“The Empire Strikes Back” is my favorite movie of all time, and after watching “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” in 3D, I’m more excited than ever to watch it on the big screen.

From the moment the words “Star Wars” pops onto the screen, fading ever-so slightly into space, the blood was pumping, I can assure you. But after that, the  audience was forced to sit through the worst 30 minutes in the greatest saga of all time: the opening to “The Phantom Menace.”

This gave me the chance to really take in the 3D technology.

I was very underwhelmed, and it looks like every other movie that has been converted into 3D.

You see, there are two types of 3D movies: the ones that are filmed in 3D, such as “Avatar” and “Up,” and the ones that are converted, like the new “Alice in Wonderland” and the last “Harry Potter.”

The new “Star Wars” movies are obviously the latter, which really limits the technology in bringing what “Avatar” did back in 2010.

There is still the inward stage that the characters rest upon, but there is something missing. It’s when there are more than just one layer, more than just the actors and the background behind them, that it really looses that realism.

With the original trilogy waiting for its remake for a while, there is a chance that the technology could get way better, and that the 3D on “Return of the Jedi” could be the best of the six. Here’s hoping.

Besides that, I really enjoyed watching a movie I’ve seen 20 times again, this time with an added touch.

The pod race in the middle of the movie looked awesome. The fast-paced action worked perfect with the 3D, with Anakin bobbing through the desert landscape of Tatooine.

Growing up in the ’90s, I never got a chance to watch my favorite movie, “The Empire Strikes Back,” on the big screen, having only gotten the chance to see the three prequels, and now I’m going to get that chance.

It does suck that I’m going to have to wait that long, and that there is even a chance that Lucas Films goes belly up before they even get close to rendering the Original Trilogy in 3D, but just knowing that I may get that chance, it’s well worth the wait.

Sure, there are theaters that show nothing but “Star Wars,” but that just isn’t the same as seeing it in a packed theater with hundreds of oh-so-awesome nerds cheering when the scrolling text hits the stars of the universe.

That’s the sort of joy that I encountered when I saw “The Phantom Menace” for the umpteenth time, the sort of joy that those same nerds, dressed from head-to-toe in Jedi garb, cheered when the worst movie of the saga started playing. Yeah, that’s love.

I just can’t freakin’ wait to see Princess Leia’s sexy buns in glorious 3D action.