Movie Review: The Last Airbender

So I just saw The Last Airbender and I thought to myself, "Self... why not review it?"

To preface this review, I have not yet watched through the original show. I have seen a few of the important episodes near the end of Season 1 and a couple other episodes from elsewhere in the series but I have seen enough to get the basic plot and a basic understanding of the characters. I am not going to spend time attempting to explain all of that at this time, however.

Plot:
This movie series is apparently going to follow the same format of the series as this first movie encompassed "Book 1: Water." Now, some may immediately see the red flag this raises. Yes, they did try to shove an entire season's worth of story into an hour and 43 minute movie. Because of this, parts of the story seemed very accelerated. The best example of this, although the most disappointing example at the same time, is the love story between Sokka (the brother from the Southern Water Tribe) and Princess Yue (princess of the Northern Water Tribe.) She is introduced once the main characters reach the Northern Water Tribe and then there is basically a time warp to sometime in the near future where Aang has pretty much finished all his water bending training and Sokka and Yue now have this relationship. In literally about the time it took you to read that.

Otherwise, as far as my limited knowledge goes, it stuck to the basic plot of the show. Aang's the Avatar who can master all the elements. The Fire Nation wants to control everything so they're the enemy, but Aang never did learn all the elements aside from his birth element of Air so he now has to go around and learn them all. It does kinda make sense, trust me.

Acting:
This was kind of a problem. But actually I'd go so far as to say it wasn't the acting that was inherently bad but the script writing. Sorry, I've never been much of an M. Night Shyamalan fan and that was one of my initial trepidations in the first place. In fact, considering the script and dialogue they all had to work with, I'm surprised the actors were able to do that well. The dialogue was often stale and unnatural; not unlike the dialogue in a silent movie occasionally.
(Ok fine, Sixth Sense was good, whatever.)

Effects:
This is basically what redeemed the movie. Some reviewers and people don't like when the visual effects machine is turned to high notches but I would submit, if it looks good, what does it matter? The fighting scenes in the movie were all fairly spectacular and the air, fire, water, and earth effects were definitely cool to look at. And for that matter, I never looked at the flying lemur thing or the floating buffalo thing and ever thought to myself, "that's some obvious CG animation on this thing." Everything, both the animals and the elements, all looked very good and very natural. I believe that will be crucial for the overall success of this movie because otherwise the veil of suspension of belief would be broken and then the bad script writing and whatever else would all become instantly more apparent and break the spell.

Also, I don't remember if in the show, the bending techniques involved that much kung-fu dancing but regardless, watching actual people do it seemed a little strange with the more elaborate motions.

There was one strange part regarding the visuals near the beginning of the film. Katara (the sister from the Southern Water Tribe) is practicing holding an orb of water that she pulls out of a stream or a brook or something and it drips at a rate that could practically be considered a "pour" yet the orb never loses any mass. You'll always see it whenever you watch it now.

I should also mention in this section that I did not see it in 3D. (That's a whole different rant.) I've never really had a good 3D experience that would make me want to have tried this movie in 3D but I think it might make some of the fights and scenery even cooler because the graphics were already so good. But I don't think it's necessary.

Closing:
Having gone in with somewhat low expectations, I found the movie fairly enjoyable. I think fans of the original show will be able to enjoy it but might stick to it that the show was better. I'll eventually get around to watching the show and will post a comparison. I don't have a scoring system or anything like that set up yet so for now I would recommend it if you're a fan of the show, are looking for a movie with some cool visual fights, or if there's nothing immediately better playing. I don't regret seeing it but I'm also glad I paid the cheapest admission price.

I've seen worse.