I went to see Avatar with my family in a packed suburban movie theater, and truth be told the only thing that sticks out in my memory now are the trailers, one in particular. Sure, everybody—including myself—made a little gasp or a yummy sound when we saw the words on the green-band message before the trailers lift off of the screen. But they mostly blurred together. It was a slew of standard family fare, such as the latest unnecessary Shrek movie, another Robert Zemeckis animated feature, and a lot of magical sparkly things flying across the screen in 3D. The main attraction hadn’t even started and the audience was already moaning and groaning like the proverbial money shot was imminent. Then the theater fell silent, and it was my turn to blow my movie-going load. A deep orchestral hum started up, the NASA logo appeared, and then the huge IMAX screen was filled with stars and wide angle shots of space equipment.

Call me a dork, but the IMAX: Hubble 3D trailer made me feel like a little boy on Christmas. It seemed completely out of place among all the kids’ movies, and the audience’s silent reaction seemed to agree with me.

I can see how it might be hard to get pumped for a movie that seems like it was made for science centers and museums. But I’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff produced by the Hubble telescope. The Ultra Deep Field 3D—that one time they pointed it at a patch of blank sky for over a week, found an unbelievable amount of galaxies clustered there, and made them into a 3D collage—was pretty memorable.

Stuff like that gets me hooked on the idea of a space documentary with that all-important third dimension added in.

Avatar alone gave me fleeting waves of vertigo; I can only imagine the head popping potential for this movie. Is anyone else with me, or am I just a nerd?