The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

2.8D
The Pirates is a fun family film from Aardman Animations (of Wallace and Gromit fame). The animation combines a mixture of stop motion and CGI and is breathtaking in its attention to detail. As the film is aimed mainly at children, it looks as though the producers have gone with an overall mild approach to the 3D. It is at least consistent throughout though, there are no issues with misaligned parallax or ghosting etc and occasionally, very occasionally, the 3D is boosted up...sadly, not enough to boost its score up any higher though.


 Buy at Amazon.co.uk

The Amazing Spider-Man

2.8D
"The Amazing Spider-Man" is an interesting update on the franchise and one that this reviewer enjoyed. Although the move has a slightly
different, even quirky approach to the characters, the action scenes are still presented in a stylish, comic book manner, not too indifferent to what we have seen before in the Tobey Maguire movies.
The 3D is problematic though and is presented in the following manner...

Normal scenes =  weak to average 3D
Action scenes = Amazing 3D

See the discrepancy? The 3D in the action scenes is breathtaking, having a depth and feeling of spaciousness unseen in most other 3D movies. At times I got a feeling of vertigo watching Spiderman climbing up or falling off a skyscraper. The final battle has the best sustained 3D in the whole movie with an "amazing" 3D shot of Spidey swinging through a crane's arm. The problem with saving the best 3D for just the action scenes though is that, not only is the 3D inconsistent, but it's often difficult to really take in and enjoy the 3D effect.  3D tends to work better for scenes with slower edits and so doesn't always work best when used just in the action scenes. The film would have been much more successful, in the 3D department, if the non-action scenes had displayed a better quality 3D too. Not only would the consistency have been better, but the 3D would also helped to draw us into the intimate moments too. I look forward to improvements to the overall 3D in the sequel coming in 2014.

Buy at Amazon.co.uk

Brave

3D

With their animation "Brave", Pixar have created an instant 3D classic on a par with Dreamwork's "How to Train your Dragon" and Disney's "Tangled". The animation is exceptional and the 3D consistently good throughout the movie. Add to these positives the voice talents of the likes of Billy Connolly,  Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane and Julie Walters and "Brave" comes over as a hugely enjoyable fairly tale for both children and adults.


Buy at Amazon.co.uk

Spy Kids 4 : All the Time in the World

2.5D
In recent years Robert Rodriquez has given us two of the best looking 3D films...Spy kids 3-D : Game Over and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. The fact that this latest outing of the franchise is a conversion then comes as a big surprise. The only reason I can think of is because the film has a lot of special effects it was felt that all the 3D should be done in post production. Whatever the reasons, as a conversion it gets a rating of 2.5D.

Buy at Amazon.co.uk

UPDATE: I watched this recently and am saddened to say that the conversion job on this was done very poorly. Not only are rotoscope halos viewable around the main characters throughout the film, but object placement within the stereo window is all over the place. Quite often, objects that are behind other ones, appear as though they are in front. Also, the overall 3D effect adds only a bit of roundness to characters and objects without giving much sense of depth and perspective. Sure, there are the occasional good moments, usually during the CGI effect scenes (which may have been rendered differently) but when I think that this movie was made by Robert Rodriquez, who gave us "Spy Kids 3-D : Game Over" (which has incredible demo quality 3D) its even more unfathomable as to why he would go down the conversion route and then accept this poor attempt at a conversion. My advice would be to let the kids watch it in 2D so that they don't grow up with low 3D standards.(v)

Step Up 3D

2.8D
Although I'm not a fan of Hip Hop or Rap music, overall, I quite enjoyed Step Up 3D. It was lively, had likeable characters and of course, the choreography was top notch. As this type of film is aimed squarely at children and teenagers the story is pretty predictable ...couples fall in and out of love and there is some major problem to be overcome with the rival gang before the status quo can be resumed. Also, as is quite usual in this type of musical film, the characters  inhabit a Universe far removed from the normal everyday reality that you and I know and so on that front, it is pure escapism. My favourite scene was a Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger's tribute number (all shot in one take) accompanied by a modern recording of "I Won't Dance".  It is beautifully shot and choreographed on location in New York and credit must go to the producers for having the nerve to put an old-fashioned dance routine number like this one in such a modern dance movie.

How is the 3D though? Well the key word is "inconsistent". It varies between stunning, demo quality 3D, shallow 3D, suspiciously looking converted scenes to the obligatory 2D moments. All the dance numbers have a very deep 3D and look like they were carefully staged by a professional stereographer. In fact the parallax is so wide in these numbers that the 3D verges on "Hyper stereo" at times, where dancer's limbs stretch out in a too long and unnatural way. Having said that the 3D does look great during these dance numbers. Unfortunately, the dance numbers tend to stand apart from the rest of the movie and only illustrates further how mixed the quality of the rest of the 3D is.(v) 


Buy at Zavvi.com

Titanic

3DC
James Cameron really went to town converting Titanic to 3D and it shows. It's a stunning conversion that can even occasionally fool you into believing that it was shot natively. The 3D depth is pretty consistent throughout although, of course, there are a few flatter moments as well as the obligatory 2D scene. The 3D really shines in those moments when Rose and Jack are navigating the corridors or the engine room but there are many standout moments. Titanic is destined to become a classic example in how to do a 3D conversion properly.(v)


Buy at Amazon.co.uk

Kung Fu Panda 2

3D
Kung Fu Panda 2 is an energetic and inventive animation aimed squarely at the kids. There's are excellent voice-overs from the likes of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman and Dustin Hoffman and the animation, as you'd expect from Dreamworks, is fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the changed of style from modern to retro animation as Po reminisces about his past. The 3D is top notch throughout too. There is a constant negative and positive parallax on display (I even found myself ducking on several occasions) and the objects have a roundness and solidity to them as you'd expect from the best 3D CGI animation.(v)

Buy at Amazon.co.uk

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

2.7 DC
The picture quality in this final installment is outstanding and there are a few nice 3D moments with a decent sense of depth. Sadly though, overall, most of the 3D is shallow and only adds a little bit of an enhancement to the already excellent 2D image. Also, there are some anomalies with the conversion....rotoscoping halos are occasionally evident and objects sometimes look unnatural within the 3D space.(v) 

Buy at Amazon.co.uk

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D is the long awaited sequel to the 2006 movie Silent Hill starring Radha Mitchell.. The good news is that the movie was shot natively in 3D. The movie opens on 26th October.

More info at the IMDB and Here