U2 3D

Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington

U2 3D,  shown in imax the­atres, is a con­cert film of u2 in Buenos Aires, directed by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington, and pro­duced by Jon Shapiro et al. The film is a huge pro­duc­tion with footage of ador­ing fans singing u2 stan­dards along with Bono and the rest of the band, all of whom look mas­sive in 3d. The cam­eras cap­ture every fibre of the band’s cloth­ing, their freck­les, their stub­ble, the sweat run­ning down each member’s fore­head; in fact, the band looks so close and life­like that when Bono turns to the cam­era and reaches out, it feels like his hand has come through the screen and will touch you. For u2 fanat­ics, this may be the most inti­mate moment they will ever have with Bono; for every­one else, the moment is awk­ward. Larry Mullen Jr. and The Edge (drum­mer and gui­tarist) appear unin­ter­ested in the cam­eras, and Adam Clayton, the bassist, looks uncom­fort­able, but Bono fully embraces the atten­tion. Throughout the con­cert he sings, yells, runs around, dances, pounds on a drum, hugs him­self, speaks in Spanish and preaches. He comes off less like a rock star and more like a moti­va­tional speaker, inspi­ra­tional leader, polit­i­cal activist, politi­cian, mes­siah, pop­u­lar philoso­pher — essen­tially all the roles that require a micro­phone, an audi­ence and a huge ego.