The Last Airbender

I’m sure director, writer and producer M. Night Shyamalan tried, but the film of the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender isn’t really that great. It has some good spots, but not enough unfortunately.

Simply called The Last Airbender to avoid confusion with the recent blockbuster, this film is available in both flat and 3d screens. With the 3d added at the last minute, you can guess which I saw.

The cartoon and this film concern nations of people who can control, or “bend” the elements of fire, water, earth and air. The Fire Nation, led by Fire Lord Ozai is out to conquer the world. Having reduced the Airbenders to the brink of extinction, they set their sights on the other two nations.

Two kids from the Water Tribe, Sokka and his sister Katara accidentally free young Aang from a century-long slumber in an Iceberg. It turns out Aang is the titular last Airbender and the Avatar, the one bender that controls them all and thus, the one who can thwart Ozai. But since Aang’s skills in the other three elements are nil, our heroes must get him trained immediately.

This film’s fatal flaw is that it plays out as a plot summary of the first season of the cartoon. It skims through important events and leaves character development second. It’s mainly the secondary characters that ultimately suffer, although the leads get their share of it.

This film also violates the rule of show, don’t tell. Instead of showing, for instance, how Aang got frozen, Katara’s narration simply states, paraphrased, “Aang ran away and got frozen.” Those two aren’t the same.

Among the bright spots in the film is the score, provided by James Newton Howard, which helps the battle scenes. The production and costume designs should also be mentioned for their fine use of color. And the elementally-aided fight scenes are also nicely done.

In the cartoon, the Avatar is continuously reborn after death into newer lives. Let’s just hope the next incarnation is better thought out.