The Last Airbender

This past weekend director, writer, and producer M. Night Shyamalan (who's name we wish we could pronounce) takes the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender to the big screen with his latest epic. Or is it more of an epic failure? Hype for the film was immensely great, as the kids and teenagers who adored the show waited eagerly for the opportunity to experience the imaginary world, characters, and story they love in live-action form. The film was confused with Avatar before they both came out, so word about this film got more attention than it might normally have. Still, as the critics whipped out their influential pens, almost all of them wrote of inept filmmaking in every category. Even though Jacob was a huge fan of the Avatar series, he was almost dissuaded from seeing the movie by what he heard. However after watching it, he came to the conclusion that the experience must be similar to that of girls watching the Twilight movies. Sure, the filmmaking is in no way great, but if you can see past that, you are still able to "re-experience"--as he calls it--everything you loved about the book, or in this case, TV show. But why is M. Night making a live-action version of Avatar? Your guess is as good as mine, but I suspect he probably just liked the show. Comparing the movie to the TV show isn’t fair, but the TV show was brilliant as cartoons go and the movie was average as movies go.

Jacob: As I already recalled much of the story before entering the theater, I was not at all bothered by the complex plot or bizarre sequence of events. Even though I was very unhappy with some of the acting, especially with Katara, who played way to great of a part to be unrealistic, the acting in the cartoon was not much better. Furthermore, some of the changes that many of the fans are currently unhappy about, like the changing in name pronunciations or minor character changes were necessary for the success of the film. The new names are more accurate, which is something the Hollywood system would require. Also, Iroh's character, which is the most changed from the original story remained the most realistic and deep character, as he portrayed wisdom and a struggle between his own beliefs and the "Fire Nation's". Also, before I come to my conclusion, I must touch upon the movies best aspects. Andrew Lesnie, the Oscar-winning director of photography for films such as The Lord of the Rings, and Babe created truly fantastic visuals. The great aesthetic quality of the film surprisingly added immensely to the action scenes, which was where the film actually did soar.

To see or not to see:
So, If you were a fan, I can recommend this movie as an enjoyable experience, but nothing more. If you, like most people, never watched the series, than there is little chance you will find anything in the movie for you besides a collection of good slow-mo action. It is just too complicated and poorly put together to work without a strong background knowledge of the plot, characters, and world the story takes place in. Overall, I must give this movie a 2/5.

Sebastian: My first feeling by the end of the movie was that it felt rushed. That’s to be expected when it tries to cover an entire season of TV in a single movie, but it was only an hour and forty three minutes long which is short compared to other movies currently in theaters. The problem with it being so rushed is that the characters aren’t developed very thoroughly. Mixed acting didn’t help give the characters any more depth. But let’s push that aside with something that seems to be stealing the limelight of most movies now a day, visual effects. Stunning landscapes were only topped by the amazing computer graphics which also make for decent action sequences. The 3D was fairly disappointing. I’m sure it was better than 2D, but fairly mundane compared to the 3D I’ve seen in other movies. It failed to really add a worthy dimension to this very 2 dimensional movie.

To See Or Not To See: It’s worth the money, but don’t get too excited. It doesn’t live up to the cartoon. Overall, I must give this movie a 3/5.

Post Picture Final Consensus: 2.5/5