M. Night Shya.'s The Last Airbender

Y'know what movie I just saw today? The Last Airbender. And I loved it (despite it seemingly getting amazingly negative reviews). And I have never really cared for an M. Night movie in my life. Perhaps because this movie was all "WHAT A TWIST!"-y.



So here's the deal: There's this kid who was born as the reincarnation of the "Avatar" (not to be confused with the all flash and no substance James Cameron movie of the same name... which is the reason it's not called Avatar: The Last Airbender like the show it's based on that's I've never actually seen an episode of in my life). He's capable of "bending" all four elements, which, from what I could gather, is like manipulating elements to use as methods of attacking and defending. Except that he can only "bend" his element that he was born into: air. And the movie is basically about him learning to bend the second element water, with potential sequels apparently having him learn to bend earth and fire, in that order).

Btw, there's this fire tribe (did I mention those four elements are four different tribes?) who is chasing him throughout they movie. They don't want to kill him, since he'll just be reincarnated again, but it's never really clear what exactly they want to with him instead of killing him. Especially since he seems so strong that he can apparently kill everybody, except that he doesn't kill, or even really want to harm others. But yeah, it's an epic and, and he gathers a crew of supporters with weird names that I can't remember, and, well, you just have to see it.

Anywhooo, the first thing you notice about this movie is that it was definitely made for 3D. It's evident from the very first scene. Even though I saw it in 2D, I could definitely tell why it was meant to be watched in 3D. And you'll realize it, too, if you see the movie. It's very obvious.

The action in this movie is amazing. I loved watching all of the fight sequences, which were filmed beautifully. My one gripe with the action itself is all of the hand motions. Like I said earlier, I've never seen the show itself so I don't know if this was taken from the series, but the hand motions often seemed far more extensive, to the point that they're kind of distracting from the awesome attack that is about to happen. It's appropriate for a really big climactic attack or training, but not for just fighting some random Fire Tribe goons.

The acting was... decent. Not the most amazing cast, but I think that, at the very least, the key roles definitely fit. Noah Ringer was solid in his role of Aang. And I applaud M. Night for not wanting to make this movie without the actree who played Katara. Some of the dialogue seemed rather... dry at times. Partly due to the writing just being rather simple, and partly due to the way to the way the scenes were delivered. The very rushed romantic subplot felt more forced than truly romantic.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this movie. It's enjoyable, and I do hope it does well enough to warrant a sequel!