After a run in theaters that saw Avatar: The Way of Water become the third-biggest film in history, even surpassing James Cameron’s own Titanic (although not, it must be said, the original Avatar), the movie is now available to watch at home on digital.
The long-awaited sequel kicked off the first in a whole wave of new Avatar films, and made liars of the folks who insisted the original movie left no cultural imprint and was totally forgotten. Apparently, a lot of people did remember Avatar, and they were excited to go back to Pandora.
Part of the reason The Way of Water was such a monster hit was that Cameron and 20th Century Studios spared no expense making it a massive spectacle intended for the big screen. Obviously, that experience can’t be replicated at home. But the home version of Avatar: The Way of Water does offer some special features that take you into the process of making this incredibly complex film. I’ve been watching the bonus materials this morning and I have to say… they’re really interesting.
The main supplement is called Inside Pandora’s Box, and it’s a series of mini documentaries that you can also watch as one big 2.5-hour movie that goes step by step through the production process. In this clip, you get a taste of the lengths Cameron and his crew went to in order to be able to get authentic motion-captured performances underwater, something that had never been done before.
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In the next clip, you learn more about the character of Spider.
Beyond that main documentary, there are more featurettes about casting, stunts, and other facets of The Way of Water production. There’s no commentary track (at least not on this initial release, maybe we’ll get one at a later date) but if you are interested in how they pulled off this staggering effort, it will definitely sate your curiosity and give you a new appreciation of just how much artistry and effort went into making the film.
Avatar: The Way of Water is now available on various digital retailers. Disney has yet to announce when the film will be available to stream on Disney+.
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What to Know Before Avatar: The Way of Water
Get ready for Avatar: The Way of Water with this refresher on the first film.
