It’s been less than a year and already Avatar has returned to cinema screens around the country with eight minutes of new footage. Many will view this with disdain, an attempt to extort more money on top of the two billion dollars Avatar has already taken, for very little added extra. And in many respects they’re right. The additional eight minutes will be glaringly obvious to anyone who’s watched the original release a multitude of times, but ultimately they add very little to the overall film.

There are two types of scens that have been interspersed across the new 171 minute run time. The first are simple shots added or extended, for example a longer shot of Polyphemus in the night sky. The others are wholly new entities though, including information about Grace’s Schoolhouse, reports from after Na’vi attacks and an all new death scene for Tsu’tey. These add new information to the film but due to their short length they could do with additional scenes themselves!

For instance, early on we see the schoolhouse Grace set up to teach the Na’vi children about humans (there are pictures of this on the fridge in Site 26 later on). In the original script this scene was used to explain how the rift between the two races began, but instead it’s only hinted at and never expanded upon in the film. The same goes for later sections as well, it’s as if the film could have done with an extra thirty-eight minutes instead of the dismal eight.

Over time this will become the standard Avatar most people will see and it is better than the original. But it could have been much better had they spent a bit more time. The biggest fear is if they bring out another Director’s Cut ala Blade Runner. That would surely harm Avatar’s image despite whatever profits it could potentially reap from people like myself.

At the end of the day, Avatar: Special Edition is worth seeing if you enjoyed the original and if you have yet to see either it’s definitely the better of the two. But this was a missed opportunity and the lack of real new content will deter the vast majority from forking out any more money into Fox’x coffers.

Go and see it if you really want to, otherwise just wait for the next blu-ray.