Avatar was the first movie I saw in 3d and I was very disappointed with it. I was expecting Disney-park type 3d where everything was really 3d coming right at your face. Instead all I got was the camera force focusing me on whatever they thought I should be looking at the time while everything else was out of focus.
3d is a total gimmick. This is the virtual reality craze of the 90's toned down into something we can actually purchase and consume but is still just as stupid.
I will embrace 3d when 1) I don't have to wear glasses. 2) When I can feel like I can reach out my hand and grab the image. 3) It's not just a gimmick to sell "3d enabled" tv's to the same people who bought brand new HDTV's last year.
What you were expecting is cheap 3D gimmicks.
No matter what you expect for 3D, the stuff "flying at your face" is equally as forced as using focus to control the viewer's experience. You can't pick and choose what flies out off the screen on your own, it's all controlled by the people behind the movie.
Avatar was a subtle, more engrossing, 3D.
I imagine the people who cannot see this must have less of an ability to determine depth from subtle clues (depth perception).
Myself, I have excellent depth perception (even when having mild red/green color deficiency and requiring corrective optics to reach 20/20, partly from mild astigmatism). With high-quality HD video, I can get a sense of "dimensionality", as if certain things pop out from the background, with just a regular LCD display.
Avatar, went above and beyond anything I expected or ever experienced for dimensionality. I felt like, from the camera, I could touch most of the foreground items, while the background items felt far beyond the projection screen. Everything had depth to it, there was a noticeable depth to people that was very easy to pick out. Looking at the image in a certain way, I felt like I was looking at them as if they were right in front of me, albeit with massive heads due to sitting so damn close to the screen. I felt like I got closer to certain things, or went to the extreme sides of the theater, I should expect to see something in a different angle. Granted, that isn't the case, but that's the perception I had. I like that, as you can't get that with 2D. The best HD sources come the closest, but far from a match.
If more directors choose to use 3D in the way James Cameron used it for Avatar, I will be drooling and racing for a 3D television.
Yes, I want something akin to VR, but I can find myself easily getting hyped for the current 3D experience if the movie uses it correctly.
Note, I have not seen any other RealD 3D movie, as I've been looking at current 3D as mostly a cheap gimmicky parlor trick as well. The hype around the 3D experience, and then the reviews that came pouring in about the 3D, demanded that I give it a try.
Maybe some animated movies achieve the same style too, I dunno. But I do know not a single thing I've witnessed from anaglyph glasses (red/blue) ever came close to what I saw with Avatar.
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