U2 and U: Ultimate Bono bonding experience

Anyone who's ever wished they were Bono's best friend will get a powerful sense of fulfillment from the mesmerizing glow of "U2 3D." Intimate bonding seems to be a common experience for people who have an audience with the voice of U2, whether it's through video performance or in the company of 50,000 other passionate fans. He's so charismatic, so cool, that we want to be right there with him. Through the wizardry of the newest technology, now we are.

This remarkable concert film has been seamlessly assembled from several U2 performances captured on multiple digital 3D cameras during the South American leg of the band's "Vertigo" tour in 2006. It is one of the first of several movies to use up-to-the-minute 3D technology designed for viewing in regular theaters as well as in the IMAX format. Many recent IMAX 3D ventures have used the effect well, but none has provided such an aesthetic in seizing reality with this kind of immediacy, wonder and humanity.

Bono's not the only one we bond with. Guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. get plenty of one-on-one time floating in the near distance or right before our fingertips. The "Vertigo" tour stage is a wide-open field with two curved arms sweeping out into the crowd. All the band members get a chance to walk along these narrow pathways into the middle of the thronging masses and seemingly off the movie screen.

3D projection tends to shrink images, a drawback the enormous IMAX screen counteracts and translates into an uncanny version of life-size. The entire field of vision is filled, so you find yourself actively looking around the screen as Bono prances along one walkway while The Edge is pulling sounds out of his guitar on center stage. There is a huge number of camera angles integrated together, from long shots with the crowd in the foreground (stop yourself from yelling, "down in front!") to intimate close-ups of each band member. All of them are brilliantly crisp. There's an astonishing overhead traveling shot of The Edge playing keyboards that's so hyper-realistic, it feels as though we're tumbling down from the catwalk.

Even this most spectacular machinery and manipulation would fall short without the magnificent performance to back it up. The 14 songs in the show's set list are played with all the fervor that has made U2 one of the most exciting live bands ever. The energy of the crowd feeds their passion as much as the thunderous and personal spirit of the music sparks such undeniable electricity.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com