James Cameron’s
original Avatar film has returned to theatres in the buildup to the release of Avatar:
The Way of Water this december, and it was clear that the director wanted to remind
audiences of Pandora and the story that unfolded there over a decade ago, which went on to become
the highest grossing film of all time, and still is to this day. This IMAX 3D remaster
brought back the sci fi adventure in 4K High Dynamic Range with high frame rate scenes a
further 9.1 sound mix, making it a good reason to head back to theatres not just to catch up on
the story but to watch the film in its highest format yet. In this video, I'm going to be
sharing my thoughts on this new remaster of the film and also briefly reviewing that original
story and themes for the first time as I've never had the chance to before. This also marks
the first video in my Road to AVATAR 2 series where I will be doing videos on the original
film, the films of James Cameron and The Way Of Water itself in the buildup to its release this
December. Before I get into it though, if you want to keep up to date on any of my future
content surrounding the Avatar sequels and other sci-fi series such as Denis Villeneuve's Dune,
then don't forget to support this upload by giving it a like rating, subscribing to the
channel, turning on your notifications and following me on social media via the links in the
description. But without further a do, lets dive into my review of the new Avatar Re-Release.
So back in 2009, James Cameron released Avatar,
a science fiction film that would revolutionise just how far you could go with digital technology
to capture a story on the biggest of screens. Of course, he was filmmaker
that previously broke heights using practical technology and pushing it
to its limits in films like Terminator 2 and Titanic, but it was with Avatar
that he would take digital tech and make that look stunning as well. With Avatar, he showed
that you could take a story and present it almost entirely with computer technology, yet still
do so with extreme detail and motion capture techniques to make the big blue navi look all
that more authentic onscreen. It's a world that sucks you away for almost 3 hours and convinces
you that technology can be take beyond what it is now. And this is made especially clear
after watching this remaster because we've seen over the last decade how Hollywood has really
overused digital technology to a point where many of the blockbusters today rely on simpler
and less impressive outcomes using vfx. Not just that but many films have tried to replicate
the way Avatar uses mostly vfx and just haven't managed to even come close to the way Cameron's
film did so. Take much of the recent comic book movies that almost totally shoot on green
screens and don't put the effort in to add some sort of added authenticity into the frame. Heck
it gets to the point where tony stark's head is the only thing thats real, and even that
looks horribly composed and badly lit. It's these example that don't really call for a long lasting
image in cinema, which Cameron himself has displayed multiple times with both practical
and digital technology. You know that I'm someone who admires practical more than digital, but when
a filmmaker goes to extra mile using digital to show that they actually care about what
they are putting to screen and how they are doing that, then it shows they care about
the medium and what the audience are ultimately watching. Cinema tells great stories but it also
presents those stories in a visual and audio artform, one that can last decades via that
very principle. Take Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey for example, a film that I still
look back on today and wonder, how could a filmmaker make a film look this good back
in the 1960s. Sure comparing Avatar to that is a bit of a stretch, but in comes into conversation
when watching a remaster that looks so good all these years later. And while Avatar isn't
the most midbending story nor the most original put to screen, James Cameron showed that you
could digitally make a world feel authentic, and as I say, after rewatching this re-release
in IMAX 3D, it definitely holds up more than most. Unlike a lot of heavy digital releases
today, James Cameron took a long time to make sure that Avatar would look the way he wanted it to,
instead of rushing the post-production stages. And with him now putting the extra care
into remastering the image and sound quality and present a classic film in a further High Frame
Rate format, Pandora has never looked as vibrant or astonishing on the big screen before.
Coming to that High Frame rate technology, it has to be said that after a bit of adjustment,
I was surprised with how good this actually looks. James Cameron had the 48fps tech
integrated into the original film's re-release and we also saw that this tech is going to be
present in the sequal later this year. From my viewing experience in IMAX 3D, it seems like
the filmmaker has placed high frame reate in specific moments of the film that it worked
best in, rather than just plopping it all of the entire film. There were a few scenes towards the
beginning of the feature that looked quite jarring, creating motion sickness and making
me wonder whether this would actually ruin the films image. But after a good 10 minutes of
adjusting to the format, I'm happy to say that it looked stunning during the remainder of the
film. I was shocked over how this format could really elevate it that much more and really
make the flight sequences and the vibrant nighttime scenes look more special then they did
originally. And I can't forget to mention that they also showed a brief scene from Avatar 2
during the mid credits, and hfr format looked incredible in the underwater segments of that.
It seems like Cameron has opted to shoot the above the water images using the traditional
24fps and then with the underwater ones we get 48fps, making it more of an awakening not just
for the character, but also for the audience who goes into the ocean with them. The extra
scene itself was just a taste at the visual capabilities of this and seeing one of Jake
Sully's navi children bind and save a sea creature added the extra emotional quality to this
5 minute scene. It was a stunning addition that really showcases Cameron's total care
towards upgrading the experience and making it the best possible one for the viewers. It's just a
taste of what's to come, and just through transitioning to a mid credits scene from the
new movie, were we able to see the true difference between that added frame rate format that the
first film wasn't shot with. Overall, from a visual sense, the Avatar Re-Release really
delivered and it once again reminded me, that for 2009 this was stunning and it still makes me feel
that way today. So I still can't quite understand the comments from those who say it looks bad
or it doesn't hold up, because that just wasn't my experience yesterday in an IMAX theatre.
But a question you may be asking is does this new improved version of Avatar still move the
audience and deliver with its storytelling. Well, from a thematic sense the movie's ecological
and planatery messages have aged quite well, with our current real-world situation involving
mostly issues on our own hands. Seeing humans by force go into unknown territory and take
what they want, and then watching the natives fight to save what is their land, is something
that has become even more relevant today, making Avatar all the more important as a piece of
storytelling all these years later. A corporation destroying lives to increase profits, a community
threatened with extinction and scientists being ignored when making the facts clear,
makes it a perfect time to remaster and re-relase this globally celebrated feature. Now sure,
are the story beats quite cliche and have they been done better in older and more artistic
endeavours. Yes. But it's still a compleling story that gets important messages across and even for
those who don't consider the wider themes, they can have a great time watching the
action and be moved by the events that take place. At the end of the day, it's a crowd
pleaser as much as it is a thoughtful presentation of relevant planetary subjects and it further
taps into the prominent and successful theme in a lot of James Cameron's previous work. And
that is the idea of humans vs nature. Cameron has played with this in different ways, in
different stories and in different genres, and it's resulted in multiple 2 billion dollar films
and two of the most iconic ips in both Terminator and Aliens respectively. As a filmmaker,
he knows how to relate and attract the audience using important subjects we all relate too.
Avatar is the purest manifestiation of that idea even if it's not his best storytelling
example of it, because it integrates that very notion into a universal story made for everyone.
It's one part an action adventure, one part a love story where different people from
different worlds connect and one part a reflection of the problems we increasingly deal
with on earth. Again, while I find the story quite conventional compared to others, I can't lie in
saying that I wasn't moved nor transported to this world, so on that part James Cameron did
his job and it holds up all these years later. It will be interesting to see whether the Way
Of Water can infuse the growing plot with a more original sensibility, but as long as it moves me
and tells its storytelling compellingly like the first one, then at the end of the day,
I will be satisfied. What's key to note before ending this review is that the filmmaker did add
an alternate ending scene to this new version, reworking one of the final scenes from the
original to setup the unfinished war with RDA. Parker from the original film speak to Jake
Sully before getting on the ship to head back to earth and tells the main protagonist that this
war is not over. Now it's hard to tell whether this additional line felt natural or
quite weird as an addition, but I guess with this opportunity, Cameron wanted to make it feel even
more so like the upcoming sequels stem from that original film. I didn't mind it but it
did feel weird seeing it in there after watching the traditional version multiple times in the
past. But again, it can work as a nice setup for what's to come, and as a complete experience,
the Avatar re-release has raised my excitement for the upcoming sequels.
But that was my video discussing the re-release of the original Avatar. After watching this 4k
remaster, I have to say that it makes me more confident that James Cameron can bring back
the large audience we saw for the first film. From my own perspective, his attention to
detail through Pandora's worldbuilding and the visual language with which that is represented
still thrils and moves me all these years later. Yes of course, Avatar doesn't have the
most original story ever and it does borrow a lot of ideas from previous landmarks in the science
fiction genre and other ones too. But like every great story, it's still an inspired one which
can move, amaze and exhilirate the audience in it's own way using the very images and score
it presents, which is really the main goal of the film medium. Taking a decent story and presenting
it in a way that is identical and brings it to life on the big screen. I wasn't sure
that watching Avatar all these years later would hold up, but Cameron's remastered version of
the film with High Frate Technology has shown that the groundbreaking filmmaker is ready to
do that all over again for a new generation. Whether that can be pulled off or not will be
answered later this year, but for now, my revisit of the original Avatar in IMAX 3D did really
help me reconnect with the stunning world of Pandora, its characters and the work that
cameron intended to be seen on the big screen. Say what you will about its story, but during those
3 hours, the experience can take you out of the real world and fully transport you to the
remarkable digital world that he created. It gets me really excited for The Way Of Water and the
fact tha Cameron recently came out and said that the sequel is even more emotional than the first,
leaves me expecting big things. We'll have to see, but for now, the Avatar Re-Release
is an experience that I'd definitely recommend taking on over the next two weeks, while it's back
in theatres. I'm giving the Avatar Re-Release a rating of 8.5 out of 10. But let me know
down below in the comments section whether you enjoyed the Avatar Re-release as much
as I did and also, what were your thoughts on the presentation of the end credits scene for Avatar:
The Way Of Water. For much more videos in this Road to AVATAR 2
series, including video essays on James Caemron's previous films and coverage of the Way Of Water,
then subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications. Also if you enjoyed this video
remember to leave a like rating and follow me on social media via the links in the description.
But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.