“Avatar” was the international blockbuster that made 3-D movies commonplace in American multiplexes. Its director and multi-dimensional filmmaking’s leading evangelist, James Cameron, ought to be happy. He’s not.

The technology has “become a studio-driven top down process to make money,” Cameron told fellow director Alfonso Cuaron (“Y Tu Mama Tambien,” “Children of Men”) at a tech conference in Mexico City last week. Cameron said two of the summer’s biggest releases, “Iron Man 3” and “The Man of Steel,” would have been spectacular without the extra fuss.

We’re unlikely to see fewer 3-D movies for now. Studios and theater exhibitors love such films because they allow for greater profits, which helps compensate for dwindling ticket sales.

Cameron is currently working on “Avatar 2” and “Avatar 3,” and you can expect to be handed a set of plastic glasses if you want to see either.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer

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