3D may very well prove to be just a fad, but it's one that hasn't peaked yet, as we observed earlier this evening, on Wondercon 2008's opening day, when we were part of the first audience anywhere to behold key scenes from this summer's Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.

Star Brendan Fraser joined producer Charlotte Huggins and the film's 3D consultant Ed Marsh on stage at the event, to speak of filming the first live-action digital-3D feature-length narrative film. After the trio chatted, they invited the audience to join them at San Francisco's AMC Metreon theater, where they would premiere approximately twenty minutes (or five scenes worth) of footage. And who were we to refuse? We quickly dashed out of Wondercon's convention center, grabbed dinner, hit the theater, got our 3D glasses, and found seats just in time to catch Fraser introduce the footage to an eager audience. Was the 3D as good as the filmmakers claimed it would be? Hell, yes!

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D may not be as pulse-pundingly visceral as Beowulf, but its 3D is smoother than anything we've seen before. Less headache-inducing, and certainly more cinematic. The film's story is, in Fraser's words, a "retooling" of Jules Verne's classic novel about, well, exactly what the film's title promises. Here, Fraser plays a science professor who believes Verne's book to be more than a work of science fiction. And while on an expedition in Iceland, he, his nephew and an awfully cute blonde (played by Anita Briem) find themselves experiencing the wonders and terrors of the tale. The scenes we observed had the trio menaced by giant carnivorous plants, killer fish, a storm at sea, a runaway mine car (strong shades of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom here), and a hungry albino dinosaur.

According to Huggins, who joined Fraser and Marsh again for a post-screening Q&A, all of the 3D films made before Journey had "horizontal and vertical alignment issues." "With Journey," she said, "we were able to adjust those things and adjust the conversions"--the way in which one's eyes adjust to images moving towards them. The result is a film with far more cuts than is usual for a 3D movie; and a film that is cut like a normal feature. "Your eyes adjust comfortably," said Huggins, "Before this movie, we had to compensate for 3D."

Fraser added that he was well prepared for Journey 3D--which opens on July 11--because on The Mummy films he "received an education in how to behave in enviroments that are little more than a green screen." He also remarked that his favorite scene may be a climactic scene that was not previewed for the Wondercon audience. "You have to pay for it!" laughed Fraser; before explaining that the killer plant scene was pretty special too, in that it was added when the filmmakers realized they needed another antagonist for the heroes. "It was never supposed to be in the movie. We had to find a way to get in a fight with somebody you can fight in a PG-13 movie."

"I think you should feel proud for having been here tonight," he told the crowd before it departed, "because I really do."

Be sure to keep checking back for more of our Wondercon coverage throughout this weekend. And, in the days ahead, look for our exclusive one-on-one interview with Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D producer Charlotte Huggins--in which she gives us plenty of details about the many creatures we can expect to see in the film!