Avatar (2009)

A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.

Director:

James Cameron

Writer:

James Cameron

Stars:

Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

Won 3 Oscars. Another 73 wins & 96 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sam Worthington	...	Jake Sully
Zoe Saldana	...	Neytiri (as Zoë Saldana)
Sigourney Weaver	...	Grace
Stephen Lang	...	Colonel Miles Quaritch
Michelle Rodriguez	...	Trudy Chacon
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Parker Selfridge
Joel David Moore	...	Norm Spellman
CCH Pounder	...	Moat
Wes Studi	...	Eytukan
Laz Alonso	...	Tsu'tey
Dileep Rao	...	Dr. Max Patel
Matt Gerald	...	Corporal Lyle Wainfleet
Sean Anthony Moran	...	Private Fike
Jason Whyte	...	Cryo Vault Med Tech
Scott Lawrence	...	Venture Star Crew Chief

Storyline

When his brother is killed in a robbery, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's intentions of driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.

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Plot Keywords:

paraplegic | native | marine | colonel | war veteran | 

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Taglines:

Enter the World

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

18 December 2009 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Afanda

Filming Locations:

Hamakua Coast, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$237,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£8,509,050 (UK) (18 December 2009)

Gross:

$760,505,847 (USA) (12 November 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Film Partners

Technical Specs

Runtime:

162 min 171 min (special edition) 178 min (extended cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS Sonics-DDP (IMAX version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Is the highest-grossing film in post-communist Russia. It earned $111 411 877 there and a total of 13,3 million tickets was sold (as of March 2010).

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Goofs

When Seze first comes out of the tree, if the viewer watches carefully, he/she can see Neytiri's ponytail being flung over her left shoulder, indicating that it would be hanging down her front, but in the next shot it was hanging down her back.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jake Sully: [Narrating] When I was lying in the V.A. hospital with a big hole blown through the middle of my life, I started having these dreams of flying. I was free. But sooner or later, you always have to wake up.

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Crazy Credits

There are no opening credits of any kind (outside of the 20th Century Fox title card). The title of the film doesn't appear on screen until the end of the movie.

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Connections

Referenced in The Big Bang Theory: The Zarnecki Incursion (2011)

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Soundtracks

I See You (Theme from Avatar)
Performed by Leona Lewis
Music by James Horner and Simon Franglen
Lyrics by Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell, and James Horner
Produced by Simon Franglen and James Horner
Leona Lewis performs courtesy of Syco Music

User Reviews

Incredible scope and spectacle

A film with the scope of James Cameron's Avatar was always going to be a risk both artistically and financially, especially in today's economic climate. Whether it will pay off monetarily is a question only time can answer, but this viewer can at the very least attest to it being an artistic triumph.

Avatar brings us as close as cinema ever has to actually visiting an alien world. The beautiful environs, the exotic creatures and incredibly lifelike natives of Pandora arrest the senses, visually, aurally and emotionally. The world in Avatar is the true star of the show. The amount of detail and work that has gone into bringing this new world alive is seriously impressive, and it will be a while before we see anything that overtakes it in scope and quality. WETA Workshop and ILM have truly outdone themselves.

Relative newcomer, Aussie Sam Worthington provides a solid human heart amongst all the science-fiction/fantasy beauty and Zoe Saldana gives an impressive performance as the 8 foot tall Na'vi, Neytiri. Even though the characters they both play are blue, giant, catlike aliens, they managed to evoke a chemistry and likability that pierces through the special effects.

That's not to say that everything is perfect. The story is basic and dare I say, clichéd and predictable. We have seen it plenty of times in all forms of media. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil, and sadly paper thin. The love story, while charming, is also clichéd despite being between man and alien. But in the face of these shortcomings, Avatar is a success because its storytelling lies in the brilliant visuals.

Avatar is a beautiful piece of film and a true event. It does exactly what cinema was always intended to - it takes us away from our problems and worries for a few hours and gives us memorable images which will undoubtedly and deservedly enter into the cultural lexicon to stay for the foreseeable future.

9.5/10