The Last Airbender Movie Review

The Last Airbender (2010)

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Written by: M. Night Shyamalan
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Cliff Curtis
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
A young successor to a long line of mystical Avatars, Aang, must master all four elements and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom.

Verdict
Adaptations can be difficult, and this movie feels like every other scene was cut to shorten the length. If you haven't seen the show, I don't know if you'd get anything out of this. This show provides a basis of understanding, and while the live-action movie looks the part, it moves way too quickly to develop the characters or any big moments. Having seen the series and knowing what this should be helps me appreciate the goal but without the show I'd like the movie even less. I don't like it much as is.
Skip it.

Review
I had read reviews for this prior to watching and none of them were good. Despite that, after watching the series I decided to watch the movie anyway. The movie looks the part, but condensing the first season of the series into a movie doesn't work. Originally the movie was going to get two sequels for the second and third season, but the unpopularity of this movie curtailed that.

Just fifteen minutes in and this has covered a lot of ground. I don't think I'd know what's going on if I hadn't seen the show. It really feels like scenes are missing, and this makes the story feel rushed. This is a longer movie shortened to fit a time slot. The original script was roughly three hours long before it was cut. The final film had thirty minutes cut to rush a 3-d retrofit.

Noah Ringer plays Aang.

This is a world where different tribes are based on the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air. Some members of each tribe possess the ability to bend, to control elements.
Aang is the Avatar, the hero to unite all four tribes. The fire nation has attacked the other three tribes to gain power and stop the Avatar. To do this they have killed anyone with bending ability.

Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz play Sokka and Katara.

Aang is aided by Sokka and Katara, siblings who find him, unknowingly unfreezing after he's been asleep for a hundred years. Zuko is a fire nation prince trying to apprehend Aang in an effort to regain his honor. The plot sounds great, but there's a lot of information to digest in a short period.

Dev Patel plays Prince Zuko.

This is a mash up of key scenes from the show with very little character development in between. If you haven't seen the show I don't think you'd get anything from this.

The actors and production looks like the animated series come to life, but they don't have the development that we need to connect with them. This has the look, that's about it. The CGI heavy fights aren't bad, as we see the characters battle using elements. It looks a lot like a choreographed dance, and that's not a complaint.