Avatar 3D sets the standard for future movies. I doubt I will attend another movie that is not 3D. It is the difference between black & white TV and color TV.
The plot was, as several noted, "dances with smurfs", with Pantheism tossed in, and the bad guys were the Left's traditional boxing dummies, consumerism and corporate America, but, from Hollywood, that's not new, so I ignore it.
What is NEW is the stunning realism of the graphics, combined with the vivid imagination of James Cameron, to give believability to what one saw on the screen, as long as you suspend your understanding of Physics and Biology in some scenes.
All in all, it is the best Sci Fi movie I have ever seen.