It occurred to the cynical part inside me that Avatar is the Movie industry's way of getting the general public to pay for the widespread installation of 3D technology in theatres. It's a major blockbuster movie from a big name director, released at peak season without any significant competition, AND it's in 3D.

This is just the same way that the orignal "Star Wars" movie was the vehicle for Surround Sound. The movie that EVERYONE has to see, and therefore the techniology costs get diluted by the mass audience and we don't notice them so much - though people here and on other forums have commented about the cost of watching the movie in their country. In Australia, it was no more expensive than any other commercial movie, so I guess we're getting ripped-off EVERY time?

The plot is a bit predictable, but the production values are absolutely superb, right through. Some of the characters are a bit "2D" as personalities, but the 3D world is superb. I loved the bit where - shall we call it snow? - was falling. I could literally see snow drifting down inside the movie theatre, between the seats and audience ahead of me.

And the teenage gamer in me loved all the cliches - but let's instead call them a "nod" to earlier works - like the floating mountains being the physical 3D embodiment of Roger Dean's Sci-Fantasy paintings of the 80's, and a bit of "dragonrider" thrown in, plus the "noble savage" cliche of the American Indian and his horse, and an even Better colony ship than the Jupiter probe from 2001 - but with some signature construction details.

If you put enough cliches in, it gets beyond pastiche and become a tour-de-force of homage to the great traditions of Sci Fi, in the same way that if you steal from one author, it's plagarism, but if you steal from many, it becomes Research!