Avatar Reviews: Our Verdict on All Three Films

In my opinion the three Avatar films rank The Way of Water first, Avatar (2009) second and Fire and Ash third, with smaller gaps between them than the loudest online arguments suggest. Full reviews will arrive film by film, so these are verdicts with the reasoning behind them. If you want the same three films in a single list, avatar movies ranked sets them against each other.

Yes, Avatar (2009), directed by James Cameron, is good, and its main strength is how simple it is. In 2154 the RDA mines a valuable mineral on the moon Pandora, and Jake Sully, a paralyzed former Marine, takes the place of his dead twin brother in a program that lets humans control Na'vi bodied avatars. He is rescued by Neytiri, taken to the Omaticaya clan and asked by Colonel Quaritch to spy on them in return for the promise of working legs. It is a familiar shape, and it could be argued that the familiarity is the point, since the story never gets in the way of the place. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña carry it, with Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine and Stephen Lang as Quaritch. The dialogue is the weakest part, in my opinion, but the film earned more than $2.9 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, and the story is clear enough that a newcomer follows it in 162 minutes without a recap.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) is the film I would rank first, and the reason is craft rather than plot. Set sixteen years after the first film, it follows Jake and Neytiri as parents, with their children, the adopted Kiri and the human boy Spider close by, and it sends the family to shelter with the sea dwelling Metkayina, where Tonowari and Ronal (Cliff Curtis and Kate Winslet) are among the new characters. The production moved performance capture into a large tank, without scuba gear, and the cast trained in free diving. Winslet held her breath for 7 minutes and 14 seconds, according to MovieMaker, and Disney says the underwater capture took 18 months. That preparation shows on screen in how calm the swimming scenes feel. The story, a family on the run from a revived Quaritch, is simpler than the 192 minute running time suggests, and the first act is quiet. Even so, more than $2.3 billion worldwide made it the second biggest Avatar film, and Lo'ak gives the saga a younger lead worth following.

Yes, Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) is a hit, though a smaller one than its predecessor. It has earned roughly $1.5 billion worldwide against a reported $400 million budget, compared with more than $2.3 billion for The Way of Water, and the full numbers sit on the avatar box office page. Whether that is enough depends on the cost of what comes next. TheWrap reported in April 2026 that Cameron had not decided whether to go forward with Avatar 4, so the gap between the two earnings matters mostly for that decision. As for the film itself, I think it is the most ambitious in scale and the least tidy, at 198 minutes. It brings in Varang, played by Oona Chaplin, as the leader of a ruthless Na'vi clan, and it sends Jake and Quaritch searching for Spider together. Those are strong ideas, and in my opinion they matter more than the spectacle around them.

Possibly, but it depends on the child, and the ratings give only a starting point: all three films are PG-13 in the US, 12A in the UK and M in Australia. The running times matter as much as the rating, at 162, 192 and 198 minutes. Perhaps the fairest comparison is a long family drama on television, where a child can walk away and come back, which a movie theater seat does not allow. The battles, the wildlife attacks and the burning of the Wind Trader ships in Fire and Ash are the sort of scenes a sensitive child may find heavy. In my opinion, a seven year old is best introduced through Avatar (2009) at home, with a pause button, and only after the parents have decided how much of the fighting is too much.

Two composers have scored the series: James Horner for Avatar (2009) and Simon Franglen for the two sequels. Horner's film came with the song "I See You (Theme from Avatar)" by Leona Lewis. Franglen's The Way of Water carries "Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)" by The Weeknd, and Fire and Ash carries "Dream as One" by Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt. The avatar soundtrack page lists every album and track.

Start with Avatar (2009) if you are new, since the second and third films assume you know who Jake, Neytiri and Quaritch are. The avatar movies in order guide covers the sequence, and where to watch avatar shows which service carries each film in the US, UK and Australia. If you have seen the first two already, avatar 4 has the latest on what comes next, and the avatar 4 trailer page tracks what has been released.