Critic consensus:An amazing array of images from beneath the sea.

Numbered reviews:1. It's good that a kid, and maybe even an adult, may want to 'touch' one of the so-called aliens thrust out for our inspection. But more important, a kid, and maybe even an adult, may want to become a human scientist.
2. I want the old James Cameron back.
3. [Cameron] speculates that the ocean's depths contain mysterious life unlike anything else on Earth.
4. That IMAX 3-D cameras have plunged so deep to record an often bizarre array of sea creatures undoubtedly delivers a certain 'wow' factor, but the accompanying commentary is heavier on breathless excitement than solid fact.
5. The final shot, in particular, is awesome, and confirms that the sooner Cameron gets back to making proper movies, instead of Boys' Own diversions, the better.
6. Once you get used to the "awesome" and "wow"-heavy dialogue, James Cameron's excursion into both 3-D technology and deep ocean trenches delivers some fascinating footage.
7. Even if these plants and animals did not exist, we may have already invented them, courtesy of those sci fi special effects magicians working overtime for the past decades.
8. It's not usual for documentaries to ingest the sci-fi genre, but in this case it's an eye pleasing and mind boggling excursion, beautifully realised and seamlessly integrated into the film.
9. The far more interesting stuff is back here at the bottom of the sea.
10. A fascinating science lesson for anyone interested in either deep-sea -- or outer space -- exploration.


Critic consensus:A grand, sweeping epic with inarguably noble intentions and arresting cinematography, but one whose center, arguably, is not as weighty as it should be.

Numbered reviews:1. [Costner] makes it a true human story, portraying the range of emotions from tragedy to joy.
2. A stunning combination of all-American boyishness and sweeping grandeur.
3. Costner (with Michael Blake's screenplay) creates a vision so childlike, so willfully romantic, it's hard to put up a fight.
4. [A] beautiful and soft-headed frontier epic, which looks at Native Americans through New Age-colored glasses.
5. Recalls the sweep as well as the intimacy of a David Lean epic.
6. Dances With Wolves is a clear-eyed vision. Authentic as an Edward Curtis photograph, lyrical as a George Catlin oil or a Karl Bodmer landscape, this is a film with a pure ring to it.
7. A slow-moving but well-acted western.
8. For all its worthiness and pictorial beauty, the narrative is damaged somewhat by Costner's over-cautious, sentimentalised portrait of the Sioux as early eco-warriors.
9. Costner tells a personal story that never loses touch with the vast Western spaces encompassing and defining it. Dances With Wolves is an epic that breathes. And it's a beauty.
10. Costner went for broke with his large-scale, Panavision epic... [Blu-ray]


Critic consensus:A drama that's both funny and moving.

Numbered reviews:
1. There's a wonderful depth that transcends the simple plot and extremely slow-paced storytelling.
2. Through its powerful emotions coupled with exquisite restraint, this 'small' film makes a big impact.
3. Julie Bertuccelli's very beautiful first feature is suffused with indelible humanist values and emotions.
4. If Otar is, finally, a mite thin and predictably structured, that takes little away from the filmmaker and her cast, who work hard at fashioning the most outlandish special effect of all: believable human life.
5. A wonderfully acted film from Georgia that shows how lying to your mom is not always peachy.
6. Drawing on her documentary training, the director distills complex meaning into such perfectly chosen gestures as a foot rubbed, a cigarette smoked, a shampoo interrupted when (with post-Soviet-era regularity) the water fails.
7. Everything about this subtly directed drama enhances its pathos and humor.
8. Ms. Bertuccelli's direction is singularly graceful in allotting enough space to each of her three co-protagonists without tearing apart the fabric of familial solidarity.
9. Since Otar Left sustains a perfect balance of pathos, humor and a clear-headed realism.
10. Only yields its bountiful rewards at the end.