Story
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a wheelchair-bound marine. After spending five years in cryonic sleep aboard an intergalactic transport vessel, Jake finds himself being woken as the transport approaches the planet Pandora. Humans have set up a corporate/military mining consortium on Pandora. They are systematically bulldozing Pandora’s forests in search of a rare priceless mineral called Unobtainium. But Pandora is populated by a humanoid race called the Na’vi who are getting in the way of the mining operations. Jake is being sent to Pandora to replace his murdered brother in the Avatar Program, an experimental project that transfers the conscious mind of a human ‘driver’ into a laboratory grown Na’vi avatar.
A rich vein of Unobtainium has been located directly beneath a large Na’vi village. The humans plan to use the avatars to infiltrate the Na’vi and convince them to relocate. If that doesn’t work, the humans plan to use Jake’s intelligence to assist the consortium’s military leader, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Steven Lang), to forcibly remove the Na’vi.
Along with scientists Dr Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel Moore), Jake is sent out on a scouting mission in avatar guise. While investigating the local flora, Jake is attacked by a ferocious beast and separated from the others. A beautiful female Na’vi warrior called Neytirri (Zoe Saldana) rescues Jake. Neytirri is the daughter of the Na’vi clan chieftain. When the clan’s spiritual leader senses a strong spiritual significance to Jake, Jake is adopted into the clan and then trained as a warrior.
The Colonel gives Jake three months to convince the Na’vi to willingly relocate. At the end of this time, Jake finds he is in love with Neytirri and has developed strong ties with the Na’vi. He now strongly opposes the Colonel taking any action against the Na’vi. He is eventually joined by his colleagues in a battle to save the owners of the planet.
Themes
Exploitation of indigenous populations; genetic engineering
Violence
Avatar contains extended sequences of action violence, epic battle and war scenes. There is minimal blood and gore, however. For example:
Sexual references
Avatar contains occasional mild sexual references. For example:
- When a group of new soldiers arrive on Pandora, we hear a soldier shouting, ‘Let’s go ladies, look at all this fresh meat’.
- Avatar Jake plays with his tail. Dr Augustine says, ‘Don’t play with that – you’ll go blind’.
- When Jake passes his manhood test, Neytirri tells him that he can now choose a woman to mate with. Later we hear Neytirri telling her mother that she and Jake have mated.
- We hear the Colonel sarcastically tell Jake, ‘I’m getting all emotional – I might just give you a big wet kiss’.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
This movie contains some use of substances. For example:
- Dr Augustine smokes cigarettes in several scenes.
- Jake gives the Doctor an injection after she is shot.
- A character says, ‘What the hell have you people been smoking?’
Nudity and sexual activity
Avatar contains partial nudity and some low-level sexual activity. For example:
- A female military pilot wears low-cut tops that reveal cleavage.
- Both male and female Na’vi are shown entirely naked except for a loin cloth that covers their crotch area.
- Jake and Neytirri kiss passionately. Jake lifts Neytirri onto his lap and Neytirri says, ‘I am with you Jake. We are mated for life’. The scene ends.
Product placement
None of concern
Coarse language
Avatar contains some medium-level coarse language and name-calling.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Avatar is an action science fiction adventure aimed at a male teenage and young adult audience. It is also likely to entertain grown-ups of all ages. The movie’s CGI-enhanced alien characters are extremely realistic. The story line is not a new one and has many similarities to events in both current and past human history.
The main messages from this movie are:
- Some humans are capable of great injustice and crime to achieve profit or gain. Other humans are capable of great personal sacrifice to address those injustices and crimes.
- It is unjust and morally wrong to forcibly remove indigenous people from their native land.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include personal sacrifice, environmental awareness and scientific curiosity.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues such as present or past similarities between the Na’vi’s treatment by the humans, and the treatment of Earth’s indigenous populations. Also, at one point in the movie, Jake says that everything is backwards. He says that the real world exists when he is in his avatar body and that the dream world is when he is in his human body. Could refugees integrating from one culture to another have similar feelings?