Avatar

            James Cameron had audiences entranced with Titanic and held the title for the highest grossing film. Any other film could never reach the success of it until now. Avatar is his follow up to his acclaimed film and has surpassed his former as the highest grossing film yet. The film’s high expectations are met and taken beyond into the fantasy world of Pandora.

            Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) becomes part of the Avatar program after his twin brother’s death. The Avatar program creates humanoid hybrids of the planet’s inhabitants, the Na’Vi, to increase interactions and negotiations. Jake gets a new life in the Na’Vi avatar and leaves his paraplegic body behind. He meets Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and she teaches him the culture of Pandora after a series of events. They go closer and a romance begins to bloom but Jake starts to face threats from Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lann) who is bent on taking the Pandora’s minerals. The film is overwhelmingly deep in its visuals and a whole new universe is created on screen.

            Avatar is different than other science fiction movies not only in narrative but also in the mythology of Pandora. Rarely do films expand on a planet’s culture so vastly adding depth to the world. The planet of Pandora is alive and makes one believe it exists with all its creatures and wildlife. The narrative takes bits and pieces from other films yet it stands on its own.

            Films are meant to be an escape from reality offering audiences something that they have never seen before. In the 1970’s Star Wars introduced a new story in space with memorable characters and effects. In the 1990’s Jurassic Park showed audiences what a dinosaur looked like through the advancements in film. Now Avatar has created a new universe of filmmaking that combines both of those achievements and challenges directors to top it.