Byron Brubaker (hypathio7)

Worthington portrays a nice character arch as his human paraplegic body loses the definition of a fit marine and his Na'vi body becomes a warrior. Saldana is sweet and protectively vicious when need be. Weaver is tough as a diplomatic scientist standing up to Ribisi the corporate man and Lang the military man, but is soft and gentle in her Avatar body. Her Avatar looks a bit more plastic than most of the others for some reason. My pick for the tough as nails female character goes to Michelle Rodriquez. Lang is scary and grizzled. I can see the connections to movies like Dances with Wolves. I like that type of story where an outsider becomes immersed in another culture. I really appreciated the Native American, one with nature, interconnected web of existence, style of spirituality that the Na'vi have.

The movie is visually a spectacle!! The spectacular luminous, glow in the dark vegetation, and tree top or cliff edge world of Pandora is thrilling. It is the type of big epic movie for which 3D technology was invented. I like that this is not only a science fiction movie or a fantasy movie. I love the mixture of mythical fantasy elements and the high tech robotic suits and digital virtual touch screens.

Freeman is always inspirational. Damon has a non-showy role here that supports the story simply and honestly. I enjoyed the purposeful and occasionally humorous roles of the four main security officers, two black and two white (Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng, Matt Stern, Julian Lewis Jones), who were a microcosm for the racial mistrust that South Africa had to overcome. If you are more familiar with this recent history and rugby as a sport, you probably will not get lost in the time line. I did a couple times because the only location/date label that appears on screen was at the beginning when Mandela is released from prison. Otherwise, the plot skips pretty quickly through Mandela's term as president and the South African rugby team advancing to the World Cup. The plot jumps a year or two ahead in time without warning a couple times. Being American I also didn't understand many of the rules of rugby, but I still picked up the important things fairly rapidly. The English poem that this movie gets it's title from, a favorite of Mandela's from his years in prison, is used subtly and not as a big sports movie cliche speech to inspire the team when they are struggling in the game before getting the win. The closing lines of the poem especially contain a beautiful sentiment, "I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul. / I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul."

I've read all the books, and even though it takes liberties with a few things, I still love it. In this most well-known adaptation, the special effects for the time, the technicolor, the quotable lines, and the simple values of brain, heart, courage, and home are what make it great. It'll always be my favorite!

This was a Disney after-school TV series, but the first few (to-be-continued) episodes were edited together to make this feature length video. It's not what you'd expect from a Disney cartoon- it's darker, more dramatic, a great mix of sci-fi and fantasy, with mythical and Shakespearian characters, and many Star Trek actors providing voices. I stand by my 5-star rating for the story of these heroes!