Avatar The Way Of Water

My favorite movie of this series, great casing great movie!

We haven't watched it yet but I've been told it's a good film

Like the first film, the world of Pandora is beautifully crafted and awe inspiring presented in 3D. I saw this in the cinema with variable refresh rate and in my opinion ramping up the frame rate during fast moving scenes makes 3D more comfortable. Unfortunately the existing bluray 3D format is still capped at 1080P 24fps, but 3D on a good home cinema set up (a 100” projector and 7.1 surround sound system in my case) is in my opinion the best format to really get immersed in this film. The visuals are at their best in the slower more relaxed scenes and can be a bit jarring during fast motions. If 3D ever makes a comeback in future TV’s, I can only hope it makes use of variable refresh rates making higher speed moments more comfortable to watch. I’ve seen other reviewers questioning the need for the film to be on 2 discs in its 3D form compared to its predecessor and there are several reasons for this. First, 3D films require a lot more space as they’re store the entire film for the left eye and the entire film again for the right eye. This film is much longer than the original film and where that only had a couple of soundtrack options, this has many more and offering 7.1 audio (avatar was 5.1) and includes a version of the entire soundtrack with no swearing. (Because shooting and killing creatures is fine, but a few naughty words are the worst apparently). As with Titanic 3D, it’s clear that while they could have compressed the video file size to fit on a single disc they opted to not compromise on the bitrate of the video and present as much detail as possible, hence an extremely large file size and the need to split it across 2x 50gb blurays. For the record, 4KUHD discs can store 100gb on a single disc but those discs aren’t compatible with regular 1080P/3D bluray players so the film has to be on HD Blu-ray Discs not UHD blurays. It’s a long film so having a brief intermission to swap discs half way is likely a welcome respite for some viewer’s bladders. As for the film, it’s a matter for personal tastes. As with the first film I find the characters and story remarkably one dimensional compared the stunning world building they’ve achieved, but therein lies my reason for adding these films to my collection and returning to them from time to time. They’re a rich and increasingly diverse world to escape to for a few hours, and in terms of visuals and soundscape, they’re my go-to showpieces for home cinema. There’s also a 2D disc (the whole film is on the single disc) and a bonus disc with some excellent mini documentaries on the making of the film, which I’m currently watching and is giving me a deeper love for the world crafting and final result Cameron and the filmmakers achieved. Still waiting on that Abyss Blu-Ray James!! (EDIT: I finally got my Abyss blu-ray, Cameron eventually released it but I had to import it as it didn’t pass the UK censors)

A sequel to science fiction movie Avatar. You've had over thirteen years to watch that. So anyone reading this really ought to know the plot of the whole thing by now. Avatar: The way of Water is the long promised sequel. Second of five films in total. Here it is. The film you never thought might actually happen. Or probably were never bothered to think about it actually happening, either. The dvd is just that. No more, no less. You can get Blu ray or 4k whatever if you want to watch pretty pictures. But if you're just interested in the movie, the DVD gives you that. With no frills attached. A while has passed. Jake Sully now has a family and all the issues that go with being a parent. It's been a quiet life. Then humanity comes back. With one old face he never expected to see again. They flee to another part of the planet to try and hide. Where other native aliens live by the sea. And in harmony with the sea. It's a slightly messy getting to know you business. And they won't stay hidden forever.... This is just over three hours long. But credit to the director. It doesn't drag. The visuals do look a bit too computer gamey at times. At other times they are pretty good. There were moments when I was impressed with the faces and facial expressions of the computer generated characters. It does an excellent job of what science fiction writers call world building. Creating something alien that nonetheless functions perfectly believably. I did have issues with the final act of the film though. It has more endings that the third Lord of the Rings film. I wasn't bothered by how many that had. So if this did bother me, it has to be an issue. All the humans are too much of a caricature. All quite happy to burn and kill everything and take the magic maguffin. The film has rather been overtaken by the real world here. So many people being 'green' these days in a way you never thought possible in 2009. So this just doesn't work well. It repeats too many story beats from the first film. It also leaves too much dangling for future ones. Clearly there is a plan for where all this is going to go over the next three films. Yet if they turn out to be 'Dances with Mountain Smurfs'. 'Dances with Desert Smurfs'. And the finale to be 'Smurfs attack!', then it could get a bit repetitive. We shall see. Maybe. Possibly. One day. This is a capable four star film. Just like the first one. Which never claimed to be the greatest thing ever made either. It's just a chapter in something bigger though, so it's not as strong on it's own as it could be. Four stars for now though. There's nothing extra during or after the end credits. The dvd - like the one for the first film - is totally basic. The movie. Nothing else. It goes straight into the main menu when loaded. There are no extras. Language and subtitle options: Languages: English, French. English audio described. English family friendly track. Which is not something I've seen before. It apparently cuts out any naughty words. I can imagine what Quaritch would say about that. It doesn't cut out violence and explosions though, which is why this is a twelve certificate film. Subtitles: English. Dutch. French. Danish. Norwegian.

Say what you like about this movie, one can not deny of how stupendously gorgeous this film looks on 4K UHD disk. Sound is very good Dolby Atmos, but its the image that takes your breath away. Here is a 4K that you can calibrate your TV with.

very good please with order

My wife and I were rather looking forward to seeing the long awaited ‘Way of the Water’ at our local Showcase cinema. After all it’s been a very long time coming! As we have a 65” LG 3D OLED screen (a flat one, not a stupid curved one), we watched the original Avatar the day before. So, with our RealD 3D glasses on, we settled down to watch this sequel at Showcase and were immediately struck by the very poor 3D imaging, which had no comparison with the superb depth of field and detail in the original Avatar! This was completely unexpected and very disappointing, not what we would have expected from James Cameron. As I already knew that the RealD 3D glasses were the same as the LG TV 3D glasses, I thought it wise to confirm that the polarizing hadn’t deteriorated, but they worked perfectly with the original Avatar. So I queried Showcase about this: They told me that they use an ‘Xplus’ screen and “only receive the drive to install on our systems, and then play at the required specifications”. However, a few days later our daughter and partner went to the Vue cinema in Portsmouth and had exactly the same experience with the RealD 3D presentation there. They then came to us and saw extracts from the original to confirm what it should have looked like in 3D. We then saw other reports stating how good the Imax and Dolby versions were, which were not much help with nothing remotely local in the UK. Since then there have been other reports of people having a similar bad experience with RealD 3D at UK cinemas. So we all decided to wait for the Blue Ray 3D release and just hope that will provide some answers. This arrived last week and it was with some trepidation that I set it up to play! What an unbelievable difference, we were actually watching ‘Way of the Water’ in proper 3D with terrific depth and detail as well (I haven’t confirmed this, but probably better than the original Avatar disc). The underwater scenes were also brilliant, confirming that Cameron had solved the problems filming in such a difficult environment. All in all, he has done an excellent job with the Blue Ray 3D release, which is truly immersive. The only oddity comes when pausing playback: With other 3D discs the 3D image stays on the screen, but with this film it collapses and there is a delay of about 2 seconds before the 3D image is restored after playback is resumed. But this still doesn’t explain what went wrong with the RealD 3D cinema screening?

If anyone needs convincing that 3D is worthwhile, then this is the movie to demonstrate that fact. The first Avatar movie in 3D was probably the best 3D release at the time, but things have moved on and this FOUR disk set is simply superlative. I own almost every 3D disk that has ever been released including the scientific ones from Imax - but this outshines them all. Not only is there real depth beyond the screen but plenty happening IN FRONT of the screen as well, particularly in the underwater sequences which are simply astonishing. The 3D version is split over two discs, but it is a long movie and being able to take a break in the middle is an added advantage as far as I am concerned. The set also includes a 2D version, but I don't think I will watch that having seen it in 3D - useful though, if someone wants to watch it without the need to use the projector, screen and glasses. The fourth disk contains the extras, which run to well over 3 hours and exceed the length of the movie itself. This disk alone is worth the price of the set and provides detailed and fascinating documentaries as to how the movie was made and the various problems were overcome. I cannot recommend this set enough and if you don't own a 3D projector, then buy one! A projector is a lot cheaper than the cost of an ordinary TV and there is nothing like watching a movie (or indeed your normal TV viewing - especially sport) on a big screen.