Editor's Note: August's forthcoming episode of the Considering the Sequels podcast will reveal a new surprise host: actor Karl Huddleston. The following post found below is Karl's response to seeing his favorite magazine "going gaga" over 3-D. This is Karl's letter to the magazine's editor:
Dear Home Theater Magazine Editor,
I can't keep my pie-hole shut any longer on this whole 3-D fad. I found three separate online surveys that say the number of Americans that currently wear some type of eyeglasses is around 76 percent. I fall into that percentage (more on that in a moment). The last 3-D movie I went to was Scrooge ["A Christmas Carol"] last Christmas. And it was by accident — a friend bought the tickets.
I can't describe how much the picture sucked. Contrast and Brightness were pathetic, and the picture was so dark — add to that having to wear a pair of 3-D glasses on top of (in front of?) my regular glasses — it gave me a nice throbbing headache at the end. And this was in a new multiplex that had all DLP projectors. By the time I left I was Scrooge!
It seems to me that Hollywood is trying to shove down the public's throat, something that is not ready for prime time, whether we want it or not! I work in the film and TV industries and have many friends also that are in it ... Not a single one of them goes to 3-D movies; they all hate them for the same reasons I've described above.
I realize that the equipment manufacturers and magazines like yours feel compelled to chase the latest buzz item, but I really can't believe that many people are loving this. And despite what the pinhead at HomeTheaterExpert.com said about Roger Ebert living in 1999, Ebert nailed it right on the head when he basically said that if you know anything about the true purpose of what a motion picture is supposed to do, adding a third dimension is nothing more than pure gimmickry. It doesn't make a character more compelling, a story more moving or a picture more "watchable."
Until 3-D has as good a picture quality as a Blu-ray, like "Star Trek," without having to wear glasses (which the experts say is about five years out), I think it's going to rank up there with DIVX, the horrible "watch and toss" rental plan for DVDs, which incidentally, I think also came out in 1999.
I have never, in my life, seen a bigger case of "The Emperor Has No Clothes"! In fact, he's butt-naked — and in 3-D!
Sincerely,
Karl Huddleston
Provo, Utah
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