Avatar: Special Edition, 3D: I decided with the mixed reaction here that the movie could only benefit from being seen on a big screen. I also wanted to see why Cameron was pushing for 3D technology adoption so hard.
I never saw the original, so I have no idea what was added or subtracted from it. It didn't feel overly long, but it just wasn't all that impressive a story. It was a fairly typical action movie, benefiting from some "wow" factor in 3D, and a LOT of really excellent CG. Whatever they were feeding the animators on Avatar, they need to flow some of that good shit to the TRON LEGACY team working on Young Jeff Bridges. The lip synch stuff is just amazing; catching a lot of remarkable nuance in the performances.
I spend a lot of time trying to figure out if I was going to get a glimpse of Na'vi nipple or other naughty bits. It's like when a girl is wearing a really high midriff shirt, and it seems like you'll catch a glimpse of side-boob or under-boob. It's distracting.
WETA is amazing. It's a joke that ILM gets any money at all anymore. WETA owns them at every turn.
The "magic native" angle and "white guilt" angle were superbly overt. It may have been nice to see why the hell floating rocks are needed back on earth. Then again, it would have been nice to know why a strongly militarily backed production has a metric ass-ton of helicopter, an impractically large gunship of Miyazaki-anime scale, an atmospheric/orbital capable shuttle, but for a bomb they're limited to taping a bunch of mining explosives together on a shipping pallet and dropping them out the back of the non-military craft while flying really slowly. Um.
Col. Clawface was fun. Jake Sully was good, and Nateeralolly-lolly was super impressive in her range of expression. I didn't need to see another Cameron speciality: the hard-boiled, doomed latina warrior woman, or the tough female pilot. At least this time he rolled them into the same character to save time.
It's not a bad movie, but it's elevated solely on its technical merits, which are impressive.