The Last Airbender (2010) User Reviews

Pile of nonsense

[billa48 · 3/10 · 30 June 2010]

They went too fast and all the characters talk like they're reading off placards. The computer generated stuff was good though but i got less than what i expected. What a waste of time and money. I'd rather had stayed home and watched the original cartoon instead.

The original cartoon is ten times better to watch. Even if i consider this movie as a unit in it itself, its missing a lot of story where a new viewer wouldn't be able to connect the points. Although it has good computer generated animation and stuff but you still get less than you'd expect. There are bits where you expect it to be funny and it ain't, no fun.

Anybody who has watched the original cartoon will tell you how much of it they have skipped in the beginning of the movie. The story line is completely shot, you cant tell whats really going on.

Bad movie, disastrous adaptation

[petra_ste · 4/10 · 28 September 2016]

The original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is the rare kind of fantasy fiction ostensibly aimed at kids which can also be enjoyed by adults - like The Hobbit (the book, not the tiresome movie trilogy). The Nickelodeon saga ran for three seasons full of compelling storylines and vivid characters.

So, how does a director whose increasingly shaky reputation hinged on thrillers adapt in 90 minutes the entire first season of an adventure/fantasy series?

Badly.

I have never been a huge fan of M. Night (although I really liked Unbreakable), but usually even his flawed films (say, Signs or The Village) have something interesting about them. This one is worthless though.

Writing is leaden and ponderous; the voice-over by Katara (Nicola Peltz), in particular, is one of the most overwritten, insufferable narrations I recall in a major production. In spite of all the yammering, the exposition is so inefficient that the series' rich lore and world-building are mercilessly castrated: the result is a generic, shallow fantasy setting.

(To be fair, the first season was challenging to adapt because of its episodic structure; the second and third have more forward momentum).

While M. Night has never been a great writer (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable notwithstanding), he does have visual talent. Unfortunately, he is not a strong ACTION director - a limit he is probably smart enough to realize, since both his superhero movie (Unbreakable) and his alien invasion movie (Signs) featured *one* fight scene each. He could not write around this limit here, since The Last Airbender relies heavily on action. The result is a string of set-pieces ranging from bland to ridiculous.

In the series, "bending" - a mix between martial arts and magic employed to command elements (water, earth, fire, air) - was visually effective and precise, with each elemental effect corresponding to a quick, clear body movement. This connection is lost in the movie, where characters gesticulate wildly and flail limbs around to produce comically tiny results; it takes six people performing a choreographed dance to make a medium-sized rock float (in the animated series, characters toss boulders around with a flick of the wrist). It's pathetic, the kind of stuff which gives fantasy a bad name.

Still, the original sin of this film is how the story is better fit for animation rather than live-action and for a series rather than a movie. I can understand the appeal of adapting, say, a book into a film... but here the story has *already* been told in a visual medium, very well and with more time for subplots and character arcs than you can possibly have in a movie. So... what was the point, again?

4/10

Awful-tar : The Last Shyamalan Movie I Ever Want to See

[neji107 · 3/10 · 1 July 2010]

M. Night's career as a director has been spiraling downwards ever since The Sixth Sense, we can all agree. But on The Last Airbender, his most recent major project, his credibility simply plummeted.

You know that embarrassing feeling you get when you're watching an amateur movie? Yeah, you'll get a lot of that if you spend your money to watch this in the theaters, which is ill-advised. The Last Airbender simply had no direction, and the script flopped around aimlessly to try and wrap up an entire season of the animated TV show, Avatar (which it is based off of), in 103 minutes. The dialogue was appalling and the poor development of story made audience members moan and groan. An entire love relationship is created with the single, randomly narrated line of, "They became friends very quickly", while two characters who have just met allot the other a generous five second stare each. Embarrassing scriptwriting such as this is what caused the failing of The Last Airbender. This was NOT helped by the mediocre acting performances of Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, and Seychelle Gabriel.

Poor acting, poor scripting, poor directing. What was there to like? Sadly the action sequences, few and far between, are hardly engaging enough to satisfy any moviegoer's appetite, for lack of other elements. I was told by friends that while the movie stayed true to the general plot of the animated TV series, the action was poorly represented. Underpowered, and a bit superfluous in movement, the much needed fight scenes became almost tedious to watch.

The world of Avatar was curious; I'll give it that. The environment with the four elemental nations, each with its own unique race, which far from appearing racist, was actually one of the few ideas that made the movie... somewhat interesting.

A general question continued to run through my mind... It was almost as if M. Night thought to himself, "What is the LEAST I could do with my budget?" And I think he found the perfect answer with The Last Airbender.

I award M. Night's latest masterpiece in his spiraling antics a generous 4/10.

An Absolute Disgrace to the Series

[mebulloch-62467 · 1/10 · 27 May 2020]

I watched this reluctantly for the first time recently to see if it was bad as I had heard and I was wrong, it was even worse than I could have imagined. I was unable to even finish the movie. I wish I could rate it lower. I understand that adaptations are difficult to reflect in the same light as the original content but the direction style, casting, writing, acting, and animation of this movie was lazy, disrespectful, and devalued the core ideals of the series. The movie proves painful to watch. I grew up watching the series and still now as an adult I am still constantly in awe of how wonderful of a show it is. So I wholeheartedly recommend to forget you even laid eyes on this movie and go watch the series in all it's glory.

Worse than I remember

[Peeb_Alex · 1/10 · 30 May 2020]

I remember watching this movie back when it first came out and I didn't think it was that bad. I just finished watching the cartoon series on Netflix and I figured I would re-watch this to wrap it all up. Now I wish I hadn't watched it. It's NOTHING like the show. I wonder if the people who worked on this movie even saw the show. Stay away from this movie. It's so bad that it actually hurts to watch it.

An 8 year old's assessment

[mckee-783-621192 · 1/10 · 6 July 2010]

I would like to share my son's review. He just turned 8 and dictated as his dad typed:

I just hate it so bad!!!

I'm a HUGE fan of the the cartoons. I have the whole series, including Water, Earth and Fire.

It was a HUGE disappointment because even by the time I saw the commercial, I knew it would be completely crushing!

I mean, the characters! Iroh was the greatest disappointment. He was not kind and wise enough. And also he was not old enough.

And why can't they say anyone's name right!???

I thought it was completely disrespectful to put the characters skin colors the opposite.

After the first twenty minutes of it I was bored already but I have to say the effects were decent.

And the Avatar did not have enough happiness in him! I think it's important to the movie. Aang is the main character of the movie, and he should at least get a little more happiness inside of him!

When I got home that night I had to watch the cartoon series for some time to completely forget about the movie!

And... actually, I'm watching it right now!

If anybody wanted to see this movie I would suggest they close their eyes and ears!!!

*********************

Dad's two cents:

My son became interested in Avatar the Last Air Bender, the animated series at age 4.

I bought him the entire series on DVD as soon as the episodes were available and he and I devoured every episode, again and again.

Compared to the magnificently crafted animated series, I'd have to say the live action movie was an abysmal embarrassment, a sophomoric and vapid display of ignorance.

Go rent or buy the animated series instead. I think it's some of the best fiction ever written for children. It's incredible. It's an epic parable dealing with sophisticated philosophical, cultural, emotional and spiritual issues which have plagued human civilization since the emergence of reason. And it does it with lightheartedness and joy. The theme deals with no less than issues of greed, power, spirituality, and the formation of identity and moral values. It grapples with the ideals of pacifism. It teaches teamwork, compassion, empathy and humility. It exemplifies wisdom and the appreciation of art, nature and connectedness - connectedness to each other, to nature, to animals, to the universe, and emphasizes detachment from possession. The story line traverses goofy playfulness, tween and young teen crushes and love, family power dynamics, friendship, mental illness, and gut wrenching loss. And it's an incredible primer for Eastern spiritual ideals and mythology.

But these things can't be achieved effectively without superb craftsmanship. So beautifully wrought is this story that the fun, action and struggles are adeptly punctuated with moving poignancy.

The live action version is NONE of these things. No insight, no depth of character, only the most cursory references of some of the core thematic values of the animated series, and those done so poorly as to come off as just... pathetically trite.

The thing I find most upsetting regarding the failure of this movie to deliver is that the original animated series covers all of what I find to be the best of Eastern culture, and we Westerners need to understand these things in this global community. Buddhist and Confucian ideals and philosophies are front and center and, in my mind, are the greatest gifts the East has to offer the world, and the very things that are most clearly in danger of vanishing in the face of the West's insignificant obsession with material gain and conspicuous consumption.

And another thing, too. It's typical that this story was handled on the level it was - dismissively. Adults appear to be largely disinterested in the profound turmoil in which children are engaged as they enter their teens. They are forming their value systems, they are trying to reconcile reality with fantasy and desire. They are trying to find the balance between selfishness and empathy. They are finding what it means to be themselves, members of a community, and a species on the planet. They are in agony grappling with issues we were happy to leave behind. But these struggles are never truly resolved, and our ideas of who we are and how we fit in the world cannot remain fixed, and, yet, when they are challenged, we adults consider ourselves to be in a state of crisis, when that is the perpetual state of being of a young teen. And I would argue it's a state of flux that we should never leave, that we should always be questioning ourselves, our figures of authority, and our place in the world and in relation to those around us. I do not see these struggles as juvenile, but human, and the animated series brings all these struggles to mind. Sadly, the movie did little to bring the richness of these struggles to life.

In my most critical mood, I would say this failure is deeply offensive to my sensibilities as a human being.

But on the other hand, not everyone has the depth of vision and creative genius to pull off what admittedly would be a very challenging feat. I just wish I could see what David Lean could have done with this story.

Bad as an adaptation, bad as a film

[Citoyen · 1/10 · 1 July 2010]

Shyamalan takes a stunningly sophisticated cartoon and reduces it to one of the most insultingly dumb films I've seen in years. From the script to the visuals, the directing, the acting, there is absolutely nothing that did well, either as an adaptation or as a film in its own right.

Characters who were once powerful and spitfire (Katara) or entertainingly sarcastic (Sokka) are now bland and exist solely for the purpose of exposition. In fact, the entire film comes off as exposition, far too much of the dialog serving as "by the way" explanations, never allowing the plot or characters to really take form. The scenes seem episodic and unconnected, and the film never comfortably establishes its universe, always retreading with an "as you know" or "aren't you that guy who..." to establish (often unnecessary) continuity.

The style, too, is disappointing, capturing none of the magic of the series. Most noticeable was the "bending"--while the series took its martial arts seriously, carefully aligning real-world arts with elements and making the benders' movements coincide with those of their elements, the film gives us characters flailing in generic martial arts forms for a few minutes, only to effect one splash, boulder, or blast of fire. In the series, every movement had a meaning; in the film, only about one in ten does.

Many fans of the series who were angry at the "whitewashing" of the cast hoped that it had at least resulted in the best actors for the parts. However, the acting was at best uninspired, and at worst painfully awkward, though part of this can be attributed to a truly atrocious script. Dialog is stilted and unnatural, certain phrases are repeated needlessly throughout ("great library," anyone?), and in all the only chance the script stands of being remembered is through memetic appreciation of its unintentional, awkward hilarity.

Not even the collective will of a devoted fanbase wanting so much for this film to be good could make it even remotely watchable.

A disgrace to an amazing series

[brkam · 1/10 · 30 May 2020]

When I first heard that nickelodeon was going to release a movie based on the Avatar series, I was beyond excited and thought, what could go wrong? However, when I found out that M. Night Shyamalan was writing and directing this movie by himself, I became skeptical due to his inconsistency with past movies he has directed. As it turns out, I was right, because this film is appalling and truly an insult to the original cartoon.

It is clear that Shyamalan wanted to make changes to the movie because his directing style usually involves twists and turns. However, the changes made in this movie were downright unnecessary and took away from the movie's overall connection to the series. First off, they pronounce many of the characters' names wrong in the movie, which just felt unnatural and pointless. This is only the least of the many problems with this film, however. Another huge problem was the acting and writing. It seems as if Shyamalan took the worst actors he could find, directed them to deliver their lines in the cringiest way possible, and gave them lines that a 5 year old could have written. Sokka being the prime example, as he was gloomy and bland, delivering no clever lines, as opposed to sarcastically charming in the show.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this film is that there is no depth and emotion, which was what made the show so great in the first place. Throughout the entire movie, there are instances that set up what could be an emotional scene, like when Princess Yue sacrifices her life to save the moon spirit, or when Aang visits the air temple and sees all his past relatives. However, these moments just result in more explaining of the story with no charm or emotion to be found.

Finally, the special effects were atrocious. For a high budget movie involving bending of the elements of Earth, it should be guaranteed that it has top tier special effects. But that is not the case. The special effects are very lazily done to the point where the water doesn't even look remotely real. The worst part however, is the Earth bending. The cartoon showcased how powerful Earth benders can be, moving large quantities of rock in an epic fashion. However, there is a scene in the movie where 6 Earth benders attack by throwing one, yes ONE rock.

This movie is a huge disappointment and it's a shame that this is the last that fans of the series received when a season 4 could've been made.

Lazy lazy and utterly predictable

[angel-591 · 26 September 2010]

No story, no history, absolutely dreadful script and acting that is frankly despicable. You can't write. You can't make up a world arbitrarily with no fleshing or effort. The Happening and Lady in the Water were terrible. This is much worse.

Shame on you you lazy lazy man. The talent is there. Your ego is simply unable to get past it. Go away and let someone hungry and brave who doesn't live in a fantasy world in their own nether-regions produce something.

You owe me my ticket and the complete waste of one and a half hours of my life. Tosser

Extremely Entertaining!

[miscellaneous411 · 7/10 · 5 July 2010]

As someone who just wanted to see this film purely from the captivating trailers, I was definitely not disappointed. No, I've never seen the series, so my review is purely one of THE FILM as just that - a film. And I, my husband, and my sister (we are all adults,) LOVED it.

The cinematography was truly stunning - the CGI water effects were magnificent! The fight scenes were also very well choreographed (especially the one with Aang and the "Blue Spirit,") and the Tai Chi based forms were gracefully fluid. The boy's technique was spot on!

The action was very well done without going over the top, and the dramatic aspects stemming from the various relationships is extremely intriguing. The relationships: between the father/son, the uncle/nephew, and especially the one between Aang and Prince Zuko - they are all wonderfully illustrated and executed, creating the right amount of tension, give, and conflict.

We were so pleased with this film's ending and are happily waiting for the sequel! For those of you out there, like us, who do NOT watch this cartoon series (the adult population out there) GO SEE THIS FILM. You will be taken away from your everyday life into a time and place beyond your wildest dreams, and you WILL be entertained.

glad i didn't pay

[wazzaa-1 · 1/10 · 29 May 2011]

To say this film is a mess is an understatement but watch the original series then this and you'll understand why every fan hates this movie.

important plot sequences are left out and one of the most important characters avatar Roku isn't even there, not that it had to be a scene by scene remake of the cartoon to be good, but i don't see how they expect to do another movie with so Many gaps in the story, in this movie Aang or unng as he's miscalled should have the power to defeat the fire nation by himself now after the north pole victory, in the cartoon he merged with the ocean spirit something he couldn't repeat.

and thats just the tip of the iceberg, apart from plot holes there's bad acting terrible special fx and it's in 3D which i hate in Any movie don't waste your time it sucks.

blame the director M Night Shyamalan i do, anyone els could have done better.

If you are a big fan of Avatar the last air bender series, then don't watch this You will be annoyed from the beginning.

Greatest movie of all time cinematic masterpiece

[HaydenLuffy · 10/10 · 4 March 2024]

Very good movie I liked the dance scenes especially the really long one where nothing happened at the northern water tribe, or the massive wave that oong made to scare off the fire benders. I also really like the camera work I loved getting all up in oong nostrils. I also really liked the earthbending where all the earth benders danced to move a tiny rock. I also loved how they showed so much family in the fire nation where the fire benders had a massive feast. Absolute cinematic masterclass, would absolutely recommend, about to watch the animated show, can't see how it'll be greater then this, can't wait to see more oong and the rest of team Avatar.

Torn in Two.

[fantasyfilmsman · 7/10 · 30 June 2010]

Let me just say I'm not the big Avatar fan like my son and daughter are but I am aware of the show and have seen some episodes so when I sat down for the screening I really didn't have any expectations. So I am coming at this movie not as a raging fan but a fan of film and there are elements of the film that I really liked and others that I did not. First the bad. The child actor who played Aang was really not that good, but also the script for him was also not very good. Stilted dialog will do that and it really is a shame because the bending parts and martial art scenes the kid is quite good. The other two kid actors are really not given much to do, the girl is so-so and her brother looked like he could have done something with the role but for the most part was relegated to the back. Also there are some continuity gaps in the film that kinda make you go huh? Plus and this is a good-bad thing the movie only runs about 90min and I truly would have liked to see the movie run a little longer. There are some great scenes with the Firebender banished prince and his uncle and a scene with Saka and the princess about her blonde hair that makes you look at the screen and go yes, but then there are parts where the film is rushed to get to the action. And now the good. I'm glad to say the action in the movie is really well done. The SFX are very good and very organic so they don't stand out at you and go look FX. Also the action isn't all cut up MTV style. M.Night chose to film some of the action in long full shot takes and I truly enjoyed those elements. As for fans of the show I think it will be a mixed bag. I think the movie should have used Asian actors and dealt with the relationships more but on the whole if I could I'd really give this movie a 6.5. It's one of those movies that could have been really good, but just misses the mark. Plus save your money and if you see it see it in 2D. The 3D adds nothing.

The Last (time I pay to see an M. Night Shyamalan movie) Airbender

[LionessFeathers · 2/10 · 30 June 2010]

After waiting extremely eagerly for this movie, I sat in the theater and was extremely eager for it to END. Ear-oh? Oong? Soak-ah?! Could they have butchered the names anymore than they did? Worse, the entire movie felt like a string of clips put together for an hour and a half and not like a movie at all. All the major parts of the Book of Water were skimmed over, while things like the freeing of the earth nation village (while important) were given screen time that could have been given to major events like the southern air temple.

The actors were dismal, with the exception of Dev Patel as Zuko and to a lesser extent Shaun Toub as Iroh, who wasn't an accurate portrayal of Iroh visually but at least captured the character's wisdom much better than many of the other actors on board for the movie. He however failed to provide many of the aspects of Iroh that made him endearing in the series.

I will give that the northern water kingdom was gorgeous, but that's about all I have to say kindly about this movie.

If you love Avatar: The Last Airbender as the series, I recommend giving this movie a miss. It's heartbreaking how they butchered something that had such fantastic and barely needing change source material.

$150 million dollar disappointment

[ofvanityandwax · 1/10 · 2 July 2010]

I went into the movie knowing it would not be even a fraction as good as the real show. However, I didn't know that would make me literally want to leave the theater in the middle of the very movie. How someone could do such damage in approximately an hour and forty minutes is entirely beyond me. It was ridiculous, the only way to describe it is a $150 million dollar failure. I could understand if the effects were not up to par but the biggest disappointment was the acting. It was so stiff and it never once felt like the actors meant a word they were saying. I caught a glimpse of an interview with Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone on TV and even their approach to that felt so wrong. It felt kind of disgusting to see as I've lately been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (with extras) almost religiously for the past month.

The script in itself should have been tossed into the garbage and burnt and it's remains locked away so that no one would ever have to suffer looking at such garbage. That's why I'm not really sure if it's the actors or the script that's really to blame for the atrocious "movie" that's resulted. The long and, I'm assuming this what they were going for, "inspirational" speeches merely consisted of crudely strung together clichés and the language left much to be desired. I found myself almost twitching at the phrase (something along the lines) "You guys are AWESOME people!"...

What I find the be so incredibly amazing is how someone could honestly fail to such a proportion when they literally have a blue print already created. The fans know how the characters look and sound and while I understand that no one fits the package perfectly one out of two would be better than nothing. As well, suddenly deciding to change the pronunciation of the characters name is definitely not the best idea, while I do understand that he wanted the names to sound like their Asian origin, it didn't go over well and the whole time I was just cringing at the mere mention of Aang and Sokka's names.

This movie does not hold a candle to the original show. Heck, it should be retitled as it is hardly resembles the original in any way shape or form. While I do realize that not all episodes can be featured, the sequence of events just left you feeling awkward and confused. I, also, loathed the way they worked the bending in like it took five minutes of moving ones hands around awkwardly before any actual bending occurred. Most of the fighting was like fifteen minutes of martial arts with like the occasional bit of air bending and a little water being splashed around.

There was nothing to love in this movie not even the most adorable of characters such as Momo. Momo had literally what three minutes in the entire movie which I found extremely depressing as Momo was always one of the characters I just wanted to cuddle because of his adorable mannerisms but in the movie I had no love for the digitized Momo. Not even Appa was interesting.

This movie leaves me hoping and praying that M. Night Shyamalan goes broke and is black listed so that he can't ruin the series even more so. This is definitely something you will spend some time just trying to forget.

M. Night Shameonyouman.....

[FlashCallahan · 1/10 · 13 January 2011]

Wow.

In the years of movie-going i have endured, every year there is one film that gets damned by the critics and film goers alike (Battlefield Earth, The Avengers), ans i have always found them rather endearing.

The dreadful scripts, the hammy acting and the non-existent narrative all make a bad movie....somewhat appealing.

So I was sadistically looking forward to this movie. And despite the fact I found the movie the funniest i've seen in a while (the word bender is slang for homosexual where I am from), it's truly a monstrosity of a turkey.

Because i've never seen the animated series it's based on, I thought it was because of this, but as an hour felt like a week, it was the dire pacing and story Shyalaman has chucked at the screen.

I have never seen a director fall from such spectacular grace, like this man has.

Ten years ago, his films were sometihng that would awe-inspire the masses, now, he has made himself a laughing stock.

The film makes no sense at all, and we are forced to watch some of the worst acting and badly choreographed fight scenes ever to grace such a high budgeted event movie.

The effects are okay, but effects do not make a movie, and going from one set piece to another, watching fire fight ice and wind, isn't entertaining.

Massive Disappointment. Just Terrible.

[festizio13 · 1/10 · 30 June 2010]

I went to see the Midnight showing of The Last Airbender tonight. I am a huge fan of the series and had been awaiting this movie for months. I understood that this was to be a children's movie, but the series was for children as well and I loved that. What could go wrong? This movie was a cinematic abomination. The entire movie, which covers the first "Book" of the series is rushed together and jumps around in a totally nonsensical manner. There is absolutely NO time spent on characterization. None of the characters had any depth at all and may as well have been cardboard cutouts. Major plot points are summarized through narration or montage and the film would leave any person not familiar with the story absolutely dumbfounded. With all of my heart I discourage you from seeing this movie. Go see Karate Kid. Go see Killers. Go see (I cannot believe I am saying this) Eclipse. Just stay away from this movie.

Yes, it really is that bad

[timgneher · 1/10 · 1 July 2010]

I walked into this movie with pretty low expectations. I didn't expect something as good as the cartoon, I didn't expect a perfect adaptation. I expected some glitzy action sequences, cheap emotional ploys, just some fun summer fair.

What did I get? A movie so indescribably horrible I can only shake my head in bewilderment. Believe the critics. The writing sucks, the acting is stiff, the pacing clumsy, the 3-D beyond bad, the overall tone way too dark and brooding. Not much here is salvageable.

Obviously Shyamalan got completely caught up in the mythology of the world and missed the fact that what made the original cartoon so great were the CHARACTERS. Of which there are none in this film.

But really, even just a competently produced film would have been nice. And it almost was. The music was great. The special effects looked amazing, I don't care what anyone says. The fighting was cool. The sets were adequately spectacular. Indeed, it appears the only one who didn't show up for work was Shyamalan. While the adult actors manage to find their way somewhat on their own, the poor kids are obviously lost without someone competently leading them, they spend most of the film in a bewildered daze. Even some of the background extras acted awkwardly. But of course, there are no real survivors of Shyamalan's CLUNKER of a script. I can't believe someone didn't stop this guy. There were maybe two scenes that didn't sound awkward, and they had no dialog. I don't think any film has ever been such a disaster due to one man's gross ineptitude.

Such a shame. It could have been so good.

Shyamalan Should Be Ashamed

[chicagorob1 · 17 July 2011]

I read a number of the negative IMDb reviews about this adoption of the original cartoon series. I wasn't going to bother adding to the pile.

Until I watched this on Netflix. Then I just had to say something concerning this pathetic movie. Simply stated: Shyamalan should lose his SAG and director's membership cards.

This film was a failure on so many levels and in so many aspects, it defies logic. Especially in light of the incredible source material available to him.

• Noah Ringer as Ang (Aaauunng?) is completely out of his depth. He is frankly a terrible actor and his portrayal has NONE of the charm, humor and innocence of the Airbender. The only thing he does is Tai Chai, which is far from enough to justify his casting. After getting the part Ringer even had to go to acting school, but it looks like he skipped a lot of classes.

• Entire sections of the story are skipped or glossed over using cheesy voice-overs and montages.

• Shyamalan changed the pronunciation of the characters names, to "honor the source material"? Airbender was created by a couple Americans named DiMartino and Konietzko. What source material was he looking at?

Along with many other shortsighted, clueless and plainly stupid decisions, Airbender just proves Shyamalan is extremely limited as a director and producer.

An excellent adaptation of a wonderful television show!

[coco-is-mine · 7/10 · 5 July 2010]

Hi! I would like to start off by saying that I watched the Last Airbender during it's original run on T.V. and loved it!

When the show officially ended I found myself wishing that it wouldn't. After all: I had grown to love the characters. Why would I want to say goodbye?

When the Last Airbender came to theaters I looked it up and read the reviews. My expectations were dropped in the mud.

80% or so rated it as being somewhere between totally heretical and just plain abysmal. You can imagine my disappointment.

Even after that stark dose of reality I was hopeful and so with a cloud over my head I ventured to my local cinema to experience either an extreme disaster or a surprising revival of a loved cartoon. Thankfully the latter met me at the theater.

I've not seen any of Shyamalan's other films so I don't know how to rate it against them but on It's own I give it a 7 out of 10.

I thoroughly enjoyed the acting (even though it was a little substandard at times), the humor, the choreography and the special effects. Nothing bad about any of it. I do, however feel that whoever gave the script the final O.K. should have gone through it again and given it a good streamlining. A few more pronouns would have gone a long way toward making it sound more intelligent.

The changed pronunciation of some the names didn't bother me much. After all, America is one of the few (if not the only) countries in the world that actually uses the hard 'A' sound. How likely would it be that they would in the Last Airbender universe?

All in all I think the movie accomplished very nicely what it set out to do. It took a whole season of a hit cartoon show and condensed it down to just under 2 hours.

If they had chosen to make it twenty minutes longer they could have worked in some more character development and made the segue from scene to scene less abrupt.

All in all, it is a highly enjoyable movie that I - a stead fast fan of the original series - would love to watch again.

If you choose to see it I recommend doing so with an open mind and perhaps this thought in the back of your head: No adaptation is ever the same as the original work. Otherwise, what would be the point?

M.Night Shyamalan should be ashamed....

[LunaRaven · 1/10 · 30 June 2010]

M.Night.Shyamalan ought to be ashamed of himself. I went to the midnight premier of the Last Airbender as a hopeful long time fan of the wonderful animated series. Less than thirty minutes into the feature however I realized that my hopes would be dead on the ground by the time the movie ended.

Over the past few months this film has been surrounded by controversy. The casting choices have caused accusations of racism to be leveled and many fans were left feeling disappointed months before the film even premiered. Now, I don't think M.Night Shyamalan is a racist. I don't know him well enough to make such a slanderous claim. Would I have preferred that the characters in the movie had appeared as the fans had come to know them over the past five years? Of course. However at the heart of Avatar fans, I don't think changing the appearances of certain nations was a racial issue. Simply put, I think people just wanted the characters to look the way they were supposed to look. However, had this movie been written well and had the acting been terrific, changing the appearances of the nations wouldn't have mattered. Because at its heart the story of Avatar is a human story with strong themes of redemption and forgiveness. I think people would have been able to look past their disgruntlement and see the beauty of the story. That is, if the movie had been well written. And I'm sorry to say, it was not.

Naturally, it was always going to be difficult to condense over eight hours worth of animated material into two-hours of movie. How do you choose what goes and what stays in a series where almost everything is interconnected? It was a daunting task indeed. But successful adaption of books, television series, and even video games have been done before. If the works of Tolkien, the master of intricate detail, could be adapted into a series that left a decent amount of his life long fans pleased, surely Avatar: The Last Airbender could be adapted with the same success. Unfortunately, this adaption was far from successful. In fact I think this movie officially joins the list of the most atrocious film adaptions, right along side of the horrendous Earthsea mini-series, the painful Eragon flop, and perhaps the even worse Dark is Rising catastrophe.

So where did this movie go wrong? The better question would be: where didn't it go wrong? The writing was horrendous. High school freshmen could probably manage to come up with a better screenplay. I'm not sure who gave Shyamalan permission to write this film, but whoever it was needs to formally apologize to the fans and to the people who wasted their money hoping to see something worthwhile. The direction was choppy—certain scenes made little sense, the camera lingered on other similarly senseless scenes, and at times the camera angles were difficult to follow. The lighting in the film was too dark throughout and when color was added, it was in too much excess. Overall, there was a lack of balance and cohesion in the way this movie was filmed. The plot was a mess. People who weren't familiar with the series would have been left lost, and people who were familiar with the series were left confused. Certain characters that were supposed to do things didn't, lines weren't said when they should have been said, and elements of the plot were just erased entirely. There was no Avatar Roku, only a dragon spirit that may have been an attempt at Fang, but a very bad one. There was no Omashu, no Kiyoshi warriors, there were no refugees at the northern air temple and Aang never attempted to master fire bending. In fact, in the movie he was too timid to learn water bending, which fans know to be a fallacy. And the characters that were featured were not only acted and written poorly, but many of them modeled new pronunciations of their names. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this. Perhaps the changes in pronunciation were more accurate. Even if that was the case, they never should have strayed from the pronunciations in the series. Fans grew accustomed to a certain way of a saying and hearing a name. To change the pronunciations only led to confusion and distastes. I heard many people in the theatre around me growling in frustration every time Aang was pronounced "Ah-ng".

I won't get into my dislike of the graphics in detail. Appa and Momo were fairly horrendous, the bending was decent but done incorrectly(actors had to make a hell of a lot of movement for anything to happen, whereas in the series each movement corresponds to the movement of the elements), and the 3D was pointless.

Overall, I'd give this movie a 0 out of 10. Fans of the series, don't waste your money. People who are not fans and areconsidering giving this film a chance, use the money you would have spent on the ticket to rent the first season at the nearest video store.

Shame about the acting, but I can forgive it for a fantastic attempt.

[acorok · 9/10 · 12 August 2010]

I am the biggest fan of the Avatar series and was looking forward to this greatly. Although it disappointed in some ways, it was still based on such a strong storyline I couldn't not find this entertaining, especially compared to such a duff as Sorceror's Apprentice? Yes, the 3 MCs were truly dreadful, but the Texan kid who played Aang was clearly hired for his fighting skills and he had his moments of emotion, unlike the two I have to assume more experienced Water Tribe kids. Re-cast them and it would've been an entirely different movie. It can't compare to the series, because a film doesn't have the luxury of cliffhangers, but it still contained a hell of a lot of detail from an incredible action packed series. They've captured what had to be shown well and ignored the rest, which is rare from a TV to big screen conversion. I'd even forgotten some parts from the show that were in this movie, like the Blue Spirit an the assassination attempt on Zuko. Yes, the annoying Katara's voice-over was irritating, lacklustre and with more tell than show, and the dialogue was tired, but then there was so much in this film they had to pace it quickly, so I can forgive this. Later, there's so much action going on that you barely notice the bad acting anymore and that's this film's strength. It ends on a high.

The important thing for me was my favourite characters, the Fire Nation guys, were great. I was dreading Zuko and Iroh's casting, as they weren't anything like they're portrayed in the cartoon, but they really worked, and were the best actors/characters in it, making the best of a bad script. They were different, but captured the essence of the characters; Zuko was almost immediately likable as a secondary protagonist and Iroh was even more gentle than his TV counterpart, with the movie not having the luxury to build up their complex characters.

The 3D was a waste of time, as it only highlights the scenery, but that did add to the fantasy. The special effects were inspiring (much better than Sorceror's Apprentice), especially the animals which were unusually flawless (although Appa did have a weird, scary face). The fights scenes were impeccable, with the slow-mo scenes unusually good highlighting every amazing Avatar act.

This film's going to be hated by most because of its major flaws and, although I see what won't be liked, I'm such an Avatar fan I can see this film for its merits. I'm going to see this again and again, and I think it'll get even better. I can't wait for the other 2 films. I just hope they recast and polish up the script a bit to show Avatar to its full potential.

Doesn't deserve such a low rating.

[dingyblondegurl · 7/10 · 24 June 2022]

I came at this movie as someone who never seen the series so I'm not part of the cult following. But I understand cult movie and series followers. I am one of a few different ones.

The special effects were pretty good for the most part. The kid who plays the avatar is obviously gifted in martial arts and his innocent looks played well to the role of the Avatar IMO.

The story did seem to lull at times but overall it flowed well. The flashback scenes would have played better with more dialogue but that's not how M Knight does things so I get it.

I gave it a 7 for the special effects and the cast of gifted actors. I liked the movie overall and it's a shame that they didn't make more to show him mastering the last two elements. Had folks not reacted to M Knights interpretation of the story negatively it could have done so.

If you like fantasy martial arts and stories of good vs evil give this movie a chance.

Is it an exceptional film? No but it's not horrible either. Just approach it for what it is, an interpretation of a cult classic.

The most inept film-making I have seen in years

[MovieManPat · 1/10 · 1 July 2010]

The only thing I can really say about The Last Airbender is this: Epic Fail. Just how epic? Paramount Pictures gave M. Night Shyamalan $150 million dollars to adapt the popular Nickolodeon cartoon for the big screen. What they got is an absolute mess of a movie, complete with poor acting, the most hackneyed script ever, and a last-minute conversion to 3-D that only serves to destroys what was possibly some lush cinematography. The Last Airbender is perhaps the worst film of the summer, a feat I thought Jonah Hex had locked down. However, Airbender makes a determined effort. Let me put it this way, as good as Toy Story 3 was, Airbender is just as bad. It was hard to find anything wrong with Toy Story 3. It is nigh impossible to find anything right with Airbender. The story is ridiculously complex. In a world where people can manipulate (bend) the four elements of air, earth, fire and water, depending on their tribal affiliation, there exists a being (the Avatar) who can manipulate all four. This person is also the sole being capable of communing the the "spirit world" which serves to keep things in balance. This being went missing 100 years ago, only to be found in a giant ice sphere by two children of the water tribe. In the 100 years the Avatar has been gone, the Fire tribe has begun conquering the others, though we're never really told why. The disgraced Prince Zuko(Dev Patel, the Slumdog Millionaire himself) of the Fire tribe wants to the Avatar so he can return to his family. The Water children need to save the Avatar to ensure the Fire people don't win. For this point on it becomes to silly to try and summarize. Shyamalan succumbs to his own hubris, loading the film with long, boring exposition communicated through long, boring speeches that I'm sure were meant to be inspirational. Instead they are clichéd, burdensome mounds of words that only slow down an already languidly paced film. He heaps some unnecessary narration on top of the exposition, condescending to the audience as he does it. Perhaps the narration was put in to help the film's target audience, the prepubescent b0ys and girls who watch the cartoon, understand where this convoluted story is going. Sadly, it doesn't. The dialogue is so corny, it left me squirming a little. Also bothersome is the ham-fisted way Shyamalan expounded his themes, which seem to be responsibility, responsibility, and the horror of industry destroying nature (lifted with little change from the Lord of the Rings). Seriously, the Fire people sail their world's oceans in giant steel yachts that feature gigantic smokestacks over visible flame. These stacks spew out a never ending cloud of dark, ashy smoke. The metaphor could not be more clear had it just been printed as a subtitle across the screen. The acting is bad across the board. The child cast as Aan, the Avatar, Noah Ringer, a wooden child actor if there ever was one. He speaks his lines as if reciting them of a cue card just off screen. The two Water tribe children, Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) are no better. A colleague of mine I saw the film with noted that Rathbone seemed downright anxious every time he was on screen, delivering his lines tersely, with little emotion. The older actors just phone it in. The usually reliable Cliff Curtis looks bored stiff as the leader of the Fire people, while the main antagonist, a Fire general played by Aasif Mandvi, is neither menacing nor scary. He comes off as a schoolyard bully, all bluster and no balls. The only actor I found brought any sort of depth to his role was Shaun Toub (Yinsen from Iron Man). Playing Prince Zuko's Uncle Iroh, he's conflicted between his duty to the prince and his beliefs in the spirit world, something the Fire people have come to consider children's superstition. Perhaps the most egregious error of the movie is the 3-D conversion. 3-D tends to suck all the light out of the images it portends to display, leaving viewers with a murky picture where shadow and light blend together. There are no crisp lines in the film, no real detail. Which is a shame, as the film's setting should've been its biggest strength. The movie travels from an arctic campsite, where the whites should have popped against the bluish hues of the ice and water around it. When it travels to warmer climates, the greens and browns should have been awe-inspiring. It's not. It all looks faded. Much as with Clash of the Titans, the 3-D is barely noticeable throughout the film, and contributes nothing. I fear that Hollywood has cynically latched onto this fad for the high ticket price it commands rather than for any real artistic merit. My only relief was the movie was short, so I didn't get the usual headache 3-D movies tend to give me. I didn't expect much going into The Last Airbender. However, I didn't expect it to be quite so bad. It's like watching a train wreck unfold over 94 minutes. The problem is, that 94 minutes feels like an eternity. The end of the film hints at a sequel. I hope some divine being takes mercy on us all and never lets that happen.

This movie is an insult to the Avatar: The Last Airbender series

[ac-08401 · 1/10 · 5 August 2015]

First of all, the name pronunciations were off and horrid. Second, the actors didn't really match the characters. Third. What director in their right minds puts all three seasons in one movie? He could have done so much more by making three movies out of the three books. That way each movie could actually follow what the series made it out to be. As an avid ATLA viewer and a living fan, I'm insulted by the lack of respect to make this movie what it could have been. It should have followed the series to the T. It was all mapped out for him and he messed it up. It could have been amazing. It could have made the fan base proud. But it didn't. It should be burned. This movie is a disgrace. You failed, M. Night Shamylan.