NEED FOR SPEED feels the need for a last minute 3D conversion

I’m not expecting Need for Speed to have an Oscar-worthy script or acting that will move me to manly tears. Quite simply, I’m looking for car porn and lots of it. Sexy exhaust pipes, slick paint jobs and engines making vroom vroom sounds that’ll make my knees quiver.

I’m more than happy to pay for a movie ticket to go watch that. But now that the film is getting a last minute 3D conversion, I’m looking for a refund.

Based on the EA video game franchise, Need for Speed stars Aaron Paul as a blue collar mechanic on a cross-country revenge ride as he struggles to clear his name thanks to the framing shenanigans of a former NASCAR driver, using a high stakes underground racing tournament to do so. Holy hell, that’s good-bad on a whole new level, just one of the reasons why I wanted to see the film. The other reason, why some solid cinematography that clearly showed off the practical effects being used in the film, an unappreciated art in the CGI-heavy world of today.

Now all that effort is being wasted with unnecessary 3D effects. Box Office Mojo tweeted yesterday that Need For Speed would be released in 3D, and seeing as how none of the promotional material released before that announcement mentioned the third dimension, this is likely a post-conversion decision at the eleventh hour.

Post 3D conversion is never a good idea in films. Most of the time, viewers pay a jacked up price for a darker, blurrier film that leaves them with a headache, Clash of the Titans being the supreme example here. 3D movies will eventually die out though, but at the cost of somewhat decent films taking the brunt of these bad production decisions.

Need for Speed is out in March, and stars Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots, Dominic Cooper, Ramon Rodriguez, Rami Malek, Harrison Gilbertson, Scott ‘Kid Cudi’ Mescudi, Michael Keaton and Dakota Johnson. Scott Waugh directs

Last Updated: February 5, 2014