Of Avatar and Progress

Just watched Avatar this weekend; the highest grossing movie of all time, and I’m finally getting around to seeing it on Blu-Ray. It’s a visually stunning film (large sections of the movie could be watched with the dialogue track turned off and it would still be engaging), and as a sci-fi fan I appreciate that the setting is pretty original. The plot is recycled and predictable: spy infiltrates native community but decides he likes the natives better than his own people; betrayals, revelation...