We attended a viewing of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in RealD 3D.

The good news first: this movie makes excellent use of 3D and “theater space” placing not only moving objects, but occasionally actors, in front of the screen.  This is perhaps the best done 3D effects and usage we have seen in 3D movies recently. Well done!

Incredibly, the movie theater handed out green/magenta analglyph glasses rather than the polarized clear glasses used for RealD. I took this photo with my smart phone to prove they did this.

As a friend put it, this is both hilariously silly and stupid at the same time. Most of us (me included) had not removed the glasses from the plastic packaging until the start of the movie. Sitting through 35 minutes of 2D commercials and previews, I did not want to smudge the glasses with my fingers.

Why does a theater even stock green/magenta anaglyph glasses? This blows the mind.

It took about 10 minutes into the movie for one staff member to hand out proper RealD glasses in place of the anaglyph glasses. We got to watch the first 10 minutes as a very fuzzy experience.

This was not a particularly “regal” viewing experience (hint hint). Sadly, this sort of mistake may discourage patrons from viewing 3D movies, for which patrons pay a premium price yet receive poor customer service. (Neither the theater nor the national chain apologized for the mistake.)