The Last Airbender Review

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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If you’re five years old then you’ll love The Last Airbender… But I’m not five years old. Perhaps Airbender’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t understand the idea of an adaptation. It’s one thing to take out items from the source material because it doesn’t fit in the realm of a film, but it’s another thing entirely to do it so you can fit a 100 minute run time.

Based on the wildly popular animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender, the film follows the journey of a young boy named Aang. The last of the Air Nomads or airbenders, and he’s the current avatar. The avatar has the power to control all four natural elements. Earth, fire, water, and air. But, the avatar has been absent for over 100 years, and in that time, the Fire Nation has declared war on the rest of the world. Now the fate of the world is in Aang’s hands, as he is the only one who can stop the Fire Nation and bring balance to the other nations.

Now, I don’t expect Airbender to put everything from the first season of the show into this film, but I do expect the basics, the basic back story of Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko. But there is none of that, it’s not even that there is no room for it; there is plenty of time to cover these basics facts. Facts that were covered in the first season. Facts like Katara’s healing ability and the plot line surrounding Sozin’s Comet which gets nothing more than a quick mention at the end of the film.

But, I could spend an eternity picking away at the horribly paced story, lets talk acting for a second. Now, I was not one of the protesters at the whole race bending thing, but regardless of who you cast, they should be able to do this thing called ACT! M. Night said that he wanted to do away with a lot of the kiddy stuff from the show. But by doing that, you turn the lovable and a little bit zany story of Aang into a depressing mess. By not allowing the characters to be zany, you limit their range greatly because in all honesty, there is no charm to behold when there are no jokes.

This brings me to an even greater point, the writing. Night should NOT have written this film. His writing does not lend itself to witty humor and story. His style is to dark, depressing, and twisty for a project like this. It would have been one thing for him to go the Kevin Smith, Cop Out route and just direct the film, but he didn’t. The story and dialogue are awful.

Then there is the editing and pacing. I can’t even say the story is all over the place, because there never is a sense of place to begin with. In what I can only assume is a time frame of a week, the gang is able to travel across the world on a flying Bison (which is never discussed either, I only know about it because I watched the show). Then magically Sokka and the Northern Water Tribe Princess develop a relationship in the time it takes to fade to the next scene. Which would be fine except that Katara in voice over narration (which was also pointless) says they were at the kingdom for weeks. What kind of half assed editing trick is that? The entire movie becomes a muddled mess, and it really is a shame.

Going into the visuals, arguably the only semi-decent thing about the film, there’s just one problem, they’re boring. Anytime there is a decent fight involving the benders, it becomes bogged down by lazy editing and poor pacing. Also, I don’t understand why Night felt a need to go the McG, Terminator Salvation route and overuse the long take technique. The fact of the matter is, long takes do not lend themselves to action. That’s just the way it is, the way the action is cut in this movie just doesn’t work.

As for the cinematography, it’s OK. The landscapes are pretty and do lend themselves to the world that the film has built. But to be honest, by today’s standards, they could be a lot better. And a decent landscape is far from an excuse for every other horrible aspect of the film.

I would love to go on and on about how much this film fails, but there’s no point. Why should I exert more effort than the film itself. I will leave you with this, Airbender is a film that your five year old will enjoy. But fans of the original TV series, and average movie goers are going to feel very cheated.

2/10