By Nick Nitkowski 

Oh, my God! Concert tickets have gotten so expensive these days! Long gone are the days when the concert experience was somewhat affordable. With inflated prices and greedy ticket resellers/scalpers, it’s nearly impossible to see your favorite artist live on stage… but you can get the next best thing! A 3D concert experience that puts you right on stage with the artist without creeping them out or getting tackled by security! Now, 3D concerts aren’t a new thing, but I did think that they were a little phased out. The last one I remember seeing was “Metallica: Through the Never 3D” back in 2013. If there were any after that, I didn’t see them. But now Billie Eilish is dabbling in the 3D cinematic Concert experience with “Hit Me Hard and Soft”, and she has gotten James Cameron at the helm, so you know that the 3D will be good at least. So, how was this latest concert experience?

Speaking of someone who knows who Billie Eilish is and having heard a few of her songs that were played in various movies and even some made specifically made for certain movies like “No Time to Die” and “Barbie”, I’d say that the concert experience was fine. I do not consider myself a big fan of Billie Eilish, but I do respect her as a person and I admire her achievements, but I’m not a die-hard fan and therefore the concert did not really do much for me. The entire movie is predominantly her concert tour with a small amount of behind-the-scenes footage in-between songs. 

Like many people, I was very surprised to see James Cameron’s involvement with this. Obviously, James Cameron is a very well-known film director whose films are currently still sitting at the top of the highest grossing films of all time like “Titanic” and “Avatar”. I’m not sure what it took to get him on board with this concert. Perhaps he has kids or grandkids that are Billie Eilish fans, and that’s what got him involved. Based on what I saw, it seems like it didn’t take more than a day or two out of James Cameron’s schedule. But as one of the remaining advocates for 3D, I was more than willing to check it out.

In terms of the 3D quality, it’s competent 3D quality as expected, but it wasn’t immersive 3D like I thought it would be. It’s nowhere near the 3D level as “Avatar”. During my time working at a movie theater, I’ve seen glimpses of the 3D quality of the Miley Cyrus concert and the Jonas Brothers concert and from the few clips that I’ve seen from them, those were very immersive in 3D to the point where it looks like they were singing right in front of you and I guess I expected that same 3D quality here, but alas, that was not the case here. Because of that, I can honestly say that the 3D didn’t bring much to the table. The only 3D elements that I saw were immersive was the edge of a piano and confetti at the end. Everything else stayed pretty close to the screen with a lot of background depth.

Overall, if you’re a Billie Eilish fan, there is no doubt in my mind that you’re going to enjoy seeing “Hit Me Hard and Soft” on the big screen. Especially if you couldn’t afford the insane ticket prices to see it in person. However, if you’re not a Billie Eilish fan, I don’t think this 3D concert experience is going to win you over. Speaking as a non-fan who likes a couple of her songs, I have no real need to experience this 3D concert again. Does that make me the bad guy? I hope not, but if you put yourself in the movie’s shoes and start asking “What was I made for?” it’s clearly made for the fans, and the fans will be the ones who will say “This is everything I wanted!” as they gaze into Billie Eilish’s ocean eyes in 3D and have a lovely time doing it.

3 stars