A long time ago, in Simi Valley, George Lucas had a dream.

Now, almost 30 years later, he continues to tweak and re-release that dream every couple of years in an effort to soak movie going audiences dry.

You want to know the sad thing? I fall for it every time.

Last night was no exception. I found myself at 15 and Gratiot at 12:01 a.m. – despite my protestations to the contrary – to fork over $10.50 to see ‘Star Wars Part 1: The Phantom Menace’ in 3D.

I love everything ‘Star Wars,’ don’t get me wrong, but I was over the whole 3D craze before James Cameron released ‘Avatar.’ You can imagine my frustration with the technology now.

Despite my lackluster 3D devotion, something drew me to that theater last night. And, you know what? I actually wasn’t disappointed.

The 3D technology was literally made for something like ‘Star Wars.’ It made the action scenes crisper, the light saber battles more intense and the space scenes practically jump off the screen (yes I know that’s the intention of turning everything into 3D).

Ironically, one of my favorite scenes in 3D is one of my least favorite scenes in 2D. That would be the pod racing scenes on Tatooine. Usually I fast forward through them on Blu Ray, but I found myself fascinated by this section of the movie this time in the theater.

The theater was solidly packed (not overly though, thank the Force) and the crowd seemed to be having a good time and enjoying themselves. Of course, anyone there at 12:01 a.m. on a work day is a diehard ‘Star Wars’ fan, so you probably weren’t going to get any haters in the theater for that showing.

Despite the phenomenal special effects – and they are phenomenal – it’s important to remember that this is still the same movie you saw several years ago. It still features the most wooden kid actor known to man in Jake “Are You An Angel” Lloyd and the massively irritating Jar Jar Binks. That hasn’t changed. It’s just in 3D now.

That being said, if you have kids who haven’t gotten to see ‘Star Wars’ movies on the big screen yet – I can’t think of a better way to introduce them to the franchise. They’ll be as fascinated by the cinematography and special effects as children of the 1970s were when the original ‘Star Wars’ first came out.

Just don’t go into it with huge expectations. The dialogue still lags and, by the end of the movie, you’ll want to strangle anyone that thinks it’s funny to talk in pigeon English. On the plus side, though, you will find yourself lost in phenomenal far away galaxy all over again. That’s actually worth the price of admission.

What did you think? Were you impressed with ‘Star Wars Part 1: The Phantom Menace’ in 3D?