Avatar is a stunning movie experience. Credit to James Cameron, a director with a fantastically broad vision and the tenacity to bring such a project to fruition.

Visually the film is superb. The 3D (and it’s worth whatever extra outlay is asked for) is comfortable to watch and is not used to shock or impress, but rather to pleasantly envelope the viewer in the total experience.

We are on the distant planet Pandora. Jake Sully, a disabled ex-marine, is sent to infiltrate the indigenous humanoids, the Na’vi, by having his DNA combined with theirs to form an Avatar, a surrogate being which can breathe the noxious air. Why? Well, the Na’vi are resistant to their lush jungle domain being pillaged by human colonists for valuable minerals. His mission is to persuade them to move. But, silly boy, Jake falls in love.

Cameron is like a happy teen who has brought his doodles to life. Pandora is filled with wonderful flora and fauna and stunning landscapes. We fly in fantastical machines or on the backs of pterodactyls. We are charged by hammerhead rhinos and snapped at by snarling jaguars. The final confrontation is a tour-de-force of action film-making. But equally, it’s the tiny details which give pleasure: the floating, illuminated will-o’-the-wisps, or tiny glowing embers hanging in the air. Breathtaking.

So, it’s a bit of a shame that such wonderfully realised sequences are hung onto plot lines which have been so well trodden before. There are strong echoes of The Emerald Forest, The New World and Pocahontas. As science fiction Moon and District 9 asked more interesting questions. We have the stock bad guys – greedy corporates and their military henchmen, and stock good guys – earnest scientists and the put-upon natives, complete with all-embracing nature deity.

You should definitely see Avatar. Technical credits are beyond reproach. The cast are all persuasive and the romantic leads, though aliens, are attractive. Although, as a story, your mind might remain a little unengaged, as an experience, your senses will be exhilaratingly overwhelmed. What this technology now needs is a director of the stature of Stanley Kubrick.