Ferngully 2: Dances with Warhammer 40k!

ok, but honestly: I’d rather see a movie with spectacular special effects and a safe, standard, fallback plotline than see a movie with spectacular special effects and a plot that was absolute crap.

They could have tried something out there plot-wise, and had it failed, nobody would be talking about the amazing technological leaps, they’d be talking about the nonsensical plot.

see: Star Wars the Phantom Menace
(that’s ‘see for reference’ not ‘go out and see’)

SW:PM was as much of a leap forward technologically as Avatar is.

The motion capture for Jar-Jar was as much of a breakthrough as the motion capture (the detail in the faces, especially) used for the Na’vi.

The problem is that the plot made no sense, and the amazing technology was wasted on characters and settings that were so poorly written that people hated seeing them on screen.

TL;DR – If you’re going for a special effects breakthrough and pants-shitting technology, go with a plot that is tried and true and won’t detract from the visuals