The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of 3D

My list, for 3D quality executed ( in order ), and not any indication of film's overall quality.

Must See:
Hugo
U2-3D
IMAX Under The Sea
Tron Legacy
Prometheus
Avatar
Life of Pi
Frankenweenie
The Great Gatsby
Tintin

The Good:
How To Train Your Dragon
Burma: Encounters in a Forgotten Country
Kung Fu Panda 1&2
Art of Flight
Transformers 3
Pacific Rim
IMAX Deep Sea
Born To Be Wild
G-Force

The Not So Bad:
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Sadako 3D
Star Trek Into Darknes

The Bad:
Wrath of The Titans
Oz the Great and Powerful
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Jack The Giant Slayer
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Beauty & The Beast
Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas
Ultimate Wave Tahiti
Flying Sword of Dragon Gate

The Ugly:
John Carter
The Green Hornet
The Avengers
Dredd


The Good, are movies that are far more enjoyable in 3D. The Bad, are movies that put in effort for 3D, but didn't do it quite right by my eyes. The Ugly, are movies where 2D version would be more enjoyable. The Must See, are 3D movies you must see.

What I look for is consistency in perception. I've found that in many cases, even films shot in native 3D lack consistency. Wide, epic scenes can feel like looking at miniatures up close ( if 3D was not toned down ), and close ups can feel like observing from a distant through a telescope ( if 3D was not pushed to the max ). In short, an actor 6' should look like 6' always, and not a 9" action figure or 4ft tall in wide shots. Close ups should make us feel we are standing up close, even if those shots were taken using zoom lenses afar. Since a film is made up of thousands of shots using various lenses, being placed at varying distances, with limitless combinations of both, consistency in perception is key to what makes 3D experience great, for me. So that it feels natural.

Notes:

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides looks gorgeous for 3D as scenes were amazingly lit for 3D. Native 3D close ups shots ( combined with great lighting ) sculpted its actors faces beautifully. However, its wide shots are too punched out resulting in miniaturization of big scenes.

Sadako 3D suffers from abundance of outdated cheesy 3D effect shots and a few scenes that didn't look quite right. But overall, its 3D looks really, really natural. Subtitles is a pain to read in 3D.

Oz the Great and Powerful had a lot of wide shots to capture that world, but all were miniaturized, making those sweepingly beautiful scene look like play sets sitting on a play table.

Wrath of The Titans has pretty consistent 3D 90% of the time. But its non native 3D do lack that sculpted roundness of actors' faces. Action sequences had too much camera movement that worked against 3D. Pretty impressive for a conversion piece overall. Many big scenes do feel big.

Dredd was filmed in native 3D but did not look to be the case at all.

The Green Hornet looked really bad but it was the director's intention to make it feel like looking through 3D View-Master.