly needs mentioning, really. It may well be that there is now a generation of children growing up who take it for granted that you put on 3D glasses in the cinema. It's already that common.

2. That the big (computer) animated films are leading the way is not surprising. 3D is relatively easy to produce in that sector, because the animation is already 'alive' three-dimensionally in the computer memory, so to speak, before the software turns it into a film image by inserting a virtual camera. With a 'mouse click' you add a camera and you have stereoscopic 3D images.

3. Optimists predicted that 3D would soon become commonplace now, as inevitable as colour film. It would also open up new possibilities for artistic film. Indeed Wim Wenders, with the wonderful dance film Pina show that it can be done. But examples in this direction have been extremely scarce so far.

4. Two years ago, acclaimed editor and sound designer Walter Murch explained to critic Roger Ebert why 3D has no future. See http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/why-3d-doesnt-work-and-never-will-case-closed

5. Cheap tricks from the early days of 3D, such as throwing objects in the viewer's direction, are hardly encountered anymore. In that respect, 3D has come of age.

6. On the other hand, 3D is predominantly applied cautiously and unobtrusively. Even in a film like World War Z there are hardly any scenes that are given any real added value by 3D. So why then fuss with the glasses, which the older half of the audience in particular continues to find uncomfortable.

7. People in the profession (cameramen, editors) predicted that 3D would benefit from a slower pace, more totals and large depth of field. In practice, there is little evidence of this. Most 3D is shot as if it were 2D. The depth effect is given to the viewer as a bonus.

8. Tim Burton's stunning stop-motion animation Frankenweenie is also in 3D. But according to head of story Rob Stevenhagen was hardly taken into account when making the storyboards.

9. But wait a minute, something similar could be said about colour film. There, too, you don't expect special colour effects every time. But of course, you don't need glasses there.

10. Of the 180 films released in the first half of 2013, no more than 17 were in 3D. Among them, 7 animated films, 3 horror films and 5 action films. Only two titles (Oz the Great and Powerful and The Great Gatsby) in other genres. None in the arthouse segment. Surely 3D is not that common yet.