REVIEW: ‘The Last Airbender’

As I was driving home on the long rainy night from watching “Avata—”…oh, no, sorry…”The Last Airbender” (curse you, James Cameron!), only one emotion was running through my heart, both as an avid fan of the series and a regular movie-goer: disappointment. And that is a sad, sad thing. I had such high hopes for this movie, I was literally screaming in my seat before the movie had even started. And then… I actually watched it.

This movie is a live-action retelling of my all-time favorite American animated series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.  (Obviously, though, for copyright reasons, we can’t call it that.) It was produced, directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan (who previously worked on “The Happening” and “Lady in the Water”), and he brought a slew of totally new actors to the board.  Noah Ringer stars as Aang, and Dev Patel plays as the angsty Prince Zuko (well, I take it back, he’s been in a few things, “True Jackson VP”, “Mister Eleven”, “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Skins” being all of them). They are joined by Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, and Shaun Toub to make for a funny-looking cast who can’t even pronounce “Sokka” right.

But back to the part where the story is horribly disappointing.  This leads me to a very crucial spot in my review, the “Fan Corner”, which I have made up specifically for this review. IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE SERIES, DO NOT READ THIS PART. Or, just, you know, skip it.

Now, looking at this movie as a fan, you will be even more disappointed in their progress. As you all know, “Airbender” is a lovable, admittedly humorous, but still addicting story that is deep and serious enough to teach people things while still retaining the humor that makes it accessible to everybody. And the characters are so relatable and endearing because they mature in a realistic way while maintaining their happy, hopeful attitudes through any hardship, which truly makes it a very inspiring story. Even the villains mature in a fashion that makes us secretly root for them during battles. That is what makes “Airbender” my all-time favorite show, and that is what makes it so enjoyable to its many fans.

Well, you’ll be glad to know that all of that stuff was completely lost in the movie.

Yup. You heard me. Not a single point of that description rang true. All of those wonderful personalities that made us fall in love? So completely not there. And I don’t even mean the actors didn’t do it right. I mean, quite honestly and truly, it wasn’t there. All those graceful, fluid movements used when benders perform their enchanting art? Gone, transformed into long, elaborate dances that last a good minute or two before the water decides it’s time to get off its lazy butt and move. And even then, bender and element move so totally out of synch that you just don’t care anymore. And the Avatar State, that powerful, terrifying force of nature called up when the Avatar feels true rage? Yeah, he can do it just about any time now. All he has to do is meditate! The mysterious, shadow-cast figure that is the Shadow Lord Ozai throughout the first book that strikes terror in your heart and makes you wonder just how much of a monster he must be? Nope. He walks out in plain daylight, and you know what? He looks like a middle-aged Indian guy with buggy eyes and armor on. Scary. All those beautiful names and faces that make your heart leap when you hear them? Well, not only do the actors look nothing like the characters, but they pronounced almost every single name wrong. Those subtle hints that show us that Zuko has a heart and truly cares about Iroh? Not there. The reveal where we unveil the identity of the Blue Spirit? Disappointingly accurate, given the circumstances. That attractive scar that made up and represented Zuko’s personality and inner suffering? How do I describe his scar? Well… it looks like he got slapped in the face and the bruise just neglected to heal. Those little subtle things that tell us that Katara and Zuko are secretly attracted to each other? Those were nailed so perfectly, I almost cried.

Hey, that’s one good point! If they truly mess up bad enough, maybe Zuko and Katara will end up together! (Just between you and me, that is this fangirl’s number one dream ending)

Speaking of Katara, M. Night, I know you’re trying to stay (somewhat) faithful to the series by making sure that we know that our lovely waterbender is the main character, but just making her monologue about what’s happening every time you have a scene change just doesn’t cut it.

Now, to look at things from the point of view of a regular movie-goer who doesn’t know or care of the series that this movie, unfortunately, steals its thunder from.

Unfortunately, it’s also just as disappointing.

The very first thing I should mention here is that they really need to work on their writing. It is played out like someone is sitting there telling you what happened with little to no emotion or really any concept of what actually happened in between the big encounters and scary fights. This may have been just the result of attempting to cram thirty-some-odd episodes of good story into ninety minutes of cool special effects and breathtaking fight scenes. You know what you get when you do that? You get… well… ninety minutes of cool special effects and breathtaking fight scenes.  It was so dull that I looked away for a good ten minutes or so to take notes and didn’t really give a hoot that I missed anything. There was absolutely no character development at all, and barely any story development at that! They just kind of drop the scene on you and say “Hey, this is what’s happening”… literally! And then, as soon as you just barely begin to grasp what the heck is going on, you are dropped into the next scene, which, in the continuum, is happening a good two or  three months later. And, due to this, very crucial things were lost.

Also, for some reason, people’s knowledge is completely out of whack with their experiences. I mean no one knows anything (like, oh, I don’t know, each other’s names?!), until it is convenient, in which case, they know everything. Except, of course, what they don’t.

The only good thing it really had going for it was the well-planned fight scenes and realistic special effects (and by the way, guys, those fights scenes were so amazing well planned out and executed, I think that may have been all you got those darn actors for in the first place! And all that stuff you did with the water while people were bending it was absolutely beautiful).

So, all in all, this movie was just a total bomb for me. However, if you like action movies, you should find this movie pretty OK. And if you don’t care, then what the heck. You don’t care anyway. And if you are a fan, you’re better off just letting it go. Because you, like me, won’t believe it’s not better.