NOBODY goes to 3-D IMAX films looking for a great yarn, but “Encounter in the Third Dimension” offers a narrative that’s paltry even by the minimal standards of the genre. Fans who go in for the awesome 3-D IMAX visual effects can expect the usual cornucopia of cool flying objects and queasy-making illusions, but the storytelling is beside the point at best, and frequently annoying.

In this 40-minute feature, Stuart Pankin plays a goofy professor who claims to have a perfect 3-D system called “Real-O-Vision.” We visit him in his lab, where he prepares to test the gizmo by having it create a virtual-reality version of the Halloween beer shill Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (as herself).

Real-O-Vision goes kaflooey, and while the slapsticky professor works on it, he enjoins his cutesy robot assistant M.A.X. to entertain the audience with a history of 3-D filmmaking.

M.A.X. (voiced by Pankin) gives a diverting tour through 19th-century stereoscopy, through the 1950s heyday of 3-D goofy-glasses creature features, on to the present. The film uses clips from old movies, as well as several eye-popping segments from contemporary 3-D flicks like James Cameron’s “Terminator 2: 3-D.”

A roller-coaster ride through “the center of the earth” is pretty amazing, though I had to take my 3-D bandeau-specs off several times to keep my dinner down.

“Encounter in the Third Dimension” is little more than a special-effects show reel that plays like an amusement-park ride. This wacky whirligig approach may be enough for kids, but 3-D IMAX technology has been employed with much more interesting results in, for example, nature documentaries and the narrative feature “Across the Sea of Time.”

The hyped-up finale of “Encounter in the Third Dimension” features pop-Goth thrush Elvira warbling a bland pop tune about a haunted house. It’s disappointing in any dimension.