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Call me an unsophisticated, easily impressed yokel — maybe it’s true — but I enjoy 3-D movies. I liked them when you had to wear those paper glasses with the two-colour lenses, even if they gave you a headache. And I like them even more now, since 21st century technology has significantly improved the process. Hey! Look at the pointy thing flying straight towards me while the background tunnels away into infinity! Sure, I recognize that this is the sort of thing that impresses children. But I also recognize that basically, I’m a child.

When digital 3-D first came on the scene, many saw it as the future of cinema or as something that was going to ruin cinema forever. Neither is true. Digital 3-D is the same thing 3-D has always been: A gimmick. A fad. But it's also really cool.

Film snobs who ask if “You’ve honestly ever seen a film that looked better in 3-D?” are missing the point. This isn’t about improving an image; it's about turning the screen into a big ol' magic trick. Moving pictures have been criticized as being gimmicky from the start. The first time audiences saw a projected image of a train pulling into a station — as the Lumiere Brothers displayed way back in 1896 — they were amazed. We laugh now, but it’s truly an amazing thing to see a train chugging toward you when you're indoors. Early cinema from the silent era was gloriously gimmicky, and filmmakers had an absolute ball throwing illusion after illusion at audiences while inventing techniques that would continue to be useful for the next century.

If you travelled back in time and saw one of these early films in a theatre, would you sneer at the audience enraptured with simple entertainment that can't compare with District 9 (2009) on Blu-Ray? Of course not. You'd “Oooh” and “Aaah” with everybody else. Because you'd see history being made.

Every once in a while, a filmmaking technique comes along that gives audiences a taste of the thrill early cinema gave to our great-grandparents. Imax films, for example, used to be nothing but travelogues, displaying extreme close-ups of grasshoppers or flights through the Grand Canyon. Watching these gigantic images was a lot like watching early cinema — audiences found themselves gasping at the simplest things as if they hadn't been jaded from decades of film and television. These types of experiences are marvelous, and they should be treasured.

There's a bit of a backlash against 3-D at the moment, and it's gaining momentum. Avatar (2009) earned more than $2 billion at the box office and won three Oscars (out of nine nominations) despite being mediocre in the story department; now, it’s an easy target for haters. And 3-D televisions need expensive glasses to work — as of yet, there is no industry standard. They'll probably become obsolete before we get universally compatible glasses (seriously, don't buy a 3-D TV). Dull movies have been given a perfunctory 3-D sprayjob after the fact, with poor results. Many people with eye problems can't perceive the illusion. And yes, 3-D ticket sales are starting to droop.

But look at the positive side of the current 3-D boom. The glasses are sturdy, comfortable and, finally, available in kid's sizes. People are responsible about recycling the glasses, too. 2-D versions of 3-D movies are also readily available, for those who don't want to spend the extra three bucks. Filmmakers are embracing the possibilities of the format without being forced to make 3-D films. It isn't the prevailing force in cinema; it's a niche that provides us with one or two nifty little gimmick movies a month, at least for the time being.

In the 1950s, audiences loved the paddleballs shooting out at them in House of Wax (1953), but quickly tired of the gimmick when it was applied pointlessly to films like Kiss Me, Kate (1953) and Dial M for Murder (1954). A string of goofy B-movies such as Treasure of the Four Crowns (1983) and Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983) appeared in the 1980s, but the lameness of the films killed the fad (again). The current slate of 3-D films is much better, with delightful films such as Coraline (2009), Despicable Me (2010) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) making the most of the gimmick without sacrificing quality. There's a chance that 3-D cinema will actually endure this time, but based on history (and current box-office trends) it's most likely to fade away again — at least until the next revival. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.