Director Danny Boyle believes 3D movies may be nothing more than a "phase".

Boyle, who received an outstanding contribution prize at the Empire awards this week, said he would not use the format in his own films.

"I don't use 3D," the Radcliffe-born helmer told The Guardian. "I'm a spectacle wearer, so I hate going to 3D movies because you have to wear two pairs of spectacles, which makes you feel like even more of a prat. You know how everybody feels a bit of prat wearing 3D spectacles? You as a spectacle wearer feel a double prat."

But he described some 3D work as "extraordinary", singling out some of the effects in Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Life of Pi.

He added: "It's a tool, you know. There are sound innovations coming actually, particularly Dolby Atmos, which are going to do something very equivalent to what 3D does. So, I don't know if 3D will survive to be honest. I think it may be a phase."

Boyle's new film, the heist thriller Trance, is released in UK cinemas tomorrow. In 2D.