"See-it-again" Value - 3
My brothers and I have always been close. Close enough to make fun of each other and rough each other up a bit when we get annoyed with each other. But I'll never forget that there was one binding force that kind of united us when we were kids; Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was a TV show that ran from 2005 to 2008 with 60 episodes. It took place in a world where people were born into respective powers of elements. There were four tribes and depending on which tribe you belonged to determined what powers you would get if you were to have powers at all. There were the Firebenders, Waterbenders, Earthbenders, and Airbenders. The story followed two teens, a brother and sister, named Sokka and Katara, who live in a Waterbender village. Katara is a Waterbender and one of the few to come out of her village. When her and her brother go out to go hunting, they find a strange boy trapped in ice. He breaks out and turns out to be the avatar, the only bender in the world that can master all four elements and unite all of the tribes. He takes them on a spectacular journey with him to learn all of the elements and put to rest the war that the Firebenders have set upon the other three tribes.
This is the exact plot of the film. The show was made with 3 seasons. Aang, the young boy who is the Avatar, is an Airbender. This means he must master the other three elements. Each season focused on one element. The first season, water. The second, earth. The third, fire. From the looks of it, if the first film does well, M. Night Shymalan plans to make two more movies, seeing as the first focused on the first season of the show.
The movie was great for me as a fan of the show. I have very few complaints and even then, they're small.
The first was that the movie was too short. This kind of feeds to my other complaints. The first season was the longest considering there was so much to explain so there wasn't enough time in the movie for the action that was provided throughout the show. To a person who has never seen the television series, the movie may seem a bit slow and not exciting enough.
This leads to the only other complaint that I have. In the series, Aang and Sokka were constantly providing comic relief. Aang was the playful little boy and Sokka was the girl crazy teenage boy who didn't always think things through. This was absent in the film. I remember laughing maybe two or three times. I am a huge fan of the comic relief that M. Night Shymalan provides in his films. I laughed all throughout Signs and The Village as well as The Sixth Sense had some great moments, too. But whether it was intentional or he just forgot to add it, it was a bit disappointing.
This doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the film though. I actually went to the midnight premiere and really enjoyed the movie. In fact, its been one of my favorites of the summer. Whether thats just because its the movie adaption of a show that I watched as a kid or because it actually is a great movie to those who have never watched the show, I don't think it matters.
One of the things that really impressed me about the movie was that there were at least two or three scenes that came directly from the show. With the choreography of the fighting to the script, it seemed almost perfect. When I recognized these scenes I was overwhelmed with excitement and I applaud Shymalan for doing this.
Overall, the movie was great. It stayed very true to the show from the script to entire scenes in the movie. Though some of it was jumbled up and out of place, it was well layed out and I was very happy that the film didn't stray too far from its roots. Though it took away from some action, the fact that Shymalan took the time to explain so much was a plus seeing as these things may become important in latter installments in the series.
I truly hope that people who have not seen the show enjoy the movie. I believe that if this film succeeds, the other installments will be much better and will provide more action and hopefully more comic relief. But for now, cheers for M. Night Shymalan!
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