Kelson Henderson Movies

A paraplegic ex-marine finds a new life on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious digital 3D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. The film, which marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic, follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a war veteran who gets called to the depths of space to pick up the job of his slain twin brother for the scientific arm of a megacorporation looking to mine the planet of Pandora for a valued ore. Unfortunately the biggest deposit of the prized substance lies underneath the home of the Na'vi, a ten-foot-tall, blue-skinned native tribe who have been at war with the security arm of the company, lead by Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Because of the planet's hostile atmosphere, humans have genetically grown half-alien/half-human bodies which they can jack their consciousnesses into and explore the world in. Since Jake's brother already had an incredibly expensive Avatar grown for him, he's able to connect with it using the same DNA code and experience first-hand the joys of Pandora while giving the scientific team, led by Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), some well-needed protection against the planet's more hostile forces.

On a chance meeting after getting separated from his team, Jake's Avatar is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi princess, who brings him into her tribe in order to give the humans a second chance at relating to this new environment. When word gets out of his increasing time with the alien species, Quaritch enlists Jake to do some reconnaissance for the company, as they'd like to persuade the tribe to move their home before taking more drastic measures to harness the treasure hidden below. Yet as Jake becomes one with the tribe and begins to understand the secrets of Pandora, his conscience is torn between his new adopted world and the wheelchair-bound one awaiting him when the psychic connection to his Avatar is broken. Soon battle lines are drawn and Jake needs to decide which side he will fight on when the time comes. The film was shot on the proprietary FUSION digital 3D cameras developed by Cameron in collaboration with Vince Pace, and offers a groundbreaking mix of live-action dramatic performances and computer-generated effects. The revolutionary motion-capture system created for the film allows the facial expressions of actors to be captured as a virtual camera system enables them to see what their computer-generated counterparts will be seeing in the film, and Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning Weta Digital visual-effects house supervises Avatar's complex special effects. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Season One of the latest Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers spinoff Power Rangers SPD begins, appropriately, with the two-part "Beginnings." The year is 2020, and the fragile peace between earthlings and extraterrestrials is in danger of being shattered by the evil Troobian emperor Gruumm (Rene Naufahu) and his Krybot soldiers; worse still, Gruumm is assisted by malevolent youngster Mora (Olivia James-Baird), who can conjure up additional villains merely by drawing them on paper. As the elite A-squad of the Space Patrol Delta Power Rangers zooms off to do battle with Grumm in space, Cmdr. "Doggie" Cruger (John Tui) prepares a quintet of rookie B-squad members, fresh from New Ranger Academy, to safeguard the surface of the earth. Three of these novices are Blue SPD Ranger Sky (Chris Violette), Green SPD Ranger Bridge (Matt Austin), and Pink SPD Ranger Syd (Alycia Purrott). They are joined by Jack (Brandon Jay McLaren) and "Z" (Monica May), who are introduced as thieves but who quickly reformed and assimilated. "Z" is designated the Yellow SPD Ranger, while Jack is the Red SPD Ranger--and as such he is obliged to assume leadership of the "B-squad", which does not endear him to Sky, who'd expected to be given this honor. Season Highlights include the 2-part "Sam", in which Mora endeavors to win a lonely kid with teleportation powers over to the bad guys, while "Z" tries to convince the boy to stay on the side of Right. In another two-parter, "Shadow", Cmdr. Doggie has nightmares about alien attacks on his home planet Sirius, and will not be able to assume the mantle of Shadow Ranger until his overcomes his fears. Other 2-parters include "Messenger", replete with a dire warning from the future and an assault by the evil Morgana (Josephine Davison); and "Reflection", wherein the SPD's technology is stolen by a pair of two-bit crooks. The season's final episode, titled (what else?), "Ending", puts the B-squad's martial arts and survival skills to the ultimate test when the five SPD Rangers are captured by Gruumm. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi