"Why Avatar is bad for the movies"

After I watched Avatar in 3-D recently, I was convinced that 3-D is the future of movies. Then I read the cover story in Newsweek by Roger Ebert, one of the world's foremost film critics. "I hate 3-D," he writes, "and you should too". He makes a compelling case, I have to say, as he lists nine points in favour of his argument. Here's his first point:

IT’S THE WASTE OF A DIMENSION. When you look at a 2-D movie, it’s already in 3-D as far as your mind is concerned. When you see Lawrence of Arabia growing from a speck as he rides toward you across the desert, are you thinking, “Look how slowly he grows against the horizon”? Our minds use the principle of perspective to provide the third dimension. Adding one artificially can make the illusion less convincing.

Read the full piece here to get into the mind of a brilliant movie analyst.