Pandora shines on Blu-Ray

The dust having mostly settled on its successful bid to be the highest-grossing film of all time, it’s worth experiencing “Avatar” away from the harsh light of audience backlash and award-season drama for what it really is: an entertaining exercise in world-building and CG wizardry from one of Hollywood’s most ambitious directors.

Dialogue and original plotting have never exactly been James Cameron’s strong suit, but despite catcalls from a vocal minority of haughty film fans, there are no “I’ll never let go” moments here. Nor is the “white man” portrayed as the noblest among savages. Cameron wears his politics on his sleeve, which is fine, but his true voice shows in the physical world of Pandora, which he and his team built from the ground up for nearly half a decade.

20th Century Fox’s Blu-Ray transfer is, to say the least, stunning. As someone who thought “Avatar” worked better in 2-D than 3-D, the level of visual and auditory detail on 1080p/5.1 Pandora left my jaw on the floor. I would go so far as to predict this release will convert a large amount of HDTV owners formerly content with their old DVD players plus HDMI up-conversion to the Blu-Ray format.

The only disconcerting thing here is the complete lack of special features, presumably due to the impending release of a super-duper special edition due in the fall. Yeah, it’s a blatant cash-in. But for anyone who enjoyed “Avatar” in theaters and wants to push their home theaters to the limit, it’s an awfully tempting purchase.