THREE-DIMENSIONAL movie viewing is nothing new, as anyone who watched Nightmare on Elm Street in cinemas in the 1980s will know, but the technology has never been in wide use due to the costs involved and the lack of standards in film distribution.
Now this type of film is being released hard and fast and James Cameron's latest masterpiece Avatar has set the standard for both computer-generated (CG) effects and three-dimensional cinema.
Cameron's epic sci-fi game-changer grossed around $73 million in its first weekend at the US box office, and looks set to recoup the $300m-odd spent on its production.
In 2010 a slew of new 3-D (the new naming convention for three-dimensional video) movies will enter cinemas, including Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, hoping to emulate Avatar's success in luring consumers off their couches and back into movie theatres.
Not through rose-coloured glasses
The couch is not being left out of the 3-D revolution, however. Sony announced in December it will be filming some 25 of the 2010 Fifa World Cup matches in 3D.
The standard for Blu-ray 3D was passed last week, opening the door for 3-D content to be sold en masse and watched using high definition television sets and Blu-ray players like the Playstation 3.
And, of course, you have to wear those silly glasses - a small price to pay. Thankfully they've come a long way since the red and green monstrosities of the 1980s. Today's 3-D glasses have clear lenses instead of coloured transparent paper and they don't make you feel nauseous.
Sport in 3D has to be seen to be believed. While it's not practical to broadcast live events in 3D yet, a number of big matches in football and other sports have been captured to show off the technology.
The 2009 Confederations Cup final in Johannesburg was one of those events, and watching American and Brazilian strikers blast balls that fly out of your TV screen is simply amazing.
The technology also lends itself well to rugby, where the added depth perception offers a superior reflection of what is happening down the line of play.
While it will be some time before you can catch the Super 14 final in 3-D, motion pictures will soon be available on Blu-ray, including Avatar.
Another world
Avatar was an important milestone in 3-D. It's the first movie James Cameron has made since Titanic, and it cost a fortune. The film not only breaks new ground in 3-D cinema but also raises the bar on CG special effects.
In case you haven't seen it yet, Avatar is set on a planet called Pandora where human settlers are attempting to establish mining operations for a ridiculously valuable metal the planet is rich in. But standing between the human invaders and their strip-mining operations are the indigenous people of Pandora - the Na'vi.
While the humans have a military force on standby to take care of the natives if needs be, their first stab at commercial colonisation is in the form of diplomacy. To this end they have developed "avatars" - alien Na'vi bodies that can be controlled by humans.
One of the people brought to Pandora to operate an avatar is a paraplegic former marine, who soon learns there is more to the Na'vi than first meets the eye.
While critics aim their cynicism at the movie's soppy social commentary and lack of memorable dialogue, those of us who like entertainment for entertainment's sake are willing to give it all the kudos it deserves.
Cameron's intention was to blow people away with Avatar and he has succeeded - and then some. Fans who have been following him since the early days of Aliens and The Abyss will appreciate the calculated action scenes, thorough plot progression and imaginative environments and creatures he has dreamt up for Pandora, along with the caricatured human characters such as Colonel Miles Quaritch played by Stephen Lang.
The CG effects in Avatar are incredible and the use of 3-D is awe-inspiring. There has simply never been a movie like it - Avatar has changed filmmaking forever.
Cinematic entertainment has always focused on escapism and 3-D enables dimensions in video that are more life-like and engaging than anything we've seen before. This is why LG, Sony and other vendors are scrambling to stake their claim on the lucrative new market expected to bloom in 2010.
If you haven't seen Avatar yet, I strongly recommend that you book tickets now. You don't want to miss this - and whatever you do, make sure you see it in 3-D.