While the 3D wasn't really necessary, the visuals and the effects were beautiful. I thought there were glimpses of a story, sort of a scifi combination of "Dances with Wolves" and "Ferngully", but it all fell apart after the first few minutes and got less believable. The bad guys were bad for the sake of being bad and none of characters were really developed. Sigourney Weaver looks really good as a blue alien, though!