You probably won’t be surprised to learn that China has banned Avatar from its theaters. China has a history of banning anything that’s cool, we sort of expect it from them at this point. What will surprise you is that they’ve only banned the 2D version. According to the LA Times the government has pulled the film from all of the country’s conventional, 2D cinemas but plans to leave it playing in 3D.

Is this China supporting new technology? Are they offended by the notion of watching Avatar in 2D which is, let’s face it, just a waste of everyone’s time? Some in Hong Kong have speculated that the government doesn’t agree with the movie’s politics, but if they’re leaving it playing in 3D that doesn’t really make sense. Besides, they’re replacing it with Chow Yun Fat’s Confucious biopic. I thought China was anti-religion? If they’re going to ban a movie for political reasons, they’d have picked that.

It seems most likely that this is just a dollars and cents issue. China is big on pushing locally made entertainment, even if it’s inferior. Avatar is crazy popular and so they want to limit its exposure in order to make room for more Chinese movies which no one really wants to watch. But really, if you’re going to see Avatar, why bother with 2D? Whatever their motives, this is a decision movie fans should get behind.