The Last Airbender

Rating: 3 Shurikens

Great special effects, and the name of the writer/producer/director, M. Knight Shyamalan make this epic fantasy very attractive. The storyline is simple and elaborate at the same time. The plot is very much like a comic book story, with fairly well-delineated good guys and bad guys.

The film is based on a cartoon television series that aired on the Nickelodeon network for three seasons. The first episode aired in 2005. It was fusion of anime and elements of American cartoon animation. The series was called Avatar, the Last Airbender, but the movie had to be renamed because of a conflict with the James Cameron movie from earlier this year, Avatar. The original Target market was the 6-11demographic, but the series was popular with other ages as well. Obviously so, since it was made into a major motion picture costing upwards of 110 million dollars.

The story was rewritten for the big screen by Shyamalan, who was the brains behind Sixth Sense, the famous movie about the boy who sees dead people. Other movies by Shyamalan include The Village and The Girl in the Water. Most of Shyamalans movies are fanciful and supernatural, but don't really go too far with gratuitous violence or excessive sensationalistic gore. This movie is very much in keeping with the writer's style.

The story is about a war between the forces of good and evil, and between the four elements, Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. Evil is represented by fire, and good is represented by the other elements who live together in harmony with each other and the spirit world. Apparently, there are four races, each with a specific affinity for one of the aforementioned elements. There are gifted people amongst each race called Benders. Before we join the story, the Fire people have pretty much killed off all of the Air people, leaving only Aang, the Avatar and Last Airbender. This is the reason for the his title of Last Airbender.

The Fire people have conquered the Earth Kingdom, and now hold them prisoner, and also have the Water people at bay. The Water people are divided into two groups, the Southern Igloo-Dwellers, and the Northern City Dwellers. You can see how it is simple and complicated at the same time. Anyway, the Avatar ran away from home right after it was learned that he was, indeed, the next incarnation of the Avatar that has kept peace for thousands of years, by maintaining the balance in the world. Somehow, when he ran away, he fell into a dormant state and stayed that way for 100 years.

The story begins for the audience as two young water people, Katara and Sokka, happen upon the reposed body of Aang, who is stuck in a frozen bubble under the ice of the frozen south. Somehow, they wake him up, and the adventure begins. It seems that while he was sleeping, the Fire people got antsy and started conquering the world. They hadn't yet gotten done conquering the North water people when the Avatar came and started a rebellion.

The story bounces between the travels of Aang and his two friends as the travel to the ruins of Air People temples and the Earth Kingdom, and finally to the Water City in the frozen North. meanwhile, they are chased, and Aang is captured twice, by Fire People, bent on keeping him from realizing his full potential. There are additional plot twists to make it interesting, and many interactions between characters that are introduced at different times.

At this point, I won't say too much more about the story. Some elements of the plot are semi-religious in nature, as the way that Aang is treated as a savior, almost like a messiah. He is also quite powerful, being able to master four elements, rather than the usual one per race. At the time of the story, he only knows how to bend air, so he is still not quite up to peak form. Another point is that the Fire People use machines and travel in powered ships that burn fire and belch smoke and ash. Meanwhile, the other peoples either walk or travel by mythical flying beasts. This seems like a hidden message about machines, fire, fossil fuels, technology and pollution, all from the Fire People, while the others are pastoral, primitive and pure.

The races of people also seem rather contrived. The Water People are white, blue-eyed and Caucasion, the Air people are patterned after Buddhist monks in saffron robes, and the Earth People are like an Asian race. The Fire people are more dark-haired and brown-eyed, with darker complexions. I fear this plays into stereotypes about skin color and good versus evil. It may be unintentional, but the impression is there.

At any rate, the story is overloaded with characters, and the acting is not very good. There are a couple of well-played roles, actually: the young Fire Nation Prince Zuko, played by Dev Patel, and his Uncle Iroh, played by Shaun Toub. Patel was the star of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, and Toub played Yinsen in the first Iron Man movie. Yinsen was locked up with Tony Stark, and helped him develop the power core that kept the shrapnel away from his heart.

The rest of the actors are not trying very hard, or are trying too hard, or theircharacters haven't been developed properly in the overpopulated cast. The single instance of romance between Sokko and the Princess of the Water People, with the obligatory kissing scene, is scarcely believable and mostly implausible, even for a fantasy movie aimed at a teenage demographic. The two female actresses, both either late teens or early twenties, have those balloon lips that Hollywood loves so much, but which make them difficult to look at without your eyes being drawn to those lips wondering if they are real or not.

Finally, even though the movie is inspired by Asian martial-arts themes, the Tai Chi-like moves which are required by benders to be able to bend their element are contrived and overworked. I prefer a simple wave of a wand or a gesture, a determined expression, and maybe even a few magic words. This movie spends twenty seconds of dancing just to get a glob of water to rise into the air. Otherwise, the movie resembles a b-rated Kung Fu movie, except it doesn't have to be dubbed into English. Perhaps I am a bit too discerning. The story is great for kids, since there are no adult themes, no swear words, and actually no blood. This is refreshing, since people want to take little kids to the movies and enjoy them together, something you can't really do with a movie like Kick-Ass. In that respect, this has something for everyone, and even a child can see who the good guys and bad guys are.

However, the movie is kind of hokey, and doesn't give you any reason to believe that the Avatar actually fell asleep for 100 years, or where he got that giant flying beaver that he rides around on, which nobody else has one of. The actor who plays Aang is very young, and this being his first role ever, it is pretty obvious that he is new at acting. He does okay for a newbie, since he was hired for being a martial arts student more than for his acting skill. All in all, this is not a movie that you should rush out to see, even in 3-D, unless you have already seen all of the other movies out there. It might be worth a matinee, but I wouldn't take a date, especially a female date. Never mind that there will be no less than two, yes two, sequels. This one gets 3 shurikens. That is all.

Prince of Persia

Rating: 3 1/2 Shurikens

This is a movie based on a video game, one which I first saw on the Apple //e platform, back in the 80's. The movie was true to the video game concept, featuring the main character running through various places, leaping and swinging, and dodging adversaries. This is probably the most video-game-like adaptation I have ever seen. There are probably eight or nine sequences where the Prince runs, jumps, dodges, swings, throws, stabs, and many other actions.

The movie is very long. It does not shortchange you with a mere ninety minutes. It has a plot, although somewhat weak, but it includes a time paradox. I can't discuss it without giving away a major plot vehicle, thereby spoiling the movie. You will have to go see it yourself.

The main character, Dastan, is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who I saw in October Sky some years ago, but otherwise I didn't recognize him. He does a decent job of with it, and he handles the love interest believeably. Tamina, played by Gemma Arterton, is a princess in a holy city, guarding a legendary dagger, and another much bigger item. She was seen in James Bond Quantum of Solace as Strawberry Fields, and I believe she died pretty early in that movie. She is very pretty, but she seems to have had some collagen implanted in her upper lip, making it difficult to take her too seriously. I really wish the mvie starlets would stop paying plastic surgeons to deform otherwise lovely features.

The relationship does not elicit any sense of empathy from the audience, which s just as well, I guess, since the audience is probably mostly children. I never once felt myself hoping they would live happily ever after. Most of the romance seemed like it had been seen before in movie after movie. The one kissing scene was overshadowed by her upper lip.

As for the villain, it was hard to tell at the beginning who the bad guys were going to be. I was a little surprised at how that all turned out. It seems there was a King of Persia who had a brother, played by Ben Kingsley, and two sons. The King of Persia, Sharaman, was played by Ronald Pickup, and the sons Garsiv and Tus were played by Toby Kebbel and Richard Coyle, respectively. Kebbel wil be seen in the upcoming Sorcerer's Apprentice, as will Alfred Molina, who plays Sheik Amar, and interesting person who comes to be allied with Dastan. The Uncle of Dastan and the other two Princes is Nizam, played by Ben Kingsley

The King adopted Dastan as an orphan, and raised him as his own. The oldest son, Tus, is destined to be the heir to his father's throne, and when the father is murdered, everyone is easily convinced that Dastan did it. He didn't, as you might well assume, given that he is the star of the movie. He was framed in an elaborate plot by the evil, well, I don't want to give that away, either. It was someone who was trying to find the magic dagger, and release the Sands of Time from their storage place. It turns out that it is not a good idea to rbelease the Sands of Time, as the whole world would be destroyed.

When Dastan flees for his life, he takes the dagger and the Princess with him, and meets Sheik Amar and his band of reprobates. Adventure is had by all as the Prince tries to convince his family of his innocence, and discovers who the real killer is, and then tries to keep the Sands of Time in their rightful place.

Truly, the story could have been written by a computer, or a room full of chimpanzees with typewriters. It is not very imaginative, for most of the time. The ending redeems it somewhat, but only partly. Most of the reason to see The Prince of Persia is the incredible acrobatics and the special effects. The angles which they shoot the action scenes shift way too fast for me, but that is a fact of life these days as movies try to pack so much action in a movie that they can't spend more than a half of a second on a shot. All in all, the movie is a pleasant diversion, with lots of action, fairly decent acting, and great effects, and it is good and long. I give it 3 and 1/2 shurikens.