And I realized this whilst watching Coraline, which I thought was very well done in general, is that it will always give people headaches as long as directors forget that every time they cut to a new scene, they’re actively making their audiences’ eyes refocus. In real life, your eyes are not required to do nearly as much refocusing as they have to watching a 3D movie. And of course, they’re not required to refocus at all watching a traditional 2D film. Coraline’s 3D was very well done (i.e., it was not obnoxiously front and center all the time), but even with stop-motion animation’s native awareness of three-dimensional space, there were several cuts that had my corneas straining to catch up.
Either directors will have to find a new way to cut films that doesn’t fatigue the eyes so much, or I expect 3D is likely yet again to have its novelty wear out. All I have to say is I dread what’s going to happen to people’s eyeballs when a cut-happy director like Michael Bay gets hold of 3D. But then, if it’s a Michael Bay film they’ve bought in for a headache anyway.