Avatar
Metascore
83 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    100
    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.
  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    100
    Avatar is entertainment of the highest order. It's the best movie of 2009.
  3. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Nick Starkey
    100
    This is, simply put, one of the most beautiful movies you’ll ever see.
  4. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    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.
  5. Empire
    Reviewed by: Chris Hewitt
    100
    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?
  6. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    100
    Pantheism, Cameronism: In Avatar, what's the diff? Now he's king of a world he made from scratch.
  7. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    100
    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.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    Avatar's shock and awe demand to be seen. You've never experienced anything like it, and neither has anyone else.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    100
    Glorious and goofy and blissfully deranged.
  10. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    100
    A quantum leap in movie magic; watching it, I began to understand how people in 1933 must have felt when they saw "King Kong."
  11. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    90
    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.
  12. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    90
    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.
  13. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    90
    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.
  14. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    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.
  15. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    90
    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.
  16. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    89
    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.
  17. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    Tone-deaf but thunderously exciting.
  18. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    88
    Rarely less than absorbing and never boring over its nearly three-hour length.
  19. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    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.
  20. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    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.
  21. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    83
    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.
  22. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    83
    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.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2358 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 828 out of 1139
  2. Mixed: 114 out of 1139
  3. Negative: 197 out of 1139
  1. DaltonO
    3
    Eh, yeah its all 3D, yeah its got allot of special effects and costs allot, yeah its got blue alien boobs, but other than that there is nothing here. Terrible cliche, hole-filled plot leaves you bored. Its kind of amazing how you can have such a crappy plot and waste 4 hours on it. After you watch it you think its good at first, but that is just an effect from the CGI and 3D. Soon you will realize how lame it is. "the Eywa sees you!" ugg soooo cheesy.… Full Review »
  2. MattN.
    3
    Great visuals and effects, but thats simply all that Avatar has to offer. No story, viciously bad overacting and dialogue older than Sigourney Weaver herself. Very boring and far too long.… Full Review »
  3. NunoV.
    2
    Absurdely overrated. cgi masturbation with a lackluster plot and ridiculous neo-hippie fairy-tale.
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