Avatar (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray]

Product Description

A reluctant hero. An epic journey. A choice between the life he left behind and the incredible new world he’s learned to call home. Return to James Cameron’s Avatar — the greatest adventure of all time.

Please note: This edition of the film is not in 3D

Amazon.com

After 12 years of thinking about it (and waiting for movie technology to catch up with his visions), James Cameron followed up his unsinkable Titanic with Avatar, a sci-fi epic meant to trump all previous sci-fi epics. Set in the future on a distant planet, Avatar spins a simple little parable about greedy colonizers (that would be mankind) messing up the lush tribal world of Pandora. A paraplegic Marine named Jake (Sam Worthington) acts through a 9-foot-tall avatar that allows him to roam the planet and pass as one of the Na’vi, the blue-skinned, large-eyed native people who would very much like to live their peaceful lives without the interference of the visitors. Although he’s supposed to be gathering intel for the badass general (Stephen Lang) who’d like to lay waste to the planet and its inhabitants, Jake naturally begins to take a liking to the Na’vi, especially the feisty Neytiri (Zoë Saldana, whose entire performance, recorded by Cameron’s complicated motion-capture system, exists as a digitally rendered Na’vi). The movie uses state-of-the-art 3D technology to plunge the viewer deep into Cameron’s crazy toy box of planetary ecosystems and high-tech machinery. Maybe it’s the fact that Cameron seems torn between his two loves–awesome destructive gizmos and flower-power message mongering–that makes Avatar’s pursuit of its point ultimately uncertain. That, and the fact that Cameron’s dialogue continues to clunk badly. If you’re won over by the movie’s trippy new world, the characters will be forgivable as broad, useful archetypes rather than standard-issue stereotypes, and you might be able to overlook the unsurprising central plot. (The overextended “take that, Michael Bay” final battle sequences could tax even Cameron enthusiasts, however.) It doesn’t measure up to the hype (what could?) yet Avatar frequently hits a giddy delirium all its own. The film itself is our Pandora, a sensation-saturated universe only the movies could create. –Robert Horton

Stills from Avatar (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

“inconsistant” 2010-05-04
By J. Spurway (Dallas, TX USA)
story was OK.
When I watch scifi I can suspend belief, but there has to be some kind of consistancy in the fictional universe.

A planet with all the species 6 limbed, except the humanoids? And that is just one of many.

if you have not seen this, wait for it on TV.

“????????????????????????????? rubbish !” 2010-05-04
By DavidJohnStock

a very popular film which I shall not bother viewing again

I am exceedingly glad the major awards went to far more deserving films than this piece

of nonsense.

“Visually stunning, however way over hyped.” 2010-05-04
By Justin Leatherwood (Ramstein, Germany)
First, I’ll start with the obvious:
I saw Avatar in 3D as I know millions of others also did, and I have also watched it at home in 2D since it’s release on DVD/Blu-ray. At the theater, to me it was visually incredible and I had not seen anything like it before. It was an acid trip without the acid. 2D at home was naturally not as stunning visually however the colors and scenery were still brilliant to take in.

The substance, or lack thereof:

The characters were flat. Despite spending nearly 3 hours watching this movie, I never saw a great effort to develop the characters in the story, save for the protaganist himself. The antagonists were predictable; invade, conquer, harvest. Essentially the idea of the villians themselves was derived from the American settlers arriving to the new world as occurred in American history. The Navi (the natives in the story) were essentially derived from the Native Americans who were treated so poorly by the settlers.

Everything seemed all too familiar, then it dawned on me…

I was essentially watching Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, and Fern Gully all mixed into one. The basis of the story could be linked back to elements of all three of these movies. The only real difference here was that the story has been spun by being set in a different location/time and then camouflaged with over-the-top (but I’ll admit, gorgeous) visual effects.

Aftermath:

Avatar is being tagged now as “the number 1 movie of all time” on television ads for the DVD/Blu-Ray releases it. And by that they are only referring to its gross revenue at the box office because it is definitely NOT the #1 movie of all time.

Bottom line:

Watch it for the visuals because as I said before story isn’t all that original at all. So, do I regret seeing Avatar? Definitely not. Did it raise the bar as far as what future movies will have to be in order to be great? Definitely not.

“DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY!” 2010-05-04
By Barry Weinberg

I bought this DVD all excited to watch this phenominal movie at home. What a disappointment. The sound quality is slightly muffled and the picture quality is horrible. The colors are dull and “smudgy.” I have to tell my 5 year old son what they’re saying and doing, because its so hard to see and hear. I contacted Amazon to return it, but they said I have to pay a 20% restocking fee since I opened it.
Terrible.

AND…don’t expect anything but the movie. No special features….nothing. Just the movie.

Save your money until whatever next edition they’re putting out. It seems like they threw this thing together to make another billion. No Quality.

“No Special Features!?” 2010-05-04
By James Connors (Portland, OR USA)
This is just the movie. Nothing more. Waste of money. Thanks Fox. This is Lord of the Rings all over again.

All Reviews