---
title: "Avatar"
year: 2009
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/avatar"
fi1m_score: 70
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 13
published: "2026-09-20T07:26:58.674181+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-20T07:26:59.224841+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Avatar (2009)

Directed by James Cameron · 2h 42m · MPA PG-13 · Science Fiction, Action, Adventure

**Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 74 from 13 reviews

*In a sentence:* Dances with Wolves, blue, ten feet tall, with floating mountains and a mineral called unobtanium

> Cameron builds a moon with more care than anyone has built a place on screen, then fills it with a story he could have written in his sleep. The world is worth the 162 minutes; the script is not, and the two arrive in strict alternation.

## Synopsis

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former Marine, arrives on Pandora, a forest moon whose air is poisonous to humans, to take his dead twin brother’s place on a scientific programme. The corporation running the base, under Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), is mining a mineral called unobtanium, and the richest deposit lies beneath the home tree of the Omaticaya, a clan of ten-foot blue-skinned Na’vi. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) runs the avatar project, which links human minds to Na’vi bodies grown in tanks, while Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) commands the soldiers guarding the mine. On his first excursion in his new body Jake is separated from Grace’s party, survives a night in the forest, and is found by Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), who takes him to her people.

## Review

James Cameron has spent his career building machines and then breaking them: the drop ship in [*Aliens*](https://film.one/film/aliens), the rig in *The Abyss*. *Avatar* is the first of his films in which the thing he has built is a whole place. Pandora is a moon of forests, floating mountains and six-legged animals, seen through the eyes of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-Marine who takes his dead twin’s place in a programme that puts human minds in bodies grown from the natives’ DNA. The world is the best thing Cameron has made. We came out after 162 minutes having believed every leaf and almost none of the lines.

Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg’s production design splits the film into two worlds. The human base is grey metal, strip lighting and glass, with Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) putting golf balls across the operations floor. The Na’vi live in a tree the size of a cathedral, and Mauro Fiore shoots the base cold and flat and gives the jungle every colour he has. The night sequence in which Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) leads Jake through undergrowth that lights up blue and pink wherever a foot lands is the moment the film has you or does not. It had us. We had not felt that childish sort of wonder in years.

Saldaña is the reason the romance works at all. Neytiri is a computer drawing built over her performance, and what survives is her impatience: the hiss when Jake blunders, the ears flattening back, the way she looks at him as if he were a large stupid dog. Worthington is stolid, which suits a man learning to walk again and helps less when the film needs him moved. Sigourney Weaver plays Dr. Grace Augustine as a chain-smoking botanist who prefers plants to people. Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch is the best of the humans: a man with scars down his head who sips coffee while directing gunships, played without a flicker of doubt.

The trouble is the writing, and Cameron wrote it alone. The plot is the one in which a soldier is sent among the natives and learns their ways; [*Dances with Wolves*](https://film.one/film/dances-with-wolves) did it in 1990. The mineral the company wants is called unobtanium, an engineer’s joke used as a name. Quaritch tells the new arrivals they are not in Kansas any more. The Na’vi speak of the energy that flows through all living things, and each of them is someone we have met in an earlier film. We were bored by the talking in a way we were never bored by the looking.

James Horner’s score leans on drums and a wordless choir and swells exactly on cue; it told us what to feel more insistently than the pictures did. John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin keep the long running time moving, and the flying sequences over the floating mountains are assembled so that you always know which way is down. The final stretch is a battle, and Cameron keeps the position of every gunship and every bow clear. There is a loss in the middle of the film we will not describe, and it got at us more than we expected, almost without dialogue.

Mayes C. Rubeo and Deborah Lynn Scott dress the Na’vi in beads and feathers and not much else, which is what a noble tribe has looked like in Hollywood for eighty years. The politics are of the same vintage: an army with American accents burns a forest to get at what lies under it, and the people who live there need an outsider to show them how to fight. Cameron means it as an apology. It comes out as the story it is apologising for.

See it on the biggest screen you can find, in 3D if one is going, because the depth of that forest is half of what Cameron has to offer. At home it shrinks to a well-made adventure with an extraordinary setting and a script nobody would have forgiven on a smaller film. We would still send you to it, for the forest at night.

*Fi1m score 70, published 20 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics are won over, and the praise gathers almost entirely around one thing: the world. Pandora’s design and the 3D photography are singled out again and again as immersive and richly detailed, and several say the film restores a sense of wonder to going to the cinema. The romance between Jake and Neytiri persuades more of them than not, with Zoe Saldana’s performance credited for making a computer-generated character feel real, and Stephen Lang’s villain earns a mention too.

The reservations cluster on the script. Clichéd dialogue, thin characterisation and a familiar story are noted even by admirers. The spread is wide, from outright raves to two hostile notices. The Guardian calls it baggy and long-winded and thinks Cameron has lost his taut edge; Time Out finds the script dire and the technology put ahead of the storytelling. Variety adds the irony of a technology-driven film preaching a return to nature.

### Reviews we read (13)

- **Total Film**, Andy Lowe (95/100, inferred): The critic hails Avatar as much more than a film—an audacious, awe-inspiring work that reinvents cinema and achieves a rebirth of the medium through its immersive 3D experience. He singles out the emotional core of Jake's inner odyssey and the performances, especially Zoe Saldana's as Neytiri, for making the CG characters feel weighted and real. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/avatar-3-review/)
- **Empire**, Chris Hewitt (4/5 (5/5 in 3D)): The critic calls it a flawed but fantastic tour de force from Cameron, rich, soulful and exciting, with staggering scale and emotion in its action sequences. He singles out the immersive 3D world-building and the effective central love story between Jake and Neytiri for particular praise. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/avatar-review/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (90/100, inferred): The critic hails Avatar as restoring a sense of wonder to moviegoing, calling it an extraordinary act of visual imagination and the ultimate James Cameron production. He singles out its shock and awe spectacle and adventure as something not to miss. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/hero-complex-blog/story/2009-12-16/la-times-review-avatar-restores-a-sense-of-wonder-to-the-moviegoing-experience)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Kirk Honeycutt (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a titanic entertainment where movie magic returns, praising the fully believable romance at its heart and the richly realized world of Pandora with its creatures and designs. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/avatar-film-review-2-93803/)
- **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (Critic’s Pick): The critic praises Cameron for creating a glorious, goofy and blissfully deranged cinematic world that is both a song to nature and filled with pulpy action. She singles out the meticulous and brilliantly colored alien world of Pandora for its scope and immersive wonder. [Read](https://movies.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/movies/18avatar.html)
- **The New Yorker**, David Denby (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it the most beautiful film seen in years, lauding its luscious and freewheeling visual reimagining of nature on Pandora. He praises the continuity of 3-D space that supports the film's trippy belief in the oneness of all living things, while noting the story is a bit trite. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/04/going-native-movie-reviews-avatar-sherlock-holmes)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (80/100, inferred): The critic says Cameron creates another world entirely that is very much worth visiting, delivering unique spectacle, breathtaking sights and narrative excitement along with an anti-imperialist theme. He notes the ironic contrast of the technology-driven picture's back-to-nature message. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/film/markets-festivals/avatar-2-1200477897/)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): Praises Cameron for delivering remarkable spectacle and an unprecedented marriage of technology and storytelling that is on the whole remarkably successful. Singles out the astonishing visual effects and resonant contemporary themes for praise while noting some crude characterisation and clichéd dialogue. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/avatar/5008859.article)
- **The Guardian** (40/100, inferred): The film looks fantastic with its seamless CGI and landscapes, but tries to cover too many bases with militarist sci-fi, eco-waffle and a love story, resulting in a baggy and longwinded experience. Cameron has lost his taut edge as a filmmaker. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/11/avatar-james-cameron-film-review)
- **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (30/100, inferred): Criticises the film for prioritising technology and visual effects over storytelling, calling the script dire, cliché-ridden and lacking originality or emotional resonance. Singles out the immersive visual experience of Pandora as hard to fault while lamenting the absence of fresh ideas. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/avatar)
- **/Film**, David Chen (75/100, inferred): The critic finds Avatar a hugely exciting and visually immersive sci-fi adventure with impressive world-building and a masterful finale, but criticizes the stilted script and rushed character development. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/506623/davids-avatar-review-epic-filmmaking-epically-bad-dialogue/)
- **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B-): The critic finds Avatar a fine but limited film hampered by an outdated story and technical choices, but praises the strong performances, especially Stephen Lang's villain, excellent pacing, and Cameron's action direction. [Read](https://collider.com/avatar-review/)
- **Den of Geek**, Michael Leader (3 out of 5): The critic praises the film's seamless, immersive visual effects and the richly designed world of Pandora as a technical achievement worth seeing on the big screen. They single out the weak, underdeveloped story and heavy-handed themes for complaint. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/avatar-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** James Cameron
- **Director:** James Cameron
- **Writer:** James Cameron
- **Cinematography:** Mauro Fiore
- **Editor:** John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin, James Cameron
- **Music:** James Horner
- **Production design:** Robert Stromberg, Rick Carter
- **Costume design:** Deborah Lynn Scott, Mayes C. Rubeo
- **Producer:** James Cameron, Jon Landau
- **Cast:** Sam Worthington as Jake Sully; Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri; Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine; Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch; Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon; Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge; Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman; CCH Pounder as Mo'at
- **Runtime:** 2h 42m
- **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13
- **Release (the US):** 18 December 2009
- **Genres:** Science Fiction, Action, Adventure
- **Part of:** [Avatar](https://film.one/collections/avatar.md) · 1 of 3
- **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2009); [BAFTA Best Film winners](https://film.one/collections/bafta-best-film.md) (Nominee, 2009); [Golden Globe Best Drama winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-drama.md) (Winner, 2009)
- **Budget:** $237 million
- **Box office:** $2.92 billion
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PSNL1qE6VY

## Where to watch in the US

- Hulu: streaming, hd, leaving 2026-10-01
- Disney+: streaming, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd
- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, uhd
- Apple TV: buy $9.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-20.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2010: Best Director (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Original Score (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Sound (nominated); Best Sound Editing (nominated); Best Cinematography (won); Best Production Design (won); Best Visual Effects (won)
- Golden Globes 2010: Best Motion Picture – Drama (won)
- MTV Movie Award for Best Villain 2010: MTV Movie Award for Best Villain (nominated)
- Nastro d'Argento for Best 3D Film 2010: Nastro d'Argento for Best 3D Film (won)
- Saturn Awards 2010: Best Director (won); Best Production Design (won)

## If you liked this

- *Princess Mononoke* (1997), Fi1m 88: Miyazaki’s forest war, where the gods are angry and nobody is simply right. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/princess-mononoke.md)
- *Dances with Wolves* (1990), Fi1m 80: The plot Cameron borrowed, played straight and slower, with real horses. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dances-with-wolves.md)
- *Aliens* (1986), Fi1m 91: Cameron and Weaver, marines and monsters, and not a wasted line between them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/aliens.md)
- *Embrace of the Serpent* (2015), Fi1m 82: Two white men in the Amazon, told from the guide’s side, in black and white. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/embrace-of-the-serpent.md)
- *District 9* (2009), Fi1m 81: Aliens in a Johannesburg slum; the same year, a fraction of the money, sharper teeth. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/district-9.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/avatar