It’s well known that James Cameron’s movie Avatar, first released in 2009, went on to become the biggest movie of all time, with box office takings currently standing at $2.905 billion. The sequel is due in cinemas this coming December, but with a 13-year gap, it’s no surprise that the first one has been re-released back into theaters, giving people an opportunity to remind themselves what all the fuss was about.

As the box office takings suggest, back in 2009, Avatar was something of a phenomenon, single-handedly bringing back 3D from the dead – with stereoscopic movies first appearing in the 1950s and then again, briefly in the 1980s. These days it’s common to disparage it as just a “Smurfs movie in space”, that inflicted unwanted 3D onto a cinematic public for the next 10 or so years.

Certainly, the 3D-craze-cash-in, both in cinemas and for TVs was largely unnecessary and unwarranted. Also, there are certain elements of the script that are eye-rollingly cringy – naming the mineral they are mining for on Pandora as “Unobtanium” is a stand-out.

As such, critics say that the sequel is likely to flop. They say it’s been too long; no one cares about it anymore. Well, I think they’re wrong. Having made my way to London’s Cineworld IMAX in Leicester Square to see it on one of the biggest screens in the country in 3D with laser projections and high framerate (HFR) technology, I will say that I don’t have time for anyone that has no time for Avatar – it’s astonishing.

Ahead of the sequel Avatar has been re-released into theaters in 3D, 4K, HFR as well as HDR and ... [+] Dolby Atmos.

In the excellent documentary “Light and Magic” about the creation of the first visual effects studio, Industrial Light and Magic, (available on Disney+), George Lucas declares that going to the movies is such a powerful experience as it’s a place where you can see things that you can’t see anywhere else. Avatar is undoubtedly a shining example of that and it lives up to its reputation as a glorious cinematic spectacle.

Story-wise, the eco message is powerful, and with man-made climate change a reality, it hits harder than it did in 2009. The core sci-fi ideas inside it are also remarkable. Avatars are bodies consisting of both human and alien DNA grown in a tank, the brain of which has a human “driver” zapped into it. The movie isn’t interested in explaining how any of that is achieved, but I couldn’t help wondering about those bodies before the human brain is placed inside – presumably just a brain-dead cadaver. It could be horrific, but Cameron presents it as a wonder that you just accept.

As an experience, it’s a movie that can’t be separated from its technology. There are few movies where the 3D truly enhances the storytelling, and it does so here by almost sucking you into the world. It’s how you believe what you are seeing is possible. You can see into the world naturally, and when things appear as if in front of the camera, such as when Sully’s injuries are being healed by the floating “atokirina” wood sprites it feels organic and natural.

For this remaster, everything is enhanced by technologies that weren’t available when the movie first came out. The first is laser projection. The dual-laser IMAX GT system in Leicester Square is wonderful, and even with 3D glasses, everything appears bright, clear, and sharp.

The next is a new technology called, high-frame rate or HFR. Movies are normally projected at 24 frames per second (fps), but those at the technological edge, are looking to move beyond this. Peter Jackson shot the Hobbit movies at 48 fps, and Ang Lee shot Gemini Man at 120 fps, though many places could only show it at 60 fps. I wrote about this at length when it came out and despite loving the concept found it unnatural looking. Taking advantage of their braveness, James Cameron has used the technology in a very smart way. Using “TrueCut Motion” technology, the movie switches into HFR at 48 fps for only certain sections of the movie – specifically those with very fast action, which often with 3D can descend into a blurry mess. There was no such problem here and made the sequence when Sully is chased by native jungle Pandoran dogs more visceral. Showing double the frame rate means your eyes are receiving twice the information every second, which will also boost perceived brightness, making things easier to follow.

HFR is always criticized as giving an “uncanny valley” feel to proceedings, but as Pandora already has a strange other-worldly look to it, that issue automatically goes away.

Cameron has also remastered the movie in 4K, but it turns out that IMAX dual-laser projector can’t do the triple whammy of 3D, HFR, and 4K – it overheats the projectors, so it was only 2K for my showing – but the visuals were so powerful I didn’t feel short-changed.

One format that can do all three – is Dolby Cinema, which also adds two new technologies that weren’t around in 2009. The first is high dynamic range (HDR), which means an even brighter image (up to 14-foot lamberts) will make the colors pop, while the second is Dolby Atmos, which was first introduced in 2012. I haven’t had the opportunity to see Avatar in Dolby Cinema, but if I don’t make it for a second viewing, I will make sure I do for the sequel, The Way of Water, coming on 16 December.

That said, I certainly didn’t feel short-changed by the 12-channel sound of IMAX: James Horner’s soundtrack sounded bold and majestic.

In terms of extras, the remaster is the same as the original theatrical version (sans the extra footage shown in the extended edition) but you do get treated to a short teaser sequence from The Way of Water. Showings of different formats of the film get a different clip – I was treated to a Na’vi teenager helping remove a weapon from the fin of an alien whale. The second it came up onscreen my eyes widened even further, as I got a glimpse of how far the technology has come in the 13-year wait. If Avatar was state-of-the-art CGI, this looked like a real-world documentary.

Whatever the sniffy critics think, I’ll be there on day one for Avatar: The Way of Water, and if you get a chance to catch the first one in the next few days of its release, then I highly recommend you do so.