[Entertainment]:::'Avatar' Smashes World Records

No. 55 Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Since existence, movies have provided a doorway into the world of action, adventure, drama, horror and fantasy for moviegoers. The newly released James Cameron movie 'Avatar' has made broken records by becoming the highest grossing film of all time.

   It did this by toppling the popular 1997 released 'Titanic' another James Cameron film, which held the top spot for 12 years.
   Avatar, after a seven weeks reign at number one, has earned a total of US$630.1 million in the US, surpassing other top hit films like Dark Night, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest and Spider Man 3 before finally exceeding Titanic which earned US$601 million.
   The film, released on December 18 of last year, centres on the plot of a paraplegic soldier, who helps the indigenous natives called Na'vi on the moon world of Pandora, to defend against a human military group set on mining a special rock compound found on the planet and during the process finds love and new place to call home.
   The movie is a sci-fi action adventure that displays an impressive blend of CGI and 3D technology. James Cameron has been the director of a number of other smashing hit movies such as Aliens of the Deep, Ghosts of the Abyss, True Lies, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Aliens just to name a few.
   Currently, Avatar has been nominated for nine Academy Awards, including best picture and best directors.
                  ABOUT AVATAR
   The story takes place in 2154, three decades after a multinational corporation has established a mining colony on Pandora, a planet light years from Earth. A toxic environment and hostile natives - one corporate apparatchik calls the locals 'blue monkeys' - forces the conglom to engage with Pandora by proxy. Humans dwell in oxygen-drenched cocoons, but move out into mines or to confront the planet's hostile creatures in hugely fortified armor and robotics or - as avatars.
   The protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a disabled former Marine who takes his late twin brother's place in the avatar program, a sort of bone thrown to the scientific community by the corporation in hopes that the study of Pandora and its population might create a more peaceful planet.
   Without any training, Jake suddenly must learn how to link his consciousness to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body that mixes human DNA with that of the native population, the Na'vi. Since he is incautious and overly curious, he immediately rushes into the fresh air -- to a native -- to throw open Pandora's many boxes.
   What a glory Cameron has created for Jake to romp in, all in a crisp 3D realism. It's every fairy tale about flying dragons, magic plants, weirdly hypnotic creepy-crawlies and feral dogs rolled up into a rain forest with a highly advanced spiritual design. It seems - although the scientists led by Sigourney Weaver's top doc have barely scratched the surface - a flow of energy ripples through the roots of trees and the spores of the plants, which the Na'vi know how to tap into.
   The center of life is a holy tree where tribal memories and the wisdom of their ancestors is theirs for the asking. This is what the humans want to strip mine.
   Jake manages to get taken in by one tribe where a powerful, Amazonian named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) takes him under her wing to teach him how to live in the forest, speak the language and honor the traditions of nature. Yes, they fall in love but Cameron has never been a sentimentalist: He makes it tough on his love birds. They must overcome obstacles and learn each other's heart.
   The Na'vi have a saying, "I see you," which goes beyond the visual. It means I see into you and know your heart.
   In his months with the Na'vi, Jake experiences their life as the "true world" and that inside his crippled body locked in a coffin-like transponding device, where he can control his avatar, is as the "dream." The switch to the other side is gradual for his body remains 'with the human colony while his consciousness is sometimes elsewhere.
   He provides solid intelligence about the Na'vi's defensive capabilities to Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ramrod head of security for the mining consortium and the movie's villain. But as Jake comes to see things through Neytiri's eyes, he hopes to establish enough trust between the humans and the natives to negotiate peace. But the corporation wants the land the Na'vi occupies for its valuable raw material so the Colonel sees no purpose in this.
   The battle for Pandora occupies much of the final third of the film. The planet's animal life - the creatures of the ground and air - give battle along with the Na'vi, but they come up against projectiles, bombs and armor that seemingly will be their ruin.