U2 3D.

U2 3D "is precisely what it should be: a great setlist, a bag of visual tricks spread evenly throughout, and a great band in top form," writes Matt Dentler. "I'm biased, I'm a U2 fanatic, but this quartet of musicians is so tight, so focused and so talented, that they shine brighter in the third dimension. Bono is Bono, and he's a ham and he's a rock star, but something about Bono in 3D actually feels normal. The Edge is such a virtuoso on guitar, that his riffs feel even more radiant when you see it up close."

"[I]t is certainly opening the door for a brand new kind of movie experience, one that will likely be the standard in coming decades, if not years," writes Christopher Campbell at Cinematical. "Not being a fan, I actually had planned to only watch a little bit of U2 3D, just enough to appreciate the new technology. But I was sucked in completely and watched the whole film... Fortunately, the 3D increasingly gets more interesting as the film goes on. When the band comes back on stage for their encore song, 'The Fly,' the screen (and seemingly the space in front of it) is filled with a ton of graphics and words that really blow your senses away."

Updated through 1/24.

David Carr caught the Sundance premiere: "Robert Redford was there. Al Gore was there. U2? All four members were there.... People at the Eccles responded in very rock fashion: In one scene where phones were held aloft in the concert, the people watching the movie did the same thing. It was hard, visually, to tell where the movie ended and the people watching the movie began."

Jeffrey Overstreet asks, Seen these reviews?

Earlier: "U2 @ Cannes."

Update: "This is an extraordinary concert film because it does what I wouldn't have thought a concert film was capable of doing any longer - it shows you something new," writes Bryant Frazer.

Updates, 1/21: "Directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington and the production company 3ality Digital bring U2's high-wattage act to life with surprisingly mobile high-tech cameras and a robust illusion of the human eye's depth distinctions," writes Darrell Hartman in the New York Sun. "To make the film, the directors employed a formidable battery of 18 digital cameras linked to 3-D recording decks, as well as an in-camera motion control that gives the crystal-clear footage an extra kinetic kick. Diehard U2 fans in particular may have their socks knocked off."

Cathleen Rountree's rubbed shoulders with Bono and Gore and, all in all, had a grand time.

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with Catherine Owens "about working in 3D, future possibilities for the new technology and making a romantic comedy with Emily Brontë."

Update, 1/22: "U2's fist-pumping anthems are hard to resist, and even the most determined Bono hater is going to be nodding along to the opening riff of 'New Year's Day,'" writes Jürgen Fauth at Ugo. "You may snicker at the 'coexist' headband, but the battle-worn classics of the U2 catalog command respect.... [T]he newfangled 3-D trickery turns this feature length concert video into an involving experience, no matter what you make of the music."

Updates, 1/23: For Matt Zoller Seitz, writing in the New York Times, U2 3D is "the first Imax movie that deserves to be called a work of art.... The very idea of self-contained screen geography is thrillingly reconceived."

"Given rock's erotic pull, it's fair to compare U2 3D, U2's foray into 3-D digital film technology, to a shot of Viagra," suggests Ann Powers in the Los Angeles Times. "And guess what? The potency drug does its job: 85 beautifully paced minutes of crystal clear, artfully lit shots of Bono and his mates doing their inspirational thing for an arena crowd whose joy surges forth like a tiger in an Imax nature presentation is enough to renew the spark with longtime fans and draw in kids who otherwise might not go for older men."

"[T]he performances, culled from seven shows on the 'Vertigo' tour from Mexico City to Buenos Aires, burn with the old unforgettable fire," writes Jim Ridley in the Voice.

Updates, 1/24: For Nick Schager, writing in Cinematical, "the visuals come off as merely a stunt aimed at gussying up what is, in the end, a solid if rather unremarkable concert film that just reconfirms a point already definitively made by 1988's superior Rattle and Hum - namely, that U2 is great live, with or without superfluous effects."

For Lauren Wissot, writing at the House Next Door, U2 3D "has more in common with one of artist Jeff Wall's hyper-real light box photographs than it does with the film many consider the gold standard in concert docs, Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense."

Posted by dwhudson at January 20, 2008 8:27 AM