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Adjustment Bureau, The
53
Alice in Wonderland
47
A-Team, The
84
Avatar![]()
63
Babies
34
Back-up Plan, The
53
Book of Eli, The
22
Bounty Hunter, The
30
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
xx
Chain Letter
39
Clash of the Titans
31
Cop Out
55
Crazies, The
56
Date Night
51
Death at a Funeral
72
Despicable Me
56
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
56
Dinner for Schmucks
51
Eat Pray Love
45
Expendables, The
23
Furry Vengeance
65
Get Him to the Greek
61
Green Zone
30
Grown Ups
63
Hot Tub Time Machine
74
How to Train Your Dragon
79
IMAX: Hubble 3D
74
Inception
57
Iron Man 2
33
Jonah Hex
52
Just Wright
61
Karate Kid, The
66
Kick-Ass
21
Killers
46
Knight and Day
20
Last Airbender, The
xx
Last Exorcism, The
33
Last Song, the
31
Letters to God
50
Letters to Juliet
43
MacGruber
30
Marmaduke
35
Nightmare on Elm Street, A
75
Oceans
64
Other Guys, The
38
Our Family Wedding
47
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
xx
Piranha 3-D
51
Predators
50
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
56
Ramona and Beezus
40
Remember Me
53
Robin Hood
65
Salt
67
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
27
Sex and the City 2
46
She's Out of My League
58
Shrek Forever After
63
Shutter Island
46
Sorcerer's Apprentice, The
66
Splice
45
Step Up 3D
xx
Takers
92
Toy Story 3![]()
58
Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
43
Why Did I Get Married Too
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
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52
[Rec] 2
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12th & Delaware
xx
180° South
90
45365![]()
55
8: The Mormon Proposition
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Accidents Happen
62
After the Cup: The Sons of Sakhnin United
36
After.Life
73
Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, The
55
Agora
82
Ajami![]()
77
Alamar
78
Anton Chekhov's The Duel
63
Around a Small Mountain
57
Audrey the Trainwreck
xx
Badmaash Company
xx
Barking Water
75
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
62
Behind the Burly Q
63
Best Worst Movie
31
Black Waters of Echo's Pond, The
35
Boogie Woogie
64
Breath Made Visible: Anna Halprin
xx
Brotherhood
24
Burzynski
51
Butcher's Son, The
xx
Ca$h
67
Cairo Time
59
Cartel, The
68
Casino Jack and the United States of Money
37
Charlie St. Cloud
xx
Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This
48
Chloe
66
City Island
52
City of Your Final Destination, The
56
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
58
Concert, The
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Contenders, The
xx
Convention
71
Countdown to Zero
83
Crazy Heart![]()
51
Creation
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Cremaster Cycle, The
73
Cropsey
73
Cyrus
74
Daddy Longlegs
64
Disappearance of Alice Creed, The
73
Dogtooth
50
Don McKay
66
Double Take
47
Dry Land, The
67
Eclipse, The
85
Exit Through the Gift Shop![]()
56
Extra Man, The
75
Farewell
76
Father of My Children, The
30
Finding Bliss
38
Flipped
52
Formosa Betrayed
60
Fresh
xx
Fruit Fly
53
Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema
43
George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead
76
Get Low
68
Ghost Bird
77
Ghost Writer, The
68
Girl on the Train, The
66
Girl Who Played with Fire, The
xx
Gone with the Pope
40
Good Heart, The
69
Good, The Bad, The Weird, The
49
Great Directors
45
Greatest, The
76
Greenberg
59
Handsome Harry
24
Happiness Runs
73
Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
55
Harry Brown
80
Have You Heard From Johannesburg?: Apartheid and the Club of the West
57
Here and There
xx
Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
51
Holy Rollers
54
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
32
Human Centipede (First Sequence), The
79
I Am Love
91
I Was Born, But...![]()
33
In My Sleep
60
Infidel, The
67
It Came From Kuchar
74
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
79
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
57
John Rabe
55
Joneses, The
55
Juche Idea, The
65
Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
86
Kids Are All Right, The![]()
53
Killer Inside Me, The
53
Killing Kasztner
44
Kimjongilia
xx
Kings of the Evening
68
Kisses
62
Kites: The Remix
47
La Mission
xx
Last Letters from Monte Rosa
xx
Law, The
63
Lbs.
xx
Le amiche
58
Leaves of Grass
87
Lebanon![]()
72
Let It Rain
70
Life During Wartime
41
Lightkeepers, The
76
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
37
Living Wake, The
66
Looking for Eric
72
Lottery, The
37
Love Ranch
86
Mademoiselle Chambon![]()
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Malice in Wonderland
46
Mercy
78
Messenger, The
47
Metropia
62
Micmacs
75
Mid-August Lunch
60
Middle Men
54
Misfortunates, The
64
Mother and Child
75
Mugabe and the White African
35
Multiple Sarcasms
65
Mundo Alas
xx
My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
50
My Name is Khan
41
Nature of Existence, The
71
Neshoba: The Price of Freedom
xx
Nightfall
71
No One Knows About Persian Cats
59
Nobody’s Perfect
72
Oath, The
xx
Ocean of Pearls
65
Ondine
59
Only When I Dance
58
OSS 117: Lost in Rio
xx
Oxford Murders, The
37
Paper Man
63
Parking Lot Movie, The
68
Patrik Age 1.5
40
People I've Slept With, The
42
Perfect Game, The
47
Perrier's Bounty
48
Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies
78
Please Give
31
Pornography: A Thriller
41
Princess Kaiulani
90
Prophet, A![]()
xx
Raajneeti
67
Raavan
78
Racing Dreams
xx
Ramchand Pakistani
xx
Red Birds
63
Reel Injun
85
Restrepo![]()
xx
Road, Movie
45
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
xx
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
43
Salt of This Sea
81
Secret in Their Eyes, The![]()
81
Secret of Kells, The![]()
73
See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary
57
Severe Clear
57
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
52
Shine of Rainbows, A
48
Sicilian Girl, The
77
Single Man, A
68
Smash His Camera
69
Solitary Man
45
South of the Border
56
Spoken Word
47
Spring Fever
75
Square, The
22
Standing Ovation
75
Stonewall Uprising
53
Tales from the Script
74
Terribly Happy
78
Teza
75
That Evening Sun
xx
They Came to Play
49
Thorn in the Heart, The
xx
Thru the Moebius Strip
60
TiMER
64
Tirador
15
To Age or Not to Age
52
Touching Home
33
Trash Humpers
59
Trotsky, The
xx
Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
24
Twelve
56
Two in the Wave
62
Valhalla Rising
85
Vincere![]()
xx
Visionaries
54
Wah Do Dem
70
Warlords, The
56
What's the Matter with Kansas?
55
When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors
68
Whiz Kids
52
Who Do You Love
35
Who Killed Nancy
64
Wild Grass
xx
Wild Hunt, The
56
Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest, The
69
Winnebago Man
90
Winter's Bone![]()
68
Women Without Men
xx
World on a Wire
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Avatar
Universal acclaim
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 1647 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Sci-fi | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: James Cameron
Directed by: James Cameron
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 18, 2009
DVD: April 20, 2010
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Aliens Aliens of the Deep Ghosts of the Abyss Terminator 2: Judgment Day The Abyss The Terminator Titanic True Lies
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database All Films Considered: James Cameron Official Studio Site
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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?
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Premiere Nick Starkey
This is, simply put, one of the most beautiful movies you’ll ever see.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Avatar is entertainment of the highest order. It's the best movie of 2009.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Pantheism, Cameronism: In Avatar, what’s the diff? Now he’s king of a world he made from scratch.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Rarely less than absorbing and never boring over its nearly three-hour length.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
As visual spectacle, Avatar is indelible, but as a movie it all but evaporates as you watch it.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Avatar clears the hurdle in terms of being optical candy. Its story, though, is pure cheese.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 1647 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Random Anon gave it a10:
Visually stunning and a true masterpiece. Anyone who says otherwise has fallen victim to the cult of "backlash".
Thomas Z. gave it a9:
An incredibly exciting creative world that James Cameron has created has turned into brilliance visually, but though the lack of storytelling fails to make this rating a perfect 10. I am not saying that the visuals are what make the movie amazing for me, Im saying they could've added a more interesting story. Instead of a story that has been seen many times before. It's basically the story of pocahontas, in a fight for their land love story. Though incredible battle scenes and great suspense gets your eyes glued to the screen. I was on the edge of my seat. Fantastic directing by cameron, incredible visuals action and suspense, and a story that is predictable but I didn't mind it, I loved this film. I really loved it.
John H. gave it a10:
This has to be James Cameron's best movie yet. And yes, it's much better than Titanic. The story was really well done, but the characters, the action and the overall experience made it one of the best movies of all time. Why didn't this win best picture?! I mean why did the Hurt Locker win the award? Still the Hurt Locker was another great movie, but surely AVATAR was better than the Hurt Locker. I for one loved AVATAR and just because it was a Sci-Fi film didn't mean it didn't deserve the award. Look at the revolutionary movie Star Wars. A perfect movie that didn't get the best awards at the oscars. Nominating sci-fi films for best picture is a bit silly because there's this rule that sci-fi movies cannot win best picture. That rule defies the purpose of those movies even being nominated. They still deserve to be at least nominated so they still get a bit of recognition at the oscars. I don't mean all sci-fi movies, but just the classic ones. Overall, AVATAR was the best movie of 2009, also I'd like to mention the movie Up is just as good as AVATAR. These two movies were the best of 2009. Who knew a movie such as this one would have an extremely alike to Star Wars. I thought Hollywood would never repeat that affect again. I was obviously wrong. Pandora is up there with the best sci-fi planets in cinema. It still surprises me how James Cameron hasn't lost his way, unlike Stephen Spielberg with what he did in Indiana Jones 4. My final thoughts on AVATAR; it was a perfect movie that of course made James Cameron's Titanic sink. The new Star Wars for the generation is here everybody.
John M. gave it a1:
In my, and apparently many others' opinions, story serves as the very soul of a movie, its driving force. Avatar seems to discard the story, making it something easily conjured by a hormonal tween and, sure, making it beautiful. But I would't watch a mid blowing flower for 3 hours, now would I?
Volt gave it a7:
Visually binding, this movie will not be seen in the same light 20 years from now due to it's predictability and static characters. Far above most movies of this era, however.
doorgo gave it a4:
Are the visual effects breathtaking? Of course, but it's absolutely unforgivable to give credit to a near scene by scene re-make of Disney's Pocahontas. No one in all of Hollywood could come up with an original script for what was to be potentially a breakthrough in 3D filming? I refuse to believe there are no ideas left in Hollywood, but obviously you can't get a screenplay made unless it came from a graphic novel or is outright stolen from a previous script(whether it was good or not). It's just a sad shame.
Nuno V. gave it a2:
Absurdely overrated. cgi masturbation with a lackluster plot and ridiculous neo-hippie fairy-tale.
