But during production on "Journey," the filmmakers showed him and fellow cast members what some of the sequences would look like when they were made three-dimensional. Since then, he's seen the entire movie in both its regular, 2-D and the 3-D versions, and prefers the latter.

"OK, I'm sold now. This 3-D thing is really cool," he said.

According to Stassen, filmmakers "no longer use 3-D just so they can throw something into the moviegoers' face.

"That was poor, lazy filmmaking," he explained, and added that he and others now see 3-D as something "immersive" — something that helps them "open up the experience to audiences."

Gundersen counts himself among the new 3-D "converts." He said the Megaplex Theatres have "made a major commitment to the 3-D format" and observed that the local theater chain "has more 3-D (screens) in our state than any other."

The Megaplexes are also installing new equipment that will allow them to show 3-D movies in a new format, Dolby 3-D.

Jordan Commons is already equipped to show films in the competing, Real 3-D format, which uses light polarization to achieve three-dimensional projection. But the Megaplex District, Gateway and Junction (Ogden) will be equipped for Dolby 3-D exhibition, which employs a light-filtration process.

Megaplex Digital Cinema Specialist Mike Renlund has seen how the new Dolby format works and calls it "way cool."

"In the past, you'd get these shaky images with 3-D, which caused headaches and motion sickness in some people," Renlund said. "You don't get any of that with either of these new formats."

However, 3-D movie presentations do come at a cost. Special glasses must be used to see the 3-D imagery, and most theaters charge as much as $2 extra for the glasses.

However, equipping its theaters for 3-D also makes it possible for the theaters to show special events available in the format. Gundersen said the Megaplexes are planning to show sporting events and concerts that will be available in 3-D.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com