Anton van Beek and John Martin take a critical look at some of the very latest cinema, 4K UHD, Blu-ray and streaming releases...

Review Ratings

★★★★★ Excellent

★★★★ Good

★★★ Average

★★ Below Average

★ Abysmal

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022) 
4K UHD Out now. Disney. Cert: 12 ★★★★

James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) was a curious film. A sci-fi take on the ‘White Saviour’ trope that plays like an extraterrestrial mash-up of Dances with Wolves and Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, the film was far more notable for the groundbreaking technologies employed to bring the world of Pandora and its inhabitants to the big screen than anything to do with its actual story. Not that any of this stopped Avatar from smashing box office records around the globe.

And yet, for a film that took over $2.7billion in ticket sales, Avatar’s effect on the pop culture landscape was minimal. Unlike, say, Star Wars there was no flood of tie-in comics, video games or action figures, just a Cirque du Soleil stage production and a Disney World theme park attraction (Lego sets did eventually appear, but not until 2022.) In fact its major contribution was to kick-start a new era of stereoscopic cinema, which eventually resulted in the curvy Kelly Brook bursting out of the screen in Alexander Aja’s 3D Piranha reboot - so for that at least we owe it thanks.

Now, after more than a decade away, Cameron is back with this return trip to Pandora. Avatar: The Way of Water introduces us to former human Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Na’vi warrior Neytiri’s (Zöe Saldana) extended family, which now includes their own offspring Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Brittain Dalton) and ‘Tuk’(Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver).

Of course, humanity still wants to get its grubby paws on Pandora’s mineral wealth, leading to a fresh invasion accompanied by the late Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), now reincarnated in his own Na’vi ‘Avatar’ alongside several of his formerly deceased soldiers.

To keep their tribe safe, Jake and his family exile themselves, seeking out a new home in a distant coastal region among the Na’vi reef people. But it isn’t long before Quaritch is hot on their tail once again, setting the stage for an epic sea-bound showdown for the fate of the planet…

Having seen a clip with a Na’vi claiming, “The way of water has no beginning and no end,” I feared that given its 193-minute runtime the same might well be true of the film itself. I need not have worried. While it’s obvious that Cameron didn’t spend that decade away honing his writing skills, Avatar: The Way of Water still improves on its predecessor in every way.

It goes without saying, naturally, that this sequel is another technical triumph, the awe-inspiring VFX used to bring Pandora’s new oceanic locations to life somehow outdoing the jungles of the original. As for the story, shifting much of the story’s focus away from Jake and Neytiri to their children injects some much needed energy and personality into things - and adding plenty of coming-of-age fun to the proceedings. Again, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before in hundreds of other films, but the sci-fi dressing at least makes it feel a little different. And as for that butt-numbing runtime, Avatar: The Way of Water flows fairly quickly and before you know it you’ve reached the film’s final act, an epic piece of cinematic spectacle that reminds you there a very few filmmakers who can stage and shoot action scenes like Cameron does. Extras: If not quite as loaded with extras its predecessors, Avatar: The Way of Water arrives on disc with a hefty collection of bonus material especially compared to what you get with most studio blockbusters these days.

Given its epic runtime (and to ensure it looks and sounds fantastic), Disney has wisely opted not to squeeze any extras on the 4K disc. Instead, giving them a bonus Blu-ray platter of their own. Here you’ll find three sections to explore -Inside Pandora’s Box, More From Pandora’s Box and Marketing Materials & Music Video. The first of these hold the lion’s share of the goodies in the form of 152-minutes’ worth of fascinating behind-the-scenes featurettes exploring everything from the cast and characters, to the challenges of shooting mo-cap underwater and sound design. The behind-the-scenes fun continues with five more Making of… featurettes (combined runtime: 28-minutes). As its title spells out, the last section houses a music video and two trailers.