In (Partial) Defense of The Last Airbender.

Back in the summer of 2010, a little film was released: a live action adaption of the highly acclaimed animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Never has there been a film since probably The Phantom Menace that spewed all sorts of controversy. The acting was horrible, the writing was beyond lazy, the pacing was awkward, the cinematography was wretched, I could go on. Never mind the "racebending" movement it spawned for it's all white cast for what were supposed to be ethically diverse characters. The movie's terrible to say the least. Like so many other fans of the original Nickelodeon show, I was anticipating this movie. I wasn't familiar with director M. Night's Shyamalan's other work at the time, but I knew that people weren't that receptive to his movies for a while. So yes, this was my first Shyamalan movie.

Opening day, first weekend of July 2010, was when I saw the movie. I looked at some of the reviews, which were all negative, but just brushed them off. I was optimistic for this movie. Sure, another anime-to-live action movie called Dragonball Evolution came out the previous year with similar disdain, but Avatar: The Last Airbender is different. It has a wide range of fully developed and relatable characters, an exciting storyline, stunning animation, and lots of heart and soul. It's obvious that Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko spent a lot of time developing and fine-crafting their own world for the masses to get lost in. The show has a strong fanbase, and it even won an emmy or two! There was just no way a live-action big-budgted summer blockbuster based on this material would be anything less than amazing. Even though Shyamalan's recent track record with The Village, The Lady in the Water, and The Happening were anything but ideal to say the least, people still believed (like Katara believing the Avatar would return after 100 years of turmoil) that if anything would to get the once-acclaimed director of The Sixth Sense and Signs back on track, The Last Airbender would be it.

My first red flag flew before the movie even began. I went to a 2pm matinee show, and the previous show was just wrapping up when I arrived. The theater manager and two other employees walked out of the movie just shaking their heads and saying "that was just terrible.", almost mimicking the end of the "Ember Island Players" episode. Since I already got my ticket and popcorn, I knew I was in for it now. The theater was respectively full. People in the audience ranged from age 6 to 60. It really showed me the wide range of the audience for the show, as opposed to the all-female audience for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse which opened on the same day. My first impression of the movie was...spotty to say the least. I believe I went through what they call "fan denial". I actually saw it twice in theaters to make sure I can form a proper opinion on it. (It was part of a double feature with Dinner With Schmucks at a drive-in theater, the last time I ever went to one since). It was obvious to me the second time around that it wasn't as good as the show, but I didn't actually flat-out hate it. It wasn't until the third time I saw it at home years later when I finally said "Wow...what a piece of garbage!"

The Airbender arrow design for the movie.

I mean really! It's horrible. My fan denial is gone now. The acting is just wretched. The cinematography...dear God! The Earthbending scene? There's no way a big name director like M. Night Shyamalan could've been involved in making that scene! The pacing? In my opinion, that's the biggest sin this movie has. For starters, they covered an entire season in only an hour and 43 minutes (a little over 90 if you don't count the credits. There's no time for the viewer to breathe or take in anything that's going on. If someone who was unfamiliar with the show saw this, I don't even know if they'd be able to understand the story. It moves at such a pace to make you believe you accidentally pushed the fast forward button on your remote. If they wanted to do the series justice, they should've had a running time of at least 2 1/2 hours. But that's also a double-edged sword, as I wouldn't want this particular version of Avatar to go on for any longer than it did.

But, despite it's laundry list of problems, I actually found some things to like in this movie (I have seen it more times than I care to admit...). For starters, I love the set and prop design. It genuinely looks like the show. The Fire Lord's palace looks breathtaking. It got to the point where I stopped pay attention to anything going on (which I'm sure most people did) and just marveled around at the design. The Northern Water Tribe city looks pretty damn good as well. The costumes look great (despite Princess Yue's unfortunate hairstyle from behind- if you'd seen this movie, you know what I mean).Aang's arrow tattoo is also something I really liked. Instead of going for the standard purple from the show, the artists involved with the movie actually took the time to redesign the arrow with all sorts of creative lines and shapes around it. So well done on that!

Another thing I really enjoyed was the score by James Newton Howard. I genuinely believe that the score from the movie is better than the score from the show. "Flow Like Water" is such a fantastic and emotional piece of music, and it's a real shame that the music is mostly ignored because of the film's negative reception. I actually own the physical CD and listen to it all the time.

The costume and set design is quite exceptional.

Believe it or not, I also found some things to like in the story structure. For example, when Aang, Katara, and Sokka first arrive at the Southern Air Temple, Aang's original home, it felt more fitting to have him find out he was frozen for 100 years while he was there. In the show, it didn't make much sense to me that Aang finds out that he was frozen in the iceberg for 100 years, then expects to go to the Air Temple with all his friends and family still alive. Even if the Fire Nation hadn't wiped them out, old age surely would of. Also, and this is a very small point, towards the end during Zuko's and Aang's climatic fight, Aang froze him in ice, almost the same way he was, which I think further cements the similarities between these two characters in a fairly subtle way.

Also, the deleted scenes on the DVD were really fun to watch, and it baffles me why they couldn't be in the movie. There was a scene where Aang visits a fortuneteller, and it plays out in such a way that I believed they actually ripped it from the show itself. It had the same quirky and fun sense of humor that the source material was all about. It tells me that Shyamalan actually had some sort of idea of what to do with this material. Shame it was deleted.

But I soon realized that all the good things in the movie is almost everything that Shyamalan wasn't involved in, or played little part in creating. It's still, by definition of a film making standpoint, a very horrible movie. Even the few things good about it still don't compare to the stilted acting, clumsy writing, poor camera movement, and relentless pacing. It was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy of films, one film per season, but I think at this point the possibility of a sequel is dead. Even if the film was a rip-roaring success, making a sequel to a movie that came out over five years ago would be a mistake. One of the biggest mistakes with this film was it's timing. It was just too soon for a movie based on Avatar: The Last Airbender to be made. At the time of release, the show only ended two years before, and premiered three years before that. Maybe it'll be rebooted in a decade or two, with a director that was only a kid when the series was at it's tip of popularity. Or maybe it should just remain as a TV series. Only time will tell.