JOHN BERRY
7/6/2010
--------Sunday afternoon I was able to catch Avatar: The Last Airbender. I saw it with my Fiance and her twelve year old son who had actually watched the cartoon from start to finish. I myself never saw more than a couple clips of the show, but it did look interesting. But being a grown ass man trying to run a publishing empire, I just never got around to actually viewing it.
--------So years roll by and I see a preview for a movie version of the cartoon, and it looks awesome. Later on I find out M. Night Shyamalan is doing it and I get real excited. I mean The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable are two highly awesome films. I thought that at the very least this film would not totally suck. Once the film is out there I immediately begin hearing the negative feedback. I just figure it’s the usual reaction to the high level of anticipation that his films usually generate. Sure there had been some bad reviews already, but they always say bad stuff about M. Night Shyamalan’s movies. His films are still fairly entertaining, even though they cannot live up to the awesomness that his two great successes had. The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable had a little kick at the end that stunned pop culture for a while.
--------Allow me to get started. There is nothing redeeming about this movie. I do not recommend seeing Avatar: The Last Airbender. Consider this a public announcment advisory. I had heard this movie was not great. However usually I can find something to like about a movie like this, even when my friends are not digging it . I figured with M. Night Shyamalan at the helm, that there had to be something entertaining going on. Sure a lot of his movies are less than spectaculer. But at least every one of his movies that I have seen, which is most of them, are entertaining on some levels. There is not a single element to this steaming pile of crap that can justify the investment of time involved with seeing this movie. With this film M. Night Shyamalan has reached a rock bottom. He cannot possibly make a movie worse than this. Now don’t get me wrong. I was not expecting much from this. I was expecting some entertainment and some fun action set against special effects.
--------I will admit that the special effects and settings were competently done. With one exception it was visually stunning. Visually stunning compared to 1985. The special effects in this movie are good enough, however in 2010 it is no longer enough. Exception you say? That exception would be with costuming. The whole time I was watching this movie I was disturbed by the contrast of the cosplay costuming set against this rich background. Perhaps a less grandiose background would have worked better with the characters. It felt like I was watching something I could see on Youtube set against some fancy Hollywood backdrops.
--------You want to know what strengthened that perception? The shitty acting and writing! I could not tell you which is worse. I just could not find myself giving a shit about anything that was happening on the screen. The whole time I was watching this crappy ass film I was thinking about what I was going to have for dinner afterwards. Don’t think it was because I was hungry either. I just got off work at a restaurant and was not at any starving point. No. The reason I kept thinking about what I was going to have for dinner was due to the extreme level of boredom I was suffering from. When I did get home, I didn’t even cook anything for over three hours. When I did, it was just a veggie burger with grilled mushrooms, peppers and cheese. Not the spectacular feast I had envisioned during my ordeal. It wasn’t about, dinner it was about boredom.
--------Even the martial art fighting was not done in a way that I found at all innovative. It was just a bunch of kids fighting adults. Three Ninjas Kick Back had better kid on adult fighting. Couple that with the whole Cosplay/background contrast problem and what you have is not a success.
--------Oh and one final thing. There is no awesome M. Night Shyamalan surprise ending. Perhaps there was something really super awesome after the end credits, but sitting through the credits was I price I was not willing to pay. What the ending did was attempt to set you up for a sequel that I doubt will ever be made. At least I hope it will never be made.
--------Now I cannot speak as to how I might feel about The Last Airbender if I had been a viewer of the show. My fiance’s twelve year old son who had watched the shows seemed to enjoy the movie, however in the car ride home he expressed that he was less than satisfied.
--------In the end I am not even going to recommend waiting for the disk. Save yourself the one hundred and three minutes. When you have a friend tell you that this movie sucked and do not see it. Thank them because they are doing you a service. They are doing us all a service. Because the less money this crappy ass film generates the less likely the sequel they are hoping to make will become a reality.