How to feel like you're in a movie in Dubai
Despite the fact that not everyone will become a Hollywood star or an on-screen favourite in their lifetime, it doesn't mean the day to day can't feel like a movie.
If you like this: The movies you have to catch this summer (and where to watch them)
Whether it's the dramatic action of the desert or a view that's almost too good to be true, head to these unmissable places in Dubai and you'll be giving main character energy in no time.
Explore the Green Planet to feel like you're in Avatar
(Credit: Supplied)
For an afternoon out on Pandora, explore the incredible indoor rainforest that is Green Planet Dubai.
You might not spot any giant blue people walking around, but instead you'll get as close up to nature as the Na'vi do, and can stare up at the towering dome greenery as if it's The Tree of Souls from the iconic movie.
From Dhs129 (resident offer). Open daily 10am-6pm. City Walk, Al Wasl, thegreenplanetdubai.com (800 2629464).
Grab a coffee at EL&N to feel like you're in Barbie
If Barbie's dreamhouse had a coffee shop attached, it would be EL&N London (in DIFC).
The London-born eatery is filled with bubble balls, bespoke fashion illustrations, neon signage emblazoned across the walls and signature florals.
You can't come here and not get a pic or two for the 'gram, so snap a few while your bright pink rose Spanish latte is getting whipped up in the kitchen.
PS Kens are allowed.
Open daily 8am-midnight. DIFC, elnlondon.com (04 770 0222).
Take a tour of the dunes to feel like you're in Dune
(Credit: Canva)
The sci-fi adventure has now released two incredible blockbusters, both of which are mostly set on the dry sandy planet of Arrakis.
You might have already guessed, but filming for both movies (and the ongoing third part) was partly done in the UAE.
So it's no surprise that when you scramble to the top of a dune, you feel as if a sand worm could show at any time. For the full experience, take your headphones and listen to the Hans Zimmer sound track (and you'll immediately feel like the Lisan al Gaib himself).
You can browse all of the best desert adventures in Dubai here.
Head up Burj Khalifa to feel like you're in Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol
(Credit: CanvaPro)
We've all seen the iconic scene of Tom Cruise scaling the sides of the world's tallest building.
Now, we are definitely not suggesting you do that — but there are a few sky-high experiences that can give you an idea of what it would feel like.
First up is the At The Top Burj Khalifa tour, where you can check out the views from 148 floors-up (gulp) and stare down at the glittering city below.
Or if you love the adrenaline and really want to know how it feels to hang off the edge of a skyscraper, you can do exactly that at Sky Views Dubai observation deck at Address Sky View Hotel.
From 220m up you can traipse across the 46m long glass walk, zip down the see-through slide and harness up to walk along the open-air viewing area. If you're feeling really brave you can even leap across the precipice, safe in the knowledge that your harness will do its thing.
Dhs499 (Sky Views edge walk). Open daily 10am-10pm. Address Sky View Hotel, Downtown Dubai, skyviewsdubai.com (04 873 8888).
Stroll through the souks to feel like you're in Aladdin
One of the most popular spots for tourists in the city, the old souks of Dubai are the real-life version of those iconic Aladdin scenes.
Filled with narrowed streets, incredible spices and perfumes galore, you can haggle your way down to a bargain and get a taste for the historic city streets.
There are no magic lamps here, but the streets are definitely full of wonder if you're visiting for the first time.
If you like this: How to shop Dubai souks like a local: A first-timer's guide
Deira.
Whizz round Dubai Autodrome to feel like you're in F1
Calling all F1 fans: the new movie is hitting screens this summer, so if you want to feel like you're in this film specifically (or in the real-life competition), then this is your chance.
Letting you see how you'd fare on the track, the autodrome offers the experience to zoom around the track in an F4 car, hitting speed of over 200km per hour.
From Dhs1,350. Timings vary (18yrs+). Dubai Autodrome, dubaiautodrome.ae (04 367 8700).
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North Wales Chronicle
12 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Na'vi fight large-scale battles in first trailer for Avatar: Fire And Ash
The third film in the sci-fi franchise will see Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldana return to her role as Na'vi warrior Neytiri, and Sam Worthington back as marine turned Na'vi leader Jake Sully. In the trailer, the series' recognisable blue creatures can be seen doing battle on land, sea and in the air, while Jake and Neytiri are seen arguing, with Worthington's character telling Saldana's: 'You cannot live like this, baby, in hate.' Avatar: Fire And Ash will also star Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass and Kate Winslet. The latest edition to the franchise has a screenplay by director James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and a story by Cameron, Jaffa, Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. The film will be released in cinemas worldwide in IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema 3D, RealD 3D, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens on December 19 2025. It comes after Cameron revealed the upcoming film's name at a Disney fan event in California, which he appeared at last year alongside Saldana and Worthington. He told the 12,000-strong audience: 'The new film is not what you expect, but definitely what you want.' The 70-year-old said 'we are not going to show footage today, it is too soon' but shared 'cool concept art to tease your imagination' which featured the characters in the sky and surrounded by fire. He also teased a new character that audiences will 'love to hate'. He added: 'There are new cultures and settings and creatures, and new biomes. 'You will see a lot more of Pandora, the planet, that you've never seen before.' The Avatar film series has previously seen the release of Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), along with a number of spin-off video games, toys, theme park rides and soundtrack albums. The franchise's fourth and fifth films are also already planned for release.
The Herald Scotland
13 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Na'vi fight large-scale battles in first trailer for Avatar: Fire And Ash
In the trailer, the series' recognisable blue creatures can be seen doing battle on land, sea and in the air, while Jake and Neytiri are seen arguing, with Worthington's character telling Saldana's: 'You cannot live like this, baby, in hate.' Avatar: Fire And Ash will also star Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass and Kate Winslet. The latest edition to the franchise has a screenplay by director James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and a story by Cameron, Jaffa, Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. The film will be released in cinemas worldwide in IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema 3D, RealD 3D, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens on December 19 2025. It comes after Cameron revealed the upcoming film's name at a Disney fan event in California, which he appeared at last year alongside Saldana and Worthington. He told the 12,000-strong audience: 'The new film is not what you expect, but definitely what you want.' The 70-year-old said 'we are not going to show footage today, it is too soon' but shared 'cool concept art to tease your imagination' which featured the characters in the sky and surrounded by fire. He also teased a new character that audiences will 'love to hate'. He added: 'There are new cultures and settings and creatures, and new biomes. 'You will see a lot more of Pandora, the planet, that you've never seen before.' The Avatar film series has previously seen the release of Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), along with a number of spin-off video games, toys, theme park rides and soundtrack albums. The franchise's fourth and fifth films are also already planned for release.
Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The new Avatar trailer fills me with despair
I'm trying to think of the nicest thing I can say about the new Avatar trailer and I suspect this is probably it: it definitely looks like more Avatar. Subtitled Fire and Ash, the third of five instalments of James Cameron's shimmery late-career opus will slosh into cinemas worldwide this coming Christmas – when Disney presumably expects it to join its predecessors in the ranks of the highest-grossing films ever made. (The original and the first sequel, The Way of Water, currently occupy the first and third places on that chart respectively.) However much organic excitement for another Avatar sequel any of us actually encounter in the wild, it's highly likely it will be the year's most successful film – even if the trailer, which has already generated countless reaction videos, left me cold. What was most striking (and depressing) about the two minutes and 25 seconds of new material in the clip – which cinema-goers can currently experience in front of screenings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and the rest of us can watch on YouTube – was how little any of it seemed to add to the existing Avatar deal. So with apologies to the various TikTokers and influencers claiming otherwise, what we saw could not be described in good conscience as 'freaking insane'. Front and centre are the cosmetic updates which have been installed since Avatar 2.0 – and perhaps it's this immersive travel-brochure material, rather than the meandering plot about tribal squabbles, the repelling of Earthling invaders, and a religion centred on a sort of purple Wi-Fi tree, that has made the series such a global phenomenon. This instalment apparently concerns a war between two previously unseen Na'vi tribes: the peaceable Wind Traders, who drift about in flying airships, and the red-skinned Fire People, who live in a Mordor-like ashy landscape and ride around on flying beasts. The money is on them to be baddies – at least until the remnants of the invading Earth forces show up again, at which point an uneasy Pandoran alliance will presumably be struck. Controversially-slash-foolishly, I suspect the astonishing popularity of the two previous films sprung from different places. In every respect bar technologically, the 2009 original was a blockbuster blowout as Hollywood used to make them in the 1980s and 90s: it was essentially Dances with Wolves transposed to space, and gave audiences their final chance to experience neoclassical Cameron craftsmanship – in the brand new 3D format he'd developed specifically for the occasion, no less – at the very moment the franchise era took hold. But then Avatar disappeared for 13 years – and returned, still banging the 3D drum the industry had otherwise largely abandoned, having reinvented itself as a franchise movie. Unlike its predecessor, The Way of Water was simply a jumbo dose of truly borderless escapism but not actually about anything beyond itself. (I defy anyone who sat through it to describe anything of narrative interest that actually happened in it apart from the whale hunt near the end.) And that latter approach is what Fire and Ash appears to be replicating. Volcanoes, not oceans, are clearly the signature backdrop this time around, all rendered in mineral-water-crisp 3D computer graphics, and in frame rates that vacillate between a purring 24 and slippery 60 per second. A few new bizarre beasts of burden have also been added to the Avamenagerie, including a big airborne stingray with wiggly bits coming out of its mouth and a sort of jellyfish that the Sully clan flies around in, like a sentient hot air balloon. But three years on from The Way of Water, the modus operandi hasn't seemingly altered a jot. The trailer promises more teeth-baring tribal melodrama, wildly expensive virtual nature documentary sequences, some jump-and-shoot forest battles that look like the bestselling video-game of 2045, and digitally rendered characters whose faces' astounding visual intricacy is only surpassed by their supreme slappability. 'You cannot live like this, baby – in hate,' Sam Worthington's Jake Sully tells his bride, Zoe Saldana's Neytiri, in one contextless excerpt, enunciating the word 'baby' like Lena Lamont's elocution coach in Singin' in the Rain. 'Your goddess has no dominion here,' hisses a shaman (perhaps?) from Pandora's stern-looking, red-painted mountain tribe – presumably referring to Sigourney Weaver's Teenage Na'vi Jesus-like character (Kiri te Suli Kireysi'ite to you, or so says Wikipedia), who apparently spends the entire film gazing beatifically at CGI fronds. Amid the flurry came two moments of despair. One was the return of Stephen Lang's Colonel Miles Quaritch, the electrifyingly charismatic human villain from the first film, in the identikit Na'vi body, which I forgot he'd transferred into in the second. The other was the reappearance of Spider, Quaritch's rebellious and dreadlocked teenage son, family friend of the Sullys, and essentially the most annoying gap-year kid in the galaxy. He's glimpsed at death's door (good), and also jumping across a series of falling slabs, like Sonic the Hedgehog. Aside from the awful Spider, I counted a grand total of one shot that featured human beings, and which may or may not foreshadow the journey from Pandora to Earth that is supposed to take place in Avatar 4, coming in 2029. Of course there's no reason for either Cameron or Disney to change a single element of the Avatar recipe, since The Way of Water won an Oscar and made $2.3bn. Even so, this trailer's proud sameyness grates on a spiritual level. The original Avatar was so valuable in part because it barked a defiant last hurrah for original blockbusters. But the series it went on to spawn seems to have succumbed harder than any of its contemporaries to the deathless curse of more of the same.
