Teaser Trailer from 'Avatar' debuts

Posted Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 4:47 PM Central

by John Couture

Ahead of tomorrow's Avatar Day, the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar is hitting the interwebs today and the general reaction hasn't been very pleasant.

Here's just a sampling of the twitter chat:

@Kennylane26 @JackMcMalley Avatar? More like...Ava-reTARded!!!! BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (sigh) that took me awhile

@james_gunn Avatar has some of the most incredible visual effects I've seen since Super Mario Bros.

@harrispower james cameron's avatar looks a little too much like an xbox game for its own good. he gave up the terminator franchise to make this?!?

@jaroot can't make my mind up about 'Avatar' after seeing some footage at last...is it gonna be stunning or shite?!

@michaelsigler And to make matters worse, the Avatar logo is a barely modified Papyrus. PAPYRUS! James Cameron, you shall rue this day! Rue I say!

@MarcelvanDriel I am not a nay-sayer, but the Avatar trailer failed to impress me, and I am a geek. It still looks like a videogame to me ...

@JamesSharpe Not massively impressed with Avatar trailer, some of it looks great (floating islands, yum) but the CG still looks very much like CG #fb

Although all the response wasn't all negative.

@whitewolf82 avatar is going to be one of the best movies in a long time, camerons last movie was in theaters for like 6 months, he doesn't make b.s.

@poppylyttle FIRST TRAILER FOR AVATAR IS OUT TODAY! LOOKING SPARKLY! STUNNING! EXCITING! BRILLIANT!

@Kartones Avatar looks so f**cking awesome!

@narwilliams I've watched the Avatar teaser half a dozen times already... So gorgeous. VFX geek's dream! (And there are dragons.)

@kaarvok Just watched the Avatar trailer in full HD. It looked awesome. Remember that this will look a lot better in digital 3D!

So, it seems that the early buzz is split into two camps. But why take their word for it? Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think. Yours truly was able to score a couple of passes to Avatar Day tomorrow, so I will check in once I see the footage on the big screen in 3D and let you know my thoughts.

Also, don't forget to follow our twitter feed tonight as I update from the super cool live RiffTrax event.