"Avatar" (PG-13, 2 hrs., 41 min.)

Director/screenwriter James Cameron's futuristic sci-fi epic pushes technological boundaries, mixing live-action with arresting motion-capture and other digital animation in ways that look remarkably alive. Yet despite its awe-inspiring visuals (try to see the 3-D version) the story of "Avatar" is a disappointingly heavy-handed metaphor. Though set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri-A star system more than four light-years from Earth, the film deliberately echoes the historic way Europeans subjugated and killed native peoples in Africa and the Americas in order to plunder natural resources. The film's low opinion of humankind borders on depressing misanthropy. Even so, teens will likely glom onto "Avatar" as a must-see, and will find much to admire.

The imaginary Na'vi beings on Pandora are nearly naked humanoids (but with no "naughty bits" visible), bluish with orange accents, sparkly skin and tails. Those tails and colors may elicit giggles, whereas the imaginary animals hark back to mythical flying dragons and real stampeding dinosaurs in ways that will ring more familiar with teens. The Na'vi bond both mentally and spiritually with all nature on Pandora.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a former Marine whose legs are paralyzed. After the death of his twin brother, he goes to Pandora to work for Grace (Sigourney Weaver), a scientist who studies and loves the Na'vi. She enables Sam to walk again, at least part-time, by transferring his consciousness into a manufactured Na'vi body -- his avatar -- so he, along with Grace and a few others, can mingle with the Na'vi and gain their trust. Meanwhile, a take-no-prisoners colonel (Stephen Lang) is in charge of security for a mining company intent on extracting a rare mineral from Pandora. To him, the Na'vi are just primitives in the way.

On his first day as an avatar on Pandora, Sam is rescued from wolflike creatures by a Na'vi warrior, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana, who's terrific). She mistrusts him and rightly so, suspecting he's not really Na'vi, but one of the alien "dream walkers," who sometimes visit. Still, she teaches him the Na'vi ways and, of course, romance blossoms. Sam is also spying for the colonel, but when the colonel's forces strike, Sam tries to help the Na'vi.

There is intense, if relatively bloodless violence, with choppers, missiles, machine guns, killer robots, arrows and spears. There is an implied sexual tryst, remarks akin to racial slurs and some profanity.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR MANY KIDS 6 AND OLDER:

"The Princess and the Frog" G -- Kids 6 and older ought to be delighted by Disney's new animated feature -- a highly enjoyable, if not wildly transporting, confection. The characters have humor and eccentric charm, as do Randy Newman's songs. Hand-drawn in the old style, the film re-imagines "The Frog Princess," with the heroine now a young African-American woman, Tiana (voice of Anika Noni Rose), in early 20th-century New Orleans. Tiana, the daughter of a seamstress (Oprah Winfrey), grows up to be a gifted chef with dreams of opening a restaurant. Life during segregation and the limits it puts on Tiana at first are subtly portrayed. When international playboy Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) hits town, he and his valet (Peter Bartlett) are bamboozled by a voodoo "shadowman," Dr. Facilier (Keith David), who puts a spell on the prince, turning him into a frog and his valet into a faux Naveen who courts Tiana's friend, the wealthy Charlotte (Jennifer Cody). When Tiana meets the frog/prince at Charlotte's mansion, he's perched, all green and slimy, on a windowsill. After she gets over the shock of a talking frog, he begs Tiana to kiss him, but the kiss turns Tiana into a frog, too. The amphibious pair, destined for love, flee to the bayou in search of a voodoo priestess who can change them back. It's scary when they're chased by hungry gators, but they're befriended by a horn-playing gator, Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), and a funny Cajun firefly, Ray (Jim Cummings). It's hinted that Tiana's father (Terrence Howard) dies in World War I. Dr. Facilier's demons are spooky. One animal dies and has a funeral. There is crude, but kid-friendly humor.

-- OK FOR MANY KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" PG -- Whimsical and witty, but with a bit of an edge, Fantastic Mr. Fox" uses old-style stop-motion animation to wondrous effect. The furry characters are appealingly herky-jerky and the sets look like landscapes for toy trains. Director Wes Anderson has created a film (based on Roald Dahl's children's book) that most anyone 8 and older can enjoy. It may be too intense for under-8s, and a few who are older, when Mr. Fox (voice of George Clooney) and all the woodland creatures frantically dig tunnels to escape farmers with guns, bulldozers and hoses. Mr. Fox, a retired chicken thief, moves his family into a tree facing three farms. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep), he intends to raid those farms, and his plan endangers everyone. The expression "the cuss you are!" is the only strongish language.

-- OK FOR MANY KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Disney's A Christmas Carol" PG -- Director Robert Zemeckis' dour rendering of Dickens' fable is mostly a showcase for actor Jim Carrey (intense and unfunny) and for advances in computer animation. Some kids under 10 may need lobby breaks during spookier scenes, unleavened as they are by any humor. Zemeckis uses the same "performance capture" technology (shooting live actors, then overlaying their performances with digital animation) he used in "The Polar Express" (PG, 2004). He has added 3-D to intensify nightmarish scenes and Scrooge's dizzying flights with the ghosts. Scrooge (Carrey, who also plays Scrooge's younger selves and the spirits who visit him) is so stooped and surly, kids may be scared by mere close-ups of his gnarled hands. Happier moments are simply overshadowed by the spooky "visits." We also see a Londoner taking snuff.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY, PLUS A PG MORE FOR TEENS:

"Avatar" (NEW) -- Director/screenwriter James Cameron's futuristic sci-fi epic pushes technological boundaries, mixing live-action with motion-capture and other digital animation in ways that look remarkably alive. (Try to see the 3-D version.) Yet the story is exceedingly heavy-handed. Set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri-A star system, the film deliberately echoes the way Europeans subjugated and killed native peoples in Africa and the Americas in order to plunder natural resources. Teens will glom onto "Avatar" as a must-see despite its flaws. The imaginary Na'vi beings on Pandora are nearly naked (but with no "naughty bits" visible), bluish humanoids with orange accents and tails (this may elicit giggles) who bond with nature. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a former Marine whose legs are paralyzed. He goes to Pandora to work for Grace (Sigourney Weaver), a scientist who studies the Na'vi. She enables Sam to walk again, in a sense, by transferring his consciousness into a Na'vi body -- his avatar -- so he can mingle with them and help her gain their trust. Meanwhile, a bloodthirsty mercenary colonel (Stephen Lang) in charge of security for a mining firm intent on extracting a rare mineral from Pandora has no patience for anthropology. On Sam's first day as an avatar, a Na'vi warrior, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana, who's terrific) rescues him from attacking creatures. Knowing he's not really Na'vi, but one of the alien "dream walkers," she still teaches Sam Na'vi ways, and romance blossoms. When the colonel's forces strike, Sam tries to help the Na'vi. There is intense, if relatively bloodless violence, with choppers, missiles, machine guns, killer robots, arrows and spears. There is an implied sexual tryst, remarks that echo racial slurs used on Earth, and some profanity.

"Did You Hear About the Morgans?" (NEW) -- Hugh Grant's facility with one-liners and seemingly spontaneous ad-libs keeps this unwieldy mess of a romantic comedy afloat -- just barely. Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen as a gun-toting, rodeo-loving Wyoming couple also lend a little ballast. But nothing quite saves "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" from its lazy predictability or from co-star Sarah Jessica Parker's annoyingly hyper performance. Teens may glean some enjoyment from the verbal sparring and slapstick. Paul Morgan (Grant), a lawyer, and Meryl Morgan (Parker), a Manhattan real estate mogul, are separated because Paul cheated. He wants to reconcile, but she doesn't. Then they witness a murder, so U.S. Marshals relocate them to Wyoming while the killer remains at large. Their hosts are U.S. Marshal Clay Wheeler (Elliott) and his wife Emma (Steenburgen). Of course, the citified Morgans must adjust to the Wheelers' lifestyle and try to live together again. There is much mild sexual innuendo, brief nongraphic violence, mild profanity, smoking, and a potentially threatening bear.

"The Young Victoria" PG (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- Teens with a historical bent will find plenty to engage them in this opulent, character-rich period drama. It traces Queen Victoria's earliest years as Britain's sovereign, manipulated by ambitious aristocrats around her, and her romance with Albert, her royal European cousin, whom she married. The film can be a bit too in awe of monarchies, and the many strands of palace intrigue get tangled in the narrative. Still, Emily Blunt as Victoria and Rupert Friend as Albert make a likable and emotionally nuanced royal couple, trying to push against rigid tradition. Paul Bettany as Victoria's not-always selfless adviser, Lord Melbourne, and Miranda Richardson as her scheming mother add complexity and edge. There is a slightly steamy wedding-night scene that is never explicit, a nonlethal shooting, mild profanity and drinking.

"Invictus" -- This reverent, often ponderous docudrama, directed by Clint Eastwood, is more good intentions than good art. It could, however, interest teens as a history-and-sports saga. It chronicles how Nelson Mandela (a wholly convincing Morgan Freeman), as the new president of South Africa in the post-apartheid 1990s, inspires the captain of South Africa's national rugby team, Francois Pienaar (an uncharacteristically flat Matt Damon), to rally his players to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Mandela wants to show that his government supports rugby, a sport favored by white South Africans, as a way of bringing the country together. The film takes its title from the poem by William Ernest Henley that gave Mandela solace when he was a political prisoner. It ends with "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." The rugby scenes are rough and tumble. There is some profanity, implied racism and threats of violence. OK for teens.

"Me and Orson Welles" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- Teen/tween idol Zac Efron may not lure in many of his fans with this rather stilted period film. He plays a theater-loving high-school kid who lucks into a role with Orson Welles' fabled Mercury Theatre troupe and their 1937 production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." Young Richard (Efron) mingles with the capricious Welles (Christian McKay) and finds romance with his assistant (Claire Danes). But director Richard Linklater's film, shot in the U.K., looks artificial and is replete with Brits attempting American accents. There is some impressive acting, but Efron is weak as the film's naive protagonist. The re-enactment of the opening night performance is fun, but it's not enough. There is smoking, drinking, implied promiscuity, sexual slang and innuendo, and profanity. Not so much for middle-schoolers.

"Armored" -- A half-baked crime film, "Armored" wastes an audience's time and squanders the talents of good actors. That noted, high-schoolers who crave action flicks may find it marginally diverting. It's awfully violent for middle-schoolers. Columbus Short ("Stomp the Yard," PG-13, 2007) plays Ty, a new guard with an armored truck company, brought in by his godfather, Mike (Matt Dillon). With his parents dead, Ty is raising his teen brother (Andre Kinney) and trying to save their house from foreclosure. Mike lures him into a plot with other guards to hijack a truckful of cash. Ty tries to get out of it, but by then the supposedly nonviolent heist has turned bloody, thanks to one trigger-happy cohort (Laurence Fishburne). There are shootings, stabbings, fires and explosions, some pretty graphic for a PG-13. There is drinking, midrange profanity, and a theme about losing one's parents.

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" -- "New Moon" is really a snoozer, but teens in love with the "Twilight Saga" books, films and actors will be happy with it, anyway. The longing drags on in this dark, slow-moving adaptation of the second book in Stephenie Meyer's quartet. High-school senior Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) goes into a deep melancholy after the vampire she loves, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), leaves. Always a gent, he wants to protect and distance her from his world, though she wants to be part of it. Bella's friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) reveals that he and his Native American tribe can morph into werewolves. They despise vampires, though they have a treaty with the Cullens. Jacob adores Bella, but she wants Edward. Whenever she does anything risky, such as jump off a cliff into the ocean, Edward appears to her, so she takes more chances. "New Moon" is full of subtle sexual innuendo, but shows no more than a desire-filled kiss. The mayhem includes an implied neck-snap beheading, a few bloody gashes, and a woman with scars from a werewolf claw, but most fights between the huge werewolves and yellow-eyed vampires are loud, fast and nongraphic. There are subtle suicide references. OK for teens.

"The Blind Side" -- One could dismiss "The Blind Side" as a phony feel-good movie in which an inner-city African-American youth is saved by a rich, idealistic white couple. But it is fact-based, taken from Michael Lewis' book, "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game." A Memphis decorator, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock as a likable steamroller), takes under her wing a homeless teen, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a charity case who is flunking out of her kids' private Christian school. Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (country singer Tim McGraw) become Michael's guardians and set him on a not-always-easy path to football and college. (Oher now plays for the Baltimore Ravens.) Director John Lee Hancock lays it on a little thick, but "The Blind Side" is thoroughly engaging and will hold many teens rapt. There is mildly crude language, overt and implied racial slurs, nonlethal violence, drinking, drug references, a car crash and a gently implied marital sexual situation.

-- AN R:

"Up in the Air" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- George Clooney brings his ironic charm to the tragicomic role of Ryan Bingham, who travels the country firing people because their bosses are afraid to do it. High-schoolers with a taste for smart movies will be taken with everything about this expertly wrought dramatic comedy, from its crystalline visuals of airports and flyover country to its laserlike dialogue. Clooney's Ryan is obsessed with accumulating air miles and avoiding all human commitment. Then he falls for Alex (Vera Farmiga), a fellow traveler who shares his no-strings philosophy. Then his boss (Jason Bateman) hires a young efficiency expert, Natalie (Anna Kendrick), who goes on the road with Ryan and finds firing people isn't so easy. And Ryan's sister (Amy Morton) starts to pull him into dreaded family issues. The scenes of people getting fired are terrifically poignant. Some of those fired are nonactors who really did lose their jobs. There are implied sexual liaisons, backview nudity, some strong profanity and crude language, a suicide theme and drinking. OK for high-schoolers.