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Avatar

EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox

Avatar reviews
84
8.0 User Score:

Universal acclaim

Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1400 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Adventure  |  Sci-fi  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: James Cameron

Directed by: James Cameron

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 18, 2009

Running Time: 150 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking

Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang, and Matt Gerald

Jake Sully is a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. But despite his broken body, Jake is still a warrior at heart. He is recruited to travel light years to the human outpost on Pandora, where a corporate consortium is mining a rare mineral that is the key to solving Earth's energy crisis. Because Pandora's atmosphere is toxic, they have created the Avatar Program, in which human "drivers" have their consciousness linked to an avatar, a remotely-controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air. These avatars are genetically engineered hybrids of human DNA mixed with DNA from the natives of Pandora... the Na'vi. Reborn in his avatar form, Jake can walk again. He is given a mission to infiltrate the Na'vi, who have become a major obstacle to mining the precious ore. But a beautiful Na'vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake's life, and this changes everything. Jake is taken in by her clan, and learns to become one of them, which involves many tests and adventures. As Jake's relationship with his reluctant teacher Neytiri deepens, he learns to respect the Na'vi way and finally takes his place among them. Soon he will face the ultimate test as he leads them in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world. (20th Century Fox)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A fully believable, flesh-and-blood (albeit not human flesh and blood) romance is the beating heart of "Avatar." Cameron has never made a movie just to show off visual pyrotechnics: Every bit of technology in "Avatar" serves the greater purpose of a deeply felt love story.

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100

Empire Chris Hewitt

It’s been twelve years since "Titanic," but the King of the World has returned with a flawed but fantastic tour de force that, taken on its merits as a film, especially in two dimensions, warrants four stars. However, if you can wrap a pair of 3D glasses round your peepers, this becomes a transcendent, full-on five-star experience that's the closest we'll ever come to setting foot on a strange new world. Just don’t leave it so long next time, eh, Jim?

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100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Once again, [Cameron] has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely.

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100

Premiere Nick Starkey

This is, simply put, one of the most beautiful movies you’ll ever see.

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100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

A quantum leap in movie magic; watching it, I began to understand how people in 1933 must have felt when they saw "King Kong."

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100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Avatar's shock and awe demand to be seen. You've never experienced anything like it, and neither has anyone else.

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100

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Glorious and goofy and blissfully deranged.

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100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Avatar is entertainment of the highest order. It's the best movie of 2009.

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100

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

At the end of a decade defined by much bellyaching about “the death of cinema” (including, on occasion, by this critic), Avatar concludes, appropriately enough, with an image of rebirth.

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100

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Pantheism, Cameronism: In Avatar, what’s the diff? Now he’s king of a world he made from scratch.

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90

Slate Dana Stevens

Is it or is it not stupendously friggin' rad? And the answer is yes. For most of the first hour, a good portion of the second, and even many of the 40 minutes left after that, Avatar is stupendously friggin' rad.

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90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Much of the time, though, you're transfixed by the beauty of a spectacle that seems all of a piece. Special effects have been abolished, in effect, since the whole thing is so special.

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90

The New Yorker David Denby

The movie’s story may be a little trite, and the big battle at the end between ugly mechanical force and the gorgeous natural world goes on forever, but what a show Cameron puts on! The continuity of dynamized space that he has achieved with 3-D gloriously supports his trippy belief that all living things are one.

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90

Time Richard Corliss

Embrace the movie -- surely the most vivid and persuasive creation of a fantasy world ever seen in the history of moving pictures -- as a total sensory, sensuous, sensual experience.

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90

Variety Todd McCarthy

Avatar is all-enveloping and transporting, with Cameron & Co.'s years of R&D paying off with a film that, as his work has done before, raises the technical bar and throws down a challenge for the many other filmmakers toiling in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

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89

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's thrilling and lovely and sad and explosive in all the right ways, and it needs to be seen – on the big screen, in 3-D – to be believed.

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88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

An entertainment to be not just seen but absorbed on a molecular level; it’s as close to a full-body experience as we’ll get until they invent the holo-suits. Cameron aims for sheer wonderment, and he delivers.

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88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Avatar delivers. Combining beyond-state-of-the-art moviemaking with a tried-and-true storyline and a gamer-geek sensibility - not to mention a love angle, an otherworldly bestiary, and an arsenal of 22d-century weaponry - the movie quite simply rocks.

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88

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Rarely less than absorbing and never boring over its nearly three-hour length.

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88

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Tone-deaf but thunderously exciting.

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83

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

If I never felt entirely transported by Avatar, it’s probably because the story thudded just as often as the imagery soared. But Pandora is still a good place to park yourself for three hours.

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83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Is it a great movie? Maybe not. But it is a great step forward in moviemaking. Shrug it off if that makes you feel better, but starting today you live in a post-Avatar movie world.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

Vast, beautiful and meticulously detailed.

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75

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

By presenting Avatar in 3-D, Cameron is staking his claim and building a fence around his own precious resource, making it unobtainable on any but his own terms to increasingly emboldened and technologically savvy natives.

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75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Avatar is a king's ransom fairly well spent, not least because Cameron's invitation into his superbly crafted universe comes with an unexpected price: He makes it easy to gaze fondly on all this movie magic, but only in exchange for a hard look at ourselves.

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75

USA Today Claudia Puig

The scenes in Pandora -- a planet with an Earth-like environment -- are so breathtaking that the narrative seems almost beside the point.

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75

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

Titanic technical achievement.

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75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The first 90 minutes of Avatar are pretty terrific — a full-immersion technological wonder with wonders to spare. The other 72 minutes, less and less terrific.

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75

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

As visual spectacle, Avatar is indelible, but as a movie it all but evaporates as you watch it.

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70

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Avatar is a technological wonder, 15 years percolating in King Cameron's imagination and inarguably the greatest 3-D cavalry western ever made. Too bad that western is "Dances With Wolves."

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63

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Whatever faults Avatar may have -- and there are many -- the movie succeeds in immersing you in a photorealistic, painstakingly detailed world more fully than any science fiction movie before.

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60

Time Out New York Keith Uhlich

The question lingers as the movie comes to its triumphant body-swapping close: Is this a pro-environment parable or a prophecy of virtual realities yet to come? Cameron’s new world may very well be a verdant Matrix.

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60

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Avatar clears the hurdle in terms of being optical candy. Its story, though, is pure cheese.

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50

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Avatar is a weak patchwork of his other films: the leaden voiceover from "Terminator 2" here, the military/civilian conflict from "Aliens" there, even a Jack-and-Rose-style forbidden love story cued to adult-contempo soundtrack.

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50

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It is a very expensive-looking, very flashy entertainment, albeit one that groans under the weight of clumsy storytelling in the second half and features some of the most godawful dialogue this side of "Attack of the Clones."

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 1400 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

David D. gave it a9:
Amazing graphics in 3D, really pull you into the story. I just wish the story line wasn't so predictable.

Zach S. gave it a2:
This movie made Beowulf look like Brown Bunny and Last Tango in Paris combined with Flatliners.

L. M. gave it a6:
Sigh....well I certainly had high hopes for the movie and I'm glad to say it wasn't that disappointing. While it does have an unoriginal story, the new themes of the Navi (indians basically) are interesting enough. A bit too drawn out but still enjoyable with suprisingly almost no humor. I would probably send my rating down around the 5 area had I not seen it in 3-D, since you had a sense that Cameron wanted to use it for a way to enhance the movie and not just be eye candy I'll give me credit for that. Needless to say the only thing keeping the movie up this high of a rating is the use of 3-D, hopefully we can now see improvements upon dialouge, acting, pacing, and no cheesy love story for the sequel to possibly get the score it deserves.

David P gave it a10:
Very moving movie visually and verbally. This is the best movie of 09 & 10. To be honest I thought it was going to be a gimmicky movie but when I saw it, it was amazing. 3d is even better. If you are going to see a movie this year it has to be this one

Jason B. gave it a10:
Best movie experience I have ever had.

joseph r. gave it an8:
It's really good, by that i mean the special effects, the story is okay but nothing to hold you in, it is still a really good movie if you forget the plotholes.

Rocco M. gave it a10:
This was the most amazing movie I've seen. You have to see it in 3D IMAX. The special effects and visuals are stunning.

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