Like D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of A Nation" (1915), this racist piece of claptrap is visually appealing. As for the "message", OMG!
According to James Cameron, who wrote this thing, the natives of Pandora, who are so obviously American aborigines, are good and pure and brave while the Earth people (really, white people) are greedy, deceitful, avaricious, and destructive. End of story. The rest is is eye candy.
Honestly, haven't we had enough of this? I know I have.
As for the special effects, themselves, I am not sure they are much more spectacular than the "Under The Sea" song and dance scene in "The Little Mermaid".