When I was younger, a 3-D movie was a mystical thing that I figured I would never get to see. My parents would tell me about “Jaws 3-D” and how it felt like everything in the film was reaching out into the audience. I personally thought that was the coolest thing ever. I waited and waited until I would get the opportunity to finally see these different types of movies and get to wear the funny glasses with blue and red lenses.

When I was 11 years old, I finally got my wish. “Spy Kids 3-D” was released in theaters and I begged my mom to take me. I watched in awe as I saw everything coming out of the screen. (I may have tried to grab at something once or twice, too.) But, after the wonderment wore off, I really didn’t care about seeing a 3-D movie anymore. I got my childhood wish and that was the end of it…or so I thought.

My junior year of high school, I prepared myself to see a new 3-D movie: “My Bloody Valentine.” A group of friends and I sat in the theater while we watched a big guy with a pickaxe slaughter people for nearly two hours. Yes, seeing the pickaxe thrown at the camera was scary enough, but in the midst of the blood and gore, I realized 3-D movies weren’t that awesome. Who wants to feel like they’re in the middle of a gruesome murder scene? Not me, that’s for sure.

Now, it seems like there’s not a movie that doesn’t have the option of going to see it in 3D. I can even understand wanting to make some movies come alive. But, when you have movies coming out like “Jackass 3D” and “Piranha 3-D,” the movie industry might be taking it a little too far. Case in point: “The Great Gatsby” is being made into a 3-D movie. That’s when you know that this is one craze that needs to go away.

Hope might not be totally lost for the wonder of 3-D movies. The concept would be so much better if used sparingly. We go to the movies to escape our boring and mundane lives, not to get thrust into an action movie where we have to escape terrorists or a thriller where we find out our neighbor is a depressed widower, who’s bound to go on a shooting spree at any second. Now, if they want to make a movie with Jake Gyllenhaal, in which every girl can be his leading lady, that might not be so bad.