Movie Review - U2 3D
Posted in Movies, Review |Mind blowing.
We were running late for the movie since the bus was stuck in traffic, when we bought the tickets, we were already 10 minutes late. But when we went into the cinema hall, they said that they were having some ‘technical problems’ and would be ready in a few minutes. And while we were waiting, they gave us free drinks, which was quite nice of them. And soon, just before the movie started, there was a Star Wars titles style text going across the screen. At first, we didnt know what it was for but after looking at the couple a few rows in front of us, we realized that the girl was proposing to the guy. The guy was obviously surprised but also definitely impressed by the Star Wars style text and agreed. And it turned out that the so-called ‘technical problems’ was the problem of getting the proposal movie to the run.
The movie then started, or rather, the concert started. The 3D effects were great, I could feel the excitement in the air. The movie was composed using footage taken at the Vertigo concert in Sao Paulo. All of the footage was taken using the largest collection of 3-D camera technology ever assembled for a single project. The movie is 85 minutes long but more than 100 hours of raw footage was edited through to get the perfect final movie. But personally, I didnt feel like anything was edited out, the whole 85 minutes felt like a complete concert experience. The camera angles used were perfect and the composing of every single frame was done in such a way to ensure that you felt like you were there. At times, when Bono stared directly at me and offered his hand, I felt that I could reach out to him and grab his outstretched hand. The 3D titles and text flying through the screen during the last couple of songs were pretty spectacular.
The sound was great, with a near-perfect surround sound system. I could see that a lot of effort had been put into the editing to ensure that the location of the sound and the location on the screen were co-ordinated. The audio was very realistic and several times during the movie, I forgot that I was in a theatre and felt that I was in a U2 concert. And at one specific shot when the entire audience was shown jumping in rhythm with the music, I felt the impulse to start jumping too. I caught myself singing the lyrics out loud quite a few times during the movie but didnt bother to stop and kept singing. My favorite songs were ‘Where the streets have no name’ and ‘With or without’, I did like the other songs too, but I have to say that I’m more of a fan of some of the older songs by U2.
I would say that it was as good as a concert, the positive part being that I got a better look at the band than I would’ve at a real concert and I didnt feel tired at the end of it, and the negative part being the fact that I wasnt at a real concert and didnt have the physical experience of a concert. I would not mind watching more concerts or movies shot in a similar way. It is as close as you can get to U2 without going a real concert, and is definitely worth the watch, for both die hard U2 fans like me, and even the casual listener to U2 songs. And even if you dont like U2, you could watch the movie for the 3D experience and might start liking them after this. It gets 8.75/10.
And on a side note, we got one free ticket each for any movie we wanted to watch in the future and also got the keep the 3D glasses.
Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam, you guys are legends. U2 forever!
You can read more reviews and information about the movie here, here and here.
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posted on March 2nd, 2008 at 7:36 pm