Wim Wenders has changed my mind about a thing or two in the past, and he did it again about 3D technology. His latest documentary about dance choreographer Pina Bausch was filmed in 3D, to which my initial reaction was 'oh groan, not ANOTHER one,' but then I remembered that Wenders is better than that. If he was doing 3D, he'd have a reason to. I was fortunate enough to see a screening of the film with him providing a lengthy Q&A before and after, and he said he'd been trying for years to develop a film about Pina, but he felt film just wouldn't capture the essence of her work at all. Somehow he had the epiphany that 3D may be the one and only way to go. Sounds hokey--but if you ever get a chance to see Pina in 3D, I highly encourage it, because it's a very masterful use of the technology. Wenders could probably care less about his audience, and far more about his subject, so he seemed to really view the medium from all angles and made it the best tool possible to bring Pina's work to life on the screen. It's by far the best 3D work I've ever seen. Afterwards, Wenders said that he feels 3D is a very important technology for the documentary genre. (Again...GROAN...but...I've learned awhile ago to trust his judgement about how he's going to do things.)

This in no way excuses the, for lack of a better word, exploitation of the medium that the studios are doing, with exactly what you described in having images gratuitously leap out at you. I don't know how Ridley Scott will emerge from this experience, as far as I know it's his first 3D work...I guess we'll find out if we ever start seeing ads for a Blade Runner rerelease--in 3D.