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‘avatar: the last airbender’ takes an elemental stab at adapting the animated show.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Gordon Cormier as Aang in episode 101 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Robert Falconer/Netflix © 2023

Translating kids’ animation to live-action is a tricky proposition, as Disney and the 2010 movie version of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” can attest. Netflix gets the look and action right in a lavish series based on the Nickelodeon show, but too-elemental dialogue and uneven performances make this eight-episode sit a bit of a grind for anyone who has gotten past puberty.

Built around four tribes of “airbenders” with the ability to control water, earth, fire and air, “Avatar” establishes a mythical world filled with strange creatures and fantastic powers, none more so than those possessed by the Avatar, the legendary figure who alone can command all the elements.

That heavy burden falls to a 12-year-old boy with a strategically placed arrow on his forehead, Aang (Gordon Cormier), who awakens after a century in ice to discover the firebenders and their leader Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) have sought to take over the world, and, fearing the Avatar’s return, dispatched Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) to neutralize him.

Taken in by Sokka (Ian Ousley) and the waterbender Katara (Kiawentiio), Aang embarks on an episodic quest through this elaborate mythology, yielding familiar situations, the occasional fleeting hint of romance (which much of the logical audience will likely call “icky”) and no small amount of spinning, kicking, element-hurling action.

Adapted by writer-showrunner Albert Kim (“Sleepy Hollow”), the series seems to consciously seek to correct the missteps of M. Night Shyamalan’s lightly regarded film version, without overcoming the creative hurdles raised by having two-dimensional youths as its featured players. The credible visual effects thus adorn what too often feels like a community-theater package, replete with stilted lines about how saving the world must wait if it means endangering friends.

While derived from the animated series, bringing its trappings into live-action perhaps most charitably recalls the tone of “The Neverending Story,” a 40-year-old artifact (with more practical special effects) that also put a young boy at the center of its magic-filled journey.

Ultimately, though, this feels like another pretty expensive bet by Netflix to capitalize on a proven title and the nostalgia surrounding it, after other animated-to-live-action series like the short-lived “Cowboy Bebop” and more recently “One Piece.”

As with the latter show, the result is generally inoffensive, with the potential to run several seasons, but executed in such a blandly earnest way as to be unlikely to win over many who aren’t well versed in the material and eager to take the plunge.

On the plus side, in terms of truth in advertising, at least Aang’s arrow is pointed in the right direction.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” premieres February 22 on Netflix.

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Avatar: The Way of Water

CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Joel David Moore, Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Bailey Bass, and Britain Dalton in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the arm... Read all Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home. Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.

  • James Cameron
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  • 75 wins & 150 nominations total

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  • Trivia According to James Cameron , Kate Winslet performed all of her underwater stunts herself.
  • Goofs During the fight when Jack and Neytiri rescued their children, they kill 4 soldiers from a party of 6. Yet at the extraction scene, all 6 soldiers are present.

Tsireya : [to Lo'ak] The way of water has no beginning and no end. Our hearts beat in the womb of the world. The sea is your home, before your birth and after your death. The sea gives and the sea takes. Water connects all things: life to death, darkness to light.

  • Crazy credits The first half of the end credits highlight Pandoran sea creatures.
  • Alternate versions Like its predecessor, which is present 1.78 : 1 aspect ratio, this film presents 1.85:1 aspect ratio for home video releases, although there can be no widescreen versions of this film as James Cameron intended to watch the full format.
  • Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Watching the Weird Way of Water (2022)
  • Soundtracks Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength) Performed by The Weeknd Lyrics and Melody by The Weeknd (as Abel "The Weekend" Tesfaye) Music by Simon Franglen and Swedish House Mafia Produced by Simon Franglen and Swedish House Mafia The Weeknd Performs Courtesy of XO/Republic Records

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  • December 16, 2022 (United States)
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  • $350,000,000 (estimated)
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  • Dec 18, 2022
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Avatar: The Last Airbender First Reviews: It Isn't Perfect, but It's Respectful of the Original and Fun

Netflix's highly-anticipated live-action remake is a quick-paced, action packed series that will entertain viewers, but the sometimes clunky narrative, and subpar special effects may turn away die-hard fans of the original..

avatar movie review 2023

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , Netflix , streaming , TV

Avatar: The Last Airbender , Netflix’s new adaptation of Nickelodeon’s groundbreaking animated series, which was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is the streamer’s latest attempt at translating a popular anime into live action. It is currently streaming on Netflix.

Starring in the series is an impressive ensemble of mostly Asian and Indigenous actors. Gordon Cormier plays Aang; Kiawentiio is Katara; Ian Ousley plays Sokka; Maria Zhang is Suki; Amber Midthunder is Princess Yue; Danny Pudi is The Mechanist; Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is Iroh; Dallas Liu is Zuko; Ken Leung plays Commander Zhao; Daniel Dae Kim is Fire Lord Ozai; Elizabeth Yu is Azula; Tamlyn Tomita is Yukari; Arden Cho is June; and Utkarsh Ambudkar is King Bumi.

Previously, Netflix has had a rocky go at bringing beloved anime to life as live-action entertainment. Death Note and Cowboy Bebop faltered, while One Piec e proved a rousing success. How will this new adaptation be received?

Here’s what critics are saying about season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender :

How does it compare to the anime?

Gordon Cormier as Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

(Photo by ©Netflix)

It’s an earnest and admirable attempt to reignite the original’s magic. — Zaki Hasan, San Francisco Chronicle
Fans can do a little airbending of their own and breathe a huge collective sigh of relief, as Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the beloved animated series is a rollicking fantastical ride that deftly reimagines what made the original show so special. — James Marsh, South China Morning Post
Netflix’s live-action remake isn’t perfect, but if you look past the controversy and open your mind to it, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a fun, addictive return to one of fantasy’s most exciting worlds. — David Opie, Digital Spy
The new show is nowhere near the failure of the film, nor as spectacular as the series — but it’s not of uniform quality, either. — Belen Edwards, Mashable
This new Last Airbender is entertaining enough to work for newcomers to this world, and respectful enough to remind the cartoon’s fans why they loved that world in the first place. — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

How are the visual effects and action sequences?

Ken Leung as Zhao in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender

Where the live-action series falters a bit is in its special effects, which can fluctuate depending on the episode. Some of the visuals are shaky, and don’t look as crisp as they ought to. Luckily, this is only the case in certain instances, especially at the start, and is never enough to derail the show. — Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
Specifically, water and airbending don’t feel as natural on-screen. In fights between waterbenders, the scenes don’t mesh well together, with the water effects looking unrealistic. By trying to mimic the style seen in the animated show, the seams are showing between the actors and the special effects. Airbending, done primarily by Aang, lacks the magnitude it should have. — Therese Lacson, Collider
It’s solid entertainment: fast-moving, action-packed, with decent fight scenes and some appealing performances, all done on a generous Netflix budget. — Anita Singh, Daily Telegraph (UK)
It’s of special note how well the choreography captures Aang’s unique way of moving: He excitedly bounces around and casually flutters up into the sky on a whim, like you’d expect from someone who grew up with this power. He has a fun and cool combat style where he likes to spin and flip on a breeze to counter his opponent, and use his surroundings to his advantage – sort of like a pint-sized Jackie Chan who can fly. — Joshua Yehl, IGN Movies
Slapstick humor and frightening violence uneasily coexist, and though similar tonal awkwardness plagued the original, the visceral image of a man screaming as he is being burned alive on screen in live-action might not be appropriate for the youngest of viewers. — Karama Horne, TheWrap

How is the writing and directing?

Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

(Photo by Netflix)

Its eight episodes hit the big highlights of the original show, but miss all the small detail that makes those scenes soar. While the new series starts strong, the cracks begin to show once it starts trying to braid together different storylines. — Therese Lacson, Collider
Even with each of its eight episodes clocking in at about an hour each, it would have been difficult for Netflix’s Avatar to hit all of the same beats as the lengthier cartoon. The live-action Avatar film tried to deal with this challenge by distilling its plot down, and in doing so, stripped away a lot of the narrative that helped make the original feel so expertly developed. — Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge
Although this live-action show has almost the same runtime as the animated one, the first half of this season can sometimes be briskly paced because storylines from different episodes of the original are smashed together in an attempt to make things work in this new form. — Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine
However, in making the transition to live-action, much of the silliness and whimsy of the original are traded for a tone that’s more grounded, more mature, and more violent – but it’s not done just for edginess’ sake. The slightly darker vibe works in service of the story because it makes Aang’s unwavering compassion and anti-war philosophy shine all the brighter. — Joshua Yehl, IGN Movies

What about the production quality and world-building?

Gordon Cormier as Aang, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Kiawentiio as Katara in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

Given the number of different locations Avatar’ s story takes its characters, it makes sense that Netflix would try to keep costs down by digitally constructing more fantastical places. But there is so much unnatural lighting and so many scenes where things in the background move with an uncanny swiftness that the show immediately feels like yet another Netflix-branded live-action cartoon that would have been better served by more practicality. — Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge
The camera-work and lighting miss the flair of the animation, with potentially exciting set-pieces made unintelligible purely by how dark they are. Every now and then, it touches on some genuine grandeur through depictions of sheer scale in its physical sets and rendered settings. But there’s more often a disconnect between person and place, which frequently dampens the show’s impact. — Kambole Campbell, Empire Magazine
The adaptation also generally nails the look of this world. The costuming choices seamlessly adapt these characters without brushing over their iconic elements, a considerable feat considering how rarely designs from animated series make this jump gracefully. The sets don’t look cheap or inauthentic either, and these architecture and vistas help firmly place us in this space. The compositing is also generally quite good, and as far as the backdrops are concerned, there isn’t a jarring dissonance between the CGI and practical details. — Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine
The exaggerated hairstyles (created using truly horrendous wigs), color-coded costumes and fantastical animals have an uncanny valley quality to them in live action. They don’t make sense to the eye. — Kelly Lawler, USA Today
Avatar’ s most fundamental issues come down to clunky writing and correspondingly awkward performances. — Angie Han, Hollywood Reporter

How is the cast?

avatar movie review 2023

(Photo by Robert Falconer/Netflix)

Comier is everything Aang should be — kind, trusting, and always willing to see the best in others. Kiawentiio as Katara is genuinely lovely, especially as she gains more confidence in her waterbending abilities in the second half of the show. Ousley’s Sokka is good for a laugh, though not everything lands, while showcasing his insecurities. — Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
The major challenge for Ousley as Sokka is translating animation humor into live-action. Exaggerated jokes from the original show can’t be transferred over without adjustments (and sometimes, the Netflix adaptation gets it very wrong), but Ousley plays Sokka’s comedic scenes with a bit of dry humor and sarcasm that take the edge off. — Therese Lacson, Collider
Daniel Dae Kim is, ironically, cold as Fire Lord Ozai, while Ken Leung is fun as the conniving and cowardly Commander Zhao. — Kambole Campbell, Empire Magazine
Dallas Liu plays Zuko with just enough entitlement and rage to mask the pain underneath, while Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is absolutely sublime as the wise, humorous, yet no less scarred Iroh. — Joshua Yehl, IGN Movies

Any final thoughts?

avatar movie review 2023

In short, although Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender can’t fully capture the magic of its predecessor and falls into some of the pitfalls alluded to by the previously mentioned promotional soundbites, it still captures enough of the impact and gravitas of what came before to make this retelling land. — Elijah Gonzalez, Paste Magazine
Even when the series feels scattershot, it remains a tremendous flex of an adaptation. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
The amount of unconvincing special effects, clunky moments of exposition, and its rush to cover so much story in just eight episodes is not insignificant, but even their powers combined don’t outweigh everything this Last Airbender gets right. Above all else, it has its heart in the right place – and for Team Avatar, that’s what matters most. — Joshua Yehl, IGN Movies
Overall, Season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender is a firm step in the right direction, with a solid foundation and also room to grow. — Therese Lacson, Collider
I would consider this a hit. My rather low expectations have been exceeded, and I’m genuinely interested to see how they handle the next two books of the original. — Paul Tassi, Forbes
it delivers an Avatar that, grittier though it may be, feels far less mature than the kids’ cartoon ever did. — Angie Han, Hollywood Reporter
This live-action remake feels less like shallow exoticism and fully embraces the diverse East Asian, Inuit, Indigenous, and Southeast Asian heritages that enrich the show’s production and cast. — Karama Horne, TheWrap
The Airbender franchise has confidently revived itself; this won’t be the last we see of it. — Jack Seale, Guardian

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Avatar: The Way of Water

December 16, 2022

Action-Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

"Avatar: The Way of Water" reaches new heights and explores undiscovered depths as James Cameron returns to the world of Pandora in this emotionally packed action adventure. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, "Avatar: The Way of Water" launches the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. All of this against the breathtaking backdrop of Pandora, where audiences are introduced to new Na’vi cultures and a range of exotic sea creatures that populate the majestic oceans. Nominated for numerous Academy Awards® including Best Picture, the James Cameron-directed film became the third highest-grossing box office film of all-time and set a new benchmark for visual effects. Produced by Cameron and his longtime partner Jon Landau, the Lightstorm Entertainment production stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis and Kate Winslet. Joining the illustrious adult cast are talented newcomers Britain Dalton, Jamie Flatters, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Bailey Bass and Jack Champion.

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 3h 12min Release Date: December 16, 2022

Directed By

Produced by.

  • Nominee - 2023 Academy Award® for Best Picture
  • Nominee - 2023 Academy Award® for Production Design
  • Nominee - 2023 Academy Award® for Sound
  • Winner - 2023 Academy Award® for Visual Effects

Rated PG-13

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‘avatar: the last airbender’ review: netflix’s live-action remake is a major letdown.

The streamer's take on the beloved animated series centers on a young boy tasked with saving the world by mastering all four elements: earth, air, water and fire.

By Angie Han

Television Critic

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Daniel Dae Kim as Ozai in season 1 of Avatar The Last Airbender

Several times in Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender , Aang (Gordon Cormier), the 12-year-old chosen-one hero, calls for guidance from the spirits of his predecessors. And they oblige, appearing before him in a glowing blue aura to share their experiences or offer advice. But they remind him as well that each Avatar is different — that the role evolves with the needs of the times or the personality of the individual inhabiting it, that it’s on Aang now to figure out for himself what it means for him.

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Of course, by the logic of entertainment franchises, leaving well enough alone was probably never an option. So creator Albert Kim dusts off the premise that devotees of Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s cartoon can surely recite by heart: “Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.” Where Avatar 1.0 started out as a pleasant half-hour meander, though — having goofball Aang awaken from his century of accidental hibernation to befriend Water Tribe siblings Katara and Sokka, and only gradually building to harder conversations about peace, violence and conflict — this Avatar throws us right into the deep end. The opening minutes are filled with scenes of soldiers, spies, harrowing cruelty.

But Avatar ‘s most fundamental issues come down to clunky writing and correspondingly awkward performances. This is a script that signals Aang’s ambivalence about his destiny by having him simply monologue it: “I know who I am. I like to play airball and eat banana cakes and goof off with my friends. That’s who I am. Not someone who can stop the Fire Nation. Not someone who can stop a war.” As if those words aren’t unnatural enough, they’re directed to a CG sky bison so inert it might as well be a tennis ball. When the lead trio make their way around the world, we’re told rather than shown that Aang is good with people, that he and Sokka and Katara are like family now, that the return of the Avatar has restored some vague sense of “hope” that disappeared when he did. ( Avatar does not seem to have considered the possibility that in the absence of their savior, society might have found other sources of inspiration or purpose to rally around.)

The brightest elements of this universe mostly cluster around the Fire Nation, and not just because their flames are inherently more cinematic than the earthbenders’ floating rocks or the airbenders’ gusts of wind. (Whatever the discipline, few of the fight scenes are anything worth writing home about.) Aang might be the one referenced in the title, but Avatar ‘s ideas and intentions are best exemplified in antagonist Zuko, a teenage prince with daddy issues that would make Kendall Roy wince with sympathy. Radiating rage and pain from every pore, actor Dallas Liu stays faithful to the character originated by Dante Basco while simultaneously embodying Zuko so fully that it seems the role has always been his. With help from more seasoned performers like Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Ken Leung and Daniel Dae Kim, Zuko’s redemption arc, rushed though it is, emerges as the only truly compelling through line of the show.

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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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In a scene from “Avatar: The Way of Water,” a blue creature flies over water aboard a flying fishlike creature with wings and sharp teeth.

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.

Before we meet those beings — in a sequence that has the quiet awe of a nature documentary — we are brought up-to-date with the characters from the first movie, whom we may have forgotten about. Jake Sully, the conflicted U.S. Marine played by Sam Worthington who was the hero of “Avatar,” has remade his life among the Na’vi. Like them, he is now tall, slender and blue, with a mane of dark hair and a braid that connects him to members of other species. He’s fluent in Na’vi (though most of the dialogue is rendered in English).

Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are raising a brood of biological and adopted children, whose squabbles and adventures bring a youthful energy to the sometimes heavy, myth-laden narrative. There are four Na’vi kids, a pair each of brothers and sisters. Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), the older son, walks dutifully in Jake’s brave shadow, while his younger brother, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), is a rebel and a hothead, looking for trouble and often finding it.

Their sisters are the adorable Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and the teenage Kiri, whose birth mother was the noble human scientist Grace Augustine. One of the film’s genuinely uncanny effects is that Sigourney Weaver, who played Dr. Augustine in the first film, plays Kiri in this one, her unmistakable face digitally de-aged and tinted blue. Like her mother, the girl has a mystical, Lorax-like connection to the trees and flowers of Pandora.

Jake and Neytiri’s sitcom-worthy household is completed by Spider (Jack Champion), a scampish human boy left behind by Quaritch (Stephen Lang), Jake’s former Marine commander and one of the villains of the original “Avatar.” Quaritch returns to Pandora with a new mandate to colonize it, and a squad of Na’vi-ized fighters to carry out the mission. He has a long-simmering vendetta against Jake, and much of “The Way of Water” is concerned less with large-scale imperial ambitions than with personal dramas of loyalty and betrayal.

With a running time of more than three hours — about 10 minutes shorter than “Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” by recent acclamation the greatest movie of all time — “The Way of Water” is overloaded with character and incident. The final stretch, which feels somehow longer than the rest of it, runs aground in action movie bombast, and suggests that even a pop auteur as inventive and resourceful as Cameron may have run out of ideas when it comes to climactic fight sequences. There are a lot of those, in the air and underwater, fistic and fiery, sad and rousing, nearly every one of which will remind you of stuff you’ve seen a dozen times before.

That’s too bad, because much of the middle of “The Way of Water” restores the latent promise of newness — no small accomplishment in an era of wearying franchise overkill. Afraid that Quaritch and his men will bring slaughter to the forest, Jake and Neytiri seek the protection of Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), chieftains of a reef-dwelling Na’vi clan.

The differences among the Na’vi — physical as well as cultural — add an interesting new dimension to the anthropology of Pandora, and to the film’s aesthetic palette. The viewer discovers this variety in the company of the younger characters, especially Kiri and Lo’ak. Their adaptation to new surroundings — being teased for their skinny tails and clumsy arms, getting in fights and making new friends — gives the movie the buoyant, high-spirited sincerity of young-adult fiction.

Cameron’s embrace of the idealism of adolescence, of the capacity for moral outrage as well as wonder, is the emotional heart of the movie. You feel it in a horrifying scene of tulkun slaughter that aspires to the awful, stirring sublimity of the last chapters of “Moby-Dick,” and also in the restlessness of Lo’ak, Spider and Kiri as they try to figure out their roles. The next sequels, I suspect, will give them more time for that, but may also encumber them with more baggage.

I’m curious, and inclined — as I was in 2009 — to give this grand, muddled project the benefit of the doubt. Cameron’s ambitions are as sincere as they are self-contradictory. He wants to conquer the world in the name of the underdog, to celebrate nature by means of the most extravagant artifice, and to make everything new feel old again.

Avatar: The Way of Water Rated PG-13. Almost blue. Running time: 3 hours 12 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Water review – a thunderously underwhelming damp squib of a return

James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar sequel is a lumbering three-hour slog featuring characters seemingly designed by a stoned sixth former

A stonishing! Enthralling! Exciting! Immersive! None of these words could sensibly be applied to the three-and-a-quarter-hour Wet Smurfahontas stodgeathon that is Avatar: The Way of Water . A lumbering, humourless, tech-driven damp squib of a movie, this long-awaited (or dreaded?) sequel to one of the highest grossing films of all time builds upon the mighty flaws of its predecessor, delivering a patience-testing fantasy dirge that is longer, uglier and (amazingly) even more clumsily scripted than its predecessor, blending trite characterisation with sub- Roger Dean 70s album-cover designs and thunderously underwhelming action sequences. In water.

We pick up several years after the wholly forgettable antics of 2009’s Avatar . On the distant world Pandora, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has gone native, raising a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) after shedding his human skin to inhabit his alien avatar (see previous film). When the “sky people” of Earth come looking for a fight, among other things, the forest-friendly Sullys are forced to flee to distant archipelagos where the water-tribes dwell. Here, they must abandon their tree-hugging lifestyle and learn the ways of the reef people, who have thicker tails and are a bit more turquoise. Really.

The Metkayina tribe are led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his partner, Ronal (Kate Winslet), whose kids don’t click with the Sully brood, setting the scene for much teen-movie style internecine squabbling followed by inevitable boring bromance bonding. En route, our blue heroes will learn to ride amphibious skimwings (imagine How to Train Your Dragon as retold by the writers of Star Trek and Stingray ), to speak the language of the seas in all its wondrous wetness, and to befriend a damaged, whale-like creature (think Free Willy in space) who will become a key player in the film’s emotional baggage handling.

There are moments that are meant to be thrillingly exciting. These are easy to spot because the characters on screen shout “Woohoo!” in the same way that young Anakin shouted “Yippee!” in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace . Sadly, the comparisons with Lucas’s ill-fated space opera prequels don’t end there. Like Jar Jar Binks, the residents of Pandora appear to have been designed by a stoned sixth former while listening to Tales From Topographic Oceans , all wide-eyed Middle-earth wonder mixed with cod FernGully - style fairytale heroism. There’s also a feral human child (he speaks normally, but occasionally growls annoyingly) whom James Cameron presumably imagines to be a thematic descendent of Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli, but whose irritating presence simply reminded me how much I preferred the lush worlds of Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book and Andy Serkis’s Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle .

Of course the joyous watery wibbling (“Woohoo!”) cannot last, and the sky people come calling, leading to a hyberbolic action showdown that bolts the third act of Aliens (against-the-clock sprog hunt through exploding/collapsing metal structures) with the first act of The Poseidon Adventure (watery world turned upside down) and the second half of Titanic (breath holding and personal conflict-solving combined!).

As for the 3D – a moribund format that has risen and fallen like the tide on umpteen occasions throughout cinema history – the only thing it immerses us in is the harsh realities of the Chinese theatrical marketplace, where spectacular stereoscopy still rules the roost. Let’s face it, with very few notable exceptions ( Creature From the Black Lagoon in the 1950s, Flesh for Frankenstein in the 1970s, Gravity in the 21st century), 3D has done precious little to “enhance” anyone’s viewing experience. But when the financial stakes are this high ( The Way of Water reportedly needs to take around $2bn – £1.6bn – to wash its face), Cameron simply cannot afford to abandon a gimmick for which he has become chief gong banger, standard bearer and book-keeper.

Underneath it all is the same honkingly bland anti-imperial/anti-colonial/eco-friendly metaphor that gave the first Avatar the illusion of gravitas, although it’s hard to overlook how much Cameron enjoys the human hardware sequences, which have a rough physicality that stands in stark contrast to the floaty computer-game visuals of the rest of the film. Whether things will improve over the course of subsequent movies (two more sequels are already in progress) remains to be seen. On this evidence, I doubt it.

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'Avatar: The Way of Water' review roundup: See it on the biggest screen possible, critics say

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  • Disney's "Avatar: The Way of Water," which clocks in at over three hours long, is a stunning piece of blockbuster cinema, according to critics.
  • Critics were adamant that audiences should watch James Cameron's "The Way of Water" on the biggest screen possible.
  • The film's long runtime was a fault point for many, who found that Cameron's script was too thin to justify three hours in a theater.

In this article

Disney bets big on Avatar: The Way of Water

James Cameron's long-awaited sequel to 2009's "Avatar" arrives in theaters this weekend and it has critics captivated and exasperated.

Disney's "Avatar: The Way of Water," which clocks in at over three hours long, is being hailed as a stunning piece of cinema, generating a "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But, its narrative is thin and, like the original, doesn't hold up against Cameron's lofty technical ambitions, several critics said.

"The Way of Water" follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who are now the parents of four Na'vi children. The family is driven from their forest home when humans return to re-colonize parts of Pandora.

Read more: "Avatar: The Way of Water" could be headed for a $175 million opening weekend

Critics are adamant that audiences should watch "The Way of Water" on the biggest screen possible, lauding the film for its you-won't-believe-this-is-computer-generated visuals and bombastic sound design.

But the film's long runtime was a fault point for many, who found that Cameron's script was too thin to justify three hours in a theater.

Here's what critics thought of "Avatar: The Way of Water" before its Friday release.

Eric Francisco, Inverse

"The sequel to Cameron's 2009 box office hit, 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' is simply bigger and better than its predecessor in every regard," wrote reviewer Eric Francisco.

"It demands the biggest screen you can find so that its most potent elements — from its impossible scale and skillful spectacle, to its more complete range of emotions and thematic romanticism — can be completely absorbed," he said.

Francisco noted that there are some hiccups in the film's plot and in "Cameron's own inability to resist" teasing elements of the next installment in the franchise. Apparently, there are several unresolved narratives that audiences will have to wait to see in future Avatar movies.

"As is the case with most of Cameron's films, what elevates his work is the bravado of his execution, allowing magnificent beasts and scenery prime real estate on the screen, while large-scale battles have tight spatial and rhythmic coherence," he wrote. "Both never fail to inspire awe. The bioluminescent creatures and caverns aren't just a dazzling visual to distract us, they work in tandem with the storytelling to create a revelatory experience."

Read the full review from Inverse.

Charlotte O'Sullivan, Evening Standard

"'Avatar 2' is definitely a showcase for visual effects company Weta FX (the faces of Pandora's Na'vi heroes have become even more expressive)," wrote Charlotte O'Sullivan in her review.

"But I've never thought Cameron was God's gift to cinema," she added. "For most of 'Titanic''s running time my gut feeling was, 'Just sink already' and some of the 68-year-old director's worst tendencies are on display in 'Avatar 2': over-familiar plot beats, overwrought score and endless shots of the Na'vi's obscenely willowy, coyly sexualized bodies."

Despite this, "The Way of Water" is "breathtaking," O'Sullivan wrote, noting that after leaving the theater she "felt like I'd been through something special."

Like many, O'Sullivan indicated that the story of "The Way of Water" leaves much to be desired.

"Plot-wise, this movie is treading water," she wrote. "But that's fine, because the water's lovely."

Read the full review from Evening Standard.

Wenlei Ma, News.com.au

Those that found themselves returning to the theater again and again to see "Avatar" on the big screen a decade ago, "The Way of Water" is "vivid and enthralling."

For those that found the first film overly long and thin on story, "The Way of Water" won't do much to endear you to the world of Pandora.

"This sequel will repeat your experience of the first," wrote Wenlei Ma in her review of the film for News.com.au.

Ma did note that "The Way of Water" is "jaw-droppingly beautiful," likening it to watching a David Attenborough documentary rather than a CGI feature. However, she says the visuals aren't enough to outweigh the lackluster story.

"The story is a simple chase plot, merely a template to do what Cameron seems more intent on achieving, which is seeing just how far he can push the technological and visual aspects of filmmaking," she wrote.

"The 3D visuals are undoubtedly cool, but it shouldn't be the only reason to see this film," she added. "It's all sheen and spectacle, so for a movie about the emotional depths between the Na'vi and their environment, it's frustratingly all surface."

Read the full review from News.com.au .

Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

"In 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' the director James Cameron pulls you down so deep, and sets you so gently adrift, that at times you don't feel like you're watching a movie so much as floating in one," wrote reviewer Justin Chang.

"Much as you might long for Cameron to keep us down there — to give us, in effect, the most expensive and elaborate underwater hangout movie ever made — he can't or won't sustain all this dreamy Jacques-Cousteau-on-mushrooms wonderment for three-plus hours," he wrote. "He's James Cameron, after all, and he has a stirringly old-fashioned story to tell, crap dialogue to dispense and, in time, a hell of an action movie to unleash, complete with fiery shipwrecks, deadly arrows and a whale-sized, tortoise-skinned creature known as a Tulkun."

Chang said its "marvelous" to have Cameron's presence back on the big screen. He notes the famed director has long been questioned for his choices in film projects — people thought he was crazy to produce "Titanic" — but "his latest and most ambitious picture will stun most of his naysayers into silence."

Read the full review from Los Angeles Times.

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Not everyone was enamored by Cameron's attention to detail and expansive lore building.

"'Avatar: The Way of Water' is a one-hour story rattling around in a 192-minute bag," wrote Mick LaSalle in his review of the film. "There was potential here for something lovely, a sweet and moving environmental parable clocking in at 90 minutes, tops."

"But, no, James Cameron can't do anything so modest," he wrote. 

LaSalle said "The Way of Water" feels bloated with too many ideas competing for space within its already lofty three-hour run time.

"'The Way of Water' starts where the first left off and stops with the promise of sequels," he wrote. "Long, long sequels. That's not a promise. It's a threat."

Read the full review from the San Francisco Chronicle .

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Avatar: The Last Airbender review: a serviceable adaptation

Alex Welch

“Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender is an inoffensive, acceptable live-action reimagining of an animated TV series that seems to justifiably grow more beloved every year.”
  • An efficiently streamlined adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • Dallas Liu and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's standout performances
  • A number of well-choreographed, well-realized set pieces
  • Numerous odd, frustrating tonal inconsistencies
  • Uneven CGI throughout
  • Ludicrous adherence to source material's animated character designs

The odds are stacked firmly against Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender . The new series happens to be an adaptation of one of the most beloved animated shows of the past 30 years, and it isn’t even the first live-action take on it that Hollywood has produced. Fourteen years ago, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender was met with derision from critics and fans alike, and time hasn’t been kind to it. The 2010 film’s reputation has only made longtime fans all the more skeptical of the new Netflix adaptation — and their hesitation was only further amplified when Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko parted ways with the project over creative differences in 2020.

On top of all of that, Hollywood doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to live-action adaptations of anime and anime-adjacent properties. When you take that into consideration, along with just how much visual effects work that Avatar: The Last Airbender ‘s mythical world of fictional kingdoms and elemental benders demands, it’s easy to see why many have long viewed a live-action, episodic take on the animated series a risky gamble, to say the least. It should come as welcome news then that Netflix ‘s ambitious Last Airbender adaptation isn’t a complete failure. It is, in fact, perfectly fine , which may very well be the best that viewers could have possibly hoped for.

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a world divided into four separate realms: the Earth, Water, Air, and Fire Kingdoms. Each of the four disparate regions is populated and run by a mix of normal citizens and powerful beings known as “benders,” who have the ability to bend one element — whether it be fire, earth, water, or air — to their will. The kingdoms are meant to be bound in a tentative peace by an individual known as “the Avatar,” who can bend all four elements. The political balance of Avatar: The Last Airbender ‘s fictional world is suddenly thrown into chaos, however, when the Fire Nation begins a tyrannical campaign for global domination.

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The Fire Nation’s mission is allowed to wreak untold havoc when the world’s latest incarnation of the Avatar, a young Airbender named Aang (Gordon Cormier), goes missing. A century later, Aang’s frozen-in-time body is discovered by a pair of Water Nation siblings, Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio). Aang’s return leads to the three being furiously hunted by Zuko (Dallas Liu), a banished Fire Nation prince who has been assigned to capture the Avatar by his abusive father, Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). If Aang has any hope of defeating Zuko and the Fire Nation, he quickly realizes that he’ll have to learn how to bend the water, earth, and fire elements while on the run.

The Last Airbender ‘s eight-episode first season is a fairly straightforward adaptation of its animated predecessor’s 20-installment debut season. Despite what some fans may have feared, the Netflix series’ first batch of episodes does a surprisingly strong job of compressing and combining nearly all of its source material’s episodic plots. Showrunner Albert Kim and his team of writers find frequently inventive ways of hitting all the major beats fans could want them to, and they manage to pack in almost every noteworthy character from Avatar: The Last Airbender ‘s first season. Some moments — such as a midseason meeting between Aang and one of his Avatar predecessors — feel jammed in, but for the most part, Netflix’s  Last Airbender adaptation successfully delivers a more streamlined version of its predecessor’s first season.

Ultimately, the live-action series’ biggest struggles have less to do with its plotting and more with the difficult tonal balancing act that it forces itself to perform. The Netflix show is bright, shiny, and over-the-top in both its style and its darkness. The series’ first season is more unflinchingly brutal than its animated counterpart, but as striking as that initially is, The Last Airbender can only show so many characters being horrifyingly burned alive before a tonal disconnect emerges between its candy-colored aesthetic and its wider thematic concerns.

What partly defines Kim and company’s take on The Last Airbender ‘s story is how persistently they focus on the bitterness that many of the characters Aang encounters feel toward him for — whether intentionally or not — abandoning the world for 100 years. That decision immediately lends the Netflix series a level of unflinching emotional realism that the original animated show gradually grew into, but it also demands that the live-action adaptation change specific things about its source material’s plot that it seems unwilling to alter. An important battle between Aang and an elderly Earth Kingdom leader named Bumi (Utkarsh Ambudkar), for example, is filled with much more anger than longtime fans may expect. Nonetheless, the series still makes Ambudkar’s Bumi look just as ridiculous as his animated predecessor (white, overgrown armpit hair and all).

The Last Airbender ‘s unwavering adherence to its source material’s visual style is commendable but, at times, mind-boggling. Potentially compelling characters like Bumi are rendered ineffective by the gap between their stories and the cartoonish levels of hair, makeup, and prosthetics that are piled on top of them. That’s particularly true for Amber Midthunder’s Princess Yue, whose narrative importance is overshadowed by one of the worst wigs that has ever been featured on a mainstream television series. Like its costuming and makeup work, The Last Airbender ‘s CGI similarly ranges from awe-inspiring to downright ugly. The show looks far more visually pleasing than it has any right to, given its budgetary constraints, but there’s still an inexplicable sheen that covers its entire world, which calls to mind the glossy, uncanny aesthetic that Peter Jackson brought to his Hobbit films (specifically, 2014’s lackluster The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ).

In spite of the Netflix series’ tonal and visual flaws, its core cast members prove to be well-suited for their roles. Cormier slowly but surely cements himself across The Last Airbender ‘s first season as a perfect fit for Aang, while Liu and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee turn in the show’s best performances as Zuko and his supportive, wise uncle, Iroh, respectively. Ken Leung also stands out as Commander Zhao, who is wisely depicted in the live-action series as a smarmier and more deliciously cunning villain than the animated version of him. Of the new show’s central performers, only Kiawentiio struggles to fill out her role by failing to bring Katara’s unmistakable spirit and combative spark fully to life on-screen.

What do all of these shortcomings and highlights amount to? An adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender that isn’t a full-throated success, nor a complete, Cowboy Bebop -sized disaster. The series repeatedly proves itself capable of matching the scope and mythic-sized storytelling of its source material, but it also falls short of its standards in several ways. Consequently, while both fans and first-time viewers would be better off sticking with the original animated series, those who do check out Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender will find themselves experiencing an adaptation that doesn’t quite soar, but does just enough right to still get off the ground.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1 is streaming now on Netflix. Digital Trends was given early access to all of the season’s eight episodes.

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Netflix ended 2023 with a bang. A few of the best Netflix movies of 2023, most notably Maestro and May December, are major Oscar contenders, and several of its original efforts, from The Mother to Beef, were among the year's most successful streaming projects. Love it or hate it, Netflix remains the king of the streamers, and its mighty reputation isn't going anywhere in 2024.

The coming year bodes well for Netflix, as its slate of original programming for next year is as packed as ever. Its upcoming scripted shows are particularly exciting, with everything from ambitious sci-fi epics to long-awaited adaptations of beloved animated classics. These are the 10 most anticipated Netflix original shows of 2024, including new arrivals and returning favorites. The Brothers Sun (January 4)

The end of the year is almost here: can you believe it’s almost 2024? As you wind things down at work, take time off to enjoy with the family, and relax, it’s the perfect time to curl up with a great show. There are plenty of new and returning shows this month that are available through all the top streaming services. Browse this list and you’re bound to find a few worth adding to your nightly viewing selection.

There’s everything from dramas to comedies, a British heist series, a Canadian gem, and the end of a royal era. Have a look at these six shows you need to watch in December and pick the ones you want to dive into before the year is over. Slow Horses season 3 (December 1) Slow Horses — Season 2 Official Trailer | Apple TV+

November is chock-full of wonderful new shows you might have heard about already, including Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the latest in the MonsterVerse featuring Godzilla and starring Kurt Russell, and the murder mystery A Murder at the End of the World starring The Crown's Emma Corrin. But as we head full force into the holiday season, there are plenty of other fabulous shows being released that aren’t talked about as much.

You won’t want to let these three hidden gem streaming TV shows fly under your radar in November, as all of them have been getting largely positive reviews so far. Lawmen: Bass Reeves Lawmen: Bass Reeves | Official Trailer | Paramount+

'Avatar: The Last Airbender': Release date, cast, where to watch live-action series

avatar movie review 2023

Everything changed when the Avatar returned.

The highly anticipated live-action adaptation of the 2005 Nickelodeon animated series " Avatar: The Last Airbender " is set to premiere on Netflix.

Just as its predecessor, the Netflix series portrays a world where people can control one of four elements − water, earth, fire, air − and live in four respective nations. The show follows Aang who learns he is the Avatar, the only one who can master all four elements, and must defeat the Fire Nation to end a 100-year war.

"With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young Air Nomad − and the last of his kind − reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar," the show's synopsis reads.

The series will take fans of the classic cartoon on an adventure as Aang learns each bending form along with his friends Katara (Kiawentiio Tarbell) and Sokka (Ian Ousley). Throughout the first season, multiple Fire Nation threats including banished prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) do their best to capture Aang to bring to Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim).

Our critic's take Netflix's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' is a failure in every way

When does 'Avatar The Last Airbender' premiere? Where to watch

The live-action adaptation of " Avatar: The Last Airbender " premieres on Netflix on February 22, 2024. Netflix usually releases new content at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT.

Live-action 'Avatar' cast

The cast of Netflix's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" includes:

  • Gordon Cormier as Avatar Aang
  • Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara
  • Ian Ousley as Sokka
  • Dallas Liu as Zuko
  • Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh
  • Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai
  • Elizabeth Yu as Azula

'Avatar: The Last Airbender' episodes, length

There are eight episodes of the first season of the Netflix series. Episodes average around 53 minutes with the length of the first episode being a little over an hour.

'Avatar: The Last Airbender' trailer

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What we know about Avatar 3, 4, and 5

Avatar: The Way of Water is finally here — but James Cameron has so much more planned

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a lanky teenage blue-skinned na’vi on the back of a space whale in avatar: the way of water

Avatar: The Way of Water has finally arrived, a full 13 years after its predecessor. But with the movie poised to be a smash hit, and Avatar 3 , 4 , and 5 plans announced a decade ago, it’s hard not to immediately look ahead at what’s next for the world of Pandora and the larger Avatar universe.

Director James Cameron has been on an extensive press tour for Avatar 2 and a lot of the talk has involved the theoretical three Avatar sequels that are apparently on the way. Cameron hasn’t been shy about where those movies or at and basic details, which means we know more about what the next decade has in store for Avatar than we might with a typical franchise.

One thing that may surprise fans, based on how these massive franchises normally work, is how Cameron went about writing them. After the success of the original movie, when plans for so many sequels were first made, Cameron put together a writers’ room similar to the ones assembled for a season of television. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ( Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ), Josh Friedman ( War of the Worlds ), and Shane Salerno ( Hawaii Five-0 ) worked along with Cameron to develop the story for the franchise, then split up to each take a script for a film. This kind of proactive approach also shows up in how Cameron went about filming the movies; large parts of the next three movies have already been filmed with actors Sam Worthington, Stephen Lange, Zoe Saldaña, and the new child actors.

But with all those exciting behind-the-scenes details revealed, it still doesn’t give us the full picture of what we know about the next three Avatar movies. So here’s a breakdown on Avatar 3, 4 , and 5 , pieced together from Cameron’s comments and our conversations with the Avatar: The Way of Water crew.

[ Ed. note : This story contains spoilers for Avatar: The Way of Water , and also potentially for future Avatar movies.]

A group of Na’vi gather at night for a ceremony, standing knee-deep in water and holding torches, with Na’vi played by Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis presiding, in Avatar: The Way of Water

When will Avatar 3 be released?

Avatar 3 is now set for release on Dec. 29, 2025. Originally the setup of releasing one Avatar movie every two years was designed to give the franchise room to breathe (though not 13 years this time around) while leaving Disney space to release new Star Wars movies. Since those plans were made, however, Star Wars’ theatrical future has become a little murkier, but Disney still shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something to replace Rogue Squadron if it’s not ready in time.

What is the title of the next Avatar movie?

The supposed titles of the Avatar sequels were leaked by the BBC in 2018 , based on “documentation,” and while Cameron didn’t confirm any of the titles, he did say that they were among those being considered, including The Way of Water for the second movie. With that in mind, the leaked title for Avatar 3 is The Seed Bearer . This doesn’t necessarily mean this is exactly what this movie will be called, but considering that Cameron and his co-writers have already worked ahead on a few movies now, he likely has a great idea of what he’d like it titled.

What’s it about?

So far, the only things Cameron has alluded to on the record is that Avatar 3 will be about the Sully family, with a focus on the kids. Perhaps the easiest guess is that this movie will continue Jake’s campaign against Quartich and the skypeople, and follow Kiri more closely after her superpowered third-act in The Way of Water .

Cameron’s collaborators have told Polygon to expect even more underwater action. According to costume designer Deborah L. Scott, behind-the-scenes images of Kate Winslet underwater waving around a big white cape are actually from Avatar 3 , while director of photography Russell Carpenter’s tells us that “there was more underwater work done for the other movie.” So if you thought Avatar: The Way of Water was wet, wait until Avatar 3 .

In further, somewhat confusing, developments on the movie’s plot, James Cameron told French publication 20 Minutes , that the third movie will include evil fire Na’vi. Cameron says that this is because he wants to “show the Na’vi from another angle,” which presumably means make some of them bad guys. Since then, producer Jon Landau has also announced that Oona Chaplin ( Game of Thrones ) has been cast as Varang, the leader of these aggressive fire Na’vi who will be known as the Ash People.

How far along is Avatar 3?

Avatar 3 has been entirely shot, at least according to Cameron, producer Jon Landau, and Carpenter. This movie was shot back-to-back with the second installment.

Two blue Navi run from rising water in a sinking structure in Avatar: The Way of Water

OK, so when will Avatar 4 be released?

The last time Disney updated its release calendar, Avatar 4 was set for Dec. 21, 2029, delaying the fourth movie by three years.

Does Avatar 4 have a name?

The leaked title for Avatar 4 is Avatar: The Tulkun Rider — though again this has not been confirmed as the title. Given that we already see someone ride (sort of) a tulkun in The Way of Water , it’s a little unclear what this title might be referring to, so we’ll probably have to wait for more details on that front. But we’re imagining Dune in the Avatar-verse.

How far along is it?

This is a little less clear than with the third movie, but we do know that it’s written, according to Cameron, and that the cast and crew have shot part of the movie, but definitely not the whole thing. Landau told Polygon there were logistical reasons for the partial shoot. An obvious guess: It’s possible that the young actors involved with The Way of Water needed to shoot a portion of Avatar 4 before, you know, growing up. More specifically, according to Cameron , on page 35 of the script for Avatar 4 , the story will skip forward, letting the kids age up.

As far as where the story goes, Cameron has said the script for Avatar 4 was the first to provoke the studio’s response. He didn’t get notes, exactly...

“When I turned in the script for 4 ,” he told Collider , “the studio executive, creative executive over the films, wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f---.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way.”

The resurrected Na’vi version of Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) watches a video featuring instructions from the original human version of himself in a lab in Avatar: The Way of Water.

When will Avatar 5 be released?

Avatar 5 will hit theaters on Dec. 19, 2031. But Landau tells Polygon that a fifth film isn’t necessarily a done deal — the fate of that proposed sequel may depend on how The Way of Water does at the box office . But considering just how massively successful that movie has been, it seems pretty likely now.

Does Avatar 5 have a name?

Avatar: The Quest for Eywa is the rumored title for this one, but as with the others, we don’t have a lot of solid confirmation.

Weirdly, we know a lot more about this one than we do about Avatar 4 . According to Cameron’s most recent comments , he thinks Avatar 5 will bring the action to Earth. In the director’s words, Neytiri will see that not all humans are bad, but the audience will also see that not all Na’vi are good — which softly implies an Avatar alien-invasion movie. It sounds amazing.

Producer Jon Landau added a couple more details to this in tease in an interview with Variety , explaining that the movie would be set on an Earth that’s already dealing with overpopulation and a depletion of natural resources.

How far along is Avatar 5?

Based on what we know, this sequel is the least far along, and may not even be completely written yet. With that in mind, little to none of it seems to have been filmed, based on Cameron’s vague comments.

avatar movie review 2023

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Avatar - 3D: Special Edition

The reason we all bought and cherish our 3-D televisions in the first place; James Cameron's  Avatar returns to 3-D Blu-ray from Disney/20th Century Studios. This three-disc set, the newly remastered 3D version of the film offers up a notable improvement in clarity and depth capped off with a solid bonus features package. If you’re still rolling your 3-D TV or Projector setup, discs like this are the reason we keep wearing those glasses! Recommended

Written and directed by Academy Award® winner James Cameron*, Avatar is set on the lush alien world of Pandora, home of the Na'vi—beings who appear primitive but are highly evolved. Because the planet's environment is poisonous, human/Na'vi hybrids called Avatars must link to human minds to allow for free movement on Pandora. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paralyzed former Marine, becomes mobile again through one such Avatar and falls in love with a Na'vi woman (Zoe Saldaña). As a bond with her grows, he is drawn into a battle for the survival of her world.

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

From our previous 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review 

How does a director follow the highest-grossing movie of all time? They do it by directing the highest-grossing movie of all time topping said highest-grossing movie of all time. In an age where there weren’t DCEUs or MCUs sucking up every theater screen, James Cameron’s  Avatar  ignited a box office storm. Everyone had to see Cameron’s long-gestating passion project. As those ticket sales kept rolling in, the film also reinvigorated the long-ago castoff experience of seeing major motion pictures in three dimensions while pioneering new techniques in motion-capture filmmaking. Soon, every major motion picture had to be in 3-D, either shot that way or with an after-the-fact post-conversion (with often mixed results). While 3-D may not be as strong an attraction today - it hasn't disappeared. There are still some great post-conversions -  Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3   being one of the best recent releases in that arena. 

avatar movie review 2023

Over ten years between sequels - how does the original  Avatar  hold up? Depending on who you ask, your results will vary, but for this reviewer, I’d say pretty well. I’ve never thought  Avatar  was a particularly amazing film. Visually yes, it’s a gorgeous-looking film, but the story is simplistic with equally simple dialog to match. On that spectrum, Cameron has always been on the nose, as much as I love  T2: Judgement Day , Sarah Conner's narrations aren’t exactly Shakespeare. That follows here with Sam Worthington’s Jake Sulley filling in the narrative gaps with voice-over. Sometimes it works and feels organic, other times it’s just damn clumsy. The conceit is we’re supposed to be hearing his log files, but it never really sells. The two extended versions help fill some narrative gaps and do play better overall, but they don’t help the fact  Avatar  feels more like a proof-of-concept that Cameron’s crazy ideas could work rather than serve as a fully-realized feature film. Faults aside, I easily get wrapped up in the drama and conflict and again Cameron accomplished some next-level universe-building for his little opus. 

Fourteen years after that first (of several) theatrical viewing, I still get a kick out of  Avatar . It plays like a wild pulpy Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and that’s what I enjoy about it. Akin to the Princess of Mars stories, we have a human hero traveling to a far-off planet to lead a rebellion while integrating with an alien culture. It’s not a new story, it’s just a creative (albeit mostly visually) spin on sci-fi’s greatest hits. I also appreciate that Cameron and his team spent so much time creating a new language, culture, and a jungle full of exciting creatures to observe. He may have quite literally gotten lost in the woods with it, but it proved there’s enough meat on the bones of this universe that’s worth exploring for future adventures. And by the future, that’s quite literal as Disney has readjusted their release calendar pushing Avatar 5 all the way back to 2031… I just hope I’m still alive then because I’m looking forward to the sequels.

For some less-than-positive alternate views on the film, read our past coverage:

  • 2009 2D Blu-ray Review
  • 2010 Extended Edition Blu-ray Review
  • 2012 3-D Blu-ray Review  

Vital Disc Stats: The 3D Blu-ray Avatar ,   the film that started the 3D revolution on Blu-ray returns for a new and improved three-disc Blu-ray 3-D release. A BD-50 offers up the 1080p 3D, another BD-50 is reserved for the film’s 2D edition, and another BD-50 is reserved for the initial set of bonus features from the first 4K UHD edition. The disc loads to a static image main menu, if your setup is 3-D ready, the 3-D experience automatically kicks in.

Video Review

avatar movie review 2023

It’s a grand thing to enjoy Avatar the way it was meant to be seen in 3-D at home. This is the film that initially made 3-D television sets such a hot commodity, but it was stupidly made a competing format exclusive when it was the title that literally everyone would have bought in the first place in 2010. It wasn’t until 2012 that this film would get a wide non-exclusive release, but by then, the format was already starting to fade. Now it’s back on disc and looking better than ever. Thanks to the new remaster work we saw on IMAX screens for a limited run, this first film in James Cameron’s intergalactic odyssey looks cleaner and clearer, and I dare say they greatly improved the sense of space and dimension. Big WOW shots hit harder like when Jake first rolls off the transport ship or when his army of flying warriors hovers over the invading armada, that sense of depth looked deeper and more dimensionalized than before. Doing the glasses test, a number of sequences that would be flat on the older disc are now actively in 3-D. Parallax effects of objects protruding from the screen also look clearer and engage more cleanly without any ghosting or eye strain. My wish is they had given this the two-disc BD-3D treatment like The Way of Water and really maxed out the visuals. As is, this is a welcome upgrade for those still rocking the glasses at home.

Audio Review

avatar movie review 2023

Given all the workload is going into those 3-D visuals, the film rolls with a very good and effective DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. Of course, I would have loved Atmos but I can’t really complain about this mix. Employing my receiver’s DTS Neural:X function helps open things up a bit and punch up the big action sequences nicely. Dialog is clear throughout without issue. The soundscape is still very large feeling giving those surround channels plenty of work - especially for the flight scenes and the big action setpieces. Perhaps not the perfect audio experience, but still a strong and immersive one.

Special Features

avatar movie review 2023

The first run of  Avatar   on 3-D Blu-ray didn't offer up anything more than the basic film experience without any bonus features. This time Disney/20th Century are throwing in the initial bonus features disc we got with the first 4K UHD Blu-ray run. While not everything of the big  Collector's Edition   set, it's still a hefty package. 

  • Memories from Avatar  (HD 21:20) 
  • Avatar: A Look Back  (HD 10:03)
  • Capturing Avatar  (HD 1:38:25)
  • Featurettes -  (HD 1:31:51 Total)
  • Sculpting Avatar
  • Creating the Banshee
  • Creating the Thanator
  • The Amp Suit
  • Flying Vehicles
  • Na’vi Costumes
  • Speaking Na’vi
  • Pandora Flora
  • Performance Capture
  • Virtual Camera
  • The 3-D Fusion Camera
  • The Simul-Cam
  • Editing Avatar
  • Scoring Avatar
  • Sound Design
  • The Haka: The Spirit of New Zealand

avatar movie review 2023

As I’ve said a few times now through different reviews, I enjoy the hell out of Avatar but I don’t think it’s a perfect movie. Cameron’s longer cuts are certainly the better versions, but this theatrical cut in 3-D is what spurred the world’s fascination with Pandora. One of the first and earliest essential pickups during the brief 3-D TV revolution, Avatar  recently enjoyed a successful theatrical rerelease with a newly remastered transfer. It was amazing on IMAX and I dare say it’s impressive at home on Blu-ray 3D. The image looks sharper and cleaner than before, but it appears they also slightly reworked some of the depth and dimension work so some of those big beautiful glory shots are even more impactful. Audio is still pretty solid with DTS-HD MA 5.1. My only real wish for this release was the film had been spread over two 3-D discs like the sequel for maximum impact. As is, it’s great and if you’re still rocking your 3-D TV or projector, it’s a worthwhile pickup. Recommended for the 3-D junkies out there.

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Avatar: the way of water, common sense media reviewers.

avatar movie review 2023

Long but dazzling return to Pandora has sci-fi violence.

Avatar: The Way of Water Movie Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Messages about acceptance, unity, and teamwork. St

The women leaders of the clan are strong, brave, a

The Na'vi species is divided into clans with a var

Sci-fi action violence. Supporting characters die

Brief scene of nonsexual nudity (blink-and-miss gl

Scattered strong language includes one "f--k," "ho

No product placement in movie, but dozens of off-s

Parents need to know that Avatar: The Way of Water is the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron's epic 2009 mega-hit Avatar . The sequel returns to Pandora 15 years after Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) rallied the indigenous Na'vi clans against the corrupt "Sky People" (colonizing humans trying to mine…

Positive Messages

Messages about acceptance, unity, and teamwork. Strong environmental, pro-peace, and anti-imperialist themes. Idea that love and understanding can trump division and violence. Shows consequences, dangers, and immorality of a corrupt government colonizing and oppressing another land and people. Stresses importance of honest communication between children and their parents.

Positive Role Models

The women leaders of the clan are strong, brave, assertive characters, and the Na'vi are all deeply connected to the land. Jake and Neytiri are courageous and loving parents and clan leaders. Ronal is the spiritual leader of her community. Spider loves the Na'vi even though he's human and is forced into difficult moral situations. Lo'ak finds a way to commune with a sacred creature.

Diverse Representations

The Na'vi species is divided into clans with a variety of cultures, traditions, and belief systems, with overt parallels to Indigenous peoples (tribal tattoos and symbiotic, spiritual relationships with nature) and Indigenous history (colonialist expansion, genocide). But the filmmakers are White, and main characters are almost all voiced by non-Indigenous actors, raising issues about cultural appropriation. The women leaders of the clan are strong, brave, assertive.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Sci-fi action violence. Supporting characters die due to explosions, bullet wounds, arrows, and dismemberment, as well as a whale-like creature's destructive movements. Several intense scenes involving combat, a ship sinking, and animal hunting that shows the killing of ancient beings. Children are held captive and at gunpoint. Bullying and pranking that leaves a teen in harm's way. Children are used as hostages. A couple of emotional deaths.

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

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief scene of nonsexual nudity (blink-and-miss glimpse of a Na'vi woman's breasts). Adolescent Na'vi flirt and hold hands. There's a strong bond between Kiri and Spider. Jake and Neytiri embrace and kiss.

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Scattered strong language includes one "f--k," "holy s--t," "bulls--t," "dips--t," "bitch," "goddamn," "damn," "piss," "hell," "oh my God," "ass," "ass-whooping," and insults like "four-fingered freak," "half-breed," "stupid," "ignorant," etc. "Jesus" used as an exclamation.

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Products & Purchases

No product placement in movie, but dozens of off-screen tie-in merchandising deals, including toys and books aimed at young kids.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Avatar: The Way of Water is the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron's epic 2009 mega-hit Avatar . The sequel returns to Pandora 15 years after Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ) rallied the indigenous Na'vi clans against the corrupt "Sky People" (colonizing humans trying to mine and extract Pandora's resources). Jake and his mate, Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ), now have four children and decide to save their forest clan by seeking refuge for their family among the island dwelling Metkayina clan. Filmed mostly underwater, the three-hour-plus film is visually striking. And, like the first movie, it has sci-fi action violence, with weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and the hunting of a sacred whale-like creature. The story also features adolescent flirting, hand-holding, and crushes, as well as marital affection. Occasional strong language includes many uses of "s--t," "bitch," and "ass," as well as one "f--k." Like the first movie, this one has a strong anti-imperialist message, plus environmental and multicultural themes that stress the importance of tolerance, acceptance, and honest communication. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

  • Parents say (38)
  • Kids say (105)

Based on 38 parent reviews

More kid friendly than the 1st

Extraordinary and accomplished film., what's the story.

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is set approximately 15 years after the events of the original Avatar . In the forests of Pandora, Jake ( Sam Worthington ) and his mate, Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ), are now parents to two teen sons, Neteyam ( Jamie Flatters ) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), as well as a young girl named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ), the teen daughter they adopted after she was born under mysterious circumstances. Jake has helped the Na'vi fight against the Sky People (humans trying to mine and extract Pandora's resources), but the onslaught of the humans' military operations ramps up when they launch a new mission: sending a select group of avatars with the uploaded consciousness and memories of the long-dead Col. Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) and his loyal soldiers. Quaritch and his Na'vi-fied squad terrorize Jake and Neytiri's Omaticaya clan until Jake convinces Neytiri that their immediate family should leave and seek refuge with the far-off island dwelling Metkayina clan, who are a different shade of blue and boast fin-like tails and flipper-like hands. Their leader, Tonowari ( Cliff Curtis ), and his spiritual leader mate, Ronal ( Kate Winslet ), tentatively grant Jake and Neytiri's family sanctuary, but eventually Quaritch tracks them down and brings the war of the Sky People to the water clans.

Is It Any Good?

James Cameron 's crowd-pleasing sequel is a spectacular technical achievement that, while overlong, manages to dazzle the senses enough to prove that the director is still a visionary. Avatar: The Way of Water isn't a movie you see for its layered, complicated plot. The storyline is simple, and the dialogue is mostly expository or cliché, particularly when Quaritch talks. But it doesn't quite matter, because Cameron puts the movie's $350 million budget to remarkable use in all of the underwater sequences, the incredible creature effects, and the overall immersive return to Pandora. It's worth seeing on the biggest screen possible, in 3D if you can. Yes, the three-hour-plus runtime is long, but it's easy to get lost in the movie's memorable world-building. The motion-capture performances are fascinating to behold, and Winslet and Curtis are welcome additions to the cast. Of the young actors, Dalton stands out as Neytiri and Jake's troublemaking younger son, Lo'ak, who befriends an outcast tulkun (the sacred alien whales). Also worth noting is Jack Champion as Spider, the human boy raised among the Na'vi but whose mask marks him as different. His bond with Kiri, who's also a little bit different, seems headed toward romance, but it's too early to tell (not to mention complicated).

Lang's Quaritch is only slightly less unhinged in this installment than he was in the first film. But he's far from the only antagonist. The Na'vi face seemingly insurmountable odds as the humans' tech gets better and deadlier. The action sequences come mostly in the third act, but there are moments of pulse-pounding peril throughout that will make audiences clutch their seats (or their partners). There's even an extended ship-sinking sequence that's reminiscent of Titanic , right down to how people grip the railing and hold their breath as areas flood. While there's no Pandoran quartet playing classical music, composer Simon Franglen uses the late James Horner's original themes to create an evocative score as the Na'vi fight for their lives. With Avatar: The Way of Water , Cameron and cinematographer Russell Carpenter have created something monumental in scope, so much so that the movie's flaws don't prevent it from being stunning.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the visual and special effects in Avatar: The Way of Water . How do they compare to those in the first movie? How has technology changed since that one was released?

What themes does James Cameron consistently work into his films? Compare aspects of Avatar to the Terminator movies and Titanic . What similarities can you find?

Discuss the difference between how humans dealt with the Na'vi in the first movie and in this sequel.

How do the different tribes from Pandora interact, work together, and use teamwork to achieve their goals? Why is that an important character strength ?

The language and culture of the Maori people indigenous to New Zealand provided director James Cameron with inspiration for the sea-based Metkayina people. What are respectful ways to acknowledge other cultures?

Movie Details

  • In theaters : December 16, 2022
  • On DVD or streaming : March 28, 2023
  • Cast : Zoe Saldana , Sam Worthington , Kate Winslet , Sigourney Weaver
  • Director : James Cameron
  • Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Latino actors
  • Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
  • Genre : Science Fiction
  • Topics : Adventures , Ocean Creatures , Space and Aliens
  • Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
  • Run time : 192 minutes
  • MPAA rating : PG-13
  • MPAA explanation : sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language
  • Awards : Academy Award , Common Sense Selection
  • Last updated : January 6, 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.

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Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Review

‘tiers of the kingdom..

Tristan Ogilvie Avatar

Short of somehow growing a Na’vi neural braid and jamming it directly into the base of James Cameron’s skull, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is pretty much your best option for taking a virtual tour of the stunning alien moon of Pandora. This open-world shooter serves up a mind bogglingly large slice of the fantastic fictional universe to explore, from staggeringly dense forest areas to picturesque open plains and properly intimidating mountain ranges both on land and suspended impossibly in the skies above. However, hidden amongst all that beauty is a disappointing amount of bloat, with copy-pasted enemy outposts and facilities that made venturing off the main story path far less rewarding than it has been in recent landmark adventures such as Elden Ring or the last two Legend of Zeldas. I still largely enjoyed the 25 hours I spent trying to fend off a resource-hungry human invasion, but I wish the environment itself had presented me with more compelling reasons to fight for it beyond its surface-level splendor.

I must admit that the two Avatar films have each impressed me far more on a technical level than they have with the quality of their storytelling, and in that regard Frontiers of Pandora remains true to its box office record-breaking inspiration. Set on an entirely new Western Frontier continent separate from the region where Jake Sully and family have played out two parts of an apparently five-movie story arc, Frontiers of Pandora is an entirely standalone adventure with only minor references to the events of the films and, thankfully, not a single utterance of the word “unobtainium” – at least, not that I can recall.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Review Screens

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Review Screens

Even so, its overall story arc doesn’t stray too far from the established series formula. Humanity’s colonising Resource Development Administration, or RDA, is an oppressive force in the Western Frontier with its numerous mining facilities. It’s up to us, playing as an unnamed Na’vi raised in captivity, to unite the three isolated Na’vi clans in the region and make a stand against invaders hellbent on doing more damage to the natural habitat than actor Sam Worthington has done to the American accent.

Broadly speaking, I was happy to step into the Kevin Durant-sized feet of the eco warrior spearheading the uprising, and there were some pretty heavy moments along the way that brought some real weight to the conflict, but I can’t say that I ever became particularly bonded with any one character in Frontiers of Pandora. A big part of the reason I never felt too invested in the individual plights of the countless Na’vi clan members I met over the course of the journey is that they’re largely indistinguishable from each other in looks and have exotic-sounding monikers that are easily mixed up in my middle-aged memory. I can barely keep track of the names of my kids’ best friends, let alone be relied upon to discern the difference between one character called Eetu and another called Etuwa. Star Wars has its fair share of silly names too, but it’s also rich with countless different races, and personally I have a better chance of putting a name to a face when one face is green and the other has three pairs of eyes.

Furthermore, Frontiers of Pandora’s two main antagonists, RDA bad guy businessman John Mercer and his head of military muscle, General Angela Harding, barely have a presence for the bulk of the campaign. Instead, they’re mainly encountered via sporadic video communications, as though there’s been an outbreak of cat-person COVID and they’ve been left with no choice but to taunt you via Zoom calls. Neither are ever really confronted in a physical sense, and their fates effectively remain undetermined as of the end of the story – which left me feeling slightly underwhelmed as the credits rolled. It perhaps wouldn’t have been so bad had there been other high-ranking nasties to focus my attention on, but there’s a surprising absence of boss fights in Frontiers of Pandora. In fact, the closest I came to encountering a traditional boss was at the very end, and they died instantly when I fired a rocket into a gas canister that set off a chain reaction of explosions around them. That made for a slightly silly way to round out an otherwise mostly serious story.

Dances with Viperwolves

The Western Frontier itself, though, is truly remarkable. Frontiers of Pandora provides some genuinely breathtaking environments to explore, and thanks to the hyper-agility of your Na’vi character it’s a real joy to experience at speed. A responsive set of controls allow you to sprint, slide, and soar through the air with charged-up lunges, and there are plenty of environmental aids on hand to enhance your mobility. Namely, large leaves launch you across long distances and dangling vines can zip you up to the forest canopy in an instant. It’s exhilarating to whip along the tops of long, twisting branches and through hollowed-out logs, huffing the spores of special plants that temporarily boost your momentum and transform you into a blue blur that would almost make Sonic the Hedgehog turn an envious shade of green.

Frontiers of Pandora’s world certainly feels alive as well, with flowers that shyly withdraw into their stems as you pass by and pods that spit their seeds when you approach as though you just surprised them with a particularly hilarious joke. Because this vibrant ecosystem is so full of life, there’s naturally a great deal that can be harvested and killed in order to gather the resources required to prepare stat-boosting meals and craft mods for your Na’vi weapons and clothing. I enjoyed the tactile way you harvest flora by tightening your grip on it with the right trigger and swiveling it to the point of least resistance with the left thumbstick – it’s the first time I’ve used this sort of mechanic to pick fruit instead of locks, and it feels consistently satisfying when a piece of fresh produce suddenly pops off the vine.

Which is the best James Cameron movie?

I didn’t get too deep into the hunting side of Frontiers of Pandora, though, and mainly stuck to killing animals in self defense – like the snarling packs of viperwolves that regularly disrupted my morning jungle jogs. But one look at the Hunter’s Guide in the pause menu reveals a lengthy list of potential prey to track down, and although it’s not really my style to slaughter space cows, I do at least appreciate the thoughtfulness applied to the design of Frontiers of Pandora’s ecosystem. Like how if you can kill an animal cleanly with one arrow you can claim the best version of its meat for cooking, but on the other hand if you use a machine gun it will end up being completely spoiled. Similarly, certain fruits yield the most beneficial results for cooking if they’re picked at specific times, such as during the day or when it’s raining.

Frontiers of Pandora looks amazing when scrutinized up close, but it arguably looks at its best when viewed atop an Ikran soaring through the skies above it, and once I’d bonded with my winged steed some five hours into the story I pretty much chose to travel by air at every opportunity I got. Admittedly, piloting the Ikran doesn’t quite nail the awesome sense of speed here that it conjures up in the films, but they’re still supremely useful for wiping out smaller RDA installations from above, and it really can’t be understated how consistently exhilarating it is to leap off a cliff’s edge and plummet towards terminal velocity, only to tap a button and have your loyal Ikran swoop in to catch you and carry you to safety on its back.

It’s therefore a little strange, then, that regular, old-fashioned ground mounts aren’t introduced to the story until after you’ve been given access to their flying equivalent, and it meant that I rode one of Pandora’s direhorses precisely once as part of the tutorial mission that greeted me upon my arrival in its Upper Plains region, and then never felt the need to saddle one ever again. After all, why steer an alien horse around obstacles on the ground when you can issue forth a high-pitched yodel to call down your Ikran pal and then just fly over them?

Similarly, it is a slight shame that the Clouded Forest, the region in which the bulk of the story’s third act takes place, is by far and away the least attractive area in the entire Western Frontier. It’s shrouded in so much fog that it’s the one part of Frontiers of Pandora that could probably run on a Nintendo 64, and while the final hours of the story are some of the most spectacular in terms of action, they didn’t leave as lasting an impression of my time exploring Pandora as the campaign’s more majestic first half.

Blue Murder

Since you’re basically only wearing a loincloth and a snarl, you’re pretty vulnerable to the attacks from the human forces that guard every RDA installation you’re tasked with taking down, so it’s just as well you have both primitive Na’vi tools and high-tech human weaponry at your disposal. Collectively, Frontiers of Pandora’s arsenal seems pretty limited compared to those featured in Far Cry 6 and Horizon Forbidden West, but there’s enough here to get the job done – specifically, I relied mostly on the Na’vi longbow for sniping ground troops, the assault rifle for shredding aircraft from a distance, and the surprisingly overpowered shotgun to reduce the RDA mechs into piles of sparking scrap.

More powerful versions of each weapon class can be found hidden throughout the world or as rewards for completing side quests, and equipping the most optimal gear in your loadout boosts your overall combat level in a similar way to Destiny or The Division. In turn, each main story mission or side quest is marked with a recommended combat level, but in my experience it didn’t seem to pose too much of an additional challenge if I went into a mission under-leveled, at least on the default difficulty setting. It certainly helped that enemy AI is generally pretty dim, and some of the special abilities that you can unlock in its skill tree can be easily abused. Once I gained the ability to punch through the cockpit glass and tear mech pilots right out of their harnesses, I proceeded to forcefully eject each and every one of those fools like they were Nickelback CDs mistakenly inserted into my car stereo.

Tristan Ogilvie's Favourite Open-World Games

Elden Ring

Frontiers of Pandora’s final fistful of missions do raise the stakes and up the enemy numbers substantially, though, and it made for some terrifically tough and tense encounters that left me with elbow-shaped grooves in the tops of my knees from leaning closer and closer to my television. Yet while I appreciated these more fierce and close-quartered forms of firefights against far more heavily armoured and agile mechs, there were certain times where I couldn’t be quite sure if I was being challenged or simply cheated. In some instances it felt like enemies were infinitely respawning, in others it appeared they had a supernatural sense of my location at all times, and most frustratingly, there were a number of occasions where I was clearly being shot through cover.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - development concept art

avatar movie review 2023

On the whole, Frontiers of Pandora’s shooting is mostly solid but it doesn’t really evolve in any substantial ways over the course of the story. It’s nice that you can use your Na’vi sense to spot weak points on mechs and potentially take them out with one well-placed shot, and being able to craft special ammo like electric-shock rounds for the shotgun certainly comes in handy. But it never quite feels as freeform as the Far Cry series at its best – as far as I can tell you can’t ever use bait to lure the wildlife into an enemy camp in order to cause a deadly distraction, for example, and although you can use your computer-hacking tool to disable gun turrets and mechs, you can’t seem to ever use it to turn those machines against each other. When you factor in the fairly limited number of enemy types found throughout, I didn’t really feel like I ever had to adjust my approach to each combat encounter to any significant degree.

New Look Na’vi-gation

HUD clutter has long been a concern for many of Ubisoft’s open-world adventures, and it was only recently that I found myself struggling to spot the desert surroundings of Baghdad in Assassin’s Creed Mirage beyond the swarm of obnoxious icons that dotted the landscape in its guided mode. To its credit, Frontiers of Pandora has taken a Marie Kondo-style clean out to its presentation, and although it took me a while to adapt to not having my hand held as much I ultimately found it to be a change for the better.

Navigating the world in relies largely on the use of your Na’vi sense, which momentarily highlights interactive objects in your surroundings as well as the general direction of your currently tracked objective, but these highlights quickly fade from view once you release the Na’vi sense button and afford you an unimpeded view of the world around you. There were occasionally times where I did lament the absence of a minimap, like when I found myself running in circles in one of the bigger Na’vi camps simply trying to find a weapons trader, but for the most part I enjoyed how Frontiers of Pandora’s navigation allowed me to find my own way through the world rather than just blindly follow a more strictly guided trail.

I just wish there were better rewards for exploring off the beaten track, though, because the more I moved around Frontiers of Pandora’s expanse the more of the same RDA mining facilities I would stumble upon, each requiring similar if not identical methods of crank-turning and exhaust vent-shooting in order to sabotage them. In fact, both the main story missions and optional RDA installations have you repeatedly indulging in sabotage like you’re a blue-skinned Beastie Boy, and although it's an impressive effect to see previously polluted areas get reclaimed by nature it all starts to feel a bit samey by the end. I can get behind the strong environmental message that Frontiers of Pandora shares with James Cameron’s films, but this isn’t exactly the sort of recycling I had in mind.

Elsewhere, I never found any truly emergent gameplay surprises, and more often than not I just found acres of empty space. At one point I spent about half an hour touring around a series of floating islands in the sky, and all I came away from it with was a piece of fruit and a handful of sky moss. That’s a heck of a long way to travel just to collect the ingredients for a particularly awful-sounding smoothie, and I can’t recall ever leaving so empty-handed from one of Hyrule’s sky islands.

There are plenty of sidequests to find and complete, but beyond the practical rewards for doing so in the form of extra resources and skill points, there’s just not the same sense of awe or discovery to be found compared to the more consistently delightful detours experienced in Elden Ring or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The standard of open-world excellence has been raised in recent years, and Frontiers of Pandora can’t quite measure up despite how wonderful it all appears at first glance. To be fair, it’s a gigantic map and I haven’t covered all of it, but the law of averages suggests that if there was some truly awesome stuff to find out there I would have found at least some of it by now.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features a stunning alien world to explore with a refreshingly uncluttered approach to navigation, countless enemy bases to destroy and Na’vi clan sidequests to complete, and no shortage of exotic flora and fauna to harvest and hunt. However, its combat is pretty one-dimensional, its mission design is a bit on the repetitive side, and its environment is generally lacking in any major surprises beyond visual splendor, meaning that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a solid shooting adventure that’s more inside the box than truly out of this world.

Tristan Ogilvie Avatar Avatar

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'Avatar' review: the film is still a marvel of special effects, but the tropes are lazy

As james cameron's 2009 epic is re-released in cinemas, we give it another look for old times' sake.

Sam Worthington, left, as Jake Sully and Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch in 'Avatar'. All photos: Twentieth Century Studios

Sam Worthington, left, as Jake Sully and Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch in 'Avatar'. All photos: Twentieth Century Studios

Maan Jalal author image

In anticipation of Avatar: The Way of Water being released in December, the first Avatar film has returned to cinemas.

Revisiting James Cameron’s imaginative world of Pandora — which we were introduced to in December 2009 — while entertaining, also raises a lot of questions.

It would be unfair not to state the glaringly obvious first: Avatar is brilliantly made.

Entertaining, immersive and mind-blowingly visual, even by today’s standards, the film, which Cameron wrote, directed, produced and co-edited, remains the highest-grossing in the world .

This is an unbelievable feat for several reasons.

When Avatar was originally released, The Lord of the Rings trilogy had ended, more than half of the Harry Potter franchise had already caused hysteria in the mainstream and the first Spider-Man movie had already captured a huge audience.

Avatar ’s epic success was a surprise, given it had no prior fan base.

At face value, the film’s technical prowess and innovative use of 3D was what impressed critics and sold out cinemas. Avatar took the use of facial motion capture, which audiences first experienced in Lord of the Rings , to another level, heralding in a new generation of special effects that would change movie making forever.

Unlike Cameron’s first epic, Titanic in 1997, Avatar ’s use of technology still looks hyper-realistic and feels out of this world.

James Cameron's 'Avatar' is the highest-grossing film of all time. Photo: WETA

Watching Avatar is a cinematic experience. It is a visual feast of colours, light, fantastical creatures and geography. It's a testament to Cameron’s incredible imagination and vision, but also to what movies can do and how we can experience them.

But Avatar ’s storyline is one that deserves a more nuanced investigation.

Director: James Cameron

Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

Rating: 3/5

“When I was laying there in the VA hospital with a big hole blown into the middle of my life, I started having these dreams that I was flying. I was free," says Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine played by Sam Worthington, who sets the tone of the film as the story opens to a sweeping shot of a mysterious mist-covered landscape.

Freedom, from the outset, is the core of the story. Jake feels physically trapped in a wheelchair after an injury leaves him paralysed from the waist down. Perhaps more potent is his emotional imprisonment, after his brother is killed in a robbery.

Neytiri, voiced by Zoe Saldana, and Jake Sully, voiced by Sam Worthington, in 'Avatar'. Photo: 20th Century Fox

Jake decides to replace his brother in the government’s Avatar Programme on the planet Pandora and is fitted into the genetically engineered body of its indigenous humanoid species, the Na'vi. As he assimilates into the Na'vi’s culture and falls in love with Neytiri, voiced by Zoe Saldana, he discovers the sinister intentions of the military to oppress the Na'vi and destroy their sacred site in order to mine unobtanium, a precious compound.

The story is filled with environmental, antiwar, pro-feminist and anti-colonial themes. They aren’t underlying, they’re obvious, challenging us to link the parallels to our history and present.

Jake's journey and his relationship with Neytiri isn’t badly plotted or poorly written — it’s predictable. We’ve experienced it before in movies such as Pocahontas , Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai , where the trope of a “white saviour” leading indigenous peoples to their freedom is overused and inaccurate.

It seems likely that Cameron chose to use a recognisable narrative and lazy tropes to ease audiences into a new, highly complex world. Completely unnecessary, of course, if one notes how the literary works of sci-fi and fantasy authors such as Ursula Le Guin and Sheri S Tepper effortlessly meld fantastical, imaginary worlds with highly innovative storylines and distinct characters.

That said, I still believe Cameron deserves our trust. He's been willing to wait until technology catches up to his vision as a filmmaker, and so let's hope, is saving a more refined and vivid storyline for the sequels.

Dubai landmarks in Pandora from 'Avatar' — in pictures

Museum of the Future with Burj Khalifa in the background, imagined in the fictional world of Pandora in 'Avatar', by digital artist Jyo John Mulloor. All photos: Jyo John Mulloor

Museum of the Future with Burj Khalifa in the background, imagined in the fictional world of Pandora in 'Avatar', by digital artist Jyo John Mulloor. All photos: Jyo John Mulloor

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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

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.

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Film credits.

Avatar movie poster

Avatar (2009)

Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking

162 minutes

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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Avatar Reviews

avatar movie review 2023

“Avatar” remains a transporting experience – an entertaining blend of old-fashioned adventure and technological wonder.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2024

avatar movie review 2023

'Avatar' is not just a visual display. It contains heart, humor, and all the aspects needed to make it a well-rounded story. Sure, the script could have been punched up with something more poetic and less obvious. Still, it’s not a bad egg.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jan 9, 2024

avatar movie review 2023

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 28, 2023

avatar movie review 2023

STUNNING epic. Zoe Saldana performance… A fantastic one

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

avatar movie review 2023

It’s the world of Pandora married to the groundbreaking technology used to bring it to life that makes "Avatar" impressive, but it otherwise comes across as hollow, spectacle for the sake of it with little else to offer.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2023

avatar movie review 2023

Cameron is a master filmmaker whose movies will endure long after he stops making movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 23, 2023

avatar movie review 2023

While the visuals might rate four stars, the screenplay guarantees this falls well below more compatible marriages of substance and style found in such ground-breakers as the original King Kong, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Cameron’s own Terminator films.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 16, 2023

avatar movie review 2023

A groundbreaking technical achievement in filmmaking. The impressive visual effects and amazing world building more than make up for one of Cameron's weaker stories. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 8, 2023

avatar movie review 2023

Combining cutting-edge technology with classic, earnest storytelling is firmly the hallmark of this series, and it honestly gave me almost everything I wanted from it.

Full Review | Dec 16, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

Three hours breeze into deep relationships, action-packed sequences, and a tale that deserves to be repeatedly seen in cinema. #diandrareviews

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 14, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

It’s not just that we’ve seen the tale before… it’s that every aspect of the screenplay is terrible.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Dec 7, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

Cameron’s epic can still thrill the audience with breathtaking set pieces, bring them to tears with moving moments, and amaze people willing to explore a fantasy land like no other.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Oct 12, 2022

Avatar still elicits much of the same wide-eyed wonderment.

Full Review | Oct 5, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

The emotional stakes presented in the final battle make it so powerful, going beyond the physical scale of the sequence and what the visual effects artists achieved to create a stunning, rousing piece of filmmaking.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 30, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

Thirteen years after its release, 'Avatar' still proves to be an exceptional blockbuster that makes the most of a simple and predictable story, to develop a visually awesome and emotional experience that must be had in the cinema. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 28, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

The standard in modern blockbuster filmmaking. I don’t make the rules.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

A meaningful blockbuster that fails to play ignorant to craft or soul, it is no wonder that so many have fallen in love with the world of Pandora and the drama that takes place on it.

[W]atching Avatar‘s 4K HDR format on IMAX 3D looks more incredible and visually stunning than the original 3D version in 2009.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 25, 2022

...still a gorgeous sci-fi epic, but the characters are nowhere near as detailed.

Full Review | Sep 24, 2022

avatar movie review 2023

Cameron and his artists have so lovingly imagined the moon of Pandora that every shot of the film contains new wonders.

Full Review | Sep 23, 2022

IMAGES

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VIDEO

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  3. AVATAR 3

  4. Shocking !! ''Avatar'' sequels have been delayed. The last movie will release in 2031 #avatar3

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COMMENTS

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    20 I n case you're new to the Airbender universe - Netflix's adventure drama Avatar: The Last Airbender is a live-action remake of the popular Nickelodeon animated series of the same name, which...

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    Translating kids' animation to live-action is a tricky proposition, as Disney and the 2010 movie version of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" can attest. Netflix gets the look and action right in ...

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    Movie Info. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, "Avatar: The Way of Water" begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that ...

  4. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

    247 16 Play trailer 2:01 41 Videos 99+ Photos Action Adventure Fantasy Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home. Director James Cameron Writers James Cameron

  5. Avatar: The Way of Water review

    Thu 15 Dec 2022 06.35 EST D renching us with a disappointment that can hardly be admitted out loud, James Cameron's soggy new digitised film has beached like a massive, pointless whale. The...

  6. Avatar: The Way of Water First Reviews: A Magical, Visually Sublime

    Early reviews of James Cameron's long-in-the-making sequel say it feels like an immersive theme park thrill ride with interesting characters, breathtaking action, and a better story than the...

  7. Avatar 2 review: a thrilling epic that gambles on how you watch it

    Reviews Avatar 2 marks a dramatic step forward for director James Cameron But The Way of Water is a step back for the endlessly distracting HFR presentation By Jordan Hoffman Dec 13, 2022,...

  8. Avatar: The Way of Water Review

    Posted: Dec 13, 2022 9:00 am Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on Dec. 16, 2022. Below is a spoiler-free review. I think it was right about when a Pandoran whale lamented, in...

  9. Avatar: The Last Airbender First Reviews: It Isn't Perfect, but It's

    Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix's new adaptation of Nickelodeon's groundbreaking animated series, which was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is the streamer's latest attempt at translating a popular anime into live action.It is currently streaming on Netflix. Starring in the series is an impressive ensemble of mostly Asian and Indigenous actors.

  10. Avatar: The Last Airbender Review

    Review scoring. The live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series enriches the original story with meaningful new material, but its breakneck pacing, exposition-heavy dialogue, and hit-or-miss ...

  11. Avatar: The Way of Water

    Runtime: 3h 12min. Release Date: December 16, 2022. Genre: Action-Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction. "Avatar: The Way of Water" reaches new heights and explores undiscovered depths as James Cameron returns to the world of Pandora in this emotionally packed action adventure. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, "Avatar ...

  12. 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Review: Netflix's Live-Action Remake

    The Bottom Line Seriously, not everything needs a gritty live-action reboot. Airdate: Thursday, Feb. 22 (Netflix) Cast: Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu, Daniel Dae Kim, Paul Sun ...

  13. 'Avatar: The Way of Water' Review: Big Blue Marvel

    One of the film's genuinely uncanny effects is that Sigourney Weaver, who played Dr. Augustine in the first film, plays Kiri in this one, her unmistakable face digitally de-aged and tinted...

  14. Avatar: The Way of Water review

    As for the 3D - a moribund format that has risen and fallen like the tide on umpteen occasions throughout cinema history - the only thing it immerses us in is the harsh realities of the Chinese...

  15. Avatar: The Way of Water movie review (2022)

    Reviews Avatar: The Way of Water Brian Tallerico December 13, 2022 Tweet Now streaming on: Powered by JustWatch James Cameron wants you to believe. He wants you to believe that aliens are killing machines, humanity can defeat time-traveling cyborgs, and a film can transport you to a significant historical disaster.

  16. Avatar: The Way of Water

    Madame Web Best Rom-Coms Deadpool & Wolverine Avatar: The Way of Water PG-13 , 3h 12m Sci-Fi,Adventure,Action,Fantasy Directed By: James Cameron In Theaters: Dec 16, 2022 Streaming: Mar 28,...

  17. 'Avatar: The Way of Water' reviews: Critics on James Cameron's ...

    Charlotte O'Sullivan, Evening Standard ″'Avatar 2' is definitely a showcase for visual effects company Weta FX (the faces of Pandora's Na'vi heroes have become even more expressive)," wrote...

  18. Avatar: The Last Airbender review: a serviceable adaptation

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  19. Avatar: The Way of Water

    The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the visual effects and technical achievements but criticized the plot and lengthy runtime. [10]

  20. 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' release date, cast, trailer, how to watch

    The cast of Netflix's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" includes: Gordon Cormier as Avatar Aang. Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara. Ian Ousley as Sokka. Dallas Liu as Zuko. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh ...

  21. What we know about Avatar 3, 4, and 5

    Avatar 3 is now set for release on Dec. 29, 2025. Originally the setup of releasing one Avatar movie every two years was designed to give the franchise room to breathe (though not 13 years this ...

  22. Avatar

    Movie Info. James Cameron's Academy Award®-winning 2009 epic adventure "Avatar", returns to theaters September 23 in stunning 4K High Dynamic Range. On the lush alien world of Pandora live the Na ...

  23. Avatar

    Review Date December 22nd, 2023 by Matthew Hartman Overview - The reason we all bought and cherish our 3-D televisions in the first place; James Cameron's Avatar returns to 3-D Blu-ray from...

  24. Avatar: The Way of Water Movie Review

    Our review: Parents say ( 38 ): Kids say ( 105 ): James Cameron 's crowd-pleasing sequel is a spectacular technical achievement that, while overlong, manages to dazzle the senses enough to prove that the director is still a visionary. Avatar: The Way of Water isn't a movie you see for its layered, complicated plot.

  25. Avatar: The Way of Water

    Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, "Avatar: The Way of Water" begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows...

  26. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Review

    Posted: Dec 6, 2023 3:01 am Short of somehow growing a Na'vi neural braid and jamming it directly into the base of James Cameron's skull, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is pretty much your best...

  27. 'Avatar' review: the film is still a marvel of special effects, but the

    Avatar took the use of facial motion capture, which audiences first experienced in Lord of the Rings, to another level, heralding in a new generation of special effects that would change movie making forever. Unlike Cameron's first epic, Titanic in 1997, Avatar's use of technology still looks hyper-realistic and feels out of this world.

  28. Avatar movie review & film summary (2009)

    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.

  29. Avatar

    Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2024. Preston Barta Fresh Fiction. 'Avatar' is not just a visual display. It contains heart, humor, and all the aspects needed to make it a well-rounded ...