‘Avatar’ in blue

It’s been more than 12 years since Leonardo DiCaprio was on top of the world in Titanic, and blockbuster director James Cameron returns to cinemas this Friday with Avatar, the sprawling sci-fi adventure he first conceived after being blown away by Star Wars in 1977. Aussie Sam Worthington, who underperformed in last summer’s Terminator Salvation—a sequel in no way endorsed by Terminator creator Cameron—stars as Jake, a crippled marine who is given a second chance at greatness when the military selects him to participate in a program that allows him to control an alien-human hybrid body with his mind on a distant, mineral-rich planet called Pandora, home to the Smurf-tinted Navi. Once on Pandora, Jake finds himself caught between the harmonious native species and the industrialized Earth army that is marching deeper into their homeland and sucking it dry. After falling in love with a Navi played by Star Trek’s Zoe Saldana, Jake must choose which side he is on. Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver co-star. Rated R. (Image courtesy 20th Century Fox)