"We're putting all of our resources into this," Paramount chairman Brad Grey told the New York Times about the 3-D presentation of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. "It's the most spectacular visual experience I have ever seen." But is that promise enough to get you to shell out extra money to see the additional dimension when the Michael Bay-directed threequel arrives in theaters next week?
Following the less-than-successful 3-D showings at the box office for Green Lantern, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (though since Pirates has made almost $1 billion worldwide, talk of it being hurt by 3-D fatigue seems silly), there is some concern that Dark of the Moon could be the next film to disappoint ("disappoint"). So much so that Bay himself is putting on his version of a charm offensive. There was the sit-down with James Cameron (the godfather of the modern third dimension phenomenon), multiple media appearances extolling the virtues of his immersive Dark of the Moon 3-D, and even cold calls. Per the Times, Bay rang up "chief executives of major theater chains to implore them to show Dark of the Moon in a way that burns out projector bulbs more quickly but makes 3-D look brighter and sharper."
All of which is to say that perhaps Jeffrey Katzenberg was right: bad 3-D could be the death of the format, and the only way to keep that from happening is by pushing good 3-D. To paraphrase Mean Girls: Michael Bay is a pusher. (Also: On Wednesdays we wear pink.)
Of course, there is a problem with this -- and that's the Transformers franchise itself. Will audiences want to spend extra money on Dark of the Moon after being burned by Revenge of the Fallen -- especially when even Bay concedes that it was a bad movie? (On Stranger Tides faced similar problems because of a diminished brand, and 3-D has only accounted for 47 percent of its domestic gross thus far.) Is the promise of groundbreaking 3-D technology enough to warrant five extra dollars for the chance to watch giant space robots battle themselves to the death... for a third time since 2007?
These are high-class concerns for Dark of the Moon to have -- no matter what, the film is going to flirt with $900 million or more in worldwide grosses -- but the future of 3-D could depend on its success. In Michael Bay we trust?
ยท As 3-D Falls From Favor, Director of 'Transformers' Goes on Offensive to Promote It [NYT]