A fully believable, flesh-and-blood (albeit not human flesh and blood) romance is the beating heart of Avatar. Cameron has never made a movie just to show off visual pyrotechnics: Every bit of technology in Avatar serves the greater purpose of a deeply felt love story.

Kirk Honeycutt

The Hollywood Reporter

It's been twelve years since Titanic, but the King of the World has returned with a flawed but fantastic tour de force that, taken on its merits as a film, especially in two dimensions, warrants four stars. However, if you can wrap a pair of 3D glasses round your peepers, this becomes a transcendent, full-on five-star experience that's the closest we'll ever come to setting foot on a strange new world. Just don't leave it so long next time, eh, Jim?

Chris Hewitt (1)

Empire

Avatar is all-enveloping and transporting, with Cameron Co.'s years of RD paying off with a film that, as his work has done before, raises the technical bar and throws down a challenge for the many other filmmakers toiling in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

Todd McCarthy

Variety