The Prompt

WHAT is the point of 3D cinema? The easy, cynical answer is that it's a desperate bid by Hollywood studios to claw back the money they're losing to illegal DVDs and downloading. The fact is, those warning clips you get on every DVD you rent, which tell you that watching pirate DVDs makes you a lowlife criminal (or just likely to ruin your friends' evening because Bruce Willis's face is a bit fuzzy) are fighting a losing battle. Millions of people are quite happy to watch

Looked at one way, the success of Avatar is proof that this strategy is working. The fact that people are going back to see it several times suggests we really have been sold on the idea that the film is something you can only fully appreciate in a 3D cinema.

It has clearly made an impression on George Lucas, who is now thinking of re-releasing all the Star Wars films in 3D – to a mostly negative response from fans. Look at money-grubbing Lucas, many have grumbled this past week, shamelessly milking his cash cow yet again. What happened to all those small-scale art movies he said he wanted to make?

The sad thing about all this is that Hollywood may end up overlooking one of the principal reasons why Avatar works as a 3D movie – the 3D is not a faddish add-on but integral to the story. The film is, after all, about a man confined to a wheelchair whose life is changed when he is given the chance to live inside an alien body which can run and jump through a fantastical world. Immersed in the 3D, you are swept away on that journey with him; every time Jake has to return to his wheelchair, you feel yourself sinking back into your cinema seat, and you share his frustration. In other words, the way in which the audience is positioned helps tell the story, almost like a piece of site-specific theatre. When we put on the 3D glasses, we become avatars too.

This is what I'd like to see future 3D movies do – tell stories that can only be told (or are told more powerfully) in 3D. I'd like to see a 3D movie by David Lynch, Jean-Pierre Jeunet or David Cronenberg. If George Lucas is genuinely interested in the creative potential of 3D, the best thing he could do is use his financial clout to fund a great, groundbreaking 3D arthouse movie. But Star Wars in 3D? What a waste of time and money.

• This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday, January 31, 2010