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52 [Rec] 2
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90 45365
55 8: The Mormon Proposition
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36 After.Life
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82 Ajami
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32 Human Centipede (First Sequence), The
79 I Am Love
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67 It Came From Kuchar
74 Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
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53 Killing Kasztner
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63 Lbs.
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76 Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
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71 Neshoba: The Price of Freedom
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73 See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary
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xx Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
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62 Valhalla Rising
85 Vincere
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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
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Avatar

EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox

Avatar reviews
84
7.7 User Score:

Universal acclaim

Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1647 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
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)

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 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.

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