Sidewalks On The Corner

The award-winning Nickelodeon animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, ran for three seasons and has spawned comic books and videos games that are popular worldwide. Now, it has been placed in the capable hands of M. Knight Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense"), which in turn becomes the first epic adventure of his career. So the question remains, will his handling of "The Last Airbender" bring success to him and the franchise? Or will it fail and forever tarnish his reputation?

Follow up:

THE LAST AIRBENDER
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies Present

A Blinding Edge Pictures/ Kennedy/Marshall Company Production

An M. Night Shyamalan Film

“The Last Airbender”

Based On the Series “Avatar: The Last Airbender”

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

Written, Produced and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Cast: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi and Cliff Curtis.


Studio Synopsis:
Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war-torn world.

Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film “The Last Airbender” is the opening chapter in Aang’s struggle to survive.

Noah Ringer plays Aang in the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies adventure, "The Last Airbender."
Photo credit: Zade Rosenthal
Copyright © 2010 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

J.P.'s Take:
“The Last Airbender” is a cinematic adaptation that comes with a built in fan base --which means the studios are counting on that fan base to come the rescue. Its success also depends on the films ability to capture the attention of non-fans.

The four nations of Earth, Air, Water and Fire were once bound in harmony. That peace was disturbed when the Fire Nation raged war against the others for control of the lands. When it appeared that there was no hope in sight, a great power emerges. The Avatar said to be the most powerful being on Earth and must restore that harmony to the nations once again.

After further examination of the series, I managed to sift through my thoughts to find some weak points in the film version, which may prove fatal to its success. I wasn’t inspired or impressed with the acting by the young cast. For instance, Aang (Noah Ringer), with new pals Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) and Katara (Nicola Peltz) in tow, is captured and brought to an internment camp so to speak. There they discover that the people of the Air Nation had been imprisoned there. His attempt to encourage them to stand up and fight for themselves felt flimsy and uneven. I wasn’t sure if that scene was meant to be funny or inspiring. Dev Patel’s character Fire Prince Zuko is really best suited for a much older grizzled actor. Most of the dialogue throughout the film were simply there to convey the plot with no real heartfelt emotion, which at times was tiresome. That’s not to say there aren’t any moments of fairly decent conversations. In viewing this movie with friend and Sidewalks executive producer/creator Richard R Lee, we both found “Star Wars”-like influences in the story. Richard described the scenes between Sokka and Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) like it was Anakin Skywalker and Queen Amidala talking to each other. He thought the campy dialogue and the emotionless moments felt like several scenes of "Star Wars:" Episodes Two and Three revisited.

Left to right: Seychelle Gabriel plays Princess Yue and Jackson Rathbone plays Sokka in the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies adventure, "The Last Airbender."
Photo credit: Industrial Light & Magic
Copyright © 2010 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Admittedly, I think the characters were not as fully developed, as they should have been. With the cartoons you are introduced to each of the characters and their purpose in further detail. Then again the animation allowed you to discover them over several episodes. For the viewers who have no idea about the story behind the Nickelodeon franchise, this may cause a serious disconnect between its intended audience. Richard never heard of the animated series or its previous history, and he was terribly confused about the whole story. He felt characters were dropped into scenes with no purpose.

Many fans may point out the changes in the cultural aspect. Both Sokka and Katara, even Aang, are of Asian descent, yet in the film they are Caucasian. Why the change in race? “Airbender” also carries a weighty, lengthy plot. The unfortunate thing is whenever there is mythology involved; you can predict that most moviegoers are going to be thoroughly confused. Personally, I didn’t really feel lost. I felt Shyamalan filled every opportunity to explain each situation. The story is very simple when looking at its back-story. It’s really nothing more than a story about a reincarnated Avatar's rise to great power, whom also bares a huge responsibility of saving the planet. However, there are going to be many disappointed children in the audience who will miss out because the plot twists are just too intricate for that crowd.

In a film that involves humans who can manipulate the elements, you can count on the special effects to hijack your eyeballs for a while. Even though 3D effect was added as an after effect, I thought it added depth and clarity to the environments and battle scenes. Most of the time, it wasn’t truly noticeable. I will agree the excessive use of eye candy doesn’t make things any better. A much subtler approach to presenting the EFX would have worked fine to get the point across. Lastly, and unfortunately, the child-like effervescence of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” did not translate in the film as a whole.

Center left to right: Writer/Producer/Director M. Night Shyamalan confers with Jackson Rathbone (Sokka), Nicola Peltz (Katara), and Noah Ringer (Aang) on the set of Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies adventure, "The Last Airbender."
Photo credit: Zade Rosenthal
Copyright © 2010 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

In my honest opinion, M. Knight Shyamalan should have kept the integrity of the animation and formulated it into a feature length film. It would be warmly received for its authenticity. Instead, he bared the burden of converting it into a live action movie, which lacked some true inspiration.

Richard’s thoughts on the film (as stated earlier, he had no knowledge about the animated series): he thought the story moved too fast (from action scene to action scene), he didn’t think the characters were developed or introduced well within the story, the dialogue was laughable; and the actors were very wooden in their delivery. But much of his complaints was the overused of special effects. Although Richard thought the effects were excellent, the effects overtook the story and made what could have been an epic adventure into a light show of nonsense. While wanting to enjoy the film, he felt this is one of the worst fantasy-type films he has seen, and he was ready for it to end.

Alas, I come to my conclusion: “The Last Airbender” may not be a masterpiece nor was it crisply presented. But it’s not a total piece of garbage either, unlike like Richard’s thoughts. It does have the potential of becoming a hit, as it has the same potential of completely flopping out. But based on my aforementioned flaws, I must drop this film down a grade and give it C+.

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J.P. Langston is a member of "Sidewalks Entertainment" team primarily as a videographer. He loves movies, especially sci-fi horror and action comedies. Some of his favorite films include "Blade Runner" "The Matrix Trilogy," The (original) "Star Wars," "Equilibrium," "Serenity," "Kill Bill Vols 1 and 2," "Appleseed," "Unbreakable" and "Sin City." He has a large DVD collection, which is still growing. Since reviewing films for "Sidewalks," he has been expanding his palette for all types of films.

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Richard R. Lee is the creator, executive producer and occasional on-air personality for the "Sidewalks Entertainment" project. His primary interest is in television programming and TV news. Although he views a variety of programs, he enjoys primarily sci-fi, comedy and adventure series, such as "Star Trek," "Firefly," "Battlestar Galactica," "Jericho," the "Stargate" shows, "Alien Nation," "Bosom Buddies," and "MacGyver." Additionally, he samples many of the entertainment talk shows and has seen many of the biggest shows hosted by Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Arsenio Hall, and Jay Leno.