I watched this movie with some family last night. I originally saw Avatar in 3-D IMAX and thought it looked fantastic. The 2-D Blu-ray is spectacular. I thought the colors were a bit sharper and clearer on the Blu-ray, than I remembered it in 3-D. One major thing that I missed from the 3-D experience though, were the shots from within tight, confined spaces, such as within some of the lab rooms with low ceilings, or from inside some of the marine air-ship cockpits. For example, in 3-D I actually felt like I was in the cockit, standing behind the pilot. In 2-D, you lose much of that effect. For all of the outside shots in the jungle, I believe I like the Blu-ray better. Like I said earlier, I thought the imagery and colors were a bit sharper. Plus, on big, open, outside scenes, I think 3-D looks more like 2-D. 3-D just seems to work best when relaying the sense of 'being inside of something', or for noting the 'roundness' of an object when standing close to it, such as when veiwing a gun-ship from just outside the cockpit, looking in with the crew inside.
All in all, I think Avatar is a great looking movie and should be in any Blu-ray collection. If nothing else, a great reference video.
Another note, after the credits rolled, an interesting Pandora inspired THX short rolled. I thinking this is really an odd place for it, since I almost missed it. I just wonder why it wasn't put at the beginning, before the movie. Or at the very least a way to find it for playback in the menu.
- Bill
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