User reviews

They went too fast and all the characters talk like they're reading off placards. The computer generated stuff was good though but i got less than what i expected. What a waste of time and money. I'd rather had stayed home and watched the original cartoon instead.

The original cartoon is ten times better to watch. Even if i consider this movie as a unit in it itself, its missing a lot of story where a new viewer wouldn't be able to connect the points. Although it has good computer generated animation and stuff but you still get less than you'd expect. There are bits where you expect it to be funny and it ain't, no fun.

Anybody who has watched the original cartoon will tell you how much of it they have skipped in the beginning of the movie. The story line is completely shot, you cant tell whats really going on.

M. Night's career as a director has been spiraling downwards ever since The Sixth Sense, we can all agree. But on The Last Airbender, his most recent major project, his credibility simply plummeted.

You know that embarrassing feeling you get when you're watching an amateur movie? Yeah, you'll get a lot of that if you spend your money to watch this in the theaters, which is ill-advised. The Last Airbender simply had no direction, and the script flopped around aimlessly to try and wrap up an entire season of the animated TV show, Avatar (which it is based off of), in 103 minutes. The dialogue was appalling and the poor development of story made audience members moan and groan. An entire love relationship is created with the single, randomly narrated line of, "They became friends very quickly", while two characters who have just met allot the other a generous five second stare each. Embarrassing scriptwriting such as this is what caused the failing of The Last Airbender. This was NOT helped by the mediocre acting performances of Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, and Seychelle Gabriel.

Poor acting, poor scripting, poor directing. What was there to like? Sadly the action sequences, few and far between, are hardly engaging enough to satisfy any moviegoer's appetite, for lack of other elements. I was told by friends that while the movie stayed true to the general plot of the animated TV series, the action was poorly represented. Underpowered, and a bit superfluous in movement, the much needed fight scenes became almost tedious to watch.

The world of Avatar was curious; I'll give it that. The environment with the four elemental nations, each with its own unique race, which far from appearing racist, was actually one of the few ideas that made the movie... somewhat interesting.

A general question continued to run through my mind... It was almost as if M. Night thought to himself, "What is the LEAST I could do with my budget?" And I think he found the perfect answer with The Last Airbender.

I award M. Night's latest masterpiece in his spiraling antics a generous 4/10.

I watched this reluctantly for the first time recently to see if it was bad as I had heard and I was wrong, it was even worse than I could have imagined. I was unable to even finish the movie. I wish I could rate it lower. I understand that adaptations are difficult to reflect in the same light as the original content but the direction style, casting, writing, acting, and animation of this movie was lazy, disrespectful, and devalued the core ideals of the series. The movie proves painful to watch. I grew up watching the series and still now as an adult I am still constantly in awe of how wonderful of a show it is. So I wholeheartedly recommend to forget you even laid eyes on this movie and go watch the series in all it's glory.

I remember watching this movie back when it first came out and I didn't think it was that bad. I just finished watching the cartoon series on Netflix and I figured I would re-watch this to wrap it all up. Now I wish I hadn't watched it. It's NOTHING like the show. I wonder if the people who worked on this movie even saw the show. Stay away from this movie. It's so bad that it actually hurts to watch it.

Shyamalan takes a stunningly sophisticated cartoon and reduces it to one of the most insultingly dumb films I've seen in years. From the script to the visuals, the directing, the acting, there is absolutely nothing that did well, either as an adaptation or as a film in its own right.

Characters who were once powerful and spitfire (Katara) or entertainingly sarcastic (Sokka) are now bland and exist solely for the purpose of exposition. In fact, the entire film comes off as exposition, far too much of the dialog serving as "by the way" explanations, never allowing the plot or characters to really take form. The scenes seem episodic and unconnected, and the film never comfortably establishes its universe, always retreading with an "as you know" or "aren't you that guy who..." to establish (often unnecessary) continuity.

The style, too, is disappointing, capturing none of the magic of the series. Most noticeable was the "bending"--while the series took its martial arts seriously, carefully aligning real-world arts with elements and making the benders' movements coincide with those of their elements, the film gives us characters flailing in generic martial arts forms for a few minutes, only to effect one splash, boulder, or blast of fire. In the series, every movement had a meaning; in the film, only about one in ten does.

Many fans of the series who were angry at the "whitewashing" of the cast hoped that it had at least resulted in the best actors for the parts. However, the acting was at best uninspired, and at worst painfully awkward, though part of this can be attributed to a truly atrocious script. Dialog is stilted and unnatural, certain phrases are repeated needlessly throughout ("great library," anyone?), and in all the only chance the script stands of being remembered is through memetic appreciation of its unintentional, awkward hilarity.

Not even the collective will of a devoted fanbase wanting so much for this film to be good could make it even remotely watchable.

No story, no history, absolutely dreadful script and acting that is frankly despicable. You can't write. You can't make up a world arbitrarily with no fleshing or effort. The Happening and Lady in the Water were terrible. This is much worse.

Shame on you you lazy lazy man. The talent is there. Your ego is simply unable to get past it. Go away and let someone hungry and brave who doesn't live in a fantasy world in their own nether-regions produce something.

You owe me my ticket and the complete waste of one and a half hours of my life. Tosser

Let me just say I'm not the big Avatar fan like my son and daughter are but I am aware of the show and have seen some episodes so when I sat down for the screening I really didn't have any expectations. So I am coming at this movie not as a raging fan but a fan of film and there are elements of the film that I really liked and others that I did not. First the bad. The child actor who played Aang was really not that good, but also the script for him was also not very good. Stilted dialog will do that and it really is a shame because the bending parts and martial art scenes the kid is quite good. The other two kid actors are really not given much to do, the girl is so-so and her brother looked like he could have done something with the role but for the most part was relegated to the back. Also there are some continuity gaps in the film that kinda make you go huh? Plus and this is a good-bad thing the movie only runs about 90min and I truly would have liked to see the movie run a little longer. There are some great scenes with the Firebender banished prince and his uncle and a scene with Saka and the princess about her blonde hair that makes you look at the screen and go yes, but then there are parts where the film is rushed to get to the action. And now the good. I'm glad to say the action in the movie is really well done. The SFX are very good and very organic so they don't stand out at you and go look FX. Also the action isn't all cut up MTV style. M.Night chose to film some of the action in long full shot takes and I truly enjoyed those elements. As for fans of the show I think it will be a mixed bag. I think the movie should have used Asian actors and dealt with the relationships more but on the whole if I could I'd really give this movie a 6.5. It's one of those movies that could have been really good, but just misses the mark. Plus save your money and if you see it see it in 2D. The 3D adds nothing.

After all the bad press thrown at "The last air-bender" i was expecting something horrific. Is it a bad film? Well according to my standards no. Definitely not. I will by the number what i liked and what i thought was weak.

1. The actions scenes. They are wonderfully done and choreographed and since M.Night Shyalaman has used us with nice camera work, his style is clearly visible from the first shot. He has an eye for some of the most poetic fights i've seen in my life. The use also of slow motion is just phenomenal.

2. The production scale. This is a film truly at a similar spectacular scope of "Lord of the rings" and "Star Wars". Besides the wonderful locations such as Greenland, the sets are just freaking massive and filled with amazing details. I was so impressed when i saw the throne room of Lord Ozai. The iced palace of the Northern water tribe, with small water falls and well crafted zen lakes, i have no words to describe its beauty.

3. The visuals. The whole film proceeds like a poem. It is so easy to watch and even if you do not care about the story, you just gaze the locations. i haven't felt like that since i saw Zang Yimou's "Hero". The addition of crystal clear and eye popping effects from Industrial Light and Magic just add extra points in this visual feast.

4. The benders of the natural elements. That was something i have never seen before and as an idea is pretty much interesting to see how it will is represented on screen. This is a good idea that can produce various action-hell yes-scenes.

5. The cast-OK i know this is a controversial choice but i thought the avatar child actor wasn't that bad but neither that good. Dev Patel as prince Zuko and Shaun Toub as General Iroh are awesome. Their performances are adequate and believable. I really like the relationship between these two and the way Zuko feels.

7. James Newton Howard's music. An excellent soundtrack that captures the main theme of the film.

So these are the positive things i found. Now, i will mention five things i did not like.

1. The duration. i mean for such a rich and expensive mythology, i would expected a full 2 hour, maybe +, film. Instead i am getting the usual 1/40 hours maximum minutes, including the credits..

2. ...which brings me to my second main point. The film looks rushed. Not rushed in terms of production, but rushed as a story. There is no room to have proper acting scenes. Usually most of the film contains dialog about things that have occurred or will happened but they last 2 minutes each. We do not know how long our heroes are staying in the palace of the Northern water tribe.

3. The film is trimmed! All the character development scenes have been erased for the sake of entertainment. There are so many moments where i felt like that. I wanted to know more. This reminds another case such as "Clash of the titans". People blasted the film however, they did not blasted the Hollywood machine for screwing over its directors. To cut from a film almost an hour to increase in market appeal is a horrible act. If you have seen the trailers, you will notice that half actually of the scenes in the trailers are not in the film! Lame..

4... because this is great material. The mythology is rich and its good to see a new world so unbelievably stunning. The characters are intriguing but there is no explanation behind their motives.

5. Finally, major problem is the existence of narration while the camera is traveling or moving. You get to see the kids flying in the air and the girl narrates to us "we were flying in the air....". Then they land to the northern water tribe palace and bowing to the king.... "and we bowed to the king". I mean i can see that! There is no point for narration unless you want to explain something to your audience.

6. The only major difference between the series and the film adaptation is the level of seriousness. In the cartoon, while everyone was so brave, there are hilarious jokes and one liners that "bend" the ice (see what i did there?). The series delivered tones of excitement and fun. Aang-the avatar-is a 12 year old boy who is just discovering his powers and is aiming mostly to have fun! Unfortunately, in the film, Aang is mostly or trying to be at least, dramatic. There is no time for fun and that's why perhaps people blasted it. If you apply the above feeling to the whole movie, the atmosphere is different. The film takes itself too seriously and leaves no room for funny acts or scenes. While personally i am not annoyed, if you try to make your film look serious, then implement more scenes to explain your characters motivations, feelings and actions. To conclude, one small reference about the spirit world. In the series it is established from episode to episode but in the film, individuals are just talking about it rather than showing it or at least explaining something!

It is such a shame because i loved the visual feast that this adaptation has to offer but i can see the trimming parts coming from a mile away. I really like the film that's why it has an 8/10 but I felt it could do so much more! I do hope in the future Shyalaman will restore the movie into its full glory. So this was "The last air bender". Maybe Hollywood learned its lesson about storytelling and 3D conversion process and in the sequel we will get more of the good stuff.

As someone who just wanted to see this film purely from the captivating trailers, I was definitely not disappointed. No, I've never seen the series, so my review is purely one of THE FILM as just that - a film. And I, my husband, and my sister (we are all adults,) LOVED it.

The cinematography was truly stunning - the CGI water effects were magnificent! The fight scenes were also very well choreographed (especially the one with Aang and the "Blue Spirit,") and the Tai Chi based forms were gracefully fluid. The boy's technique was spot on!

The action was very well done without going over the top, and the dramatic aspects stemming from the various relationships is extremely intriguing. The relationships: between the father/son, the uncle/nephew, and especially the one between Aang and Prince Zuko - they are all wonderfully illustrated and executed, creating the right amount of tension, give, and conflict.

We were so pleased with this film's ending and are happily waiting for the sequel! For those of you out there, like us, who do NOT watch this cartoon series (the adult population out there) GO SEE THIS FILM. You will be taken away from your everyday life into a time and place beyond your wildest dreams, and you WILL be entertained.

After waiting extremely eagerly for this movie, I sat in the theater and was extremely eager for it to END. Ear-oh? Oong? Soak-ah?! Could they have butchered the names anymore than they did? Worse, the entire movie felt like a string of clips put together for an hour and a half and not like a movie at all. All the major parts of the Book of Water were skimmed over, while things like the freeing of the earth nation village (while important) were given screen time that could have been given to major events like the southern air temple.

The actors were dismal, with the exception of Dev Patel as Zuko and to a lesser extent Shaun Toub as Iroh, who wasn't an accurate portrayal of Iroh visually but at least captured the character's wisdom much better than many of the other actors on board for the movie. He however failed to provide many of the aspects of Iroh that made him endearing in the series.

I will give that the northern water kingdom was gorgeous, but that's about all I have to say kindly about this movie.

If you love Avatar: The Last Airbender as the series, I recommend giving this movie a miss. It's heartbreaking how they butchered something that had such fantastic and barely needing change source material.

I went into the movie knowing it would not be even a fraction as good as the real show. However, I didn't know that would make me literally want to leave the theater in the middle of the very movie. How someone could do such damage in approximately an hour and forty minutes is entirely beyond me. It was ridiculous, the only way to describe it is a $150 million dollar failure. I could understand if the effects were not up to par but the biggest disappointment was the acting. It was so stiff and it never once felt like the actors meant a word they were saying. I caught a glimpse of an interview with Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone on TV and even their approach to that felt so wrong. It felt kind of disgusting to see as I've lately been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (with extras) almost religiously for the past month.

The script in itself should have been tossed into the garbage and burnt and it's remains locked away so that no one would ever have to suffer looking at such garbage. That's why I'm not really sure if it's the actors or the script that's really to blame for the atrocious "movie" that's resulted. The long and, I'm assuming this what they were going for, "inspirational" speeches merely consisted of crudely strung together clichés and the language left much to be desired. I found myself almost twitching at the phrase (something along the lines) "You guys are AWESOME people!"...

What I find the be so incredibly amazing is how someone could honestly fail to such a proportion when they literally have a blue print already created. The fans know how the characters look and sound and while I understand that no one fits the package perfectly one out of two would be better than nothing. As well, suddenly deciding to change the pronunciation of the characters name is definitely not the best idea, while I do understand that he wanted the names to sound like their Asian origin, it didn't go over well and the whole time I was just cringing at the mere mention of Aang and Sokka's names.

This movie does not hold a candle to the original show. Heck, it should be retitled as it is hardly resembles the original in any way shape or form. While I do realize that not all episodes can be featured, the sequence of events just left you feeling awkward and confused. I, also, loathed the way they worked the bending in like it took five minutes of moving ones hands around awkwardly before any actual bending occurred. Most of the fighting was like fifteen minutes of martial arts with like the occasional bit of air bending and a little water being splashed around.

There was nothing to love in this movie not even the most adorable of characters such as Momo. Momo had literally what three minutes in the entire movie which I found extremely depressing as Momo was always one of the characters I just wanted to cuddle because of his adorable mannerisms but in the movie I had no love for the digitized Momo. Not even Appa was interesting.

This movie leaves me hoping and praying that M. Night Shyamalan goes broke and is black listed so that he can't ruin the series even more so. This is definitely something you will spend some time just trying to forget.

I walked into this movie with pretty low expectations. I didn't expect something as good as the cartoon, I didn't expect a perfect adaptation. I expected some glitzy action sequences, cheap emotional ploys, just some fun summer fair.

What did I get? A movie so indescribably horrible I can only shake my head in bewilderment. Believe the critics. The writing sucks, the acting is stiff, the pacing clumsy, the 3-D beyond bad, the overall tone way too dark and brooding. Not much here is salvageable.

Obviously Shyamalan got completely caught up in the mythology of the world and missed the fact that what made the original cartoon so great were the CHARACTERS. Of which there are none in this film.

But really, even just a competently produced film would have been nice. And it almost was. The music was great. The special effects looked amazing, I don't care what anyone says. The fighting was cool. The sets were adequately spectacular. Indeed, it appears the only one who didn't show up for work was Shyamalan. While the adult actors manage to find their way somewhat on their own, the poor kids are obviously lost without someone competently leading them, they spend most of the film in a bewildered daze. Even some of the background extras acted awkwardly. But of course, there are no real survivors of Shyamalan's CLUNKER of a script. I can't believe someone didn't stop this guy. There were maybe two scenes that didn't sound awkward, and they had no dialog. I don't think any film has ever been such a disaster due to one man's gross ineptitude.

Such a shame. It could have been so good.

Hi! I would like to start off by saying that I watched the Last Airbender during it's original run on T.V. and loved it!

When the show officially ended I found myself wishing that it wouldn't. After all: I had grown to love the characters. Why would I want to say goodbye?

When the Last Airbender came to theaters I looked it up and read the reviews. My expectations were dropped in the mud.

80% or so rated it as being somewhere between totally heretical and just plain abysmal. You can imagine my disappointment.

Even after that stark dose of reality I was hopeful and so with a cloud over my head I ventured to my local cinema to experience either an extreme disaster or a surprising revival of a loved cartoon. Thankfully the latter met me at the theater.

I've not seen any of Shyamalan's other films so I don't know how to rate it against them but on It's own I give it a 7 out of 10.

I thoroughly enjoyed the acting (even though it was a little substandard at times), the humor, the choreography and the special effects. Nothing bad about any of it. I do, however feel that whoever gave the script the final O.K. should have gone through it again and given it a good streamlining. A few more pronouns would have gone a long way toward making it sound more intelligent.

The changed pronunciation of some the names didn't bother me much. After all, America is one of the few (if not the only) countries in the world that actually uses the hard 'A' sound. How likely would it be that they would in the Last Airbender universe?

All in all I think the movie accomplished very nicely what it set out to do. It took a whole season of a hit cartoon show and condensed it down to just under 2 hours.

If they had chosen to make it twenty minutes longer they could have worked in some more character development and made the segue from scene to scene less abrupt.

All in all, it is a highly enjoyable movie that I - a stead fast fan of the original series - would love to watch again.

If you choose to see it I recommend doing so with an open mind and perhaps this thought in the back of your head: No adaptation is ever the same as the original work. Otherwise, what would be the point?