U2 3D, the first live-action film shot, produced and screened in 3D, is certainly a visual thrill. The hyper-realistic film manages to rival a live concert by U2, which is either a delight or drudgery, depending on your opinion of the material. The band is tight and certainly looks like one that has been touring aggressively since its inception in 1976, but watching Bono and for over an hour is difficult if you don’t buy into the band’s self-perpetuated “biggest band in the world” myth.
Vocalist/tireless activist Bono and guitarist The Edge (even their names evoke the band’s incredible pretentiousness) are often regarded as the public face of U2, while bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. toil in relative obscurity. But U2 3D shows that these unheralded rhythm players truly keep the band afloat. On classic tracks like “New Year’s Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” their precision keeps the songs fresh and exciting, effortlessly propelling the tunes toward their peaks.
These two songs from War (1983) help reveal one of the film’s chief shortcomings: because it plays like a greatest-hits collection, there is too great an emphasis on weak but popular numbers from recent albums (“Beautiful Day,” “Love and Peace or Else”). Since U2 3D features only 13 songs, these few duds go a long way toward dampening the experience. Still, when U2 is on, like on the War tracks and the show opener “Vertigo,” they’re almost as good as they claim to be.
The concert is shown in stunning high definition on a massive IMAX screen. The depth of field made possible by the 3D technology is unparalleled in live-action 3D. The film employs an impressive variety of camera angles and interesting shots, although sometimes cuts are too frequent and have a disorienting effect.
U2’s strength as a band is often overshadowed by their self-righteousness, though, and nobody seems more affected by this than Bono. Even when the band is riveting, his messianic posturing and pseudo-political babble about saving the world make U2 3D a chore to sit through. Midway through “Miss Sarajevo,” a digital woman reads through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, turning the concert into a lecture—a task that oversteps the bounds of pop stardom, and not for the better.
Despite their flaws, U2 are master showmen who know how to get the most out of an audience, and their live film performance sounds better than many of their albums. The film’s 3D technology is extremely impressive, but unless you’re a hardcore U2 fan willing to shell out $15 to sit through an hour of Bono’s shenanigans, you might want to wait for a more deserving concert film to come along before experiencing it.
U2 3D is currently playing at the Smithsonian Institute, located at 1000 Jefferson Drive SW.
