Avatar: Extended Blu-ray Collector’s Edition Review

• 21st Nov 2010

Finally, we get the padded edition of Avatar that fans have been waiting for. We can all get angry at the studio for pulling a George Lucas on us by releasing this film in a vanilla set originally and then having the nerve to release it in theatres again with 8 minutes of pointless footage added to it.

Here we get three versions! The two mentioned above and a third with another 8 or so minutes on top of the first 8 minutes. Why? Only James Cameron knows. Our money is down on people preferring the already hefty theatrical cut. It flows slightly faster – despite the first hour being quite painful when Sam Worthington’s hero learns how to smell the wind or whatever feral forest dwellers get up to when they are on the hunt.

No we won’t do the Avatar is Dances With Wolves meets Fern Gully argument again – but we will point out that time has not been kind, and the small screen is even less forgiving on a film so reliable on computer effects. Yes it is still an astonishing looking film but on the small screen it loses so much and looks much more like a video game. So, if you are going to buy this release we suggest you have a really, really, big TV with some top notch picture quality and surround sound.

Still even if you manage to sort that out, you still have to get past the fact that the story just ain’t all that and it has been done before. We are still amazed the film got the reviews it did when it came out but we suspect with time and these disc releases people might realise that it is actually quite a bore. Then again, viewers of a certain age will probably treat films like this as their Star Wars.

Now, the good news is that this three disc set is so over-loaded it is hard to spread out what there is for you to see. An hour of deleted scenes, mini featurettes, galleries, storyboards, comparisons, all with the helpful navigational Blu-Ray tools that explain exactly how to use and view the features on hand. The introduction to the deleted scenes actually explains the breakdown of unfinished effects shots on scenes you are about to watch. Deleted scenes are handy too, as you get to see just what is and is not computer generated.

While a lot of the archival features are on the third disc, the second disc houses the lengthy making of documentary that follows production from start to end. It is extremely tech heavy, but then what else would you expect here?

Value for money is what you get here, although some people will be wondering what happened to the 3D version. Yup, no doubt that will be along in the years to come in yet another special edition.

Steven Hurst