Re: cheering for the death of ex-soldiers in Avatar (not seen yet, either). Years ago, I watched Das Boot and remembered developing sympathy for the crew to the point where I was genuinely saddened when their boat got blown to bits in the last scene. I had to check myself because I do not recall being a Nazi sympathiser back in high school.

Point being, in the hands of great director, a movie can bring out emotions which would not be plausible before watching that movie, though, I don’t think that was really what Corliss was trying to say.