Historians from 3010 discover a crowd of Avatar viewers frozen in amber

Avatar’s huge box office success has been hailed as the saviour of cinema. The major awards season just passed gives the industry’s remarkably mature opinion of itself, but whatever they thought, we, Joe Public, decide the future with our bums (on seats, not a horrific new voting system).

Total ticket sales were huge, it had arguably the most believable alien world ever, but as best film and director Oscar winning film, The Hurt Locker, proves: budget and effects alone don’t make cinema admirable or inspiring.

Seeing the hype and profit, film-makers and cinemas are rushing to capitalise, more films are being made in 3D in the hope of drawing similar audiences. Avatar has had an incredible cinematic run, beginning and returning to the top of the UK box office twice over its first 11 weeks. It smashed takings records (in part helped by the increased price of 3D) and rightfully taken just about every special effects award that exists (and probably several that were created specially).

It is a minor landmark in cinema history, but it won’t be long before a more expensive film, with a higher box office gross and with more impressive graphics reaches us. Of course we all remember Titanic, but even after collecting every major award under the sun, I’d say there were better films made in the nineties, and there will be better than Avatar in the twenteens (or whatever we’re calling this decade).

Even with a record sixteen 3D pictures due for release, including some major releases by big studios, this year may be a (relative) calm before a 3D storm in 2011 as ‘from scratch’ productions reach us after waiting on the fate of Avatar’s canary to the critics.

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Kids enjoy seeing the spectacle and rendering animation in 3-D seems to be more effective than for live action. That comment isn’t intended to detract from the best of children’s cinema, especially Pixar’s fare which has yet to fail me, they just tend to have to sacrifice elements adults would expect for colourful visuals, simple stories, and “wacky” characters to keep the little ones’ concentration.

The majority of 3-D films recently released have been for the children’s market, from Pixar’s masterful, Up! to DreamWorks’s upcoming (probable) franchise killer, Shrek Forever After but this may be about to change in light of a number of major directors considering trying 3D out. Adults remain sceptical of change to tried and tested 2D, we’ve proved ourselves capable of getting lost in good cinema; if we haven’t – it’s the film’s fault, not film in general.

Many claim that most films don’t really have a need for 3D – our favourite films are based on the acting, script, direction, cinematography or a million other things to which the CGI adds but cannot depend on to save it. The best counter seems to be that almost any film would benefit from being more immersive, it’s just that this generation (of directors as much as technology) may not be up to it.

One of the major concerns is with cluttered visuals; going against so much research into focusing the audience’s eye where it’s supposed to be, 3D cinema gives undue weight to things we wouldn’t focus on in life or traditional cinema; the people are what matters, their story, and the way it’s told.

There are now over 400 screens in the UK with more opening as the technology gets cheaper and the list of profitable upcoming films gets longer, but rolling out 3D to the far reaches of the country seems like an impossible task, with tiny local cinemas unlikely to ever front the cash for the upgrade.

The obligiatory Avatar image

Finally, I’d like to recommend (of all things) a book: ‘The Long Tail’ by Chris Anderson, its message is that the market won’t be in competing with blockbuster franchises like Avatar, Harry Potter, or Call of Duty, but by filling an enormous number of niche markets. I would love to see cinema return to showing short-films before or occasional double features, in an increasingly personally created media world, showing us something different and original is cheaper and easier than ever.

I think that we’d all agree it takes a lot more than fancy graphics to make a film, let alone an amazing one; as Matt Bochenski excellently put it, “too many of them are using 3D to poke us in the eye rather than pierce us in the heart”.

Harry Campbell