We get this, what, about every three or four years, right? The 50s hit us with the original 3D movie phenomenon (and introduced paper glasses that made entire audiences look like Devo devotees).

I remember late 70s or early 80s when a local TV station in Chicago showed Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D. We lined up at 7-11 to get our glasses, then yawned in disappointment when the Creature slithered across the screen. There was more depth to the plot.

A few years later, Jaws 3-D. And I’m pretty sure there was a Friday the 13th in 3D as well. Jason goes Pole Vaulting, maybe?

Here we are in 2007 and I’m being told that 3D is ready for yet another renaissance. So says a league of extraordinary directors (Mssrs. Speilberg and Jackson). An experimental film featuring a U2 concert uses new 3D technology, and apparently offers an amazing experience:

. . . this is definitely not the 3-D of drive-in memories. The concert film gives the audience the palpable experience of being present, as the camera swivels around Bono’s face, then soars over and down among the 60,000 concertgoers. And though the new version still requires audience members to wear glasses, they are not the old red-and-green variety but sleek black ones.

Pardon me if I don’t get excited. For the past 30 years, I’ve heard plenty about how 3D would revolutionize my visual entertainment experience, and it’s been strictly dulls-ville every time. Keep the glasses, I don’t care how sleek they are.