AVATAR

Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction movie written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang.

In the year 2154, the RDA corporation is mining Pandora, the blooming, Earthlike moon of the planet Polyphemus, in the Alpha Centauri system. Parker Selfridge, (Giovanni Ribisi), the administrator, employs former marines as mercenaries to impart safety. The humans aim to ill-use Pandora's reserves of unobtanium, a valuable mineral.

Pandora is occupied by the na'vi, a Paleolithic species of sapient humanoids with catlike personality. Physically mightier and some feet taller than humans, the blue-skinned indigenes live in agreement with Nature and venerate a mother goddess called Eywa.

Humans cannot inhale Pandora's air. In order to move in relation to Pandora open, human researchers have genetically manufactured human-na'vi hybrid bodies called Avatars, which are managed by genetically matched human operators. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex- marine, arrives on Pandora to replace his killed identical twin brother, an Avatar worker. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the head of the Avatar Program, thinks him an poor stand-in for his brother, relegating him to a bodyguard role.

While Jake is escorting Augustine and biologist Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) in their Avatar forms, the group is assaulted by a big predator, and Jake becomes separated and helpless. Trying to survive the night in Pandora's hazardous jungles, he is rescued by Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), a female na'vi, Neytiri gets Jake back to Hometree, which is inhabited by Neytiri's tribe, the Omaticaya. Mo'at, (C. C. H. Pounder), the na'vi shaman and Neytiri's mother, directs her to coach him their methods.

Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the mercenary head of the armed forces, comes to know of Jake's love affair with the Omaticaya, and offers him to walk again in exchange for providing intelligence on the citizens and learning what it will take to make them forsake Hometree, which rests above a large deposit of unobtanium.

Through the next three months, Jake becomes intimate to Neytiri and the Omaticaya, and begins to prefer the life he lives in the Avatar. Jake's affection begins to corrode his loyalty towards the firm and the humans and when he is finally initiated into the clan, he and Neytiri choose each other as acquaintances. Jake's change of faithfulness is exposed when he disarms a bulldozer as it destroys the Tree of Voices; upon seeing this, Col. Quaritch forcibly detaches him from his Avatar, and presents Selfridge and Augustine with a vlog in which Jake had accepted that his operation was futile; that the humans had nothing the Omaticaya considered to be of value and that they would never leave Hometree. This convinces Selfridge that negotiations would be ineffective and he orders the demolition of Hometree by a military hit.

Augustine, whose experiments suggests that all organisms on Pandora are associated in a vast bio-botanical neural network, protests at the devastation of Hometree, but Selfridge persists, allowing Jake only one hour to influence the na'vi to depart before Col. Quaritch's army get there. When he reveals the true nature of his project to the Omaticaya, Neytiri accuses him of betraying them, which results in Jake and Augustine's brief confinement. Jake's time runs out and Quaritch's forces devastate Hometree. Eytucan (Wes Studi), Neytiri's father and race chief, and many others are killed in the attack. Jake and Augustine are once over again disconnected from their Avatars and held for betrayal against the humans. Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), a safety force pilot who is sickened by the bloodshed, breaks them out but Augustine is wounded by the cruel Quaritch in the course of their escape. With Augustine in a grave state, Jake turns to the Omaticaya for help. Searching for a way to regain their faith, he recalls that Neytiri told him that only five na'vi had ever tamed the Toruk, an immensely powerful flying creature. productively taming it, he flies to the na'vis, who have gathered at the sacred Tree of Souls. He pleads with Mo'at to heal Augustine, who is now dying. They attempt to transplant her soul into her Avatar but fail.

With the help of Neytiri and Tsu'Tey (Laz Alonso), the new guide of the Omaticaya, Jake vows defiance against the humans, and assembles thousands of na'vi from other clans. Col. Quaritch, seeing the na'vi's rising force, directs a defensive strike on the Tree of Souls, as it is the center of na'vi religion and culture; its destruction would leave the na'vi too discouraged to continue resisting the humans. As the humans move against the holy site, the na'vi fight back fiercely, but human technology and firepower outweighs their gallantry; they suffer heavy fatalities, including Tsu'Tey and Trudy. When all hope seems alone, the Pandoran wildlife suddenly attacks the humans in great numbers.

Col. Quaritch directs the bombing of the Tree of Souls but Jake demolishes the bomber before it can reach its goal. Quaritch flees in an AMP (Amplified Mobility Platform) suit. He finds the Avatar interface pod, where Jake's human body is located, and strikes it, damaging it and exposing Jake to Pandora's atmosphere. Neytiri kills Quaritch and saves Jake, seeing his human form for the first time. With the human attack successfully repelled, they reaffirm their love for each other. The defeated humans are expelled from Pandora, while Jake and his friends remain. Jake is seen wearing the insignia of the Omaticaya race guide, suggesting that he has become the new chief after the death of Tsu'Tey. The movie ends with Jake's soul being fruitfully transplanted into his na'vi Avatar.

Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released theatrically worldwide from December 16 - 18. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of 229 critics have given the feature film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10. The feature film earned $27 million on its opening day, and $77,025,481 over its opening weekend domestically, making it the second largest December opening ever, behind I Am Legend.