Of the $1.3 billion that “Avatar” has amassed so far, I have personally contributed about $42.50. I have seen the film three times now - first in RealD, then in conventional 2D, then again in IMAX 3D. Here are a few thoughts on how the film held up in the various formats.

RealD

Although it occasionally seemed as though I was watching the film through a sheet of oatmeal, “Avatar” in RealD was nevertheless an impressive piece of spectacle and a noticeable improvement over the last 3D film I’d seen in theatres “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.” It wasn’t quite the immersive, revelatory experience that the hype-machine had promised, but it was close enough.

Scenes involving flight seemed to work best in 3D, and in “Avatar,” there's usually a flying scene of some kind every 10 - 15 minutes. Whenever the camera tilted down, the ground actually felt like it was miles below, and about halfway through I came to the sad realization that this would probably be the closest I’d ever come in my lifetime to riding on the back of a pterodactyl. The experience was so overwhelming that my growing list of complaints regarding the story and dialogue seemed nothing more than a nitpicky collection of minor, barely relevant quibbles.

The scenes that took place on the surface of Pandora were also impressive, but not quite as seamless. When things were shown in close-up, the foreground and background elements didn’t always coalesce and portions of the frame which seemed like they should’ve been in focus were instead indistinct and blurry. Whenever there was an abrupt edit, it sometimes took my eyes awhile to adjust to the new shot. Particularly difficult on the eyes was the scene where Jake’s avatar is being chased through the Pandoran jungle by a half-tiger/half-dinosaur hybrid (Cameron’s screenplay usefully refers to these creatures as Thanators). 95% of the screen seemed out-of-focus and the hand-held, Bourne-style camerawork didn’t make the action any more intelligible. It looked more like a glitchy pre-visualization than a finished, professional product, and while watching it, I couldn’t help but think, “Wow, this would look great in 2D.”

If Cameron had only spent another few years sorting out the kinks with the technology, “Avatar” in RealD could’ve been a masterpiece. Instead, it was merely one of the best movies of the year with a few scenes that ranked among the greatest of all time (and many others which didn’t).

Conventional 2D

For some reason, the blurriness was still a problem in 2D. While not quite as dizzying, the Thanator chase scene was the same incomprehensible riot of motion that I had suffered through the first time around. How could James Cameron - supposedly an obsessive perfectionist - spend half a billion dollars on a movie and not notice that entire sequences are out-of-focus?

The flying scenes were of course still impressive, but not impressive enough to distract from the pedestrian plot, lackluster dialogue, and heavy handed political message. Although I mostly agree with Cameron’s pro-environment, anti-corporate stance and half-admire him for pissing off the Fox news crowd, being lectured at for 3 hours can grow a bit tedious. Listening to lines like “Who’d you expect, numbnuts?” and “Come to Papa!” is equally tiresome, and at several points I was seriously tempted to take out my iPod, turn up the volume, and just pretend that the movie had better dialogue than it did.

If “Avatar” had a stronger story, fewer lines that felt aimed at the five year old demographic, and less obvious criticisms of the Bush administration, it probably would’ve fared very strongly in 2D. Instead, it seemed like a below-average movie with incredible (if occasionally out-of-focus) special effects.

IMAX 3D

Unlike the sleek, disposable glasses that they give away at RealD screenings, IMAX 3D glasses are bulky, expensive, and come rigged with a sensor which will trigger an alarm if you try to leave the theater with them. In many ways, the IMAX 3D glasses are superior to their RealD counterparts: the image is clearer, the colours are less murky, and the possibility that someone getting up to go to the washroom could accidentally trip the alarm adds an extra level of suspense.

Unfortunately, the IMAX 3D glasses have a fairly significant drawback.  If you move your head the slightest inch, the image breaks apart and you start seeing double. If you’re sitting 20 feet away from a 3 story screen (I made the mistake of sitting in the fourth row) this can be a huge strain on the eyes.

I tried to keep my head as still as possible, and for awhile the 3D effect was stunning. But every now and then my neck would twitch and the image would suddenly split in two and then my eyes would scramble to put the image back together again. Repeat this process 100 times, and a crippling headache is unavoidable. Like a man lost in the desert who hallucinates water everywhere he looks, I found myself halfway through the film imagining that the floating mountains were made out of Tylenol, that the Na’vi were giant blue Vicodin pills, and that the mercenary airships were dropping shipments of Gravol instead of explosives.

If you’re willing to mount a steel pole to the base of your skull and attach the other end to your back, IMAX 3D is probably the best way to see “Avatar.”  Otherwise, sit in the back row and practice keeping your head still for at least a month before going to the theater.

Summary of Findings:

“Avatar” in RealD: 8/10
“Avatar” in 2D: 6/10
“Avatar” in IMAX 3D from the fourth row: 3/10

: 1:59 PM