it's what i've been saying all along, man. People on the net will pretend to hate and criticise that which is awesome or even mediocre merely to elevate themselves. I call it the "comic book guy" effect from the simpsons, after his tendancy to wag his finger and pronounce "worst...episode EVER".

Look. This is an awesome trailer. It actually comes across as heart breaking for me. I'm not a tree hugger, hippie or anything. But this looks like a tragedy through and through. We're going to fall in love with the planet and these blue dudes only to watch humans with cool crap torch and blast the place to bits. :(

The cgi looks awesome. And it seems ( from the little we've seen so far ) that the acting will be pretty good too. Some of the facial expressions done with the cgi was really unique. Particularly when he said "this is great", that looked like a genuine expression someone would make, not a face rendered in a room by a cgi artist.

I was stoked before but didn't know why. now i'm beyond even that.

Only one question...this is supposed to be 3d in the cinema, right? If so, this could be that movie that proves to you that 3d could actually bring something to the table beyond characters throwing random objects at the screen.

It does look stunning, but I think they over saturate these things too much, it gives it a Pixar quaility that disconnects from the real characters in the movie (or maybe they're too smooth?). I'm sure this will be very entertaining, but it doesn't look like it has moved on visual effects since Revenge of the Sith.

i agree with gaz

Yup, I've suggested that could be the case already, because Cameron used 3D like lighting and sound rather than building a film around the 3D aspect.

I think this will be the film that makes me believe that 3D could work, but this is a very different 3D to the stuff we've been seeing so far, which is really a story around a gimmick, like the last time it was introduced into cinema.

You can't compare this 3D with Final Destination 3D.

As for the slick feel, I see what you say in some of the shots, but the shot of them in the medical area doesn't look like that at all. Perhaps it might be a post production thing, or maybe when they are in their natural world we're just going to see them that way.

Is it that big of a problem?

It's one of those things, you read the hype,revolution this, game changer that and when it doesn't live up to it your gutted.

It looks awesome just not as awesome is I hoped.

I'm a VFX artist so I can see this from the insiders point of view as it was. they've done a fantastic job with the environment stuff and the amount of work it must of taken is mind boggling! It's a shame it just boils down to a film with top notch VFX.

Oh and I'm going to the 15 minute 3d preview 2moro so maybe by this time 2moro I'll be eating my words. I really really hope I am.

I certainly expected to be underwhelmed given all of the hype, but I was wrong. Pretty amazing in my opinion.

I envy those who get to see the 3d preview.

The "game changer" thing kinda irked me too... i mean, it's cinema, right? no matter how awesome a movie is, it's still just a movie. So i'm not sure if it was all that good an idea to float the whole "this is the future of cinema" thing.

then again, i've yet to see it on a 75 foot digital projection screen so i'll refrain until then. :) God. All things considered, the word i keep coming back to when describing this in my head is "elegant". it all looks beautifully elegant.

So thats me back from the Avatar preview (via the pub) screening.

well.... I'll pre-empt everything by saying (as before) I'm a vfx artist on major blockbuster films from Children of Men to Narnia to Harry Snotter so I know what to look for.

At 1st glances the 3d takes some getting used to it's a bit jumpy, soft, some motion blur issues but you get used to it after 5 minutes or so. Like any 3d film I suppose. The live action has the main 3d issues but there wasn’t a great deal featured in the preview. Some of introduction stuff from the trailer but not much more.

After 5 minutes of watching the jungle stuff I had to remind myself its full CG. The characters are a bit hit and miss all be it on a scale between “awesome” and “fuck me that’s cool”! The environment is the really amazing thing though, it's just real. Its might be on the more saturated, stylised side of real but you feel like u could step out onto it.

I'm not going to sit here and say its photoreal perfect CG because you know what its not, you still know its CG. There are numerous reasons why you know its cg but somehow after a few minutes of the WOW factor wearing off you start to let the whole "game changer" nonsense go and get sucked into it.

Its simply amazing I've really never seen anything like it and I mean that whole heartedly. Just as the 15 minutes was ending I was there, part of it. I had let the bull shit go and was just watching it completely immersed in this world of giant slightly to smooth blue people. Again not to burst the bubble it I cant say its photoreal, hold a photo up and it looks like an amazingly detailed representation of that photo. But that’s really irrelevant we are not talking about the real world here, we are talking about a film world that is so dense, detailed, vibrant, complex and compelling all the CG hairs, spots, pours, scabs and itchy rashy things in the world wouldn’t make a bit of difference. It just works.

I really can’t wait for this now, to see this world driven by a proper narrative will be the real defining point…… christ …seeing the marines kick some serious 3d ass would do.

Bollocks to the 2d trailer……it made me think twice about even going to the preview. It really needs to be seen as intended on a huge 3d screen in a room full of people in daft glasses.

Actually, the CGI is good for the landscapes and so-and-so for the weapons and monsters. It seems like a videogame. Monsters look made of plastic. The space ships and robots look really fake. They seem no better than Doom3 (when the guy comes out of the spaceship, the robot at the left has the gun passing THROUGH his arm! this is a bad error for such a multimillionaire movie)