I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing “The Last Airbender,” but parts of the trailer did interest me. The film is based on the popular Nickelodeon animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” I haven’t seen the series, so I was going into the theatre cold.
The film centers on a young boy named Aang, played by Noah Ringer, who has the power to control the elements: air, fire, earth and water. He is an Avatar who must master control of all the elements. Aang ran away from his Avatar duties because he wanted a regular life with a family – something he could never have as an Avatar. Now he’s limited in his element skills and can only control air. Aang must seek out those who are masters in the elements to fulfill his destiny.
Of course, there has to be evil, and that evil is in the form of the Fire Nation, which wants to control everything on Earth. There is Zuko, a disgraced prince from the Fire Nation, played by Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”), who is trying to capture Aang, the last airbender, so he can return to the good graces of his father, Fire Lord Ozai, played by Cliff Curtis.
Along the journey, Aang become friends with Katana (Nicola Peltz), who has the ability to control water, and her brother Sokka, who’s played by Jackson Rathbone of “Twilight: Eclipse”.
Most fantasy stories have a princess. This film has one of the most beautiful ones in films to date with Princess Yue, played by Seychelle Gabriel (“The Spirit”). She has white hair and really deep blue eyes. The back story of Princess Yue is very original and deals with the moon.
All in all, the fight scenes in “The Last Airbender” are nothing we haven’t seen before, but they fit the story and are not over the top. They are very Matrix (without flying bullets) but physically graceful.
The movie is filmed on an epic scale with beautiful locations shots. The CGI effects -- especially of fire -- were good.
“The Last Airbender” is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who directed “The Sixth Sense.” But other of his films, like “Lady In The Water” and “The Happening,” have had a hard time at the box office.
“The Last Airbender” was a little confusing for me, but the movie used a lot of flashbacks to explain who the characters were and what their roles in the story are.
The mythology of the story is interesting and makes me wonder where the story is going next. The film is definitely setup for a sequel. But it isn’t yet clear if fans will want to bend their wallets for another “The Last Airbender” film.
Edited by Michele Ristich Gatts
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