With a day off courtesy of the typhoon currently dissipating on the east coast of Vietnam, I used the time to check out M. Night Shyamalan‘s latest work.
The Last Airbender (3D)
I gather the reviews of this film haven’t been overly favourable and it definitely has its faults. The plot and storylines aren’t amongst them, though. Based on the TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender, I gather it’s close to the original.
Taking place in a world where people are divided into four “Nations” of Earth, Air, Fire and Water the story follows the reappearance of an Avatar – a spiritual leader who vanished over 100 years ago. This one person was the only one capable of keeping the world in balance. During his absence, the Fire Nation have taken control of the world by force.
Discovered by two members of the South Water Tribe – Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sooka (Jackson Rathbone) – Aang (Noah Ringer) rapidly becomes the subject of a manhunt by the Fire Nation. They can’t kill him otherwise he’ll be reborn and their search will start all over again, so capturing him is the only option.
There are a couple of good sub-plots, in particular one involving the cast-out Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) and the film looks very impressive. I particularly liked the North Water Tribe’s city and the warships of the Fire Nation.
The biggest let-downs are the acting and the dialogue, which is more stilted than that in a Dan Brown novel. Characters say things that just sound silly at times. Cheese? Gorgonzola. With a sprinkling of mature cheddar.
Did I enjoy it? Yes. The story was pretty good once it got going and I definitely want to see the next part of the story. I only hope that the actors improve by then. I had similar feelings towards the Harry Potter films – the first one was dreadful with amateurish performances from the young cast, but as they’ve progressed there is no denying they’ve improved.
3D is well used. It doesn’t seem to have been added as an afterthought, rather the special effects have been designed with the added dimension in mind.
It’s certainly not a classic in any way, shape or form. But it’s not as awful as some reviews have made out.
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