Holy sweet superdoughnut, you have to go see Coraline. Ignore every plug for Monsters VS Aliens as the be-all-end-all 3-D extravaganza of the year until you’ve seen Coraline. New words need to be coined that can adequately describe how fantabuliciously awesome that movie is.
The story itself is a dream to watch. It’s one the smartest story lines I’ve seen on film in years. It would play very well even without the 3-D superglee, but holy fuck, it just adds such a fabulous extra .. well, dimension to the whole thing. It’s phenomenal, frankly.
I was concerned that I’d be forced to try and watch the show with those silly paper red/blue thingies that never really worked very well but huzzah for new digital technology – the glasses look just like Buddy Holly’s and fit over my own glasses without any noticeable ill-effects for the picture watching.
James Berardinelli mentioned it in his review and I agree with him on this – Coraline uses the 3-D technology not with the intention of wowing audiences with over the top shit. Instead, it augments and enhances the sets where the characters are interacting so it’s far less about things popping out at you and more about adding depth and nearly real physical presence to everything on screen. It’s not used to distract the audience away from the limited story; the story stands well enough on its own. But you really get into the show because it literally invites you deeper into it. Come closer, look closer, see this? See that? Closer still…. and you can’t help but be wowed.
See it done well before the technique becomes tired and cliched and poorly imitated by hacks just after your money. Yes, it costs a bit more, but it’s worth it. This one is totally worth it.
