Release Date – 7/1/2010
One hundred years ago, the Avatar disappeared. An Avatar is one who can control Air, Fire, Water and Earth. While he was gone, the Fire Nation waged war on the World. They have taken over villages and prohibited them from practicing the bending of their elements. A brother and sister from a Water Nation discover a sphere frozen underground. When they unleash it, it turns out Aang, the Last Airbender and the Avatar is now free. The Fire Nation gets word of this quickly, and a banished Prince looks to capture him to return to the good graces of his Father. This movie just isn’t very compelling. I felt bored and was just waiting for it to end. The special effects were cool but not enough to save it. I really wonder if they’ll continue the series at all.
This movie is filled with all kinds of bad acting. Maybe because the cast is relatively unknown to audiences. Noah Ringer plays Aang and this is his first feature film. Maybe he looked the part but looks weren’t enough. Definitely not a strong actor which is why he wasn’t totally the lead. Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone play Katara and Sokka, siblings in the Water Nation who discover Aang. They’re both horrendous actors. Katara is just always whining and Sokka reminded me of Anakin from Attack of the Clones. He’s just another whiner who gets angry. They really take you out of it with their terrible performances. Dev Patel who was great in Slumdog Millionaire has a good performance here as the banished Prince Zuko. He shows some emotion and evolves as a character. The audience goes back and forth on whether to hate him or like him. And then some Princess gets introduced in the final act that absolutely no one cares about, somehow falls in love with Sukko in 5 minutes, and then has to go through an emotional scene that probably affected NO ONE. It was rushed and a pretty bad plot point. This group just travels around trying to take down the Fire Nation while teaching young Aang about his powers. Nothing really happens except Aang getting captured several times and being broken free. It just got boring. In fact, I was fighting the urge to fall asleep.
The fight scenes are cool. Summoning the elements had its Ooooh and Aaaaah type moments. But its almost laughable how they have to do martial arts Tai Chi type moves in order to do the summoning. They’re constantly doing the Daniel-son mid-battle. Holding yoga poses and cranes left and right before any Air/Water/Fire/Earth shoots out. I’m not familiar with the source material, I came into the movie with fresh eyes so it took me by surprise that they couldn’t just point and shoot. M. Night Shyamalan does not have a hit on his hands here. He had a vision in his head that may have been too jumbled, maybe he thought too much about making sequels. In fact, the cliffhanger at the end didn’t phase me one bit. I had no extra thoughts in my head about seeing the next movie. I left with a blank slate much as if I just went into the theater. Although it seems like the kids in the theater enjoyed it (and there were quite a few), it is getting panned by critics and will quickly fade away. Maybe it’s strictly a kids movie and that’s why I’m missing the point. But I don’t think its supposed to be. Its not as bad as The Happening… but is that really saying much?
IMDB – 5/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 9%
Movie Wiseguys – 3.5/10
