Rating: One star out of five stars

My teenagers have been huge Avatar fans for years, so I have watched many of the cartoon episodes with them on Nickelodeon. While the cartoon can be a bit goofy, the story is entertaining, even captivating — and even for a woman in her 40′s! I’m also a fan of Mr. Shyamalan and have enjoyed his films. However, his live action version of the Avatar story was agonizing to sit through!

The scenery and special effects were good (which is where the one star rating comes from) — it seems no expense was spared on visuals — but the script, the acting, the direction were FAR below par. Even in the action though, there was an almost comical display of martial arts (in “bending” the elements) with very little affect. For example, when bending water (in the cartoon version), the water moves with the bender even as he/she is preparing to cast it.  In this live action version, the benders would make a dozen or so moves before the elements (air, water, earth or fire) would even begin to respond. (Yes, we chuckled at that! And no, those moments weren’t supposed to be funny….)

I heard that M. Night watched the Nick cartoon version with his daughter…. Why then did he choose to mispronounce the names of the main characters? (Agonizing!)

I rarely find it difficult to sit through a movie, but it was all I could do to make it through The Last Airbender, much to my disappointment.

IF M. Night decides to make additional films in this series, I hope he will turn his attention to acting lessons for the main actors (although the actress playing Katara (sp?) did a really good job!) and have a seasoned professional write the scripts — specifically a screenwriter who will maintain the integrity of the cartoon story that so many of us have grown to appreciate.

Watch the trailer and save your money. And hope for better things from M. Night in the future….

Joyfully,

Mary