Avatar is a good way to spend nearly three hours.

After that, the flaws in the writing begin to show thru, the plot doesn't hold up, and even the awe at the special effects fade because we're just too accustomed to seeing visual spectacle in movies.

It's like Titanic in that it's good, but lacks any real replay value.

And I know you said not to play movie critic, but that's the main critique with his last two movies over the other movies of his career.

I know you loathe the ending of Terminator 2, but I could watch any of his first 4 movies over and over again. Even with the special effects that don't quite hold up to modern eyes, the plot, dialogue, and mystique around them are top notch. It's like after Terminator 2 Cameron decided he wanted to own the world and that just being a great filmmaker wasn't good enough. The whole thing just feels like a watered down version of his other work.