Avatar: Way of Water 4K UHD Screenshots (Patreon)

Video

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Way of Water is a visual spectacle. It's glowing, bright, intense, colorful, and detail-rich enough to set a new standard for visual effect spectacles. The HDR grading shines, giving Pandora a magic-like presence from bio-luminescent plants, or sunlight gleaming off watery surfaces. A slight noise remains throughout, more noticeable in darker scenes, but always there. Encoding handles this without issue.

Masterfully detailed, the texture evident on digital surfaces looks marvelously sharp. Facial definition shows in every frame, no matter the distance. Way of Water makes full use of the available resolution, missing nothing and remaining dead-on sharp throughout, a spot or two of barely detectable aliasing aside.

Ludicrously colorful imagery goes beyond blue skin and green foliage. Bright, vivid saturation is found everywhere, from things like ship engines, war paint, and explosions. Various wildlife sport variety galore, adding to the brilliance. The Earth-led side brings with dazzling browns, grays, and attractive paint.

Audio

Again no surprise, Way of the Water utilizes top-end audio design, and isn't hampered by Disney's usual limitations. With immediacy, range shows off from arriving spacecraft engines and a train crash. Depth charges makes for an absolute subwoofer demo sequence. Substantial, room-shaking weight remains evident no matter the action scene, and scale is undeniable from the Atmos track alone, let alone the visuals.

Atmos effects feature prominently, whether flying vehicles or animals sweeping by. Surrounds engage at every opportunity, and precision sounds exquisite. Way of Water bounces from speaker to speaker effortlessly, a three-hour demo whether that's during dialog where the ambience can show off or the action with bullets, rockets, and more bouncing around.