I’m something of a sci-fi fan. Okay, a lot of a sci-fi fan. It’s annoyed me then that, since The Lord of The Rings quite rightly stamped all over the box office, fantasy films seem to have pushed sci-fi into the background. What was the last truly great sci-fi movie you can remember? Minority Report? Serenity? Star Trek? Three films in the last decade.

Thank goodness then for the granddaddy of action sci-fi, James Cameron. After an insanely long absence (barring some documentaries, he hasn’t made a film since 1997’s Titanic), he’s back with a 3D sci-fi spectacular: Avatar. Many years in gestation, Avatar has been a labour of love for Cameron as he waited for cinema technology to catch up with his vision for a living, breathing alien world in full 3D. Has it been worth the wait? Heck knows - we’ll have to wait until December to find that out.

What can be said for certain, however, is that Cameron’s flair for breathtaking visual design and superb action doesn’t appear to have diminished. From the stunning and hostile flora and fauna of the alien world, known as Pandora, to the azure-tinged aliens themselves (the Na’vi) it certainly looks the part, the vibrant, over-saturated alien world providing a wonderful contrast to the military technology of the humans that have come to strip-mine the planet. Naturally, huge battles ensue, pitching dragon-beastie-thing riding Na’vi against humans in dropships and exo-skeletal battle suits, with Sam Worthington’s ‘Avatar’ caught right in the middle.

Epic action sci-fi with an environmental theme then, eh? Looks like it. Personally, I’m willing to bet that Cameron has created something truly unique and spectacular, and I can’t wait to see it. For now, we’ll have to content ourselves with the teaser trailer, which you can see here.

Christopher Nolan’s Inception is more of an unknown quantity. We know very little about it other than it’s a sci-fi thriller set in the architecture of the mind and that Leonardo DiCaprio plays a CEO of some description that gets caught up in blackmail. The teaser doesn’t really answer any questions, but it certainly looks intriguing, not to mention confusing, as it ppears to be a cross between a crisp-suited conspiracy thriller and The Matrix.

One thing’s for certain, the ensemble cast is spectacular - Leonardo DiCaprio, Jospeh Gordon-Levitt, Ellen page, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy and Tom Berenger. And Nolan’s secured himself a $200 million budget too (thanks to The Dark Knight’s box office blitz, I’d imagine), so it should look great as well. If anyone can balance all of that with a twisty-turny ’set in the mind’ sci-fi story and come out a winner, it’s Nolan; but we’ll have to wait until next year to be certain. For now, check out the trailer here and start getting excited.

Jim