TIME Magazine Review of the new Avatar DVD

[JakeFanGirl]

I found this review pretty interesting, as it underscored some points I found true about this, and future DVD releases of the film.

This, after all, was a movie sold on the need to see it in its full stereoptic grandeur, and audiences bit: about 75% of theatergoers paid higher prices to see the picture in 3-D or IMAX venues. Some people waited for weeks to get seats in those theaters, because, as critics and fans agreed, who wants to see Avatar in poor old 20th-century 2-D? Yet here the movie is, available in a format that only a quarter of the moviegoing public saw it in. If, as DreamWorks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg keeps saying, 3-D is the biggest transformation in movies since color, then this is Avatar in black-and-white. Remember Col. Quaritch's warning, at the beginning of the movie, that "You are not in Kansas anymore"? Welcome back to Kansas.

Seen in its flat format, the film looks ordinary, especially in its first half-hour or so, as Cameron none too adroitly sets up his premise. The middle section, in which Jake (Sam Worthington) befriends the Na'vi princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and becomes part of her world, is much more beguiling; 2-D can't rob Pandora of its majesty, and the colors, especially in Blu-ray, are as spectacular as ever. Those who fell in love with the love story, with Jake and Neytiri and their blooming emotional connection, will get a lot more out of this Avatar than moviegoers who were just wowed by the spectacle.

This is so true, and what I found when I saw Avatar in 2D. I got more of the emotions of the characters for some reason. And Pandora is beautiful - in 2D or 3D. The colors were also more vibrant in 2D.

There's no way to duplicate that intensity at home, with a much smaller image, and the ordinary interruptions of phone and email messages, of the ordinary importuning of kids and spouses. Yet in an important and diminishing way, you are in charge, not Cameron. You can fast-forward through the slow spots, click back to relive a scene, stop when it's dinnertime and maybe never come back. Even a movie as powerful as Avatar can't work its spell on a distracted viewer. To stay with it requires an act of will, not the blessed passivity of a moviegoer.

BTW - I got my regular DVD copy of Avatar, and have not had the desire to open it up and see the film. Maybe I'll wait until August to see it again in Theaters with the extra six mintues of footage. I am kind of sorry I got this initial DVD.

Avatar on DVD Review: Pandora's Skimpy Box - TIME