|
Avatar (2009)
In director James Cameron's
revolutionary and major blockbuster film - it was the highest grossing
(domestic) film of 2010 - and of the entire 2001-2010 decade. The
lengthy and impressive futuristic sci-fi epic and 3-D live-action
film told about a fictional universe, with ground-breaking, Oscar-winning
special effects:
- the setting was in the 22nd century (specifically
in the year 2154), at a time when the dystopian Earth was threatened
by a major energy crisis; humans were experimenting with colonizing
a habitable, Earth-like moon known as Pandora, a lush and densely
rain-forested area
- Pandora was inhabited by an indigenous tribal species
(similar to Native-Americans) of primitive blue-skinned Na'vi -
10 foot tall humanoids with blue skin. The creatures were harmonious
with nature, worshipped a mother-goddess named Eywa, and often
gathered at Hometree, a giant tree at the center of their neural
network
- the moon Pandora
was orbiting around a gas-giant planet known as Polyphemus located
in the Alpha Centauri A star system. It had been colonized to take
advantage of its valuable semi-conductor mineral and energy supply
known as unobtanium (located at Hometree) - planned to be mined
by the Resources Development Administration (RDA); Pandora
was a hostile environment for humans due to its poisonous atmosphere,
requiring humans to wear breathing gear
- in the film's story, an
Avatar program had been created on Earth to explore Pandora more
safely by humans
- the mega-corporate, military-backed, scientific
program was led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and her
assistant Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore). Paraplegic, wheelchair-bound
ex-marine combat vet Jake Scully (Sam Worthington) had been selected
to interact with the native Pandoran Na'vi through an 'avatar' -
a genetically-grown, half-alien/half-human body (hybrid) of a Na'vi
individual jacked into and controlled by his brain; he was represented
as a tall, lanky, long-tailed, blue-skinned creature/avatar
- it became evident
that incursions into the Na'vi's biosphere habitat by the expanding
mining colony were threatening their existence
- on his first use
of an avatar during a 'virtual' outing to Pandora, Jake was attacked
but saved by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a female Na'vi and Princess,
and then taken to her clan
- the brutal and insensitive villain of
the film was RDA's security head Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen
Lang) who pressured Jake to spy on the Na'vi and report on their
ways
- the Colonel was aided by RDA's head
mining administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), in a plot
to destroy Hometree, take over their homeland, and mine the unobtanium.
- as Jake learned the Na'vi's ways, and developed
an emotionally loving relationship with Neytiri, he was torn between
his sympathy for his adoptive natives, and his obligations to follow
orders from the Earth-bound, corrupt government corporation
|
Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) - A Female Na'vi and Princess
|