I thought a lot of the stuff when they were flying the dragon things looked pretty good. Gave a good sense of speed when they were diving, and also when Jack was trying to escape that pissed off beast in the forest....damn. Plus it was all in 3D. Nothing like that in those other movies you mentioned. I never thought Transformers was anything special either. Great special effects yeah but the only "wow" moment in that movie was probably when Optimus was getting his ass kicked in the woods. Other than that it was basically like 2012 on a smaller scale, with robots. Transformers also fails as far as making the audience feel anything. Well, maybe kids started crying when Optimus "died" lol.
The other thing is I don't see how Sherlock Holmes even came close to Avatar in numbers this weekend. I went to Avatar this morning and even the non 3D showing was sold out. On a Monday morning.