So far, I think it's safe to say that nothing is better in 3D, except maybe Avatar and House of Wax. That includes Werner Herzog's excursion into the Chauvet Cave, whose prehistoric paintings he hails as one of the greatest discoveries in the history of human culture. True, some of the shots of out-swelling cave walls inscribed with 40,000-year-old images of animals, the calcified surface glistening and almost palpable, evoke the sense of awe that Herzog describes in his endearingly verbose voiceover narration. But the gimmicky technique doesn't add much, for example, to an illuminating sequence in which Herzog reproduces what he imagines the "proto-cinematic" effect that the paintings must have had when seen millennia ago in torchlight. In the end, the 3D is a distraction; I'd prefer more off-the-wall mini-profiles of odd characters, like the circus juggler turned palæontologist, to tracking shots of stalactites backed by a chanting soundtrack.
