James Cameron Says Piranha 3D Gives 3D a Bad Name
Well as we all know, James Cameron is basically the saviour of cinema and godfather of 3-D, so every time a new 3-D movie comes out, everyone just has to get his opinion on it. Thus, in a recent interview with Vanity Fair for the Avatar re-release, they prodded him to talk a little bit about Piranha 3D. Now you might assume that since he started his career by directing Piranha II: The Spawning he might have a little bit of a soft spot for this movie, but alas, that is simply not the case. He essentially used the opportunity to call out anyone who isn’t using 3-D to create “art”, because apparently that’s the only thing it should be used for nowadays:
“You’ve got to remember: I worked on Piranha 2 for a few days and got fired off of it; I don’t put it on my official filmography. So there’s no sort of fond connection for me whatsoever. In fact, I would go even farther and say that… I tend almost never to throw other films under the bus, but that is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3-D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3-D horror films from the 70s and 80s, like Friday the 13th 3-D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3-D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip. And that’s not what’s happening now with 3-D. It is a renaissance—right now the biggest and the best films are being made in 3-D. Martin Scorsese is making a film in 3-D. Disney’s biggest film of the year—Tron: Legacy—is coming out in 3-D. So it’s a whole new ballgame.”
It sounds a bit too much like a sales pitch for me to take all of his statements seriously, although I kind of see his point. In order to avoid having 3-D die out like it has in previous eras, they need to justify it as being something more than a cheap gimmick. Personally I think there’s room for both, and outside of Avatar, Piranha is probably the most entertaining 3-D experience I’ve had to date. What do you think, is James Cameron right to rip on Piranha 3D, or is he just being an arrogant prick? (On a side note, he must really be pissed that Piranha 3D made more money this weekend than Avatar: Special Edition did.)
