Last night a respected critic and film journalist emailed about yesterday’s article regarding Paramount’s curious decision not to press-screen Titanic 3D between now and 4.3. “I’ve seen Titanic 3D too,” he said, “and Ebert and Poland are wrong, and Lou Lumenick — for once — is right.
“Yes, the image is slightly darker through the glasses. I took them off several times during the movie to compare. I have no basis whatsoever for saying this, but I suspect Cameron may have brightened the image slightly for the 3D presentation in order to compensate. But it looks terrific — as good as any upconverted 3D presentation I’ve seen. Was it necessary? No. But it’s an excuse to get excited about seeing the movie on the big screen again, and the 3D doesn’t detract anything from the experience.
“There was never a moment in the movie when I thought ‘man, I wish this was in 2D!” Most of the 3D is used for spatial effects instead of ‘wow’ stuff. There were only a few shots, all of them post-iceberg, that felt designed to elicit shock and awe…and it works. Cameron knows exactly what he’s doing — he’s a fucking genius. I bow to the guy, even though I though Avatar was shit. The re-release is going to be a huge hit and make another $100 million.”