Avatar (Two-Disc Original Theatrical Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

16, 2010 Three versions of the movie including the previously unreleased extended cut, plus more than three hours of bonus features including documentaries and over 45 minutes of deleted scenes Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) Digital Purchase Apr. 22, 2010 None Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) Digital Rental May 9, 2010 None Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) Two-disc Blu-ray/ DVD combo Apr. 16, 2010 Three versions of the movie including the previously unreleased extended cut, plus more than eight hours of bonus features including over 45 minutes of deleted scenes, interactive scene deconstruction, Pandorapedia, documentaries and featurettes, and BD-LIVE content (requires compatible player and Internet connection) Avatar (Extended Collector's Edition) Three DVDs Nov. Please note: This edition of the film is not in 3D. 22, 2010 None

Stills from Avatar (Click for larger image)       22, 2010 None Avatar (Original Theatrical Edition) DVD Apr. Versions of Avatar on Blu-ray, DVD, and Video On Demand Edition Format Release Date Special Features Avatar (Extended Collector's Edition) Three Blu-ray Discs Nov.

(The overextended "take that, Michael Bay" final battle sequences could tax even Cameron enthusiasts, however.) It doesn't measure up to the hype (what could?) yet Avatar frequently hits a giddy delirium all its own. That, and the fact that Cameron's dialogue continues to clunk badly. Set in the future on a distant planet, Avatar spins a simple little parable about greedy colonizers (that would be mankind) messing up the lush tribal world of Pandora. Maybe it's the fact that Cameron seems torn between his two loves--awesome destructive gizmos and flower-power message mongering--that makes Avatar's pursuit of its point ultimately uncertain. A paraplegic Marine named Jake (Sam Worthington) acts through a 9-foot-tall avatar that allows him to roam the planet and pass as one of the Na'vi, the blue-skinned, large-eyed native people who would very much like to live their peaceful lives without the interference of the visitors. --Robert Horton After 12 years of thinking about it (and waiting for movie technology to catch up with his visions), James Cameron followed up his unsinkable Titanic with Avatar, a sci-fi epic meant to trump all previous sci-fi epics. The movie uses state-of-the-art 3D technology to plunge the viewer deep into Cameron's crazy toy box of planetary ecosystems and high-tech machinery. Although he's supposed to be gathering intel for the badass general (Stephen Lang) who'd like to lay waste to the planet and its inhabitants, Jake naturally begins to take a liking to the Na'vi, especially the feisty Neytiri (Zoë Saldana, whose entire performance, recorded by Cameron's complicated motion-capture system, exists as a digitally rendered Na'vi). The film itself is our Pandora, a sensation-saturated universe only the movies could create. If you're won over by the movie's trippy new world, the characters will be forgivable as broad, useful archetypes rather than standard-issue stereotypes, and you might be able to overlook the unsurprising central plot.