All 3 Avatar Movies, Ranked by Letterboxd

5 days ago 14

Image via 20th Century Studios

Eddie Possehl is a dynamic and driven writer/director with a passion for the written word and all things film, television, comics, and games. His passion for storytelling led him to establish his own production company in hopes of achieving his dreams.

His dedication to his craft has attracted renowned talent like Yuri Lowenthal to collaborate with him on his projects. As he grows and improves, Eddie is a shining example of a self-starter.

If James Cameron has done anything as a filmmaker, it's absolutely take over Hollywood time and time again, seemingly not being able to make a miss (we don't talk about Piranha II: The Spawning). However, ever since he released the first Avatar film, he's had Hollywood in an actual chokehold that won't let go. People have absolutely fallen in love with this franchise, and that's allowed it to become one of the biggest film franchises of all time, with the first and second films being the number one and three highest-grossing films ever made.

While Cameron always finds success with his releases (again, forget about Piranha II: The Spawning), no one could have expected Avatar, a completely original idea—no previous IP attached to it—to become the success it has. It's the film in the franchise that holds the highest-grossing movie title at a phenomenal $2,743,577,587, which is unreal. With the third entry in the series, Avatar: Fire and Ash, having just released on December 19th, 2025, and it making a boatload of money (as always), the future is clearly bright. But what do people think when it comes to ranking the movies against each other? The only place to look is Letterboxd, a social media platform on which people can add friends and rank films.

3 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' (2025)

Letterboxd Score: 3.6/5.0 (6.3k Fans)

Image via 20th Century Studios

Avatar: Fire and Ash may be getting an abundant amount of praise, but it does happen to be the lowest-rated of the franchise on Letterboxd. This doesn't mean the movie is bad, though—not in the slightest—as people have a lot of amazing things to say about it. It's certainly not perfect and has its share of problems, but it's still an incredibly well-made movie that fans are walking out of theaters simply loving. A great example comes from a review on Letterboxd from a user named Sipho, "I think it’s safe to say that this franchise has always been rooted in the idea spirituality, but this film takes its roots and bleeds such richness and humanity into it that I didn’t really expect, truth be told." It's already passed $1 billion worldwide—sitting at$1,087,572,943—and that has happened in a mere two-ish weeks, just like the two series' predecessors. The third time's the charm, and Avatar: Fire and Ash proves that with grace, elegance, and thrilling events that have drawn millions to theater seats across the world. It also continues to expand the universe, as a whole new tribe gets introduced that changes the series' trajectory, pressing it forward into the next two movies to come in 2029 and 2031, respectively.It's hard to put a series together, let alone keep a consistent quality the whole way through. Somehow, though, James Cameron has managed to do it, and do it extremely well. Avatar: Fire and Ash is the second-lowest-rated of his movies on Rotten Tomatoes, but that actually is an impressive fact, as it has 66%, which isn't bad at all. It's a testament to the quality of Cameron's work, which makes Avatar: Fire and Ash a movie that is the proof in the pudding that Cameron isn't going anywhere anytime soon. While the movie does feel a bit repetitive at points, that doesn't hold the movie back from being exceptional at the end of the day. Cameron still proves that he is spearheading the charge when it comes to improving visual effects in film, and that these next two Avatar installments should not be sneezed at. Regardless of where the story may suffer, at times, the technical prowess from the whole crew solidifies the Avatar franchise as one of the best in the industry as a whole, with some even considering it this generation's own Star Wars franchise for the effect it has had on both the industry and pop culture. This makes a lot of sense, as the series has completely set the standard of what can be done in film moving forward, giving major studios also crafting giant epics, like Marvel Studios, something to look to when deciding what practices they should take on when making their future films.

2 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (2022)

Letterboxd Score: 3.6/5.0 (21k Fans)

The sequel to Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, didn't come until 2022, a massive 13 years later. However, it paid off tenfold, given the fact that the quality of this movie is unreal. Developing a ton of new technology to make water visual effects more realistic, Cameron did what he did best in Avatar: The Way of Water: push the limits of filmmaking and break through them to make something astoundingly profound. Not only did the story thoroughly keep audiences engaged, but the visual effects absolutely blew visual effects gurus away. The new technology produced for the movie helped provide visual effects that were unseen in Hollywood at that time. Letterboxd user, Ryncle, describes the appeal of the visual effects very well in his review: "It’s the most visually beautiful thing I’ve ever seen on a screen. There were times when I forgot this was all shot in some studio." Audiences can really see the developments made in film technology since the release of movie one, which allowed the water sequences to feel genuinely real and authentic. Visual effects like this had never been seen in film before, as Cameron and co. literally invented new technology to make all of this possible. " I really took in the depth and life the vfx artists put into the world of Pandora this time around and I found myself repeatedly blown away by every frame," is what user Eric Elliott said about the VFX in his review of the beloved sequel.

Avatar: The Way of Water builds upon what made the first installment so special, and does so even better, at times. It expands on the world in the way an ideal sequel should, which gets people even more invested in the world of Avatar and raises intrigue about what could come next as the world of Pandora begins to open up even more. The new characters introduced all feel welcome and necessary to the story being told, which is not easy to do when introducing new players, especially with a franchise as beloved as this one, as people can get very protective over it. But, Avatar: The Way of Water knows what it is and what it needs to be, and strives to surpass those expectations, which it mostly does. The story actually feels a bit stronger than the first one, too. While much like the third film, it is still hindered by some repetitiveness, it takes the story in a relatively new direction by introducing the Sully children and the wonderful dynamics they bring to the story and character roster. Not to mention, the introduction of the new clan, primarily based on their water-filled environment, continues to flesh out the world in a way that makes the movie engaging and enticing.

1 'Avatar' (2009)

Letterboxd Score: 3.7/5.0 (49k Fans)

Image via 20th Century Studios

It only makes sense that the film that started it all is the highest-rated one. Plus, a project doesn't become the highest-grossing film of all time—a gigantic$2,743,577,587 in earnings—without being pretty dang incredible both technically and in story. After years and years of Cameron continuously proving that he has what it takes to be the kind of filmmaker to pull this off with hits like Titanic, Aliens, and the first two The Terminator movies, he began working hard on putting this movie together in 2005, which would lead him to the big release in 2009. It didn't all begin in 2005, either, though, as Cameron had actually been working on Avatar for about two decades before it came out, with him beginning pre-production all the way back in 1994, right after Terminator 2: Judgement Day came out in 1991. He'd soon realize, though, that the technology needed for Avatar was not ready yet, and went on to work on Titanic, instead.To think that Avatar was in the works for that long is wild, and proof that Cameron really cares about this franchise and making sure that every story within it is executed right. Had he not been self-aware enough to realize that the industry technology wasn't truly ready for it yet, there's definitely no chance that Avatar would have ended up being the project that it'd become. It's best put by Letterboxd user, billyobrien814, when he says, "One of the biggest feats in cinematic history, change my mind." Because, at the end of the day, part of the major appeal of Avatar is the breathtaking technology at work to make it the visual spectacle that it's known to be. The story is good, but quite basic. It is enhanced, however, by the world it takes place in and the technology at work, which turns a relatively basic story into something that feels really special thanks to the characters, world, and visuals that help bring it to life. Avatar continues to be proof that James Cameron has the sauce that it takes to make a grand epic worth being the highest-grossing film of all time, spawning two films that would also become some of the highest-grossing films of all time.