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[WingedWolfPsion]

This was definitely one of the top movies I've seen, ever. Graphically beautiful, engaging characters, interesting storyline.

Is it a brand new story? No, it's a combination of primitives versus high-tech exploiters, and a very common science fiction theme, the idea of a sentient world. But it's definitely an old story done in a new way.

We've seen a similar story in Dances with Wolves, though the ending didn't turn out quite as good in that one.
No, not in Fern Gully. This isn't about an evil demon directing people to destroy the environment. The destruction of the environment is really secondary to the issue, here--at least, that's what the invaders thought. This isn't about environmentalism, it's about respecting the rights of people who may be 'more primitive' technologically than you are. It's about how people can use force to oppress others in order to take what they want, and feel they have a right to do so. It's also an epic story about how a single person can make a difference, and also about how it's really dumb not to listen to the scientists. <grin>

In this one, the scientists turn out to be the good guys--that's always a nice change.

You've never been so happy to see people being eaten, at least not since Jurrasic Park.

There's many layers here dealing with 'human' rights, environmentalism, and the wisdom of looking before you leap. The human future painted is unabashedly dystopian, but not without hope of redemption. They just won't find it on Pandora.

In terms of an alien world, perhaps the Na'vi are bit too human--a common enough error in science fiction. But the planet itself is incredibly colorful and unique, with air too thin or too toxic for humans to breathe without respirator masks, for all of its lush profusion of life.

Rather than seeing the wildlife of pandora as 'modified prehistoric animals', I was very impressed by the variations in body form (six-legged carnivores, 4-winged fliers, nectar-drinking hooved animals with breathing pores on their necks that are ridden like horses--land-going corals, small reptile-like animals that fly via propeller-like fans...the biology of this created world is detailed, fascinating, and realistic. One does expect to see things taking similar forms and routes to what we see on earth, because these body plans and forms work for the environments they are in, and Pandora is just enough like Earth to pull that off. Pandora actually has more diversity in its land-going organisms than Earth does.

For example, we see wolves in the Northern hemisphere--a 4-legged carnivore built for stamina. It has a long snout with sharp teeth for grabbing and pulling down prey. It's a communal hunter.
In Africa we see the Hyaena--it looks so similar to the wolf, a canine, that we thought it must be related, but in truth, it's not related to the wolf at all--it's not a canine, it's actually a type of weasel.
So we would expect to see creatures with a somewhat similar appearance filling a somewhat similar niche on another world.