I haven't seen Avatar yet, and am not in a rush to do so, mostly because it's the CGI that everyone is going on about. The story, from what I understand, is a retelling of the John Smith/Pocahontas tale, which has already been done without CGI to great effect by the incomparable Terrence Malick.

When CGI is used to advance a good story, I have no problem with it and generally don't even notice it ("Minority Report" comes to mind here). When it's CGI for CGI's sake (in other words, just to show off and prove it can be done), I don't see the point. I'd rather spend those 2 hours playing a video game.

Ben Stiller's appearance costumed as one of the Pandorans really brought that home for me.