I already reviewed Avatar: The Way of Water 4K UHD Streaming so I won’t subject you to those thoughts again here, you can click that link and read it if you so choose.
For another less-positive opinion, you can read Bryan’s Avatar: The Way of Water - Film Review
Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Avatar: The Way of Water takes flight onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a three-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital release. The 4K version is pressed on a BD-100, the 1080p gets a BD-50, with another BD-50 disc reserved for bonus features. Since it seems to be a thing that needs doing now to make sure, flipping region settings on my Oppo, all discs are Region-Free. The discs are housed in a multi-disc case, the 4K disc came stacked over the bonus features disc. A black slipcover with raised features is included in the packaging. Each disc loads to a language select menu before moving on to a static image main menu with standard navigation options. The digital copy is Movies Anywhere compatible and will port to all supported services.
Note - all images are pulled from the 1080p Blu-ray, we haven't been able to pull 4K disc-sourced images yet, but hope to soon.
After an initial streaming-only 4K release with Dolby Vision HDR, Avatar: The Way of Water splashes down on disc with a gorgeous HDR10 transfer. While the Dolby Vision streaming version is very good, I have to tip my hat to this disc. The HDR10 grading holds its own delivering a disc experience that features immaculate details, clean lines, and is free of the constraints and limitations of streaming. With a maxed-out BD-100 disc, the bitrate stays strong and consistent throughout. I felt like fine hairs in Sully’s dreadlocked hair, skin imperfections for the CGI characters, human faces, and makeup applications all look sharper and cleaner on disc.
The HDR10 grading isn’t all that different from the Dolby Vision option on streaming in my opinion. Where DV can refine the shadow separation a little bit better, those differences are pretty minuscule. On disc, primaries are lush and vivid with naturally healthy skin tones for humans and Na’vi alike. Black levels are deep and inky with lovely specular highlights - especially when the light catches water droplets in the rain or during the big long action-packed finale in the open ocean. I also felt the disc presentation offered up a much more robust feeling of three-dimensional depth than the streaming. Certainly not as much as say the 3-D Blu-ray, but enough to give this disc the edge for 2-D Home viewing.
Once again Atmos returns for Avatar: The Way of Water. I felt the streaming audio was very good and the active soundscape and object placement for sound effects, music, and dialog remains the same. However, I felt like there was a little more oomph to the mix here. Much like the Avatar Atmos mix, I did have to punch up my levels a little bit, but not as much as the streaming. I felt like low-end elements like explosions or bass notes in the score came through with a little more impact. Not a vast amount, it’s still very mid-range Atmos like a lot of Disney mixes, but this isn’t anything as bad as we’ve heard on some Marvel films over the years. Like Avatar, not quite demo-worthy, but still damned good.
Here’s what I had to say about the streaming experience:
Both iTunes and Vudu offer up Atmos audio tracks and it’s a hell of a mix. Overall I felt the iTunes had the better bass and LFE response but both kicked for an exciting immersive surround experience. There’s barely a second of the film that doesn’t offer some sort of fully-packed surround soundscape with plenty of overhead activity. The big action sequences obviously get the most care and attention but even the simple scenes of Sully’s kids swimming underwater provides a fully engaged front/center, side, rear, and height sonic experience. That last hour is 100% demo-worthy material. Throughout the show, the dialog is clean and clear without any issues. Simon Franglen takes over scoring duties for the late James Horner. Much like his work for The Magnificent Seven remake, you feel those old iconic Horner motifs while expanding the work with his own flavor. It’s a lovely accompaniment to the film and never overpowers the mix delivering maximum emotional impact for many key sequences.
In another fine turn from Disney/20th Century - all of those bonus features that were issued on streaming carry over to this bonus features disc. Totaling over three hours of content, it’s a very thorough and detailed collection of materials. The beast of the mix is certainly the Inside Pandora’s Box content. Made up of several featurettes, you can use the play-all function and they roll together like one big long documentary exploring every facet of the production. I’d say the most interesting segments involve all of the underwater motion capture work and what it took to bring that biome to life on screen and in the giant studio swimming pool facility. Again, no Cameron commentary, but he’s present throughout the extras so much so that I doubt a commentary track would really add anything. Fans will definitely want to dig through everything here.
James Cameron now has three of the highest-grossing movies globally under his belt. And since this follow-up became another multi-billion dollar phenomenon, Cameron will likely be spending the rest of his career on Pandora. Which I don’t mind at all. I thought this film was a better-realized version of what Cameron set out to make in 2009. That film was like an introductory proof-of-concept whereas The Way of Water actually feels like Avatar as a franchise truly begins. Now with at least three more films on the horizon, we have years of Pandora adventures ahead of us - and hopefully, physical media is still around to enjoy it!
On 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Avatar: The Way of Water comes home with a gorgeous 2160p HDR10 disc. While it may lack Dolby Vision, it’s still a terrific presentation front to back fully maxing out that BD-100 disc space. Details are amazing throughout and you don’t have to worry about streaming compression or internet fluctuations. The Atmos may not quite be reference quality but it’s a damn exciting mix all the same. Cap it off with over three hours of extra features and you have one hell of a great 4K disc for the collection. Highly Recommended
