2 stars out of 4
The world is divided into four kingdoms, each represented by the element they harness, and peace has lasted throughout the realms of Water, Air, Earth, and Fire under the supervision of the Avatar, a link to the spirit world and the only being capable of mastering the use of all four elements. When young Avatar Aang disappears, the Fire Nation launches an attack to eradicate all members of the Air Nomads to prevent interference in their future plans for world domination. 100 years pass and current Fire Lord Ozai continues to conquer and imprison anyone with elemental "bending" abilities in the Earth and Water Kingdoms, while siblings Katara and Sokka from a Southern Water Tribe find a mysterious boy trapped beneath the ice outside their village. Upon rescuing him, he reveals himself to be Aang, Avatar and last of the Air Nomads. Swearing to protect the Avatar, Katara and Sokka journey with him to the Northern Water Kingdom in his quest to master "Waterbending" and eventually fulfill his destiny of once again restoring peace to the world. But as they inch nearer to their goal, the group must evade Prince Zuko, the exiled son of Lord Ozai, Commander Zhao, the Fire Nation's military leader, and the tyrannical onslaught of the evil Fire Lord himself.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0938283/plotsummary
Now let me preface by saying I’ve never seen ANY of the Airbender cartoons so this review comes from that point of view. I’m starting to wonder about this so-called summer blockbuster season. There have been a handful of movies where the trailer has looked REALLY GOOD and then you find out that the movie doesn’t live up to what you expect. Some perfect examples have been Prince of Persia, Clash of the Titans, Iron Man 2 and now add The Last Airbender into the mix. Again, what looks so good in the trailer doesn’t translate onto the big screen. To me, Hollywood is losing a battle that they better turn around or viewers will cut back on their movie going experiences.
The Last Airbender has a lot of potential (just like the other 3 movies I referred to), but this film falls short where the other ones don’t...acting! I can’t remember the last time where I saw a movie where just about every character forgot what they learned in acting class. This was the biggest problem with this movie, which says a lot because the plot was pretty choppy as well. When you have bad acting and a poor plot it’s tough to enjoy a movie like this even when the special effects and fight sequences were pretty good.
Watching this movie I found myself dozing off a few times because I just wasn’t into it. I’ve seen almost every movie M. Night Shyamalan has made and to be honest I’ve really enjoyed 2 of them (The Sixth Sense and Signs) and the rest of the ones I’ve seen (The Village, Unbreakable and Lady In The Water) were average movies that I liked but wasn’t overly ecstatic about them. This movie probably was at the bottom of all the movies he’s done and I’m wondering if he is committing theatrical suicide. Mr. Shyamalan needs to hit the reset button and if he decides to make the second Airbender movie then I hope he does so by doing us all a favor and forcing every single cast member to go back to “Acting 101” class.
Like Clash of the Titans, this movie was not shot with 3D cameras and they made the conversion after the movie was filmed. Fortunately I didn’t see this movie in 3D and from what I’ve heard it’s not visually good in 3D.
Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!
Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 1
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 2
Would I buy the movie? 1
"The Last Airbender" is rated PG for violent action and imagery (elemental attacks, martial-arts battles, fiery and explosive mayhem, as well as violence against women and children). Running time: 103 minutes.
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