It’s a shame that M. Night Shyamalan didn’t do so well in the critic department with his new summer film, “The Last Airbender.” It’s also a shame that I have to join those critics and pretty much slam the 3D flick the way the rest of them did.
As a huge fan of the original Nickelodeon cartoon, I had to say I was disappointed. Even if I had never seen an episode of the cartoon before, it would only have made it better by a minuscule margin.
The film begins with waterbender Katara and her brother Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe out on the tundra fishing. They stumble upon a giant iceberg with a young boy in inside. They also discover an enormous flying bison who the boy calls Appa. Later they discover that Aang is the long lost Avatar, master of all four elements and the last hope in the fight against the ruthless Fire Nation.
After their village is attacked by Prince Zuko (son of Fire Lord Ozai) and his fleet, Katara and Sokka vow to help Aang get to the North Pole to master waterbending. Since this isn’t explained in the film, I’ll do the honors myself; Aang must master all four elements in a certain order based on the Avatar cycle — water first, then earth, followed by fire.
The Avatar is born into each of these nations in turn — the Avatar before Aang was Roku, a firebender. Not only do they not explain this, but they also left out the fact that each nation corresponds to a season and that’s why the order is set this way; water is winter, earth is spring, fire is summer and air is fall. Fire and water are natural opposites, as are earth and air. Aang finds earthbending the hardest but we find this out much later in the series.
One more big piece of info left out? The Avatar is the spirit of the world, manifested in human form. This is why the Avatar can bend all four elements and why he is the bridge between the spirit world and the mortal world.
Knowing all of this, the group finds their way to the North Pole and has yet another run-in with the Fire Nation. With the help of the benders of the Northern Water Tribe, they drive the Fire Nation out and Katara, Sokka and Aang set off for the Earth Kingdom to find Aang an earthbending teacher.
My first nitpick is the name pronunciation. Just because the politically correct Asian pronunciation is different doesn’t mean you take away from the cartoon you’re basing your movie on. Aside from missing parallels between film and cartoon, it seems to move too fast through sequences. They fit almost an entire season into one two-hour film!
Another nitpick I have specifically related to the parallel is the bending forms. The first thing I noticed was the firebenders in the film could not bend if there was no fire present. When General Iroh was firebending from his hands in the film, it was a frightening shocker even to his fellows. In the cartoon, all the firebenders can bend directly from every limb, hand and feet. The power in firebending comes from the breath, extends outward and becomes fire. The Fire Nation is significantly less of a threat to the world (therefore removing a war) if they can only bend a fire that is lit or present.
I guess Shyamalan thought it wasn’t fair that all the other benders had to have their element present.
Whether or not people missed it, one other huge piece was missing: comedy. The cartoon series is packed with sarcasm, jokes and kooky themes and situations. The film was dramatic and nothing more. Sokka in the cartoon is witty and sarcastic, not just smart. Jackson Rathbone, while amazing as Jasper in “Twilight,” didn’t bring Sokka’s comedic timing to the film at all.
Noah Ringer didn’t bring any comedy to Aang’s character either. Without the humor to balance out the seriousness of their mission, the film doesn’t have the same flare.
To Shyamalan — I think it’s time to head back to the drawing board.
The LG Blog 