U-should-see U2 in 3D

Consumer Reports doesn't usually cover movies, but "U2 in 3D," which opens today in select theaters, deserves attention for breaking new ground in both 3D technology and the concert-film genre.

This 85-minute film, the first concert performance to be shot in 3D, represents a perfect marriage of artist and technology. The Irish rock veterans specialize in ambitious stage presentations sized for giant venues (like the Sao Paolo and Mexico City soccer stadiums in which the film was shot) and employing cutting-edge technology. The three-dimensional images, captured by a crew of 140, enhance the physical expansiveness of the Irish quartet's performance. An example: The extended shot that captures bassist Adam Clayton in the foreground on one mid-stadium stage and singer Bono on another, with an undulating mass of U2 fans between them. Other footage is shot from behind the musicians, offering panoramic, enveloping views of the crowd in all in its enormity.

The band performed in front of a towering LED screen that displayed mosaiclike patterns, words, and images. (Click on image at left for a closer look.) The film frequently plucks content from the screen and subtly layers it over images of the musicians, creating 3D pastiches—as when a portrait of Martin Luther King floats in the right foreground of the screen as the band kicks into the opening riff of "Pride (In the Name of Love)," their tribute to the Civil Rights leader. (Click on the image, below right, for a closer look.) Similarly, images of the farflung musicians are sometimes integrated on a single screen.

Such layering is just one of the cinematic breakthroughs in this film, the first live-action digital 3D movie. Such editing was all but impossible in the analog 3D era of Vincent Price et al, as was the use of zoom, which required the unfeasible coordination of two separate cameras. For U2 3D, integrated 3D cameras captured both the left- and right-eye stereoscopic images, which you view through a pair of mirrored, squarish glasses that look very much like the stylish shades favored by Bono himself.

But the movie is no gimmickfest, which is part of its artistic achievement. Virtually every other 3D movie has overused gasp-inducing shots solely intended to capitalize on three-dimensionality. The recently released "Beowulf," for example, featured lots of swords brandished toward, and projectiles flying past, the screen. Here, the technology is more artfully integrated, literally adding an extra dimension without distracting from the band's superb performance. The only moments that even approach gimmickry are a few in which Bono writes in the air and fanciful line drawings appear—of a TV set and control knob, in one instance. (The band re-performed some songs without the audience, in order to capture these and other closeup shots; the resulting shots balance the dizzying, full-stadium shots with an equally thrilling intimacy.)

This is one film that you can't plan to see later at home. Although 3D video for HDTVs is advancing, there are as yet no plans to make "U2 3D" available in any household platform. The film is playing in about 60 theaters in the US and Canada this week (the complete list is at U23Dmovie.com) and goes into wider release in mid-February. No one who loves U2, concert movies, or the latest in cinematic technology should miss it.

—Paul Reynolds