But let's get past that discussion. Avatar is, by Cameron's own admission, an ANIMATED FILM (like i.e. Pixar's) with very few real-life elements/shots embedded in it (Cameron said something like 90%-10%).

Since the animation DOES NOT pass for real to … well, anyone, then we just classify this as an animated film and be done with that discussion.

Is it gonna be a good or bad animated film? Who knows. Good animated films are rare, with UP and WALL-E being to recent good ones. But in the Sci-Fi genre, they mostly sucked, like with the Final Fantasy series. When it comes to 3D animated films, perhaps Polar Express and Beowulf comes to mind as similar.

I too saw the Comic-Con Reel and was blown away by it. When I watched the trailer within the hour they released it, I thought: "Cool! Now the world can see what awesomeness they're in for." And then, everybody's reactions started pouring in on the internet. "Horrible effects," "Avatars remind me of Jar-Jar," "I can totally tell it's CG" — I was thinking to myself… did we just see the same trailer?

And then, while taking a ponderous morning tea, I remembered back to my own viewing at Comic-con. Back then, I was ready to watch "the next step in cinema evolution." I was ready for the "photoreal aliens". I was etc etc etc– and then I watched it. It was almost a little disappointing at first. Sure, the effects were great, stellar even. But I could still tell it was CG. He didn't fool me into believing these things were filmed live action. But then I started to get into the characters… I started to get into the plot… I forgot I was watching a CG movie; it became photoreal, through my own suspension of disbelief. By the end, I was excited. I loved it!!

And THAT'S what went wrong. With the trailer at least. My guess… Cameron cut it himself. Not that it's a bad teaser per se, but you get a feeling while watching it that Cameron was thinking, "I've been getting brilliant reviews on the effects from the private showings; I'm gonna show the world what this film is made of, then my efforts will be fully vindicated." And then, like a magician at the beginning of a bad show, he pulls the rabbit out of the hat and expects the audience to clap and cheer. My point… it's not just about the rabbit. We all know the rabbit was in the hat to begin with. What's important is the show… the story… the characters. These are what make us believe the magic.

What Jim needs to do is "fo-get all dat chit". Let the characters and story be the reason to see the movie, not the effects. He's really made something special, and he's spent a lot of time developing the effects for this movie, it seems counterproductive to put all that in the background, but that's exactly what he needs to do. Remember, a magician always distracts the audience with showmanship before he does the trick.

"Ta-da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"… silence… clap… clap.

I do agree that the hype may well work against it, though.