The Last Airbender

Great movie

Loved the cartoon and the movie

Reading all the negative reviews this movie got, I was a litte shy of paying a rental to watch it. What a surprise! I found this movie to be a throughly enjoyable fantasy! I am not familiar with either the book or animated series, but that certainly did not keep me from enjoying this movie. No one should have expected that the producers would have been able to include all the characters, events and details that go into a multiple book story arc, or a 30 episode animated series, into one movie that is only about an hour and a half long! Anybody remember the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy? Lots of characters were cut out, events were changed, liberties were taken with the story, and all of it did not keep The Lord of the Rings from being one of the best movies of all time.The Last Airbender has great characters, wonderful special effects and a good fantasy story. The story is a basic quest: the young Airbender, living a happy and peaceful life in a isolated temple is presented with the news that he is to be the new Avatar, the ruler of all the clans in this world, ultimate Master of all four Elements, speaker to spirits--a god in all but name! Since he is just a little boy, he is frightened by all this, and runs away. Unfortunately, a cruel fate interferes, and he is trapped in ice, frozen but alive, for 100 years. In his absence, the powerful Fire clan decides to conquer the clans and all its people. When the young Airbender is revived he finds that his single bad decision has had terrible consequences: His entire clan has been murdered, the Fire Clan has declared war on the world, they have destroyed all the temples, and murdered or imprisioned all people capable of Element Bending. The young Avatar now embarks on an epic journey to harness his powers, free the other Element Benders, promote rebellion in the conquered lands, restore balance to the world and realize his destiny.In this movie, the Element Benders must perform a kind of ritual dance that is part fighting arts, part tai chi, and part ballet, in order to conjure forth their powers, to harness, direct and use them. I did not find anything wrong with that. In fact, I found it beautiful and graceful. It gave the idea that the powers of an Element Bender had to be drawn forth and manipulated with great care, effort and training. It requires dicipline of mind and body, with a spirtual element taken into consideration as well. It isn't like an X-Men spin off, where you point a finger, or wiggle your eyebrows, and blow up buildings.The special effects are well worth seeing, worth the price of the movie by themselves. And the fighting arts dances of the characters are beautiful. The characters are good and enjoyable to watch. The acting is fine. You have a basic story that is easy to follow and to enjoy. The only thing you should be aware of, if you are like me and not familar with the story, is that the ending does not finish the story. It is a pause in the story telling---rather like watching the first movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But the ending is still a good one: the hero has begun to realize his true powers, the good guys win and the bad guys are in retreat. Of course, that is not the end of the story, not by a long shot! Unfortunately, I do not think that any more movies will follow this one, to finish it. Which is a great shame, as far as I am concerned. What is good is that it may cause more people to check out the book series. But the movie was lovely and entirely enjoyable. If you are looking for a good fantasy movie to watch, this is it.

I'll start with the most important sentence: My kids loved this movie, so if were rating it just for them, this would be 5 big big stars. We had watched the entire air bender series as a family, and I went from bored to interested to fascinated to just as excited as my kids to watch the next episode. The anime series has surprisingly complex character development, complicated stories built around easily understood episodes, and a real message of hope, redemption (for multiple people), and saving the world! I was certain that there was no way that a movie could capture what the series had done.I was right--the movie didn't capture what the series did. But it isn't fair to expect that--the series had 10+ hours to cover the material that the movie covers. M. Night and Co. had a daunting task to try to pull that breadth of storytelling into a cohesive not quite two hour movie, and I have to say that they did it. If you expect every twist and turn of the series to be here, you will be sadly disappointed. What you will get is the important emotional beats to be hit, you will get character development, you will get engaging performances by young actors, and really enjoyable special effects. If you approach this movie like a retelling of a legend you already know, and you won't be disappointed.Let's talk a little about the script. Some have complained that it is hard to follow--because I knew the series well, the story was easy to follow, but I understand how those who are not familiar with the story might have felt that some things seemed to jump a bit. They do. They also did in Harry Potter 1 when Chris Colombus did it--but the movie was still enjoyable on its own. Don't approach this rigidly--be willing to let it wash over you somewhat. The children do a really wonderful job. They are not veteran actors, and they make some choices that a veteran actor would have avoided. But they bring an excitement, a freshness to the roles that is perfect. The young man who plays Aang and the young lady who plays Kitara in particular do a wonderful job. I loved seeing these folks come to life, and if they weren't as complex as the cartoon characters, remember, they are trying to do this in 1/5th the screen time. Pretty impressive job overall. Aang is very likable and quite a charmer. He must have had signficant martial arts training ahead of time, because he is very impressive in the action sequences.The movements that bring about the "bending" are beautiful. The entire film is full of asian/eastern cultural references, so from a spiritual perspective, if Buddhist or Taoist inspired elements offend you or are something you want to keep your kids away from, then avoid this film at all costs. If you are willing to discuss the spiritual aspects with your children from whatever spiritual direction you come, then this will actually provide a rewarding platform. Just because I don't particularly admire a spiritual choice doesn't mean that it can't add interest to a fantasy story--and for those who do like the eastern philosophy, I think that there is a lot to enjoy here as long as you aren't looking for the endorsement of a single philosophy, but are willing to take the ride to get a blend of sort of pan-asian things.The special effects are top notch. The air, fire, and water are all amazing (not much earth moving in this film). The sets are gorgeous, and if some of them look highly stylized and fantastic, well, it is a fantasy world. Momo is a delight, but losing much of his story line made me sad, even if I understood how it was a good thing to cut. Apa was fun, and just as I had hoped. THe bad guys had just the right tone--Prince Suko (I'm not sure if I spelled that right) seemed a little older than I had expected, but his mixture of misplaced loyalty to his unloving father, his desperation to gain his honor and to win the love of a parent was just right. His uncle was cast against type from the cartoon, but the actor pulled it off well, and after my first apprehension that htey had gotten it wrong, I was pleased. I didn't love general zhao or the Firelord, but I don't hink I was supposed to love them. The water princess was adorable, and the scenes between Jackson Rathbone (Sato) and her were great.I really enjoyed this film quite a bit. As I mentioned, my kids loved it, and it has been playing every night since we got it. If you are in the need of this sort of family adventure, it will fit the bill, and I definitely hope that M. Night will get to make the other two and turn this into the heroic trilogy we know it to be.