I am still not sure why studios are so infatuated with VFX and CGI. When VFX are used properly you are not supposed to notice them. While watching Avatar it is painfully noticeable that, essentially, the entire movie is special effects. When people say that Avatar was a "visual masterpiece" I find that statement laughable. CGI is supposed to be used to do things that would be extremely difficult to do otherwise, while making it appear real. The Bourne Trilogy should be considered a visual masterpiece because those movies were full of VFX that went unnoticed, as they should. The animation in Avatar was just as noticeable as that of Family Guy. If Cameron were actually serious with this endeavor he should have used animatronics mixed with CGI like Jurassic Park (in my opinion the best special effects in any movie to date). Also, even after the near 20 year inflation adjustment, Jurassic Park still had a budget of one third of Avatar. This all brings me to my main point. About halfway through the movie most film goers will acknowledge that the basis for which you will judge the quality of this movie is riding on the special effects. My point is that a good movie is more that what you see. You need compelling and original characters, good dialogue, believable acting, an intriguing plot; none of which you will find in Avatar. Nothing about the story is original, most things don't even make sense and if they do you can seeing coming from miles away. Even the novelty of the 3D wears off after a few minutes. The massive amounts of time and money into the visuals doesn't even come close to salvaging this movie. You can polish a turd but it is still a piece of crap.