Is there a more depressing product on our nation's shelves than the the non-3D Blu-ray of James Cameron's dragon sex fantasy cartoon? Just one: Avatar on DVD.
Avatar: Three Disc Extended Collector's Edition
Price: About $25
When: Now
In the box: Three DVD's, with a load of extras, behind-the-scenes documentaries and a three+ hour extended version
Did you like Avatar? No, not the new, bespectacled theater experience, or your first 3D movie, or whatever the word "Avatar" is shorthand for in your brain. I'm talking about the movie—its plot, its aesthetic, its dialog. Basically, what I'm asking is, did you see Avatar in 2D, and still think it was pretty cool?
Well, guy, you're in for a treat! This version of Avatar includes, like, 75% more Avatar. You also get to hear and see James Cameron talking about how he conceived of and made the most important film ever made! There's lots of fan service here.
This is one of the few situations where it's fair to judge a movie numerically, I think. Among the casualties of the DVD transfer process I've counted so far:
• One less dimension
• 1,866,240 fewer pixels per frame (assuming 2k in theaters)
That's, like, over 90% of the movie missing right there. Not fair? I think it is. This movie was a film, sure, but a tech demo first. Without help from Panasonic and a pair of oversized glasses... well, maybe you should watch this thing, just to understand how profoundly you've been tricked.
Things you might not have noticed through all the awesome floating 3D plants, and 3D dragons, and 3D battle scenes, and 3D Na'vi breasts:
This is a movie about a cartoonish villain killing blue cat furries to harvest something called "Unobtanium"
This is a movie about a man who rapes a dragon until it loves him, then immediately abandons that dragon for a better dragon
This is a movie about JuJuBes
This movie is Pocahontas
This movie has the line, "You are Omaticaya now. You may make your bow from the wood of Hometree. And you may choose a woman. We have many fine women. Ninat is the best singer."
This is a movie about hairfucking
This movie has Giovanni Ribisi
This is a movie with the aesthetic vision of a Winamp skin
This is a movie inspired wholly by that desktop background with the blue mushroom.
This is a movie about James Cameron being proud of never having read or seen a proper work of sci-fi that he didn't write
This is a movie about the world economy, bro
This is a movie about... Pandora!
Instead of watching Avatar on DVD, save your cash, turn your TV's color balance to MAXIMUM BLUE and just watch an old VHS of Fern Gully.