Well..
Avatar .. looks like it'll probably be 'meh', but I'mma see it.
Biggest complaint about the teaser I saw: No. Fucking. Words. Minimal 'character' sounds even. Doesn't do much to make me want to see a movie when I get no .. feel for it, other thn "look, shinies!"
I'm a sucker for bad sci-fi films though.. heh.
Also notable, one of the reasons some peole have been mistaken Avatar for 'The Last Airbender' is .. not just the nme. But it's pretty much the same damn font. >.>
(also, my laptop keyboard sux.)

Looked fine to me

And the other half somehow involves lots of guns, rockets and tanks?

I have the exact same feeling about limitations.
Ridley Scott said one day, in the Alien Legacy DVD set - If I remember well - that he had a lot of nostalgia for that time when he made Alien. Because of the limitations, he though that directors had to be creative and imaginative, much more than today.
But fortunately, there will have so many *special effects* movies that the audience will be bored by it, and filmmakers will be forced to put a good story in their movie. IMO we've already entered this new era, CG blockbusters don't have the same financial success than before.
"without limitations it just seems 'special effects' aren't special"
That's a very good point for me, let them abuse of CG effects, it couldn't be better for near future movies. I can't wait to the time where special effects will be nothing more than sound effects, lightning, etc... just a regular element of a movie.

it's james cameron, it should be good. though i wonder if watching all that in action in 3d is gonna give me a major headache!
While the cgi looks about average for now, the world at least looks interesting and not something that's been shown in the cinema before. It deserves a chance, just for the director.

Makes me nervous. Isn't that what Lucas said about the prequel Star Wars trilogy? Look how that turned out. *shudders*

And now everyone knows, and now I have to kill them. >=)

Any one at comic ocn this year it was funny I was walking around and overheard some kids that saw the Avatar poster get all crzy that some one is using the Air bender nmae for "some crapmovie about aliens WTF" gave me a good laugh.

1) Alien Homnid awesomeness....
2) WTF!? ARE THEY THAT DUMB!?

He speaks of animation in this blog entry, saying it "has limitless possibilities if it is not derailed by Hollywood's mass corporate delusion about 3D." The blog entry is mostly about the movie "Up," but has some things to say about 3D too.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/05/up_up_and_away_in_my_beautiful.html#more

People in Hollywood never say anything straight and are more aware than anyone how important lies are and how to sell them. I'm continually amazed when people take some of the constant self-promotion and ass-covering from celebrities and others in the entertainment world at face value and think they have any idea what some figure is really like or what he's doing.