Avatar: The Way of Water Collector's Edition - 4K Digital Review

[Michael Scott]

Avatar: The Way of Water Collector's Edition

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
James Cameron is a man of many talents, and he has become a true power house of Hollywood cinema over the last 40 years or so. He’s always been a bit hit or miss, but his hits tend to absolutely ground breaking in the world of movies. However, no other film of his has been more puzzling to me than that of Avatar. Lauded as the single highest grossing film of all time at over 2.5 BILLION dollars (to be fair it was pushed that high by being re-released in cinemas a few years after it’s initial run), Avatar took the world by storm with it’s insane visuals, but really paper thin plot. Jokingly referred to as “Dancing with Fern Gully”, it was a glorious visually stunning film that had a plot line that was as rote and wafer thing as you could get. An indigenous people are being wiped out by the big bad humans, and it’s up to a lone human to stand in the gap and stand up for the humans trying to mine “Unobtainium” (yes, that was actually the name of the mineral in the film). Mustache twirling villains abounded, and everyone sang Kum Ba Ya around the fire after the baddies were defeated.

After the success of Avatar, James Cameron announced he was going to make Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 back to back some time in the future. As the years passed most of us actually figured that the sequel would be forgotten about, as James Cameron’s obsession with perfection would cause it to be shelved, or else forgotten about by the general populace by the time it actually came out. When Avatar: The Way of Water was announced last year as ACTUALLY coming to theaters, many were skeptical that there had been too much time passing for the general audiences to really care about. It HAD been 14 years since the original, and a pandemic had basically wiped out the theatrical movie attendance for the most part. Well, people were proven wrong when everyone and their literal mother went to go see Top Gun Maverick, and those same people turned Avatar: The Way of Water from a “heh, this MIGHT be a decent selling movie” to the 3rd highest grossing film of all time.

The plot for The Way of Water is pretty much as paper thin and rote as the original was. After the events of Avatar, marine soldier Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) fully accepted his Avatar body (a genetically engineered replica of the Na’vi people on the planet Pandora) and transferred his consciousness permanently from his crippled human form into that of his Avatar body. It’s been roughly 15 years or so since the humans were kicked off of Pandora, and the world has been at peace. His mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have given birth to 3 children, as well as sort of “adopted” a couple of stragglers along the way (Spider, the biological son of Col Quaritch from the first film, and Kiri, the seemingly virgin birth of Sigourney Weaver’s avatar as well). However, that peace is coming to and end as Humanity has once more descended upon Pandora.

With Earth pretty much becoming uninhabitable, the humans have decided to make Pandora their home, and that means pacifying the Na’vi people. Heading up the human marine contingent is a group of Avatar bodies who have had the memories and personalities the best and brightest soldiers that have ever landed on Pandora in the past. Which of course means that Col Quaritch is heading up that assignment. Instead of mechs and brute force, the Na’vi bodied marines now have the native advantage and are out for blood. Especially Quaritch who has a personal score to settle with the man who put him in an early grave 15 years ago. Now Jake and his family are forced to flee their native woods and take up sanctuary with a group of Na’vi sea faring folks far away in hopes of keeping the rest of his tribe safe.

If you came in expecting something deep and personal, then this isn’t the film for you. I’d directly compare it as exactly on par with the first, with many of the same beats (including the giant 45 minute final battle between the humans and the new Na’vi, a mysterious resource that the humans desperately want, and countless others), but at the same times adds some interesting narrative additions. The biggest stems from the fact that The Way of Water is not just a big action movie this go around. We had the romance between Jake and Neytiri in the first film, but mostly this was a giant white night savior saving the indigenous people from the humans story. A blending of Dancing with Wolves and Fern Gully for the most part. This time we get some fleshed out side stories revolving around Jake’s children and the focus on FAMILY above all else. Honestly, with how far away from traditional nuclear family values Hollywood has gone recently, it was incredibly refreshing to watch a story that focused so much on traditional family values and the struggles that come from raising children in the world. Jake Sully’s last lines about a father’s purpose being to protect his children when he’s putting his eldest to rest is so anti-Hollywood in many ways that I had to rewind the scene just to make sure I heard it correctly. Those particular side jaunts from the main “humans vs. Na’vi” plot framework were actually the most enjoyable of the entire film.

Downsides? It’s more of the same. At 3 hours and 12 minutes the film can drag on at times. Not to mention there are quite a few loose ends that never get wrapped up, but MOST LIKELY are going to be tied up with Avatar 3 next year (both sequels were filmed back to back). Questions such as “what exactly is Kiri?”, “why is she different?”, “Is Quaritch going to be the villain in the 3rd movie?”, etc etc etc.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language




Video:

I’m not going to give an official score rating (as usual) due to the fact that the digital copy I received was a streaming variant, and due to bandwidth differences across the nation the image quality can vary depending. BUUUUUUUUUUT, with that being said, this is a GORGEOUS 4K image from Fox/Disney. I was absolutely floored by the amount of colors and color saturation involved in the making of this film. This is just a lush and visually engorged film that thrives off of stunningly bright and vivid colors, various CGI water textures, and deep deep deeeeeeeep black levels. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film that was this lovingly rendered EVER. It blows the 2009 Avatar away without even breaking a sweat, and you can tell that James Cameron was involved in EVERYTHING. Now, the big change for this is the inclusion of Dolby Vision as the first stream and the 4K UHD disc had a fairly mediocre application of HDR10. Buuuut, just like many HDR10 to DV upgrades the actual changes are subtle and not massive. The black levels are distinctly deeper and I noticed some richer color saturation, but the first stream/4K UHD disc was still a stunner, so the differences are going to be minute.








Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track found in the stream is killer as well, and a well balanced track at that. Being that Disney took over 20th Century Fox I was worried that we were going to get the Atmouse tracks that Disney standard and newer Marvel movies have been subject to, but not the case here. The bass isn’t going to beat you into submission, but this is a very VERY balanced track, with tons of ambient and discrete sounds shifting all over the place. The sounds of the clicking voices of water animals underwater can echo around you, and the swooshing as the animals that the Na’vi ride burst out of the water with droplets of water falling around the listening position. Bass is still punchy and powerful though, especially during the final battle and the sounds of gunfire and explosions rocking the viewer back. I personally felt it could have used a litttttle more bass, but that could have been due to the compression that streaming Atmos tracks seem to have over disc based. Either way, it’s still an incredible sounding mix.







Extras:

• NEW Behind-the-Scenes Presentation Hosted by Jon Landau – Join Jon Landau as he takes you behind the scenes of the making of Avatar: The Way of Water and discover the groundbreaking techniques used to bring audiences back to Pandora.
• NEW Memories from Avatar: The Way of Water – Producer Jon Landau joins Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang in a conversation about their experiences and insights coming back to Pandora 13 years later in Avatar: The Way of Water.
• NEW Production Design Panel Hosted by Jon Landau – Uncover the inspiration behind the new designs of Avatar: The Way of Water with the award-winning Production Design team in this conversation hosted by Jon Landau.
• NEW Deleted/Extended Scenes – Check out these scenes that didn't make the final cut.
-- User's Guide for Viewing Avatar: The Way of Water Deleted Scenes and Extended Cuts with Unfinished Shots
-- Date Night (Extended Cut)
-- Crashed Samson Tiltrotor (Extended Cut)
-- Goodbye Mo'at
-- Neytiri Rides an Ilu
-- Spider Mocks the Recoms
-- Neytiri Spearfishes
-- Learning Montage
-- Ardmore and Quaritch Discuss Jake (Extended Cut)
-- Ta'unui Village (Extended Cut)
-- The Tulkun Hunt (Extended Cut)
-- Scoresby and Garvin Rescued
-- Parents from Hell and Standoff (Extended Cut)
• NEW Scene Deconstruction – View these scenes in various production stages: final with picture-in-picture reference, template and performance capture.
-- Quaritch Wakes Up in His New Body
-- The Return to High Camp
-- High Camp Biolab
-- Quaritch and Ardmore Discuss Their Mission
-- Jake and Neytiri Argue
-- First Swim
-- Lo'ak Meets Payakan
-- Jake and Kiri Dock Talk
-- Death Rock
-- Spider Finds Quaritch Underwater and Saves Him
-- Spider Drags Quaritch to Land but Leaves Him
• NEW Production Materials
-- "One Meal a Day" – James Cameron discusses the on-set initiative to eat one vegan meal a day.
-- Editing – Learn, step by step, how the editing team transformed reference camera footage into the compelling narrative of Avatar: The Way of Water.
-- 3D Technology – Learn how the production team pushed 3D technology to new depths in this behind-the-scenes featurette.
-- Virtual Camera – Join Richard Baneham, Oscar®-winning visual effects supervisor, and the visual effects team as they discuss the virtual camera's role in the production process.
-- Bringing the RDA to Life – Join James Cameron, Jon Landau, David Vickery and the ILM team for a look at the visual effects created for the opening sequences of the film.
-- Tank Timelapse – Watch the building of the underwater performance capture tank in this timelapse video.
-- Wētā Reel – VFX breakdown of shots by Wētā Effects.
-- ILM Reel – VFX breakdown of shots by ILM.
-- CJ Jones Sign Language Guide – Learn the basics of the Metkayina sign language from creator CJ Jones.
-- JackCam – Join Jack Champion ("Spider") as he interviews cast and crew on the set of Avatar: The Way of Water.
-- Shaman Blessing – A Brazilian shaman blesses the production of Avatar: The Way of Water.
-- Cliff Curtis Blessings – Actor Cliff Curtis gives Maori blessings for the cast and crew of Avatar: The Way of Water.
• NEW Beyond the Big Screen
-- Pandora: The World of Avatar – Discover the story behind the artistry and imagination of Pandora – the World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
-- Crew Movie – Avatar: The Way of the Jimverse – Join producer Jon Landau on an animated adventure across the Jimverse to restore order and save the world of Pandora.
-- James Cameron and Jon Landau Hand and Footprint Ceremony – See James Cameron and Jon Landau honored with a hand and footprint ceremony in front of the world-famous Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA.
-- "Scene at the Academy" – Check out this Academy featurette for Avatar: The Way of Water, diving into a key moment from the film.
• NEW Archives: Script, Artwork, Marketing
-- Monday Night Football TV Spot – Watch the TV spot broadcast exclusively during ESPN's Monday Night Football.

Final Score: ​

Avatar: The Way of Water is going to appeal to the same people that loved Avatar back in 2009. It’s a stunning visual epic that will literally blow your mind with how beautiful it is. I didn’t go gaga over Avatar back in 2009, but I can guarantee you that I used that Blu-ray disc (and the 3D disc) to demo my 1080p projector back in the day. Many MANY demo nights used that disc. The same is going to be said for The Way of Water I predict. Narratively it’s a cheesy sci-fi action movie that doesn’t push any boundaries. Visually speaking it will awe and inspire you with the perfect blend of scoring, great action, and stunning visuals. I may be critical of the series because I find it bizarre that THIS franchise is the highest grossing films of all time with MUCH better quality movies being out there, but I can’t deny how much popcorn fun I have with the series. The sequel somehow managed to defy pretty much everyone’s fears about it coming too late, and after a pandemic, but it is most definitely a cultural phenomenon that makes for a fun family watch. The really big change for this release (in both streaming and physical formats) is the MASSIVE inclusion of extras. This is the edition that should have been released last year, and the one we've all been waiting for. Much like the Blu-ray special edition of the first film back in the day, this is littered with tons of new special features, some great Dolby Vision enhancements (even if the differences are subtle) and for the physical 4K UHD release, an amazing new package. Unlike the first film there is no extended or directors cut, so the film itself will stay the same and we will not be getting any longer cuts of the film (at least according to Cameron....for now). Still a fun watch and a nice upgrade in terms of collector's value for fans.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Stephen Lang
Directed by: James Cameron
Written by: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos
Subtitles: English
Studio: Disney/Fox
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 192 Minutes
Digital Release Date: December 12th, 2023

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Sonnie]

Thanks for the review, Mike. I thought it was okay, but you are spot on... the visuals were awesome.