The Last Air Bender

Cool idea!

An M. Night Shyamalam film; up to now he’s taken our world and changed it slightly. In this movie he’s created a whole new world.

The idea was filled with great possibilities! I mean how very awesome would it be to have the power to control one of the elements: fire, water, earth and air... Can you imagine a world in which certain people were born with that ability? And what if there was one person, a sort of deity, that could control them all? It would be his job to create balance in this universe. What if he disappeared?

The story plot was as old as time but it is a classic. The problem I had was that the telling of it was sketchy. Not what I’ve come to expect from M. Night Shyamalan. It felt like he didn’t know how to tell you in the film what was going on (which I’ve rewritten it in my head and I believe it would have been easier than he perceived). However he chose narration to bring the audience up to speed. This gave me the impression of the whole thing being rushed and I was unable to make any great attachments to the characters.

Apart from the story being sketchy, and feeling like I could care less to the characters until over half way through the film, the rest was well done.

The actors did a very fine job. Noah Ringer who plays our ‘last air bender’ was fascinating to watch. Nicola Peltz who plays Katara had a sweet and naive presence that was perfect for her character. Jackson Rathbone playing Sokka the protective brother – you’d never know that his last performance was the most volatile of the Cullans. Prince Zoko, played by Dev Patel was dark with heart.

Everyone did their best to be the character that was created for them. It’s too bad that the story had so many holes that it was hard to see this.

As for the special effects – there really isn’t much that we can’t do today. Everything looked real enough, in this imaginary world. The fight scenes were over the top (I haven’t decided if I think this is good or bad). Elements flying all about, mixed in with martial arts... It was interesting enough.

I think the film will capture the hearts of most people simply because the idea is inspiring and the film is visually dazzling. But I was disappointed because I think it could have been SO much better!!!

My rating is 3 stars.

Until next escape,

Aviva B.