Is U2s new 3D film better than being at a concert
February 23rd, 2008, 6:34 am Hobbies And Interests
U2 has always been an early adopter. In the 1990s, the band toured with a stage featuring 50-foot-tall LED video screens, and this decade it partnered with iTunes in an effort to gain relevancy with a new generation of music fans. So it’s logical that U2 would go high tech with its first concert film since 1988’s “Rattle and Hum.”The result is “U2 3D,” a glasses-required experiment that pushes the boundaries of the concert doc yet keeps one foot planted in the conventional concrete. Rarely has a film attained such moments of exhilaration while also leaving the viewer with some level of disappointment.The 14-song performance was captured across several Latin America shows on the band’s 2005 Vertigo tour and seamlessly spliced together. If you caught the tour, it should all look very familiar.Many of the band’s signature hits, from “Where the Streets Have No Name” to “Beautiful Day,” are here, but the set list is the first area of discontent. We can debate all day (and plenty do online) about which songs are better between down-tempo numbers such as “Miss Sarajevo” and “Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own” (both featured in the film) and upbeat tracks like “Until the End of the World” and “Even Better Than the Real Thing” (two tour staples left out). But it’s hard to argue that the latter wouldn’t provide a better canvas for all that the 3D medium has to offer.Which leads us to the biggest complaint in the otherwise rewarding “U2 3D”: Better use of the 3D technology would have made a more exciting film. Early on, people in the crowd throw drinks in the air, and those in the movie theater instinctively dodge the spray. A little later, when Bono sings the refrain, “Wipe your tears away” during “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” he reaches out to dry your cheek.But it’s not until an encore performance of “The Fly” that thoughts of opportunities lost really emerge. As the band launches into the song, provocative words and slogans bombard the audience, zipping in from all angles and disappearing into nowhere. Later, pastel letters rain from the ceiling, bathing the crowd in an alphabet storm. The display captures the avant-garde mission of those innovative ’90s tours, and the first words from the viewer after, “wow,” will likely be, “Where was this during the first hour?”If you are planning on seeing the film, Imax is the way to go. The grand scale of the images matches the larger-than-life experience the band shoots for in its live shows. Directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington rarely rely on the standard full-stage shot, choosing instead to let the camera wander around the stage to pick up the details. The effect is better than a front-row seat; instead, it feels more like how a ghost with the ability to curiously swoop here and there might watch a rock concert.
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