Avatar has sold more home video-ness than anything ever. With my in-laws visiting, I put it on over the weekend to get a look at the opening half hour. They asked me to leave it on. They were hooked. The visuals were impressive even without the third dimension. To my wife's utter shock, her mother was the one saying "no, leave it on, this is neat."

They never went to see it theatrically (much less in 3D), and found it to be "pretty good, but I mean, not Best Picture of the year or anything". It just goes to show that spectacle is spectacle, regardless of added dimension. Even my wife, who refused to watch it in theaters in staunch defense of practical visual effects, grudgingly admitted it was pretty good, better than she expected. She added very firmly that it's "nowhere near as good as The Hurt Locker" and that the idea of a sequel sickens her. She has no desire for a second chapter.

My favorite part of the existing Blu-ray release is that there's no advertising anywhere on the disc. Not pre-empting the feature, not buried in a menu, nada. They were upfront about supplemental material coming, but it'll take time. This lets you rent it if you just want to watch it before the end of the year, and buy it if you don't give a crap about extras (which is most of the general public).