It has become fashionable to bash 3D. Most recently, Roger Ebert came out and said that the case is over: 3D film is no good and never will be. There are many good reasons to call out 3D as a technology. Having to wear glasses is both annoying and expensive. Standards are yet to be fixed. And in the cinema, 3D dulls the picture. But for all its flaws, once 3D’s technical hurdles are overcome, it will flourish. The reason for that is that 3D is the right technology for the 21st century. But before we get to why, a little background. The History of Art Forms Each age in history develops forms of entertainment…

So often in the contemporary era, we talk about how the web is changing the world around us: of how media industries are having to adapt, or how the practices and concepts of doing business are being affected. Less often discussed, however, is how the internet is changing us. Sure, there’s a lot of chatter about how the internet might be making us stupid or destroying our capacity to focus on things. But there’s a lot less talk about how it might change – or have already changed – what you might call ‘our experiences of ourselves’. To wit: how is the web changing our identities? What’s an identity? Well,…

‘Why do you hate it?’, a friend of mine asked a couple days ago. ‘Hate what?’ ‘3D.’ She looked almost personally offended. ‘What’s wrong with it?’ Before I type my answer to her question, you have to understand that I’m part of a dwindling minority. We, the stubborn few purists, content to live our cinematic experiences without the crutch of a Z-axis. As the third dimension further pushes its way into every corner of entertainment, we find ourselves with fewer and fewer allies; my once similarly-embittered friends trickle into an IMAX screening of the current animated blockbuster,…

A couple of years ago, after much delay, I finally got my own HDTV. Even got a PS3 to go with it too. It was glorious. Stupendous, even. Blu-Rays and HD channels practically jumped off the screen and smacked me in the face. Games looked lifelike. I, like, was Nathan Drake, man. So, with the arrival of 3D-TV, we can expect similarly superlative results, right? A mind-blowing difference in the quality of our home-theatre experience? Nope. 3D-TV is a half-baked technology yet to reach maturity and it is now being foisted on unsuspecting consumers. They will be sold the line that 3D is the next must-have…

In what we can only assume is a move designed to make James Cameron both the richest and most evil man on Earth, today we learned that Fox is going to release the home version of ‘the most popular movie EVAH’ three times. Yep. Three separate times. The first, coming to North America on April 22nd, will be a bare-bones 2-D disc that will only feature the movie. Fox claims – with a straight face, mind you – that this was done both to ensure the best quality picture and sound, but also to coincide with Earth Day….