The Last Airbender

Only I can restore balance. On March 22nd, 2024, I rewatched the action-adventure fantasy movie The Last Airbender, released on July 1, 2010. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, it is based on the Nickelodeon animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Starring Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, and Jackson Rathbone, it takes place across the four nations of a fantasy world and is rated PG.

The Water, Earth, Fire, and Air Nations all have people called benders who can bend the element that is a part of their nation. The Avatar is the one who can bend all four elements. It is their responsibility to protect all the nations. After the Avatar disappeared, the Fire Nation was able to declare war on the other three nations, resulting in a war that has lasted a hundred years. Then, a waterbender named Katara and her non bender brother Sokka find the last of the believed to be extinct Airbenders in an iceberg, Aang. Learning he is the Avatar, the three of them go on a journey to help him learn the other three elements to defeat the leader of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Ozai. However, trouble is brewing as his banished son Prince Zuko and his uncle General Iroh plot to bring Aang back with them so Zuko can be allowed to return. Can Aang master waterbending before the Fire Nation finds him?

Being the live-action adaptation of the first season of my all-time favorite animated show, I had to see it after finishing that season. Like most people who saw this movie, I absolutely hated it. Now that the live-action television show reboot has come out recently, I feel it is the right time to talk about this movie and why it is so terrible.

This movie absolutely fails as an adaptation. First, there are way too many deviations from the source material. It is completely fine to make changes to an adaptation and it does not need to mirror it, but what they changed really takes away from the story. Numerous plot holes are created from changes to things that were much better portrayed in the show. I feel that part of the reason they could not make sequels to this was not just because of the negative reception, but also because it would have been difficult with what they omitted from season 1 that ended up being important in seasons 2 and 3.

They also did not understand the characters they were portraying at all. Aang in the show is a fun loving and happy kid who can quickly switch to being a powerful fighter when the situation calls for it. Here, he lacks any of that, instead being completely serious and emotionless all the time. This works against the movie because scenes where he is supposed to be unhappy are just more of the same. Katara was a kind, loving, and motherly type of character who was still able to effortlessly take down her enemies. Here, she does not have any of those qualities, being blander and more unimpressive. Sokka is a funny comic relief character who manages to be useful despite not being a bender. In the movie, he never says one funny line and is just as bland as the other characters. While other characters are portrayed wrong too, I think stating why the three main heroes were ruined says enough. It also does not help that multiple of the characters’ names are pronounced differently from the animated show and they insulted diversity by getting the characters’ races wrong.

While this is an even worse adaptation, it is also a terrible stand-alone movie. You would think watching people use elemental powers against each other would be exciting to watch in live action, but the action is very lame here. From a show that had some of the best action ever, they replace it with mostly touching each other with the elements and not going above and beyond what they can do with this inventive world. It also does not help that the bending in the show, which was animated to replicate real martial arts moves that they accomplished with the help of a real martial artist, instead looks like they are dancing. To top this all off, I found the special effects to be ugly. As an example, animal characters like Appa and Momo who should have been cute to look at, instead come off as creepy looking.

This movie has some of the worst acting I have ever seen. I mentioned how bland the characters were, which mainly comes off that way because the actors express little to no emotion at all in their performances. They merely say their lines and never come across like they mean any of it. The three exceptions to this are Dev Patel as Prince Zuko, Shaun Toub as General Iroh, and Aasif Mandvi as Admiral Zhao. Rewatching it again, they do seem to put emotion into their performances and I do have to congratulate them for working with what they had effectively. While this does not relate to acting, the other praise I must give this movie is for the soundtrack of the background music, which is epic to listen to. For as much as I hate this movie, I will compliment it for the things I did enjoy.

Overall, despite those positives, this movie fails in almost every way. It insulted the fans and it insulted moviegoers who had not discovered the series yet. However, I do feel that it is not a complete loss. The cartoon is still amazing and I consider it to be among the best stories ever created. It wowed audiences with its incredible plot, characters, voice acting, character development, animation, action, influence to anime, world building, and ties to philosophy. While I and many others were disappointed by the movie, I can guarantee the animated show is quite an experience. As for this movie, at this time of writing, I consider it to be the worst movie I have ever seen. Like how the Fire Nation disrupted the world, this movie disrupted the fans.

The Fire Nation caused problems because they could not accept that the other cultures needed to stay the way they were. Sadly, this is realistically happening with multiple oppressive countries. Countries who refuse to accept that these cultures must exist independently from them and are making life terrifying to live for them. Even if they do not live in the same country as us, all innocent people deserve help. After all, this is why NATO and the United Nations are a thing, so we need to make sure they do something about it. We can start a protest or complain on social media so we can further progress to help all these poor people. After all, wouldn’t you want to be helped if you were in their place?