The Last Airbender is based upon one of my favorite TV shows, and definitely my favorite growing up, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The show takes place in a timeless fantasy world, where the world is divided into 4 parts; The Water Tribes, The Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Certain people in each nation have the ability to bend their natural element. Only the Avatar, reincarnated into each successive cycle after he dies (e.g. When an Avatar born in the Fire Nation dies, he will be born among the Air Nomads), can master all 4 elements. He serves as the spiritual advisor to the world and is able to travel to the Spirit World. It is his job to keep the four nations in harmony with one another. The show focuses on the newest Avatar, 12 year old Aang of the Air Nomads, to help save the world from the dreaded Fire Nation, who threaten to throw the world out of balance by conquering the world. The show is an intelligent fantasy action-adventure adored by adults and children alike, resulting in an eventual Emmy win.
Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan really missed the mark with his latest movie. While the movie's story includes all of the important story elements from the first season, it lacks any real pathos or emotional impact. It plays as a glorified and very expensive highlight reel. The characters are one-dimensional at best; they are all boring and contain no depth or layers to them. It is nearly impossible to distinguish one from the other, they all tend to blend together after a while.
A good portion of the important plot points from the series are reduced to monotonous exposition, which only further deflates our attraction toward these characters. The child actors in this movie are incapable of expressing emotion, but it would take a skilled thespian to bring life to this lifeless script. The bending action scenes are interesting, but their effect is weakened by the pointless 3-D. If you must see this movie, do NOT see it in 3-D! Not only is it a waste of money, I would see it even lessens the movie's beautiful cinematography.
I was very excited for this movie. I was excited that one of my favorite TV shows was going to be adapted by an Academy Award winning filmmaker. But this movies was worse then disappointing, it was heart breaking. Shyamalan reduced these emotionally rich and hilarious characters, to uninteresting cliches. The worst movie I have seen this year, stay away at all costs
1/5
Blog # 2
Chris Frye
This first blog is a noble beginning for an aspiring film critic/producer. Christopher David quickly demonstrates his knowledge of film and story with a straight forward critical analysis of character and plot as the essential scaffolding of any successful movie making adventure. I was, however, looking forward to seeing this movie and hoped that Christopher would at least throw me a lifeline before he erased all motivation for seeing the film. Nevertheless, his criticisms were nuanced and relevant for anyone that is a fan of the Avatar series. I’ll go see the film though and hope to find some magic that perhaps Christopher over looked.
ReplyDeleteMRL
Robert, as an Avatar fan see the movie.
ReplyDeleteBut there is pretty much nothing redeeming here.
Waste of time and money, especially in 3-D