He was living in his car when James Cameron hired him for Avatar. More than 15 years later, Sam Worthington stars in two of the highest-grossing films of all time: Avatar and Avatar: The Way Of Water. In all the time between the two mega box office hits, the Australian was of course also in front of the camera for other films. In addition to other leading roles in blockbusters that were not so successful, such as “Clash of the Titans”, “Wrath of the Titans” and “Terminator: Salvation”, he often slipped into roles reminiscent of the ex-soldier Jake, who is a found a new home on Pandora, remember Sully.
Before we see him as an ex-military and caring family man in “Transfusion”, which will be released on February 9, 2023, Worthington was already exuding clearly noticeable Jake Sully vibes in “Titan – Evolve Or Die”. After all, in the 2018 sci-fi thriller, he’s given a modified body to live on an alien planet! Although in this case his mind is not transferred to a new body, but instead his own body undergoes a transformation.
“Titan – Evolve Or Die” can be seen on RTL 2 on February 3, 2023 from 10:20 p.m. – and that has the advantage that the “GI Joe – The Reckoning” that was shown on prime time just before is unfortunately not awarded: both films were approved by the FSK from the age of 16, which means that the sci-fi actor starring Dwayne Johnson and Channing Tatum is only shown in an innocuous version, while the “little brother” of “Avatar” runs full length. Can you do without commercial breaks? Alternatively, the movie is also available in streaming:
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After the film was available on Netflix until recently, it is now included in the Amazon Prime Video subscription – albeit “only” in the German dubbed version.
“Titan – Evolve Or Die”: This is the little brother of “Avatar”
Of course, director Lennart Ruff didn’t have the resources for his feature debut that a Hollywood icon like James Cameron could draw on for ‘Avatar’. But that’s okay. The Mannheim-born filmmaker and his screenwriter Arash Amel were well aware of this – and to some extent limit their story to the first act of their big brother “Avatar”. Means: You save yourself the enormous effort and a lot of expense by not creating a completely new world.
That makes “Titan – Evolve Or Die” smaller, of course, but not necessarily worse. But on the contrary. The film has a different focus and is therefore a bit more intimate, which is ultimately the biggest difference with “Avatar”.
While the general public is somewhat less fond of “The Titan” (its internationally renowned original title), the film has been featured on various rating platforms such as (4.8/10), (33 points out of 100) or (20 percent positive votes) in some cases well below average, the author of this article and FILMSTARTS critic Lutz Granert were able to get much more out of the film. The latter received a solid 3 out of 5 stars in the FILMSTARTS review for the “as atmospheric as it is original directorial debut”.
And that’s what Titan – Evolve Or Die is all about: Earth’s resources are becoming increasingly scarce, leading to devastating wars. Humanity faces the abyss. The solution to destruction on an unprecedented scale may be Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, which is about to become a new home for humans. The only problem: Life on Earth 2.0 would be impossible under the current conditions. The human body would not be able to withstand the tensions there.
As part of a military experiment, subjects such as Air Force pilot Rick Janssen (Sam Worthington) must be modified to attempt to live on titanium in their new, more powerful bodies. The tension is enormous, but with the help of his newly acquired powers he survives the attempt – until one day dangerous side effects occur…