One lucky SOB has seen Avatar footage – he is Time magazine writer Josh Quittner.

Describing his experience, Quittner wrote: "I couldn’t tell what was real and what was animated–even knowing that the 9-ft.-tall blue, dappled dude couldn’t possibly be real. The scenes were so startling and absorbing that the following morning, I had the peculiar sensation of wanting to return there, as if Pandora were real."

The film is set for release on December 18 by 20th Century Fox. The article indicates that the film cost in excess of $200 million to make and combines two technologies – e-motion capture and digital 3D.