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.