Saw Avatar today. In 3D. Yes, it does have a pretty simple, straightforward narrative. But, that is fine because it gives us more of a chance to just really enjoy the visuals. There has never been a movie that created a foreign world in such an immersive way.
He does have lots of things inspired by others. I saw stuff from Poul Anderson, Ursula LeQuin, Anne McCaffrey and others. But no one else has created visuals of what the authors produced. The attention to detail is just awe-inspiring. And there are some images whose beauty brought me to tears.
In addition, this is the first 3D movie that I really enjoyed. Others often gave me a headache, with changing depths of field that caused eye strain. But Cameron used the third dimension to give a real sense of motion. When things attacked, you got a real sense of their movement through space in ways that a normal movie does not. If others can copy this approach, 3D could become even more popular.
So, the simple story allows us to concentrate more on the sheer beauty of the movie, which is really what Cameron wanted us to do. Movies are, after all, a visual medium and Cameron pushes the envelope here.
Well, my next goal is to see it on an IMAX screen. That should be awesome.
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A Man With A Ph.D. 
I’m very interested to know what Ursula LeGuin-inspired things you noticed. She is one of my idols :)
There were some aspects of The Word for the World is Forest – military exploitation of indigenous species, destruction of the tree-village, lush landscape, mining, Colonel Miles Quaritch is as harsh a force of nature as Captain Davidson. If you ever wondered what this world looked like, watch Avatar.
Avatar has many tropes found in some outstanding science fiction. But it is the first mocie to make these worlds seem real, in a way that could only be done using a computer. It will be fun to see ow this movie influences upcoming movies, like John Carter of Mars.