Roger Ebert Hates 3D

I'm particularly interested in his point about 3D being darker.  I saw Avatar in 3D with 2 different projection systems: RealD 3D and 3D at the Arclight Dome.  Both times, throughout the film, I snuck a peak over my glasses and saw the colors and exposure at the saturation and brightness I thought the DP (haha) intended.  It looked beautiful.  The colors were more saturated and I could see important story information in the shadows.  When you're losing over a stop of light transmission through those glasses, your eye is unable to "open up" any further to compensate.  I'm curious if anyone saw a 2D and 3D version and noticed these subtle, but important differences.  A side by side comparison would be nice.

To add to that, was the Avatar viewing experience actually made better by it being in 3D?  Doubtful.