7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.8 |
An ex-Marine finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people.
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle RodriguezAdventure | 100% |
Action | 94% |
Sci-Fi | 66% |
Fantasy | 56% |
Epic | 48% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English Dolby Digital 5.1 is Family-Friendly Audio with objectionable language removed.
English SDH, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin (Traditional)
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
You knew it was coming. Back in April, when 20th Century Fox released a bare-boned, bonus-feature-free edition of Avatar to coincide with Earth Day, the studio made it perfectly clear that a fully loaded multi-disc set was only a few months away. If you picked up that initial release, then, there’s no room to complain about being forced to double dip. You really can’t say you weren’t warned. On the other hand, if you’ve held out these past seven months, waiting for the Avatar set to end all Avatar sets—until, at least, the inevitable 3D Blu-ray edition—well, your patience is going to be thoroughly rewarded. I’ve just spent the weekend with this new three-disc release, and I’m here to report that it’s as exhaustive, encyclopedic, and all-encompassing as you’d hope. To start, you get three versions of the film—the Original Theatrical Release, the eight-minute-longer Special Edition Re-Release, and the Collector’s Extended Cut, which has all the footage from the Special Edition plus another eight minutes of reintegrated, fully finished material. The three cuts are selectable from the menu of Disc One, and presented via seamless branching. Disc Two, titled Filmmakers’ Journey, contains a lengthy “making of” documentary, along with over 45-minutes of never-before-seen deleted scenes, and Disc Three, Pandora’s Box, is a treasure trove of production featurettes and scene deconstructions. Fans couldn’t ask for more.
Jake Sully and Neytiri
High definition home video enthusiasts—myself included—collectively held their mouths agape in awe when Avatar debuted on Blu-ray in April.
"Reference quality. Demo worthy…nothing short of superlative in nearly every objectively measurable or subjectively eye-balled category," was my initial
slack-jawed judgment, and I'm sure many of you agreed. You'll be glad to know, then, that despite the addition of 16-minutes of new high definition
footage, the quality of the image hasn't dropped in the slightest. I popped in my copy of the standalone disc to spot check several scenes, and I really
couldn't make out any negligible differences. Fine detail is just as crisp. Color is just as vivid. ("Eye-popping, with deep jungle greens, phosphorescent
purples, bright orange bursts of fire, and, of course, the Na'vi's Smurf blue, all contrasted against the bleak fluorescence and gunmetal grays of the
human military base.") Neither are there any noticeable fluctuations in black levels, contrast, or compression noise. I'm sure there are citizens of
Internetsville planning on going frame-by-frame through all three hours of the film to parse out minute disparities, but to these well-meaning folks I say,
one, just sit back and enjoy the show, and two, there are resources to help you get through this addiction. Help is out there.
Kidding aside, you'd be hard pressed to find any inconsistencies in the picture between the two equally fantastic-looking releases, so the real question,
now—and this is entirely subjective—is whether or not Avatar's visuals still have the power to impress as much as they did seven months ago.
Of course, I can only answer for myself, and I'll just say this: The live-action footage is not quite as stunning as I remembered it—it's a little soft and too
video-ish for my tastes—and the human characters, on second viewing, sometimes stand out awkwardly from their digital environs. That said, the CGI
stuff still completely floors me. I'm not very fond of the film's art direction and character design, but it's impossible to go unimpressed by the technical
intricacy of the world that Cameron and his collaborators at WETA have created. Watching the behind-the-scenes materials has given me a new
appreciation for the sheer innovation that went into the film's workflow—more on that in a sec—and when Avatar confines itself to all-digital characters
and environments, the detail is breathtaking.
Not much has changed on the audio front either. With the exceptions of the new scenes, this is the same stellar DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that
graced the original release, and with good reason. There's really not much room for improvement. The only notable change is that the Theatrical Cut and
Special Edition Re-Release editions of the film also carry the option of a Dolby Digital 5.1 Family Audio Track, which removes all objectionable language—
by way of dubbing from the original actors—so that Avatar is friendlier to little ears. I stand by my earlier assessment:
With all of the visually stunning landscapes to take in, it's easy to overlook the immersion, power, and intimacy of Avatar's soundscape, brought
to Blu-ray via an exceptionally detailed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. There are certainly several sonic shock and awe moments here that will
rattle your ribcage, shake the walls, and wake your neighbors—massive LFE-heavy explosions, spitfire machinegunning, and metal-rending, tree-cracking
crashes—but where this track really succeeds is in crafting an engaging, believable world of sound. The surround channels are almost ceaselessly active,
filling out the space around you with directionally accurate ambience. Just listen to the diversity of minute sounds as the characters traipse through the
jungle—strange bird calls, wind, ominous rustlings, the chatter of the Pandoran equivalent of chimps. The cross-channel effects—zipping arrows, the rush
of helicopter rotors, the flapping of enormous pterodactyl-like wings—are seamless and transparent, shot through the soundstage with pinpoint precision.
More so, the sounds themselves have weight and clarity—the dynamic range is expansive—and the mix is effortlessly balanced. Meaning, no volume
boosting or trimming required. I set my receiver to my usual listening level, and I don't think I touched my remote for the duration of the film. Dialogue
remains discernable in the forefront, except for a few chaotic moments when the voices are intentionally—and realistically—difficult to hear. James
Horner's score veers quite closely into Titanic territory at times—during one motif I can practically hear Celine Dion singing "Near, far…"—but it's
appropriately epic, complementing the film well. I really can't imagine Avatar sounding any better than this.
Disc One: Avatar
Direct Access to New/Additional Scenes
This is a great feature, one that should be adopted by any and all extended or director's cuts. Here you can hop right to the new material, choosing
either the Special Edition Re-Release (1080p, 17:12), or the Collector's Extended Cut (1080p, 33:19). You can select individual scenes but you also
have the option, of course, to "play all." Note that the added runtime is due to the new scenes being sandwiched between existing clips to give
context.
Disc Two: Filmmakers' Journey
Deleted Scenes (1080p, 1:07:51)
Like the material in the Extended Cut, none of these deleted scenes will alter your perception of the film, but there's some fun stuff for fans, including
Sully taking a vision quest-type hallucinogenic drug trip. The footage is presented in various levels of completion, from raw motion capture and rough
animatics to sequences that are only missing green-screen elements. Once again, the runtime is roughly 68 minutes, but only 45 minutes is new.
The rest is there to give context to the individual scenes:
Whether you think Avatar is this generation's Star Wars or a bloated, over-indulgent spectacle that represents everything that's wrong with cinema today—me, I'm somewhere in the middle—it's hard to argue with the over two and a half billion box office dollars that the film has raked in worldwide. Avatar fans are legion—and passionate—and this three-disc Blu-ray set is for them. They won't be disappointed. Featuring the same outstanding audio/video performance as the standalone release, this new edition adds eight hours of never-before-seen bonus features, including 45-minutes' worth of deleted scenes and a production documentary that'll tell you any and everything you'd ever want to know about the making of the movie. If you love Avatar, this is the release to get. Recommended!
2009
2009
Collector's Edition
2009
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2009
Remastered
2009
Panasonic Exclusive 3D Starter Bundle with 2 pair of 3D Glasses
2009
Limited 3D Edition
2009
Rental Copy
2009
2009
2009
Extended Collector's Edition | Alita: Battle Angel Movie Cash
2009
2009
1999
1983
2018
2017
2002
2005
1977
2015
2017
2013
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2019
1980
2008
2012
2017
Collector's Edition
2023-2024
Extended and Theatrical versions
2011
2013
2016
2007