I believe there will always be a 2D counterpart to 3D releases.

On brightness, no, it is more like 3/5 as bright. Light is lost as it is
split between the eyes, but then the brain merges the images together and
some brightness is re-attained. Projection companies are working on that
issue right now and hope to have the situation solved soon.

Would prescription 3D glasses help in your case? I am not exactly sure about
what condition you are describing.

Because I'm 1-eye, I never wear glasses because I always forget since I see perfect every morning I wake up. After 20 years, I don't wear glasses at all. So to watch 3D, I have to fish out my old glasses, just wearing that alone gives me nausea. Since I promised 3 of the missionary kids to watch Avatar in 3D, I went ahead since I already enjoyed the 2D immensely prior. I had the worst 2.5hrs of pain, nausea, dark, dark movie experiences ever. The only thing I remember is when he came out of the water, for a brief couple of seconds, I said Wow, that's cool in 3D.

I would never watch 3D ever again. I'm a big 3D fan because in the late 1990's, I have a special adapter that can stereo vision out and split left and right eye using i-Glasses technology. I still got bunch of those videos from the late 90's of 3D home videos I recorded. So I am just as big of a techno geek fan as anyone out there.

So I hope I give in just how horrible these experiences are. Watching my home brewed 3D videos on CRT monitor was so much comfortable to watch because I can sit up close to the TV without having to wear normal glasses, just the 3D glasses. In the theatre because of the distance, I don't have a choice not to wear the normal glasses. If I get contact lens, I might consider it but it's big inconvenience and the cost involved to get the contacts just for these movies and paying premium while you're at it at the box office.

My 0.02.

And is 3D really that important? When people watch plain old 2D films are they confused when one person moves behind another person in 2D space? I think not.

Some have compared the move to 3D to the move from Black and White to Color movies but color actually does convey more information: Meaningful information. While 3D does technically provide more information to the brain, it's considerably less significant than the color information as our brains are already capable of reconstructing a faux-3D landscape in our minds from the clues in the normal 2D picture.

I was quite literally having this discussion at lunch today with a co-worker. He was excited that his new Blu-Ray player would be firmware updatable to 3D and a little downbeat that his new TV was not suitable for 3D playback. He's utterly convinced that 3D television will be in everyone's home is a few years, but he couldn't explain why anyone would want it.

I told him, “the day all TV goes 3D (at least in its present incarnation) is the day I'll finally turn off the TV forever.” Perhaps I'm being a luddite, but this seems entirely a manufactured fad by the industry without any real demand from the public.

Your timing regarding 3D home entertainment couldn't be better. With CES
2010 opening up in Vegas – you will hear about the exploding 3D home
entertainment market and how big companies (Sony for example) are betting
the bank on S3D. Sure they can watch AVATAR in 2D at home. But they can and
will have the option, this year, of watching it in 3D. It is now just a
question of family budgets vs. the cost. That's all.

So 3D as a hack? Hardly. Blu-ray has their 3D specification. HDMI has
theirs. It is happening THIS year. No hack. Heck there isn't even going to
be a format war. They have all agreed to agree. Take that one to the bank.

Cinematic 3D choices? Good for the industry. RealD is big in America, Xpand
does well in Europe. No bother! The average consumer doesn't care.

I am amazed there are still some world is flat types out there

More seriously I don't think that the success of Avatar had much to do with it being in 3D. Most people watching Avatar have seen it in 2D and when people buy it on DVD and Blu-Ray the overwhelming majority will proceed to watch it in 2D.

3D as currently implemented is a hack at best.