I saw Prometheus again today, this time in 3-D, so I saw the scene from Ang Lee's upcoming literary adaptation Life of Pi, which doesn't seem to have shown up in full online yet.

To be honest, I'm not sure why Fox chose to do this, other than maybe to let the nerds know Ang Lee's new fantasy movie will have cool 3-D scenes. I can't imagine it generating much excitement among general moviegoers. The way it's presented, it almost feels as if it's an extended Dolby or RealD promo. They should have just cut a proper teaser trailer.

It's hard to tell from the single scene, but I seriously hope Lee cast the right actor. It's such an enormous, challenging, strenuous role, and the entire movie is focused on him.

It feels really weird out of context. It is a cool scene, but it might have been smarter to at least get moviegoers acquainted with the movie through trailers THEN show full scenes in 3D. Though the other scene that they're apparently showing (The ship sinking) could work out of context. Alas, I have no interest in seeing AL:VH or IA4 in 3D.

I'm still looking forward to the movie though.

It's definitely an unorthodox approach. Almost reminiscent of the prologue from The Dark Knight Rises being attached to IMAX prints of Ghost Protocol, except in this case there's no real intense fan interest. It's more the studio hoping audiences will pay attention and become interested.

Maybe they should have put the ship sequence before Prometheus, and the scene with the flying fish before Ice Age 4.

One thing that works against selling 3D in marketing is that trailers are by necessity full of rapid cuts. Showing a scene in isolation gives the camera enough room to breathe that audiences can absorb the dynamic use of long takes that really sell the 3D visuals.

And let's be honest: this was always going to be a bit of a tough sell for mainstream audiences. The plot is unique and features no big stars. Ang Lee is not as treasured as he probably should be, and it will have plenty of competition in November.

I think that the novelty of showing an entire scene makes sense especially for promoting what seems to be marvelous 3D. The scene tells audiences that the movie is about a boy and a tiger stranded on a boat but that they can still expect plenty of spectacle via magical realism.