Avatar: The Way of Water appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As expected, this became a top-notch presentation.
Sharpness never faltered. From start to finish, the movie came with accurate and tight visuals.
The film lacked signs of jagged edges or moiré effects, and it came with no edge haloes. Source flaws also remained absent.
Unsurprisingly, the palette favored blues and aquas, with some oranges, purples and reds tossed in at times. The disc made these hues look full and vivid.
Blacks came across as dark and deep, while low-light shots appeared smooth and concise. Everything about the image satisfied.
In addition, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack also worked well, as it created an engrossing soundscape. With a broad variety of natural habitats, the audio provided a smooth, involving sense of locations.
The mix of action scenes kicked to life well. With lots of underwater scenes as well as flying elements and violence like gunfire and explosions, the soundfield allowed for lots of information to fill the various speakers and blend in a smooth manner.
Audio quality seemed strong, with speech that came across as concise and distinctive. Music showed appealing range and impact as well.
Effects displayed solid accuracy and punch, with tight, deep low-end. The movie’s soundtrack added to the experience.
This release includes both 2D and 3D versions of Way of Water. The picture comments above discuss the 2D edition – how did the 3D compare?
Quality felt very similar for both. If the 3D lost anything in terms of delineation, colors or darkness, I didn’t see it, as I thought the two seemed close to identical.
Shot with native cameras, the stereo elements of Water boasted a terrific sense of involvement. The film lacked more than a handful of “pop-out” moments, but it more than compensated.
Composed and intended to be seen in this format, the 3D offered a smooth and engaging sense of depth and immersiveness. 3D became the best way to watch the movie.
Note that while the 2D Water came on one 3:12:37 disc, the 3D version spread across two platters. Blu-ray One lasted 1:51:14, while BD Two went for 1:21:26.
In a perplexing choice, the 3D version gave us DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio but the 2D presentation stayed with DTS-HD MA 5.1 - and the separately-released 4K UHD opted for Atmos. It’s not unusual for products under the Disney banner to go 7.1 for BD and Atmos for 4K, but the choice to make the 2D Water 5.1 and give the 3D 7.1 confuses me.
In any case, I can’t claim to discern notable differences between the 2D’s 5.1 and the 3D’s 7.1. Expect similar audio from both.
All this package’s extras appear on a bonus disc, and most of these materials show up under the banner of Inside Pandora’s Box. This domain brings 14 featurettes with a total running time of two hours, 32 minutes, 14 seconds.
Across these, we hear from writer/director/editor James Cameron, producer Jon Landau, production designers Ben Procter and Dylan Cole, costume designer Deborah Scott, Weta Workshop creative lead Richard Taylor, director of photography Russell Carpenter, senior visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri, 1st AD Maria Battle Campbell, property master Brad Elliott, Weta FX visual effects supervisor Eric Saindon, creature designer/key character designer Ian Joyner, concept artists Jonathan Berube, Joseph Hiura and Daphne Yap, creature designer Constantine Sekeris, dive master John Garvin, supervising art director Aashrita Kamath, character design supervisor John Rosengrant, stunt performers Chris Denison and Mike Avery, performance free diver instructor Kirk Krack, 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Garrett Warren, virtual production supervisor Ryan Champney, performance capture special effects supervisor JD Schwalm, supervising art director Luke Freeborn, on-set coordinator Richie Schwalm, casting director Margery Simkin, Spider physical fitness coach Josh Murillo, movement and performance coach JoAnn Jansen, Weta FX visual effects supervisor Dan Cox, simul-cam supervisor Casey Schatz, Weta virtual production supervisor Dejan Momcilovic, editors John Refoua and Stephen Rivkin, underwater cinematographer Peter Zuccharini, Na’vi language creator Paul Frommer, dialect coach Carla Meyer, Na’vi sign language creator CJ Jones, lead character designer Joe Pepe, Weta Na’vi costume art director and supervisor Flo Foxworthy, Weta concept artist Rebekah Tisch, Weta design art director Stephen Crowe, concept art director Jonanthan Bach, concept artist Jon Park, Weta project supervisor Mona Peters, Weta producer Lena Scanlan, Lightstorm visual effects supervisor/virtual 2nd unit director Richard Baneham, Weta animation supervisor Stephen Clee, Weta senior visual effects supervisor Daniel Barrett, facial motion supervisor Stuart Adcock, Weta head of creatures department Gios Johnston, Weta pre-production supervisor Marco Revelant, Weta animation supervisor Eric Reynolds, animation sequence supervisor Anneka Fris, Weta FX visual effects supervisors Pavani Rao Boddapati and Nick Epstein, Weta head of effects Jonathan Nixon, Weta animation supervisor Todd Labonte, Weta FX associate VFX supervisor Sam Cole, concept art director Fausto de Martini, supervising art director Kim Sinclair, live action special effects supervisor Steve Ingram, art directors Ken Turner and Alistair Baxter, Weta concept artist Jeremy Hanna, Wild Factory president Adam Gourley, composer Simon Franglen, re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor and sound designer Christopher Boyes, associate producer Brigitte Yorke, set decorator Vanessa Cole, New Zealand stunt coordinator Stuart Thorp, and actors Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldaña , Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Bailey Bass, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Duane Evans Jr., Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Jack Champion, Filip Geljo, Kacie Borrowman, Alicia Vela-Bailey, Jemaine Clement, Brendan Cowell, and Edie Falco.
“Inside” covers story/characters, research, set/location/creature design, costumes, various effects, cast, performances and performance capture, photography, props, vehicles, shooting underwater, development of the Na’vi culture, music and audio, and working in New Zealand.
On the negative side, these components can lean too heavily on self-praise and happy talk. Nonetheless, they deliver a good array of insights and cover the complicated production well.
Additional material of this sort pops up via More from Pandora’s Box. Its four featurettes span a total of 28 minutes, six seconds and involve Landau, Cameron, Simkin, Warren, Denison, Avery, Baneham, Vela-Bailey, Borrowman, assistant stunt coordinator Steve Brown, stunt performer Emilie Siemer, environment supervisors Dean Lewandowski and Motoki Mark Nishii, sequence supervisors Steve Deane, Andrew Moffett and AJ Briones, motion edit supervisor Don De Castro, supervising stage manager Dan Fowler, stage operators Connor Gartland and Buffy Bailey, chief technology officer Tim Bicio, and actors Jamie Landau, Kevin Dorman, Courtney Rosemont, Johnny Alexander and Kevin Henderson.
Over these segments, we get more info about casting and screen tests, stunts, virtual sets and locations, animation, and the use of background/stand-in actors. It seems unclear why the disc doesn’t just include these four segments under the “regular” collection of “Box” featurettes, but they nonetheless offer some useful information.
In addition to two trailers, we get a music video for “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” by the Weeknd. We see Avatar-esque visuals as we listen to the song. Neither element works well.
When Avatar hit screens, I wanted to love it, and I went into Avatar: The Way of Water with the same desire. Alas, both movies bring some real high spots but they come with the same lackluster elements as well, factors that make Water moderately enjoyable but inconsistent. The Blu-ray boasts excellent picture and audio as well as a selection of bonus materials that bring us three hours of featurettes. Water does enough right to make me kind of like it, but I can’t claim it excels, though the 3D version becomes a more engaging way to see it.
To rate this film visit the original review of AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER