Avatar Reviews

This sci-fi epic would be a masterpiece if judged solely on its technical merits.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

Cameron is flexing his creative muscles, but the film never overcomes the nagging feeling that he's also simply going through the motions.

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Piercing the hype, Avatar may not be a "game changer", but I'll be damned if the game didn't just get a hell of a lot more interesting from here on in.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

While it wasn't the most original narrative, it serves the film well, even if it was merely a template for Cameron to show us this gorgeous world and its landscapes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Planet Pandora's plant and animal life is done with a wonder that has been often absent from fiction screens.

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It's both wildly original and hauntingly familiar, like Dances With Wolves in a galaxy far, far away.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

It is far too long and the romance is half-hearted. Still, you'd have to travel very far to feel so fully immersed in another world.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

It's good. It should have been better.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

It may not change the world, but it'll certainly provide enjoyment to many millions of people all over it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

As a fantasy epic, Avatar is an undeniable victory ... but outside of the narrow confines of immersion he's managed, it's also quite limited.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10

The nature scenes are nothing short of magical in this film.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

Spiritually moving, visually daring and emotionally stirring, Avatar is classic storytelling at its very best.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10

"Avatar" looks amazing on Blu-ray. If the plot wasn't so pedestrian, it could have been a great film. Paul Chambers, CNN.

Full Review | Original Score: 5

If you ever wondered what a live-action Hayao Miyazaki film would look like, Avatar is a damn good approximation.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

You can feel Cameron's anger and his passion every time a Na'vi roars. The most exhilarating moments are those when you can feel the director urging his actors to let go completely, to become furious, and to unleash hell.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

For all the justifiable knocks on James Cameron's writing, his personal investment in any project is never in doubt. With "Avatar," his passion for pushing the very possibilities of film as a medium pays off. Here's hoping we see him again before 2021.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Cameron's 'Avatar': Brainy & Beautiful

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Avatar is a joyous celebration of story craft and the visual possibilities of cinema. Cameron had set his sights on taking the technology of film where no one had gone before. And he delivers. Avatar is stunning. Cameron and Peter Jackson's Weta Digital h

Full Review | Original Score: A

If cinema is pure escapism, then Avatar provides the ultimate journey to a world unlike anything seen before it, with a deep spiritual core giving substance to its most impressive display of style.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

There is so much that is remarkable about Avatar that its failings - clunky writing, clumsy love story - are easily brushed away.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.8/10