Yes, it's comparable, along with Max, Maya, XSI, etc. I just gave you the link so you could see some of the work done with it....Maya is more robust for Film production pipelines and very customizable which is where it shines. LW has been used for years in the industry, especially for tv (think Jimmy Neutron, Hercules, Xena, Babylon 5, etc). Has a really nice renderer. All the apps I mentioned do more or less the same thing in different ways. For example, with Maya everything is integrated into one workflow. With LW, you have separate modes - the modeller, the renderer, etc.

Modeling techniques are the same...it's just a matter of learning the way each app handles it. It's give-and-take as to how some things will be better in one app than the other. Just read up on the software, dowload demos, look at some tutorials and see what you gravitate towards.