The Last Airbender

I spent two hours today afternoon watching M. Night Shyamalan’s version of The Last Airbender. Honestly, the moment I heard that M. Night Shyamalan was making this movie, I had my doubts so today I went to the theater with the lowest possible expectation and yet, I was disappointed!

You see, I am big, as in BIG, fan of the Nickelodeon animated series: Avatar, the last airbender and hence, I had to see the movie. I read the reviews before watching it today and had lowered my expectation (which were anyways very low due to M. Night Shyamalan) even further. Although, almost all the reviewers I read, none of them seemed to have watched the animated series and so they had no clue what they were talking about. These reviews actually make the source material, the animated series, look bad which it is not.

The anime series of Avatar, the last airbender (and technically, the movie The Last Airbender), is about this mythical world where the world is divided in four parts (and this sequence is important): (1) the Air nomads that live in three Air temples in Northern, Southern and Eastern air temples (they are more or less based on Tibetian monks. They are vegetarian, believe in non-violence and meditate a lot); (2) the north and south Water tribe that live on north and south pole (they, more or less, look Indian. Only look wise, other than that, nothing common with India); (3) the Earth kingdom consisting of various cities and towns, most powerful of them is Ba Sing Se (based on Japan? At least the names of Earth Kingdom cities and towns sounded Japanese like Omashu, Kiyoshi, and Ba Sing Se); and (4) the Fire nation that live on a series of islands that have volcanoes (based on south-east Asian countries, particularly Philippines (due to volcanoes)? Though the names in the Fire nation sounded more Chinese. And the fact that the first Fire benders were dragons, I am leaning towards China).

In each nation, there are few people born with the ability to bend their natural element at will, like people born in water tribe can bend water, change its temperature, etc. And then there is Avatar, the one who can master all the four elements and the one who is responsible to maintain the balance in the world. When one Avatar dies, another one is born in the next nation in cycle (cycle being Air, Water, Earth and Fire, told you the sequence is important).  He has to master all the four elements in the cycle starting with his natural element. However, 100 years ago, Avatar named Aang, who was a 12 year old airbender disappeared, just as the Fire nation began its attack on the other nation starting with the massacre of all Airbenders but one. They could do so using the fire-power of a comet that was passing the Earth at that time (it passes the Earth every 100 years. Fire-benders drive their power from Sun, and anything hot as a comet).

Now, 100 years later, the southern Water tribe teenager siblings, Sokka and Katara, discover the Avatar trapped in the glacier (he is still 12, lucky him!). But this Avatar has only mastered his natural element, Air. He has yet to master other elements. Unfortunately, the only water bender left in the southern Water tribe is Katara, who by no means a master. So Sokka, Katara and Aang (the Avatar) decide to go to northern Water tribe to learn Water-bending. The Book-1: Water, is about their journey to North pole to learn the Water bending.

The problem is that Fire-lord son, the banished Prince Zuko wants to capture Avatar so that he can return to his country with honor. He tracks Aang and his friends all through this book and nearly captures Aang quite a few times.

Of course, there are a lot of twist and turns and a lot of characters in the book like, my favorite, Uncle Iroh (Zuko’s uncle), or the strongest Earth-bender King Bhumi (King of Omashu). But then I have to give you blow by blow description of each and every episode of Book 1 to explain all the characters.

The anime series is really great. It is a perfect mixture of action, humor and emotions. And yet, M. Night Shyamalan took that and, completely and totally ruined it. He didn’t only neglect the humor part, he also didn’t let the characters develop any emotional bond with the audience. Like in the end of Book 1, the princess of Northern Water tribe and Sokka’s girl friend, Princess Yue sort of dies (well she goes to the spirit world), and it should be pretty dramatic and emotional scene and yet, we, as audience, didn’t feel anything. You ask, why? I will tell you why, the part of Sokka and Yue developing a romantic relationship was given as a narration of one line:

“My brother Sokka and Pricness Yue instantly became fast friends.”

That’s it! Where is the romance? Where is the emotional bond that audience develops with the Princess so that they would feel sad for her? And its just not this relationship, its all the relationships in the movie, to the extent I wouldn’t have felt a thing had he killed  Aang, the Avatar. Honestly, M. Night Shyamalan, you call yourself a director after this disaster?

And don’t even get me started with the feeble attempt to convert the 2D movie to a 3D (No, they didn’t shoot it in 3D. They simply superimposed it later and it sucks big time), or the fact that you made the fire nation as Indians! Seriously? With the names as Zuko, Azula, Sozin, Iroh, and Ozai? Do they really sounded like Indian names to you? Or did you think India has big volcanoes and it is a country consisting of series of islands? Or, did any of the Fire-nation characters in the animated series look Indian to you? Then, why?

And whatever happened to the sense of humor (the series is hilarious. It has pretty nice one-liners)? Or, simple acting? I mean, how could you okay any of those shots? It was a T-O-R-T-U-R-E.

I will never forgive you for this disaster you call a movie, Mr. M. Night Shyamalan! NEVER!! You ruined one of the bestest series on TV. 

For rest of you, if you haven’t seen the animated series, Avatar: the last airbender, please don’t judge it based on this movie. It’s an amazing series. And if you are into martial arts even the slightest bit, then this series is a must watch for you. The perfect stances, the graceful moves are simply a bliss to watch. I am not exaggerating. I wish I was half as graceful as any of them.

(*Images are linked to their sources)

P.S.: BTW, did you notice that Fire nation islands in the map looks like a smiley wearing shades and may be smoking a cigarette? He is so cute..