The Plot. The movie tells a story about a world of spirits and elements (the good old air, water, earth and fire). In this world, some people are born with the ability to bend an element to their will and there is one who is called the Avatar who can bend all four elements. The Avatar goes missing about a hundred years before the plot takes place and the land is ruled by the power-hungry Fire people. The story itself is about a young boy, who is found enclosed in an ice sphere in the middle of the frozen water country by a water bender and her brother. Soon after, it is discovered that the boy is a reincarnation of the Avatar and has been in the sphere for a hundred years.
General thoughts. This movie is based on a cartoon called Avatar: The Last Airbender and I'm sure the movie would've been called this way too, if it weren't for the other popular picture with a similar name. So, this one was just called The Last Airbender.
I must admit, I haven't seen the cartoon, but from what I hear, the movie is a really bad adaptation of the cartoon. I don't care about that. I went into this movie without knowledge about the cartoon or any previous thoughts and I must say, I really enjoyed this movie.
This movie was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, but it's really different from the rest of his movies. The classic Shyamalan style is a long and slow-paced movie with a really shocking ending. I really like the thriller-ish style of Shyamalan, so this was sort of a disappointment in that part. This movie was more like something James Cameron-ish, with really lavish special effects and not much of a special story line to speak of. The setting is nice, but it was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the people who created the original cartoon series, not by Shyamalan. That is probably also the reason why it couldn't have worked out as something Shyamalan would do. He just couldn't drift too far off the original plot.
As I've already mentioned, the special effects in this one are really cool. I love a blockbuster with lots of eye-candy.
The plot also left room for a sequel and I must say, I would want to see that one. Although, sticking the name of Shyamalan on this project made me expect some really elaborate plot twist, I'm not sorry I saw this. Great entertainment.
Also, this movie has no mainstream famous actors, so that was a nice touch. The most famous was the banished prince, who was played by Dev Patel, made famous by Slumdog Millionaire. Overall, there were a lot of actors of Indian descent, probably because Shyamalan himself was born in India.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a pretty fairy-tale.
7/10 Flogs
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