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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: Big Blue Marvel

James Cameron returns to Pandora, and to the ecological themes and visual bedazzlements of his 2009 blockbuster.

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By A.O. Scott

Way back in 2009, “Avatar” arrived on screens as a plausible and exciting vision of the movie future. Thirteen years later, “Avatar: The Way of Water” — the first of several long-awaited sequels directed by James Cameron — brings with it a ripple of nostalgia.

The throwback sensation may hit you even before the picture starts, as you unfold your 3-D glasses. When was the last time you put on a pair of those? Even the anticipation of seeing something genuinely new at the multiplex feels like an artifact of an earlier time, before streaming and the Marvel Universe took over.

The first “Avatar” fused Cameron’s faith in technological progress with his commitments to the primal pleasures of old-fashioned storytelling and the visceral delights of big-screen action. The 3-D effects and intricately rendered digital landscapes — the trees and flowers of the moon Pandora and the way creatures and machines swooped and barreled through them — felt like the beginning of something, the opening of a fresh horizon of imaginative possibility.

At the same time, the visual novelty was built on a sturdy foundation of familiar themes and genre tropes. “Avatar” was set on a fantastical world populated by soulful blue bipeds, but it wasn’t exactly (or only) science fiction. It was a revisionist western, an ecological fable, a post-Vietnam political allegory — a tale of romance, valor and revenge with traces of Homer, James Fenimore Cooper and “Star Trek” in its DNA.

All of that is also true of “The Way of Water,” which picks up the story and carries it from Pandora’s forests to its reefs and wetlands — an environment that inspires some new and dazzling effects. Where “Avatar” found inspiration in lizard-birds, airborne spores and jungle flowers, the sequel revels in aquatic wonders, above all a kind of armored whale called the tulkun.

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Cameron retains his crown

Watching “Avatar,” I felt sort of the same as when I saw “Star Wars” in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron ‘s film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his “ Titanic ” was. Once again, he 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.

“Avatar” is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It’s a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message. It is predestined to launch a cult. It contains such visual detailing that it would reward repeating viewings. It invents a new language, Na’vi, as “Lord of the Rings” did, although mercifully I doubt this one can be spoken by humans, even teenage humans. It creates new movie stars. It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation.

The story, set in the year 2154, involves a mission by U. S. Armed Forces to an earth-sized moon in orbit around a massive star. This new world, Pandora, is a rich source of a mineral Earth desperately needs. Pandora represents not even a remote threat to Earth, but we nevertheless send in ex-military mercenaries to attack and conquer them. Gung-ho warriors employ machine guns and pilot armored hover ships on bombing runs. You are free to find this an allegory about contemporary politics. Cameron obviously does.

Pandora harbors a planetary forest inhabited peacefully by the Na’vi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed race of slender giants, each one perhaps 12 feet tall. The atmosphere is not breathable by humans, and the landscape makes us pygmies. To venture out of our landing craft, we use avatars–Na’vi lookalikes grown organically and mind-controlled by humans who remain wired up in a trance-like state on the ship. While acting as avatars, they see, fear, taste and feel like Na’vi, and have all the same physical adeptness.

This last quality is liberating for the hero, Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ), who is a paraplegic. He’s been recruited because he’s a genetic match for a dead identical twin, who an expensive avatar was created for. In avatar state he can walk again, and as his payment for this duty he will be given a very expensive operation to restore movement to his legs. In theory he’s in no danger, because if his avatar is destroyed, his human form remains untouched. In theory.

On Pandora, Jake begins as a good soldier and then goes native after his life is saved by the lithe and brave Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ). He finds it is indeed true, as the aggressive Col. Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) briefed them, that nearly every species of life here wants him for lunch. (Avatars are not be made of Na’vi flesh, but try explaining that to a charging 30-ton rhino with a snout like a hammerhead shark).

The Na’vi survive on this planet by knowing it well, living in harmony with nature, and being wise about the creatures they share with. In this and countless other ways they resemble Native Americans. Like them, they tame another species to carry them around–not horses, but graceful flying dragon-like creatures. The scene involving Jake capturing and taming one of these great beasts is one of the film’s greats sequences.

Like “Star Wars” and “LOTR,” “Avatar” employs a new generation of special effects. Cameron said it would, and many doubted him. It does. Pandora is very largely CGI. The Na’vi are embodied through motion capture techniques, convincingly. They look like specific, persuasive individuals, yet sidestep the eerie Uncanny Valley effect. And Cameron and his artists succeed at the difficult challenge of making Neytiri a blue-skinned giantess with golden eyes and a long, supple tail, and yet–I’ll be damned. Sexy.

At 163 minutes, the film doesn’t feel too long. It contains so much. The human stories. The Na’vi stories, for the Na’vi are also developed as individuals. The complexity of the planet, which harbors a global secret. The ultimate warfare, with Jake joining the resistance against his former comrades. Small graceful details like a floating creature that looks like a cross between a blowing dandelion seed and a drifting jellyfish, and embodies goodness. Or astonishing floating cloud-islands.

I’ve complained that many recent films abandon story telling in their third acts and go for wall-to-wall action. Cameron essentially does that here, but has invested well in establishing his characters so that it matters what they do in battle and how they do it. There are issues at stake greater than simply which side wins.

Cameron promised he’d unveil the next generation of 3-D in “Avatar.” I’m a notorious skeptic about this process, a needless distraction from the perfect realism of movies in 2-D. Cameron’s iteration is the best I’ve seen — and more importantly, one of the most carefully-employed. The film never uses 3-D simply because it has it, and doesn’t promiscuously violate the fourth wall. He also seems quite aware of 3-D’s weakness for dimming the picture, and even with a film set largely in interiors and a rain forest, there’s sufficient light. I saw the film in 3-D on a good screen at the AMC River East and was impressed. I might be awesome in True IMAX. Good luck in getting a ticket before February.

It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Stephen Lang as Col. Miles Quaritch
• Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman
• Wes Studi as Eytukan
• CCH Pounder as Moat
• Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel
• Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge
• Sam Worthington as Jake Sully
• Zoe Saldana as Neytiri
• Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon
• Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey
• Sigourney Weaver as Grace
• Matt Gerald as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet

Written and directed by

• James Cameron

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Sorry, But Avatar Still Rules

For all his technical expertise and storytelling prowess, James Cameron might well be cinema’s master of the vibe shift. I still remember the week in 1997 when Titanic went from being thought of as an incoming disaster, one that was going to take two major studios down with it, to being thought of as a blockbuster that would remind everyone why we kept Hollywood around. The tide similarly turned on Avatar back in 2009. For months, so many of us expected a much-delayed, over-indulgent monstrosity from a filmmaker who was clearly living in his own head and had nobody to say no to him. I recall Dana Goodyear’s epic New Yorker profile that depicted Cameron geeking out over seemingly imperceptible VFX details. (“That fuckin’ rocks! … Look at the gill-like membrane on the side of the mouth, its transmission of light, all the secondary color saturation on the tongue, and that maxilla bone. I love what you did with the translucence on the teeth, and the way the quadrate bone racks the teeth forward.”)

And then, we saw the damn thing. After the film’s first brain-melting all-media screening at the Lincoln Square IMAX in New York, suddenly, all anybody wanted to talk about was Avatar . The rest is history — as it was with Titanic , as it was with Terminator 2: Judgment Day . The word went forth, and the word remains: Never underestimate James Cameron.

One can sense a similar sea change coming for Cameron’s much-delayed sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water , which after years of false starts and date changes is now set to arrive this December. For years, Avatar — both the extant original and this ever-so-slowly approaching follow-up — has been the butt of jokes and narrow-minded hot takes, the most prevalent one being that the film has left no pop-cultural footprint. That silly take, of course, contains its own rebuttal. If Avatar is so forgotten, how come some new person needs to remind us every week that it’s so forgotten?

Perhaps more importantly, to play the pop-culture-footprint game is to play right into the hands of the corporate IP overlords who have stuffed us full of second- and third-rate Star Wars and Marvel and DC offerings for the past decade or so. No, there haven’t been dozens of Avatar sequels and spinoffs and reboots and TV shows and streaming series; Hulu is not currently working on an origin story for the Home Tree, and there is, as far as I can tell, no Disney+ animated series following the adventures of a family of thanators. This is a good thing. Let Avatar be Avatar , and let its sequel succeed or fail on its merits, and not on whether it fits into an exhausting and inane extended universe, or whether it sells enough lunchboxes.

But like I said, a shift is coming, and recent months have seen a massive surge of interest in Avatar: The Way of Water , perhaps because people have suddenly begun to care about movies and the theatrical experience again. Now, to prime us for the sequel, Avatar itself is back in theaters, which remains the ideal setting in which to see it — especially in 3-D, as it’s one of the few productions to use the technology properly. In fact, after the unprecedented success of Avatar , Hollywood spent so much time trying to retrofit big releases into 3-D that they all but killed off the technology. Maybe that’s another measure of Avatar ’s pop-cultural impact: All the movie graveyards filled with wannabe blockbusters that couldn’t live up to the promise of Avatar . Others’ failure can be a measure of your success, too.

One of the side benefits of there not being dozens of other Avatar properties out there is that, watching Avatar again after all these years, one realizes just how special it is. All that fussing over maxilla bones and gill-like membranes, it turns out, pays off. Cameron and his artists have so lovingly imagined the moon of Pandora that every shot of the film contains new wonders. One can lose oneself in this world, and as I recall, back in the day, many people did. No joke: There were reports of people experiencing depression after leaving the film because Pandora was too real, too enticing, too beautiful. A term for it began to stick: Post- Avatar Depression Syndrome.

Cameron’s special power has always been his ability to mix tech-heavy macho bluster with a kind of earnestness that would be corny in lesser hands; I once called him a flower child who speaks fluent badass. He peoples his movies with believable tough guys who talk like they know what they’re doing and handle their guns the way they’re supposed to. There’s no pretension or condescension with such characters, even when they’re cartoonish villains, as they are in Avatar . Or even when they’re comic relief: Think back to Bill Paxton’s blustery Hudson in Aliens , whose mixture of musclebound bravado and scaredy-cat whining is one of that film’s most memorable bits; in some ways, he’s the most relatable character in the movie. You can tell Cameron on some fundamental level likes these guys. He did, after all, co-write Rambo: First Blood Part II .

But his heart is with the romantics and the dreamers. The machismo tempers and authenticates the sentiment, and vice versa. The Abyss is a seafaring, cool-as-shit action movie that winds up being about a divorced couple reconciling. Titanic is an achingly heartfelt teen romance played out against a disaster ruthlessly recreated with the precision of an engineer. And Avatar is a movie about a gruff, can-do grunt who learns to commune with nature and falls for a Na’vi princess. (It’s also, let’s not forget, a fairly blunt allegory for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, complete with callouts to Bush-era rhetoric like “shock and awe” and the villains’ declaration that “Our only security lies in preemptive attack. We will fight terror with terror.” But this was actually par for the course for big action movies during this era. See also: George Lucas’s Star Wars prequels, which were even more politically pointed.)

The general premise of the picture is, as everybody and their mother have reminded us, not new. The director himself referenced Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars novels while making it, and the conceit of the soldier who “goes native” is its own subgenre by now, to be found in everything from Lawrence of Arabia to Dances With Wolves . And hey, let’s not forget that the film seems to borrow from Terrence Malick’s The New World , too, not to mention FernGully: The Last Rainforest . Avatar may be derivative, but it’s not insincere. Cameron clearly feels every beat of the story along with his viewer. He lets us discover Pandora through Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) eyes, first as a fearsome, terrifying place, then as a land of unimaginable awe and delight.

There’s nothing pro forma about Jake’s falling for Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri. Cameron’s a little in love with her himself. When our heroes ride their banshees at breakneck speed down a cliff, we can feel Cameron living viscerally through his creation. It’s every nerd’s dream: to find a beautiful mate, preferably with fangs, with whom you can race your magic flying dragons in a distant wonderland. It’s so clear that Cameron wants the Na’vi’s world of bioluminescent veins and mystical spirits to be true. He wants it to be true so much that he’s created an entire science for it. His aforementioned, almost parodic attention to detail isn’t just the obsessive rantings of a billion-dollar Hollywood taskmaster, it’s that of someone who has reversed the typical artistic exchange of filmmaking, in which artists create worlds for audiences to lose themselves. In Cameron’s case, one suspects that the realer it is for us, the realer it will be for him.

So, the protagonist of Jake Sully — the soldier torn between duty and the enticing wonders of a mystical world — feels quite personal for Cameron, too. Not just in the tension between the badass who becomes a hippie crusader, but also in the idea of the dreamer who must learn to let go of what he once believed was the real world. Whereas most movies would have their heroes ultimately reconcile themselves with reality, Avatar again goes in the opposite direction. It urges us to leave all that behind. It becomes an allegory for Cameron’s own inability to let go. And it’s clear he still hasn’t. He’s reportedly working on four sequels. Long may he dream.

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'Avatar': Big-Picture Visions, Stirringly Realized

Kenneth Turan

Behind Enemy Lines: With Earth in trouble, humans are off to Pandora — and the native Na'vi are ready to fight for their home. Genetically hybridized and assigned to infiltrate them, combat veteran Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, left) goes native himself when he meets Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). WETA/20th Century Fox hide caption

• Director: James Cameron
• Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure
• Running Time: 160 minutes

Rated PG-13 With: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez

(Recommended)

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You've never experienced anything like Avatar, and neither has anyone else. Its shock-and-awe tactics restore a sense of wonder to the moviegoing experience that has been missing for far too long.

The year is 2154, and Planet Earth is in big trouble — big enough that people are going all the way to Pandora, six light-years away. The Na'vi — blue-skinned, 10-foot (computer-generated) creatures who live on the exotic moon — are not happy about that, which is why the speech the head of human security gives to his forces sounds less like a warning than a death sentence .

Listening to that speech is partially paralyzed combat veteran Jake Sully. He's come to Pandora to become the human mind inside an avatar — a genetically engineered hybrid between humans and the Na'vi. But once hothead Jake crosses the security barrier from the heavily protected base to enter Pandora proper, he can't help but be wowed by the vividness of the fantastical creatures there — flying dragons, anvil-headed rhinos and such.

You'll be wowed too: The creative intensity on display in Avatar is so potent, we're barely troubled by the same weakness for flat dialogue and characterization that put such a dent in Titanic. Those qualities are here, no mistake about that, but because of the nature of the story, they don't matter as much.

That's because to see Avatar is to feel like you understand filmmaking in three dimensions for the first time. In Cameron's hands, 3-D is no forced gimmick. It's a way to create an alternate reality and insert us so seamlessly into it that we feel like we've actually been there.

Avatar may be the most expensive and accomplished Saturday matinee movie ever made. But if spectacle and adventure are reasons you go to the movies, Avatar is something you won't want to miss. (Recommended)

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‘avatar’: film review.

A dozen years later, James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the world.

By Kirk Honeycutt

Kirk Honeycutt

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As commander-in-chief of an army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers, motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music and sound magicians, he brings science-fiction movies into the 21st century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is “ Avatar .” And he did it almost from scratch. The Bottom Line A titanic entertainment -- movie magic is back!

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After writing this story many years ago, he discovered that the technology he needed to make it happen did not exist. So, he went out and created it in collaboration with the best effects minds in the business. This is motion capture brought to a new high where every detail of the actors’ performances gets preserved in the final CG character as they appear on the screen. Yes, those eyes are no longer dead holes but big and expressive, almost dominating the wide and long alien faces.

The movie is 161 minutes and flies by in a rush. Repeat business? You bet. “Titanic”-level business? That level may never be reached again, but Fox will see more than enough grosses worldwide to cover its bet on Cameron.

But let’s cut to the chase: 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 (watch the trailer here ).

The story takes place in 2154, three decades after a multinational corporation has established a mining colony on Pandora, a planet light years from Earth. A toxic environment and hostile natives — one corporate apparatchik calls the locals “blue monkeys” — forces the conglom to engage with Pandora by proxy. Humans dwell in oxygen-drenched cocoons but move out into mines or to confront the planet’s hostile creatures in hugely fortified armor and robotics or — as avatars.

Without any training, Jake suddenly must learn how to link his consciousness to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body that mixes human DNA with that of the native population, the Na’vi . Since he is incautious and overly curious, he immediately rushes into the fresh air — to a native — to throw open Pandora’s many boxes.

What a glory Cameron has created for Jake to romp in, all in a crisp 3D realism. It’s every fairy tale about flying dragons, magic plants, weirdly hypnotic creepy-crawlies and feral dogs rolled up into a rain forest with a highly advanced spiritual design. It seems — although the scientists led by Sigourney Weaver’s top doc have barely scratched the surface — a flow of energy ripples through the roots of trees and the spores of the plants, which the Na’vi know how to tap into.

The center of life is a holy tree where tribal memories and the wisdom of their ancestors is theirs for the asking. This is what the humans want to strip mine.

Jake manages to get taken in by one tribe where a powerful, Amazonian named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana ) takes him under her wing to teach him how to live in the forest, speak the language and honor the traditions of nature. Yes, they fall in love but Cameron has never been a sentimentalist: He makes it tough on his love birds.

They must overcome obstacles and learn each other’s heart. The Na’vi have a saying, “I see you,” which goes beyond the visual. It means I see into you and know your heart.

He provides solid intelligence about the Na’vi defensive capabilities to Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ramrod head of security for the mining consortium and the movie’s villain. But as Jake comes to see things through Neytiri’s eyes, he hopes to establish enough trust between the humans and the natives to negotiate a peace. But the corporation wants the land the Na’vi occupy for its valuable raw material so the Colonel sees no purpose in this.

The battle for Pandora occupies much of the final third of the film. The planet’s animal life — the creatures of the ground and air — give battle along with the Na’vi , but they come up against projectiles, bombs and armor that seemingly will be their ruin.

As with everything in “Avatar,” Cameron has coolly thought things through. With every visual tool he can muster, he takes viewers through the battle like a master tactician, demonstrating how every turn in the fight, every valiant death or cowardly act, changes its course. The screen is alive with more action and the soundtrack pops with more robust music than any dozen sci-fi shoot-’em-ups you care to mention (watch the “Avatar” video game trailer here ).

In years of development and four years of production no detail in the pic is unimportant. Cameron’s collaborators excel beginning with the actors. Whether in human shape or as natives, they all bring terrific vitality to their roles.

James Horner’s score never intrudes but subtly eggs the action on while the editing attributed to Cameron, Stephen Rivkin and John Refoua maintains a breathless pace that exhilarates rather than fatigues. Not a minute is wasted; there is no down time.

The only question is: How will Cameron ever top this?

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Review by Brian Eggert December 18, 2009

James Cameron’s strength as a director has always been spectacle more than story. While his characterizations are solid—if rooted in heavy clichés—for him, they’re secondary to a skillful exhibition teeming with groundbreaking special effects. In the past, Cameron’s primary objective hasn’t been about making you think passed the end credits or involving you on a resonant emotional level, at least not as much as wanting to blow your socks off with new technological breakthroughs displayed in nonstop action sequences. He concerns himself with what will impact his audience at this moment in cinema, admirably moving toward The New, his focus obsessively concentrated on visual bravado. Accordingly, because he’s driven toward the latest thing in moviemaking, centering all of his concentration on that one goal, the impact of his movies fades over time.

For example, The Terminator may seem corny and old-fashioned today, but at the time of its release, Stan Winston’s animatronics were revolutionary, the action eye-popping. Cameron’s Aliens dumbed down the spare, frightening universe created by Ridley Scott, but it’s a helluva entertaining action movie, one that changed our perspective on the scope of puppetry. For Terminator 2: Judgment Day , Cameron developed CGI that today looks phony, so the weak story doesn’t hold up. And as for Titanic , was the romance ever meant to overshadow the bravura sequence where the ship takes a nosedive into the sea? Probably not, but what a sequence. In each case, except perhaps Cameron’s masterpiece, The Abyss , the director limits his narrative to supply the presentation with audacity aplenty, his story and the effects therein unbalanced, the scale completely tipped to the latter.

It’s with these thoughts in mind that one should approach Avatar , Cameron’s latest foray into the realm of blockbuster moviemaking. Realizing how often Cameron fails to balance spectacle and story will help one appreciate what a wonderful motion picture he’s made here. The story is a familiar one, reminiscent of a number of science-fiction stories and a few notable films ( Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai being the most apparent), but it’s told with such passion and visual bravado that any carping about the yarn being typical is canceled out. He compiles familiar themes from his previous work, mainly The Abyss , places them in a new setting, and tells a tale so unbelievably rich and escapist that the best way to convince you is just to say, with unbridled enthusiasm, See This Film!

Set in the year 2154, the story begins on Pandora, a fertile moon orbiting a massive gas planet in a solar system far, far away. Human scientists seek to mine a valuable mineral embedded in the terrain; however, the humanoid race of indigenous people, called Na’vi, stands in their way. An analogous situation to when Europeans first began to explore the Americas, the locals are treated as animalistic savages, while corrupt and callous, the humans plan to infiltrate and transfer them somewhere not on top of the moon’s most concentrated deposit of the mineral. But the Na’vi have a biological connection to the very Nature around them, worshiping it like a deity, and through this connection, they produce a balanced and striking biosphere. However, humanity has a way of disregarding the beliefs of other people and completely ignoring what it takes for Nature to maintain stability.

Sympathetic jarhead Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic, joins the “avatar” program to try and connect with the Na’vi and find a diplomatic solution to the humans’ proposed forced relocation. Under the tutelage of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), the scientist who pioneered the program, Jake enters a genetically engineered Na’vi body remotely, existing as one of them to find a balance between cultures. While embedded in the lush Na’vi forests, he meets local Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and through her, he learns the ways of the natives and ultimately feels more at home in his versatile avatar than his broken human body. But his greedy-minded superiors—company man Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and battle-hungry Colonel Miles Quaritch (the fantastic Stephen Lang)—want their mineral and they want it now. What ensues is a rousing battle where the stakes are entrenched into the characters, so the fighting we see actually has a purpose.

Of course, Cameron’s assessment of his own genius knows no bounds; he’s so (rightfully) confident that the world he’s created is enough to occupy our minds that he doesn’t even bother formulating an actual McGuffin (the name for the moviemaker’s device to propel the plot). On Pandora, the invaluable material the humans seek is called Unobtainium, though not a word of Cameron’s creation. “Unobtainium” in reality is a tech term actually used by scientists to describe an impossible natural resource, such as a limitless, renewable source of energy or precious mineral. The script goes into little detail about what exactly Unobtainium is, just that it’s the last bastion of hope for humanity and our diminished planet. That it’s not called “pandorium” or something more specific is passive on Cameron’s part; he might as well have called it “McGuffin,” since he’s making it clear he doesn’t want to waste time on pithy details.

Most impressive is the tangible rendering of the Na’vi and the fascinating way in which the avatars resemble their hosts (most apparent with Weaver’s avatar) without ever being eerie or awkward. Though presented theatrically in 3D, even in 2D screenings the Na’vi appear three-dimensional. It takes two or three minutes for the viewer to acclimate themselves to the appearance of the Na’vi, their blue elongated forms, and their massive size in comparison to humans. But once that initial adjustment has passed, there isn’t a moment where we doubt what we’re seeing. Cameron was right. Hollywood wasn’t ready for this. These are faces that we can reach out and touch, without ever entering the Uncanny Valley where creepy motion-capture films like Beowulf , A Christmas Carol , and The Polar Express reside. Cameron doesn’t try to replicate physical creatures in this world; he breathes life into them. And if this is where motion capture is going, the advertisements are right—movies won’t be the same, at least not ones using this device. Let’s just hope the directors using this technology in the future have the patience that Cameron displayed through the last ten years of pre-production.

If showmanship was the only criteria by which Avatar was to be judged, then this would still be a raving review. Cameron has mastered the art of stringing together breathlessly entertaining action sequences, making his frequent long runtimes ( Avatar clocks in at 162 minutes) breeze by. But there’s also an admirable social commentary at work, sporting hearty themes of environmentalism and anti-militarism. Cameron often writes his villains as close-minded bureaucrats and war-mongers, probably because their single-mindedness is so easily shown as wrong in a humanist circumstance such as this, which, of course, is a historical parallel for events of both the distant past and our contemporary setting. Here, those Cameron tropes are alive and well in their most obvious but potent scenery, taking the film to unexpected levels of deep emotional involvement. By the end, when we’re cheering for those rotten humans to get their comeuppance, Cameron has made us feel guilty about the forceful, inhuman nature of our species. That such a feeling is brought to life in a sci-fi blockbuster is a glorious accomplishment.

Along with The Abyss , it’s certain that Avatar will prove to be one of Cameron’s most revisited and least dated entertainments. The film has none of the pop-culture lingo that has made some of the director’s other works unwatchable today. It has an allegorical edge that makes it a significant narrative, while also putting to use every last penny of its astronomical budget. And it has a brisk pace and epic scope to simply awe its audience into submission. Skeptics will be turned, probably easier than they were expecting. Cameron has once again proven himself a landmark director whose forward-thinking inspires changes in industry standards and whose ability to connect to his audience remains thoroughly intact. To be sure, this is an engaging experience in every sense, from the dramatic to the visual to the visceral. This is how blockbusters should be.

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Screen Rant reviews Avatar

So, after endless fanboy hype (and hate) rivaling that of the months leading up to Watchmen, Avatar is finally upon us. The burning question (once again): Is this film worthy of all the hype preceding it?

Well, first let's get to the story...

Sam Worthington plays Jake Sulley, a Marine who lost the use of his legs in battle. He has absolutely nothing to do with the Avatar project until his twin brother is killed (apparently in a senseless mugging). His brother was a scientist who had been working on and preparing for the Avatar project for three years.

This is significant because the bio-engineered Na'vi bodies created for the Avatar project are genetically coded to a specific human - and since Jake is the identical twin of his brother (despite having zero training in the project) the corporation talks him into joining it. Their logic is they can always use a Na'vi Avatar with combat skills on their side. Worthington's character is not only a Na'vi Avatar, but also obviously one for the audience as well... the person who comes onto the scene not knowing anything about what is going on (like the audience) and the film's exposition happens through his point of view for our benefit.

The planet Pandora contains a very rare mineral with extremely valuable properties (that are never explained, no need) called... Unobtainium. Yeah, I know. They only call it that once in the film, thankfully. Anyway, there are pockets of it scattered throughout the planet, but the biggest cache of it happens to be directly beneath the village of the Na'vi we come to know. The goal is to either negotiate with them to get them to move so the bulldozers can come in and mine or to expel them via military force.

Relations with the Na'vi have been shaky at best - it seems that olive branches were extended in the forms of schools, roads and supplies, but the Na'vi are not interested in any of it - and there have been some isolated clashes between them and the military. It's decided that Sully (not being a scientist) would be an ideal mole - he can go in and gain the trust of the locals in order to gather intel that can be used against them should things come to blows. Sully is promised that the expensive surgery which could once again give him use of his legs would be taken care of if he goes along with the plan - which he does. He has three months.

Sigouney Weaver plays Grace, the fairly grizzled, smoking lead scientist on the project who is not happy (to say the least) to see Jake show up to take his brother's place.  There's another scientist who was friends with Jake's brother and who comes to resent the fact that after he has put in so much time learning how to be a Na'vi, that a newcomer with no experience comes in and plays a central role in the project. The scientists are determined to find a diplomatic solution (although tasking scientists with this doesn't really make much sense) and are constantly at odds with the military. They relocate their lab far away from central command in hopes that they can function more autonomously, without intervention from the corporation (represented by Giovanni Ribisi as the lead on the project) or the military.

Speaking of the military, Stephen Lang absolutely shines as Colonel Miles Quaritch, a chiseled in stone older soldier with plenty of field experience who is in charge of military operations on Pandora. Scenes with him, Weaver, the sci-fi tech and Cameron at the helm took me back to the most excellent James Cameron film, Aliens . In some ways this almost felt like a continuation of that film - if not in story, then in characters and hardware.

And of course we have Zoe Saldana as Neytiri, who does a fine job as the lead female who is put in charge of teaching (Avatar) Jake the language and culture of the Na'vi. At first she intensely dislikes and mistrusts Jake, but over the course of the film their relationship's development is the focal point as she softens towards him and he comes to respect and understand the Na'vi deeply.

So what's the verdict?

(Click to continue reading our Avatar review)

If you've seen the movie and want to talk about it without worrying about spoilers, please head over to our Avatar Spoilers Discussion .

Please don't discuss movie spoilers here in order to not ruin it for people who haven't seen it yet.

James Cameron has still got it.

Avatar is the most visually amazing film I've ever seen. His boasts were valid: Nothing like this has ever been done or seen on the big screen. The incredible scope and detail is really mesmerizing - he created an entire planet with variety and detail that is unparalleled... and had to maintain it throughout a 2 1/2 hour film. It boggles the mind to think that (by my estimate) at least 80% of the film is fully CGI.

The motion capture (both body and facial) that Cameron employs here is impressive. I would say that he has succeeded in conquering the "uncanny valley" (that last bit of detail in anthropomorphic CGI that bridges that feeling that something's "just not quite right"), except that he is not portraying fully human characters - where the subtle "misses" are most obvious. He wisely changed the appearance of the Na'vi enough that your mind registers them as non-human and thus is more forgiving of anomalies. That could be why he made their eyes so large, in order to make them more overtly expressive. I will say that as Na'vi, I found the physical and facial animation flawless - it seemed to me very natural even when put to the test with subtle, emotional close-up scenes.

The planet is lush, dangerous and believable - populated with dense vegetation and a wild variety of creatures. Everything from delicate, glowing, floating things to scary, aggressive, six-legged carnivores. Cameron has created an entire eco-system here with some interesting details, along with one detail that made me smirk (not really in a good way) in its similarity to "The Force" in Star Wars .

I didn't see it in IMAX, but it was in 3D. I can tell you that in my opinion the 3D only added to the breathtaking visuals on the screen. It was used to good effect - giving depth to scenes, letting the audience share in a sense of vertigo when on the precipice of some huge drop or in flight on one of the local winged creatures. For me, this is exactly how 3D should be used in movies - it was there but not in a way that you were conscious of it, it just sucked you into the film that much more.

The relationship between Neytiri and Jake was well done and believable - you could say that Cameron took so long building the growth of the relationship and Jake's character development that it almost dragged on a bit... but had it not been done the ending would not have worked as well. Supporting characters, however small their roles, all worked and supplemented the primary characters nicely. The one exception might be Ribisi, who while I like him as an actor, seemed a bit miscast here.

What I found predictable was the story. You can pretty much map out what's going to happen 10 minutes in without expending too many brain cells. I was hoping for perhaps something more complex or an unexpected twist of some sort - but the entire film played out pretty much the way you'd expect it to. I'm really not a fan of "humanity as the bad guys/aliens as the good guys" and I don't know what sort of message Cameron was trying to make here (colonization of America and what happened to the native Indian population?), but frankly I found the film entertaining enough that I was able to set that aside - more easily when he actually highlighted a spiritual component of the film as counterpoint to the Sci-Fi tech.

But this has all the Cameron trademarks: Relatable characters you'll care about, a story that makes sense, mind blowing visuals and action sequences that are awesome. The final 20 minutes of the film are just a kick-ass, non-stop ground and air battle that will leave you feeling VERY satisfied.

For the parents out there, the PG-13 is for some repeated mild profanity, partial CGI Na'vi nudity (they're pretty scantily clad), battle violence and a very short scene that's pretty suggestive between two of the big blue characters. Overall I'd definitely take my child to this before I would ever consider letting them watch Transformers 2 when it comes to content.

Overall, Avatar delivers what it promised, and it promised a LOT. In the end I think it will turn out to be a repeat-viewer that you'll want to revisit often - much like most of James Cameron's other films.

Avatar is a sci-fi action/adventure film created by James Cameron and released in 2009. Set in the fictional world of Pandora in the distant future, humans seek a rare mineral found on the planet but find a race of highly-intelligent beings directly in their mining path. To attempt to communicate and work with them, scientists create body replicas called "avatars," and one man will change the destiny of both races using an avatar of his own.

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Common Sense Media Review

Action-heavy epic has dazzling effects, familiar story.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar is about humans colonizing the planet Pandora, home to the Na'vi. The movie is long (at 161 minutes) and intense, with several effects-heavy battle and hunting sequences that show the devastation of imperialist violence and the right that Indigenous…

Why Age 13+?

Sigourney Weaver's character, Grace, smokes cigarettes and somewhat glamorizes t

The word "s--t" is used several times. Language also includes "bulls--t," "bitch

Characters (supporting and extras) die due to explosions, bullet wounds, arrows

No product placement in the movie, but dozens of tie-in merchandising deals tied

Many longing looks between Jake's avatar and Neytiri, which eventually leads to

Any Positive Content?

Several characters make difficult but moral choices. Jake chooses to support the

Although humans on the base are racially diverse, majority of main characters ar

Overall, movie's message is that we could all stand to learn something from a po

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Sigourney Weaver's character, Grace, smokes cigarettes and somewhat glamorizes the activity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

The word "s--t" is used several times. Language also includes "bulls--t," "bitch," "goddamn," "piss," limp-d--ked," "hell," "oh my God," "ass," and insults like "stupid," "ignorant," etc. Degrading language is used to describe disabled people, such as "cripple." Slurs such as "savages," "roaches," and "blue monkeys" are used to describe the Na'vi.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Characters (supporting and extras) die due to explosions, bullet wounds, arrows (some treated with toxins), precipitous falls, asphyxiation. Several intense scenes involving frightening Pandoran animals and plants, as well as tension between Jake's rogue group of pro-Na'vi humans and the rest of the humans sent to Pandora.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

No product placement in the movie, but dozens of tie-in merchandising deals tied to the title -- including toys and books aimed at young kids.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Many longing looks between Jake's avatar and Neytiri, which eventually leads to kissing and a marital "mating" ritual (kissing and touching are seen on screen). Na'vi clothing makes parts of their humanoid bodies visible. ​​Jake and Neytir's relationship is briefly referred to as "getting tail."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Several characters make difficult but moral choices. Jake chooses to support the Na'vi even though it's against orders to do so and means he must fight (and kill) fellow human soldiers. Neytiri, Grace, and Trudy all make personal sacrifices to help the clan; they're strong, courageous, assertive characters. (In both human and Na'vi populations, female characters are brave and important -- even the Na'vi mating ritual requires that both partners equally accept/choose each other.) On the flip side, the Colonel and corporate boss Parker are portrayed as bloodthirsty and greedy.

Diverse Representations

Although humans on the base are racially diverse, majority of main characters are White. They use offensive terms and stereotypes when talking about the Indigenous population of Pandora, and the military engages in imperialist violence. These scenes, intended to encourage racial/ethnic equality and show value of treating other groups with respect, only partially succeed because, while the Na'vi ultimately triumph, they do so only by following the guidance of outsiders. Violent human colonizers are ultimately ejected from Pandora, but film glosses over how the Na'vi environment and population have been permanently damaged by even well-meaning human scientists and allies. Main character Jake has a visible disability: He uses a wheelchair and is initially teased and treated as an inconvenience. But he easily moves around the base in his wheelchair and asserts control over himself when others try to touch or move him without his consent. Women and female Na'vi characters are important in the story, hold prominent social roles such as scientists and spiritual leaders. No body size diversity. All romantic relationships are between male and female Na'vi.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Overall, movie's message is that we could all stand to learn something from a population that's different from our own. Strong environmental and pro-peace themes. Some viewers may see the message of occupying a foreign land to usurp their cultural riches as a commentary on Western imperialism or United States' involvement in global politics.

Parents need to know that James Cameron 's sci-fi epic Avatar is about humans colonizing the planet Pandora, home to the Na'vi. The movie is long (at 161 minutes) and intense, with several effects-heavy battle and hunting sequences that show the devastation of imperialist violence and the right that Indigenous groups have to protect themselves and their land. These scenes include missile-launching military aircraft, neurotoxin-laced arrows, scary Pandora-dwelling fauna and flora, and lots of explosions. Salty wartime language includes many uses of "s--t," "​​bitch," and more. As in his previous films, Cameron infuses the action-driven story with strong female characters who are important to the plot, and crafts a morality tale about treating others with respect centered in a romantic relationship. ​​Main character Jake uses a wheelchair in his daily life and a Na'vi "avatar" body to interact with local populations, and the human-Na'vi relationship in question gets a bit complicated because the human is actually using his Na'vi avatar. Na'vi clothing makes parts of their bodies visible from time to time. The romantic leads have chemistry that's sometimes sensual. (Note: Fans of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender should know that this movie is in no way connected to that show or the movie based on it.) To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 258 parent reviews

Very well done. Make sure you are not only an older teen, but a mature one too. Watch the family edition.

What's the story.

In the 22nd century, Marine Jake Scully ( Sam Worthington ), who uses a wheelchair, embarks on a corporate-run, military-backed experiment in which he and a select group of academics -- led by Dr. Grace Augustine ( Sigourney Weaver ) -- can fully control avatars that look exactly like the Na'vi: the lean, blue-skinned native population of a distant world called Pandora. On his first outing as his AVATAR, Jake is saved by Na'vi Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ) and then captured by her clan. They decide to spare Jake's life as long as he agrees to learn the Na'vi ways from Neytiri. He does, but then he's told by villainous Colonel Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) that he'll be spying on the Na'vi to make it easier to remove them from their home, an ancestral tree that's rooted above a deposit of an unbelievably valuable substance called "Unobtainium" (pun intended). As Jake becomes more and more involved with Neytiri and her people, he's forced to choose between following orders and respecting the Na'vi's wishes.

Is It Any Good?

James Cameron , director of the highest-grossing movie ever made ( Titanic ), risked a rumored $500 million on a spectacular futuristic sci-fi epic whose main characters are blue aliens and settings are mostly CGI. The good news for epic movie lovers everywhere is that Avatar was a massive success. It's more like the story of Dances with Wolves crossed with the breathtaking visual effects of Lord of the Rings and the love story of Titanic , with a splash of the assimilation to a native culture aspect of Apocalypse Now thrown in. Even though Cameron seems to have gone to the same hammy dialogue school of screenwriting as George Lucas , he can certainly immerse viewers in a thoroughly enjoyable spectacle. Every shot of Pandora is amazingly detailed, from floating mountains to flying beasts to the feline-featured Na'vi, who are inspired by several Indigenous cultures. The movie's scale is undeniably impressive.

Cameron owes a huge debt to his movie's female characters, all of whom are much more interesting than the stereotypical men -- especially the outlandishly evil Quaritch and Giovanni Ribisi 's greedy corporate overseer. Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez (as soldier Trudy Chacon), like Aliens ' Ripley or Terminator 's Sarah Connor, could take on anything or anyone, and Saldana follows up a memorable turn as Uhura in Star Trek with another strong performance as Neytiri. It's quite a feat to create romantic electricity between fictional alien creatures, but Saldana and Worthington manage it surprisingly well. If you allow yourself to get lost in Cameron's Pandora, it's impossible not to root for the Na'vi (or Neytiri and Jake). Part sci-fi, part romance, all James Cameron, this is the sci-fi epic that will suck everyone in.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Avatar 's revolutionary special effects. Do they overwhelm or support the movie's story? How does the portrayal of the Na'vi affect the movie's emotional impact?

What themes does Cameron consistently work into his films? Compare the strong female characters in Avatar , Terminator , and Titanic . Any similarities?

What political messages is Cameron exploring in the movie? How are its themes relevant to what's going on in today's world? Do you think these messages will stand the test of time?

Why is it important to respect different cultural groups and treat their traditions and practices as valid and important?

How do the Na'vi and human allies use teamwork to achieve their goals? Why is that an important character strength ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 18, 2009
• On DVD or streaming : April 22, 2010
• Cast : Michelle Rodriguez , Sam Worthington , Sigourney Weaver , Zoe Saldana
• Director : James Cameron
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors, Black actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Activism , Magic and Fantasy , Science and Nature , Space and Aliens
• Character Strengths : Teamwork
• Run time : 161 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking
• Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
• Last updated : September 24, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Review - Avatar Flight of Passage at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Does pandora deliver an instant classic to disney world.

As promised, we are back with our official review of Pandora – The World of AVATAR at Walt Disney World.  We will have a series of articles so make sure to keep checking the site for more!  We’ll start off with the one thing I just can’t wait to share with all of our readers – a review of Avatar Flight of Passage, where you get to ride on the back of a banshee.  Now, I know we have heard so much about this ride leading up to the opening of Pandora, but for all the hype that has been given to this ride, it still – quite simply – far exceeded my expectations.  Better yet – it is literally the best ride I have ever ridden in all of Disney.

Before I go on to the review of the ride, here’s a little spoiler warning: I will go into some details of the ride.  I think there is something to be said for going into the ride not knowing much about it – because it will be that much more exciting when you experience it – but if you want to see if this ride is worth hours of wait times (and it will surely have that) then continue reading on!

Let’s start with the queue first – because let’s face it, unless you have FP+, it will be a long wait.  The good news is, I believe this is the best and most detailed ride queue Disney has ever made.  There is so much to see and appreciate as you move through the line.  When you first walk in, you go through a cave-like structure with lots of Na’vi themed decor.  There are Na’vi artifacts and lush foliage (bioluminescent plants!) unique to Pandora.  While you’re in that part of the line, make sure you spot some hidden Mickeys!

As much as you are probably awestruck by the foliage at this point, this is where the even more interesting part of the queue kicks in.  You can read detailed notes of the researchers with interesting observations. There was even an experiment of a creature that looked like a sea urchin and how it interacts with biological material in water.  There’s an experiment where shaved metal filings move like it’s an organism.

Then you see a full-sized Avatar, which is exactly like what you see in the movie.  I can only imagine how long it took Disney imagineers to create this space because the details are second to none.

The Introduction

This is probably the part that could use some tweaking from Disney.  Some Disney rides have that introductory video to set the stage – think of that scientist who tells you to steal the dinosaur in Dinosaur, or Aerosmith giving you backstage passes before you go on Rockin’ Roller Coaster.  Avatar Flight of Passage not only has one but TWO introductory videos, and some of the same information gets repeated in both.  I feel like the videos also go on a little too long.  Case in point – by the time we got to the second video, there was someone in our group who said “I know I know!” when a scientist explained what a banshee was for the second time.

But if sitting through those videos is the requirement for going on the ride, I will still gladly sit through them.

I meant what I said earlier: Avatar Flight of Passage is the best ride I have ever ridden at Disney, by far.  Now, I still have my sentimental favorites – Haunted Mansion, I still love you – but this ride just took my breath away.

First, the cast members ask you to sit on a seat in a way that is similar to when you are riding a bike.  Then you press your chest against a padding in the front of the “bike”.  This will allow the locking mechanism to then engage.  Speaking of locking mechanism, this is unlike anything you will find at Disney.  There is something that encloses your legs (thigh area) firmly and then there is also something that comes up on your lower back.  It will definitely feel snug once you are secured.

In front of you there is a big screen that is covered by a gray covering – think Star Tours before it opens to C-3PO.  Then the gray wall comes down – and you are FLYING.  In Soarin’ you are supposed to be hang gliding, so you feel like you are flying, right?  This is somewhat like that too, but SO MUCH BETTER.  One second you are soaring above mountain tops, and the next you are swooping down to the animals and to the Na’vi sacred grounds.  It feels like you are moving so fast, which makes the ride absolutely thrilling.  You can feel the mist on your face and you can smell your surroundings.  And that thing that was secured against your legs?  It flexes throughout the ride – so you feel like you are sitting on top of a breathing banshee.

The scenery is simply spectacular.  The animals that you see in the movie are there, along with the gorgeous mountains of Pandora.  It’s just amazing how the entire ride comes together.  Whenever I go to Disney, there’s no way I will miss out on this experience.

So there you have it, dear Guide2WDW readers – our review of Avatar Flight of Passage.  Are you looking forward to experiencing this one-of-a-kind ride?  If you haven’t booked your Disney trip yet, call me at (920) 526-0809 or email me at [email protected] to get a free quote!

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Myra is a Disney travel specialist with World of Magic Travel and is the resident travel agent at Guide2WDW. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two little princesses, ages 8 and 5. Her family’s answer for their Disney fix is most frequently Walt Disney World, but they have also been to Disneyland in California and Hong Kong and aboard the Disney Dream & Fantasy. In between Disney trips, Myra and her family love to travel to nearby cities and try to do what the locals do. If you have questions about Disney or travel in general, Myra is always happy to share her geeky love of Disney and vacation planning. You can see more of her travel posts and tips on her Facebook page or you can send her an email directly at [email protected] .

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