Movie Review: THE LAST AIRBENDER

In a world where the elements are wielded by those called “benders”, young Aang is the successor to a long line of Avatars. The Avatar is supposed to be the one being that can bend all four elements of Air, Fire, Water and Earth. His presence has been foretold to unite the elemental tribes and bring peace. However, the Avatar has been missing for 100 years and the powerful Fire Nation has gained control of a large part of each realm. It is up to Aang and his friends to restore order and balance to the world.

Director M. Night Shyamalan brings us this onscreen adaptation of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. I have been reading many reviews that have been panning this film as it doesn’t seem to be well received among all viewers. Before I get started though, I’d like to reiterate that this is a movie based on a kids cartoon. With that said, the film is highly entertaining  from a visual stand point. For a director that hasn’t relied on stunning shots and broad angles in the past, I thought that Shyamalan put on his action boots and gave us some great looks and made the film feel epic. I really liked all of the CGI in the film. The bending of the elements looked very cool and it teamed well with the martial arts.

I am a martial arts enthusiast. It’s either done very well or horribly. I never see a middle of the road when it comes to martial arts in films, but The Last Airbender has found that path. I’m not sure of the backgrounds of the choreographers for the movie, but they managed to put in just enough well thought out fight scenes mixed with great CGI. Even if the choreography wasn’t completely tight you didn’t care because you got a great elemental visual to go with it. Just from watching each nation do their particular bending, I could tell that each had their own martial art that they practiced  to use their powers. It was a nice touch to add to each nation. For the future films I would like to see some more hand to hand combat, but I don’t think that is in the nature of the series.

The big problem with the film is the acting. Most of the main characters do not have a lot of experience under their belts. They had some difficulty bringing me into the story with just their words. What I found interesting though, was the way these actors used their bodies and expressions. I have always enjoyed when an actor doesn’t have to say much of anything, but you can feel what they are feeling just by looking at them. I got a lot of that from this film and I felt that most of the cast pulled this off very well even with their lack of film background. Noah Ringer (Aang) did this far better than the rest of the cast and I am excited to see him grow as an actor.

Right now, the series is plotted out to be three films. I hope that this first one makes enough money so that they do not drop the franchise. I thought that the story was there in this film, though we may have needed a little more. It definitely left me curious and I am very interested in seeing another film. We do need the actors to work on their craft a little more, but as long as we see them improve with each project I think that we can be happy. Shyamalan did a good job being out of is element and I feel that he too, can also get better.

What did you think of the movie? Post below.

Fanboyz Grade: C+