It's a new world

Imagine if humans discovered a distant alien world filled with a strange and exciting new culture and a wealth of natural resources.

What do you think would happen? Would we try to become friends and learn from their way of life or overthrow the natives and steal their land? The latter obviously!

Jake Sully is a former marine who has lost the use of his legs. He's been recruited by Dr Grace Augustine for a scientific and supposedly diplomatic mission to the planet Pandora. There he'll be animating an 'Avatar' body which has been designed to be compatible with his DNA.

The marine's mission is to gain the trust of the native 'Na'vi' people, learn their ways and convince them to move from their massive tree house so his corporate employers can gain access to the valuable mineral deposits underneath ... Sounds fair so far, right?

If Jake succeeds in his mission, he will be given spinal surgery that will restore the use of his legs, something he covets more than Gollum wants the ring in Lord of the Rings!

Jake is totally thrilled to be attached to a body that works fully and he takes to his avatar life like a duck to the water. However, he soon finds that he prefers the ways of Na'vi to the violent, human bullies who are ordering him to provide the information they need to conquer the natives.

Once in Avatar bodies, Dr Grace, Jake and team arrive on Pandora and the movie truly begins to take shape, displaying some amazing special effects and giving the audience an idea of why this film took so long to create.

The world of Pandora is nothing short of fantastic and everything about it is painstakingly created to give it a sense of authenticity.

Ranging from the designs, the animation, the culture, even the language the aliens speak has been created especially for this movie.

Showing in: Dana Cineplex

All about Avatar

Avatar: A human mind transferred into a genetically engineered body of a Human/Na'vi hybrid. Humans use this method because they cannot live on Pandora without breathing gear, because the atmosphere is toxic, containing lethal levels of ammonia, methane and chlorine.

Avatar Program: On Earth, in company genetics labs, they create an in-vitro embryo, which is a genetic composite of the alien and human donor. The recombinant embryo is grown in-vitro during the flight to Pandora, which takes three years. In that time it reaches near adult size, since the locals mature fast. When it is born (or more properly de-canted) as a post-adolescent, it looks like a Na'vi, and can adjust on Pandora.

Dr Grace Augustine:_A botanist who mentors Jake Sully. Her goal is to help Jake through his battle against the enormous amount of diverse unknown creatures on the planet of 'Alpha Centauri B-4'.

Powersuit: A robotic walking machine, bipedal, about 14 feet. Though massive, it is gyroscopically balanced and quite agile, able to duplicate most human motion. It is heavily armoured.

Aerospatiale SA-2 Samson: Giant helicopters created by humans.

Pandora: A planet of the Alpha Centauri starsystem. Discovered by the first interstellar expedition 25 years ago, Pandora has been the single most interesting thing to happen to the human race in ages. Pandora's atmosphere is a poisonous brew of ammonia, methane, CO2, oxygen and nitrogen and even a small percentage of hydrogen cyanide. The plants of Pandora are mostly purple.

Na'vi: A race of sentient extraterrestrial humanoids who inhabit the moon Pandora. Na'vi are normally three metres in height. They have semi cat-like facial features with blue, stripped skin with small bioluminescent speckles and yellow eyes. Additionally, they have tails and pointed ears.

Polyphemis: An enormous planet, a gas giant almost twice the size of Jupiter, which in turn orbits the yellow sun of Alpha Centauri B. Its appearance is comparable to the eye of an angry deity leering down on Pandora.

Bansheerays: Large flying animals native to Pandora and are domesticated by the Na'vi race.

Great Leonopteryx: Like a bansheeray, only several times larger. It is the king predator of the air... the Great Leonopteryx.

Hammerhead Titanothere: A beast that almost twice the size of an elephant and it is like a six-legged rhinoceros.