U2 3D (2007)

92% of critics liked it
(88 reviews)
92% of users liked it
(5,938 ratings)

Hollywood A-list director Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies, Arlington Road) and newcomer Catherine Owens team up to break new cinematic ground by co-helming U2 3D -- the first three-dimensional concert film in movie history. The effort intercuts footage culled from several U2 shows on their… More Hollywood A-list director Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies, Arlington Road) and newcomer Catherine Owens team up to break new cinematic ground by co-helming U2 3D -- the first three-dimensional concert film in movie history. The effort intercuts footage culled from several U2 shows on their 2005-2006 Vertigo tour in Mexico City and Buenos Aires, Argentina, with Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. performing before rapt audiences. The picture opens with several thematically light rock songs, such as "Beautiful Day" and "Vertigo," but soon segues into more politically conscious material at the hands of social-change advocate Bono and his bandmates, such as the numbers "Bullet the Blue Sky," "Love and Peace or Else," and "Sunday Bloody Sunday"; at one critical point, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is projected high above the audience. Pellington, Owens, and cinematographers Tom Krueger and Peter Anderson make frequent use of a roving camera and multi-layered 3-D effects; they also step away from the approach utilized in the band's previous concert film U2: Rattle and Hum by omitting interviews and focusing exclusively on concert footage. The full version of U2 3D runs 80 minutes; a 56-minute "preview" version ran out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: G, 1 hr. 25 min.
Directed By: Catherine Owens, Mark Pellington
Genres: Musical & Performing Arts, Documentary

In Theaters: Jan 1, 2007 Wide
On DVD: Jan 1, 2009
Studio: National Geographic

Critic Reviews

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
The 3-D visuals envelop you, majestically, and that effect fuses with the band's surround-sound rapture to create a full-scale sensory high. U2 3D makes you feel stoned on movies.
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
The 3-D element is unobtrusively handled, except when it perfectly re-creates the woman who's always perched on her boyfriend's shoulders in front of you at a concert...
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
The concert itself is spectacularly produced, with Jumbotrons providing backdrop and long, curving runways that allow Bono and other band members to move far out into the crowd.
Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle
Having these enormous, almost disembodied figures endlessly cascading through space is more distracting than illuminating.
Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times
The first Imax movie that deserves to be called a work of art.
Jan Stuart, Newsday
U23D only just begins to tap the potential of performance film in three dimensions, but the possibilities are thrilling to contemplate.
Tony Macklin, Fayetteville Free Weekly
U2 3D is an isle of style and sense in a sea of mediocrity.
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
On the IMAX screen, these Irish rockers really rattle and hum.
Austin Kennedy, Sin Magazine
If you are a die hard U2 fan, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE this! A very cool experience!
Rossiter Drake, San Francisco Examiner
By the time Bono turns to the camera, reaching out to his audience in a typically theatrical plea for peace, love and understanding, one half expects his outstretched hand to surge through the screen and seize one of your own.
Annlee Ellingson, Boxoffice Magazine
When Bono reaches into the camera and out of the screen, there are few cinematic moments more intimate.
Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope
It is a band apart, both in terms of music and message.
John Wirt, Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Not better than the real thing, but close.
Diva Velez, TheDivaReview.com
U23D captures the band and the excitement of their live shows in a way that no other medium could. The combination of art and science, technology and emotion, separates U23D from being just a nifty 3D experiment and elevates it to a pop mast
Brandon Fibbs, BrandonFibbs.com
U2 3D is the perfect synergy of music, technology and magic.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Represents what is far and away the most impressive use of 3-D I've ever seen.
Linda Cook, Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
You, too, can be there.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
The rock mega-band U2 has made so many concert films that it's hard to get excited about this one.... But the film is a revelation, redefining 3D live-action moviemaking.
Duane Dudek, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
U2 is a great band, but 3-D doesn't make them greater.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Alexander D

Seeing U2 in IMAX 3D blew my mind. It was like seeing all of the lighting and flashing words (especially in the song "One") in a regular concert, except it all was realistically coming out at you. All the songs here were great (I was even introduced to a few that I'd… More
Seeing U2 in IMAX 3D blew my mind. It was like seeing all of the lighting and flashing words (especially in the song "One") in a regular concert, except it all was realistically coming out at you. All the songs here were great (I was even introduced to a few that I'd never heard before), and the performance was beautiful. Therefore, U2 3D is worth seeing in IMAX if it's still there; I don't know if it was released to DVD.
Jennifer D

I do believe this is actually the closest I have ever gotten to having a religious experience. Ever. Never mind the 3D aspect, the amazing shots that these cameras captured were unique for absolutely any concert footage I have ever seen. Amazing. Amazing! I want this on DVD so… More
I do believe this is actually the closest I have ever gotten to having a religious experience. Ever. Never mind the 3D aspect, the amazing shots that these cameras captured were unique for absolutely any concert footage I have ever seen. Amazing. Amazing! I want this on DVD so freaking bad.
Daniel M

As has recently been proved by both the success of Coraline and the relative failure of The Jonas Brothers Concert Experience, 3D usually works best when confined to animation rather than to live performances. Thus U2-3D cannot be seen as a remarkable film. Not only it is largely… More
As has recently been proved by both the success of Coraline and the relative failure of The Jonas Brothers Concert Experience, 3D usually works best when confined to animation rather than to live performances. Thus U2-3D cannot be seen as a remarkable film. Not only it is largely preaching to the converted - and in particular the recently converted - but the 3D is only immersive in parts, and while the whole experience is not forgettable, it does not make you want to see it again. The best way to deal with this kind of concert film is to compare it to more traditional concert films, such as Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, the film of Talking Heads' 1983 tour to support the album Speaking In Tongues. Stop Making Sense may not have the eye-popping proximity to the musicians that U2-3D and others provide, but you still feel an immersive part of the experience. In part, this is due to the elaborate conceptual slants taken by Talking Heads (for instance, David Byrne's enormous suit), but mostly it is because Demme's direction takes you right to the heart of the songs. The lack of audience shots or pan shots makes it feel like the band are performing just for you, which is a great feeling. This film has a very different approach. Instead of making you feel like the band are performing just for you, the large number of crowd shots (in part due to the nature of the stage) makes you feel swamped by anonymous strangers. There are some very good moments, most of them involving Larry Mullen Jr., in which the band are genuinely playing at their best, but you still feel distant in the end. The emphasis on being part of a huge audience, which is reinforced by the opening scenes of people queuing at the turnstiles, is a double-edge sword for any concert film. When done right, like in the coverage of Live 8 two years earlier, individuals can feel united for a great event despite many thousands of miles of separation. When done wrong, as here, you feel like you're being forced to submit and go with the flow, and it's not all that pleasant a feeling at times. If Stop Making Sense is like a conversation between you and the band, then U2 3D is like a religious ceremony whereby the role of the audience is to worship the band and nothing else (which considering Bono's recent antics is more than a little appropriate). For all its bad points, U2 3D has a lot of plus points, most notably being the songs themselves. Being culled from some of the greatest albums ever made, of course they're going to be good pop and rock songs, but specific performances, like 'The Fly' and Bono's solo rendition of 'Miss Sarajevo', really stand out, turning what on record are average songs into something which is almost breathtaking. One sad omission is 'City Of Blinding Lights', the best song on How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and whose video sets the tone for this film. Many people who are U2 fans will never get to see them perform live, and for that reason U2 3D is a worthwhile achievement. It makes a lot more sense to release such a film as opposed to a live album, for the simple reason that since the Zoo TV tour of the 1990s, U2 have steadily become a more visual band. It's a shame that the film itself is unremarkable, but the songs are just enough not to leave you completely cold.
Emile T

Magical.
Jon L

Great as always for a concert. U2 is constantly reinventing themselves while keeping the same great music and message they have had from the very beginning. Also, the 3D effects were extremely well done. I hope we will see a lot more of this in the film industry.
Mister C

Given the band's obvious megalomania,its impossible to consider U2 as coming close to the Beatles as one of the greatest rock groups of all time? It is a possibility and its new concert movie bears it out. If you ever seen "Rattle and Hum" or "U2 Go Home",or… More
Given the band's obvious megalomania,its impossible to consider U2 as coming close to the Beatles as one of the greatest rock groups of all time? It is a possibility and its new concert movie bears it out. If you ever seen "Rattle and Hum" or "U2 Go Home",or if you have even been in the front row of a U2 concert-you've never experienced anything quite like this,which is the "Lawrence of Arabia" of concert movies with lead singer Bono in the Peter O' Toole role. The massive sonic grandeur comes at you in a rush,wave after wave of it which is remarkable when you consider that this ginormous sound comes from just four guys playing. And seeing this in an IMAX theatre is worth the enjoyment. The best concert film I've seen this year.
William G

An uniquely immersive concert experience.
Keith M

Brilliant concert Film... I was laughing out loud at parts and realized that no one else in the theater was laughing with me...Oh well...Edge, Play the Blues!!!