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1. Thomas Reynolds 08.24.10 / 2pm

   Excellent review Kathleen and I must say that I agree with most of your comments. I actually thought the martial arts was the only thing that made me not stand up and leave during the film. I have been increasingly anti M Night Shamalot these days because of films like this one. I agree that Sixth Sense and especially Unbreakable were good films and I actually liked Lady in the Water, although I am a sucker for magic realism, but I generally think the rest of his films are a waste of money and time. Last Airbender the movie was truly horrible though. The anime has much more credit in my eyes although I have only seen the first season. I think that casting and writing were the films two biggest mistakes. I think some type casting would have been good or at least find some actors who do not exude european culture so much. I did not think that the CG was inventive enough. I imagined a much better Earth Bender scene, more explosive. The acting was not as horrible as the directing, the airbender boy was good I thought although maybe less dialogue from him. I also thought that one character was actually phenomenal, the uncle to the anti hero of the fire benders. He played an excellent mentor and master and was quite believable. It is hard to be convincing however with one good supporting role amidst so many distracting and laughable performances surrounding it. To wrap it up this film irritated me so greatly that I would beg M Night to quit now before it gets worse. Over all I do feel that he is one of the biggest tease directors around, decent hype and no follow through.
2. Ana Espinoza 08.25.10 / 3pm

   I have been a fan of the series since I can remember, which is not so long ago, but I have to agree with both Kathleen and Thomas. The second I heard that M. Night was behind this movie my excitement vanished, and although he does have other good movies, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, his recent work hadn’t really done it for me. Either way and against my better judgment I accompanied some of my friends to see the movie who are also fans of the animated series, it’s safe to say that we had more fun waiting in line than watching the film. It was badly made, the casting was off, the script was hurried and badly organized and there were important details that were missing. Ang’s riding his little ball of air around. It’s great that the idea of making a movie about this series finally hit the big screen but it needed more research. Overall, totally agree with Kathleen and Thomas this was just another M. Night disaster.
3. Clinton Brewer 08.26.10 / 3pm

   M. Night definitely had too much on his plate for this one. I was a big fan of the Last Airbender series on NIckleodeon. The series took three seasons and this movie was based off the first season. It would be difficult for any director to fit a season into two hours. Regardless there were many drastic unneccessary changes. The pronounciations of names were changed and some of the character backgrounds that took many episodes to unravel, was just blurted out in the first ten minutes of the film. The mystery of the character’s motivations kept me intrigued to the cartoon. It is also a lot easier to have wild animation in a cartoon than a live-action movie. The young actors were “B” movie material. emotions were over the top and too plain at times. Aang’s pet bison Appa, was a big character in the series and was lovable and had a fun personality, but in the movie, Appa had no personality and looked kind of scary. I agree with all the previous entrees, that this is another M. Night disaster.
4. Joseph Racicot 08.30.10 / 5pm

   I felt it was very watchable for an adult even though it had a PG rating. In my opinion this film followed the cartoon very well and I thought it was well casted. So I disagree with previous comments because I really did enjoy it. It is set up more for a kid audience and hooks in kids to watch the series of movies that will probably be coming out.
5. Wendy Cruz 08.30.10 / 6pm

   I never saw the show, but once I saw the trailer for this film I began to watch this show. I loved the show and was so excited for the film. I thought Ang was the only one that was portrayed exactly like the show, but all the other characters lacked the characteristics that made them so memorable. Sokka is supposed to be funny, but was way too serious in the film. It really bothered me and so did the lack of screen time for Ang’s pets. I don’t like how M. Night Shyamalan’s films end but I thought I may like this one. I was wrong I didn’t like and I doubt they’ll be a sequel.
6. Taylor Fisher 09.03.10 / 11am

   I watched the cartoon religiously when it was on TV. When I heard that one of my favorite shows was going to be made into a movie that wasn’t a animation I was nothing less than ecstatic. When I heard that M. Night Shyamalan was directing it I thought this movie was going to win best film ever. I got to the theater and was ready to adventure into awesomeness. The opening sequence started, my heart was pounding. I was pumped! I never thought a film could make me so mad so fast. About 5 minutes into The Last Airbender I was ready to leave. M. Night not only changed the characters names completely but he also changed the story. It’s not like he was interpreting this story from a book and did not know how to pronounce the characters names. They were said thousands of times in the show. He left out significant parts of the story which to me made it feel patchy and incomplete. M. Night also manipulated characters personalities. For example; Prince Zuko in the TV series was portrayed as a tough hard king in training but in the movie he seemed sad, weak, and pathetic. I feel bad for bagging on this moving because to an outsider that has never seen the TV series I’m sure this movie would have been great. I just didn’t enjoy it one bit.
7. Marc Millner 09.21.10 / 6pm

   I have been watching this series on Nickelodeon on and off for some time now. I was a little disappointed in the title of the movie because they did not take the original name of the series because it was taken by James Cameron for his new hit movie Avatar. The movie however was not to bad for a transition from a cartoon on Nickelodeon to a block buster movie. I watched it in 3D and it was the first movie I saw in 3D. I feel like the 3D gave a better depth into the movie and it also made the action scenes awesome. Overall this was a good movie. I would rate it an 8 out of 10.
8. Yin Zhang 09.23.10 / 11pm

   If a best most rates 10 in my heart, this movie, The Last Airbender, rates -1. This movie exactly fits into the category of modern commercial movie, and it was disappointing. I was giving it a really high expectation because the preview of the movie is pretty good, even much better than the movie. I think the only thing that this movie could be complimented is the amazing and fantastic scenes. However, there is no thoughtful and anticipated plots at all. Anyway, I was so disappointed after I saw this movie. I hope it could be developed not only for amazing scenes but also for some nice plots.
9. Alex Hollowell 10.14.10 / 5pm

   I agree with your review. First I must say that I was a fan of the TV show and was really excited for the movie. When I heard of the casting, I was disappointed but convinced myself that maybe M. Night Shyamalan had a plan and it would be great. Unfortunately this was not the case. Like you said, the acting, writing, directing, and casting all pretty much sucked. I must say partly in defense of Nicola Peltz that in the show, Katara is whiny, a cry-baby, and over-emotional. However, that’s the only defense I can give her because though the character had these qualities, that doesn’t excuse Peltz’s horrible performance. I also felt that Noah Ringer was equally awful at acting. I didn’t think that Jackson Rathbone was bad, but it is a real shame how M. Night made his character so serious. In the TV show, the character of Sokka is hilarious. I felt that his comedic relief was very much needed in this dull movie. Also, it took way too long for all the characters to actually make the elements move. All the arm gestures and body movements took too long and seemed weird. Once again I will refer to the show in saying the element bending was much more seamless and natural. Over all, this movie was a huge disappointment. Looking at it from the perspective of a fan of the show, the movie was horrible and does not do the show justice. Looking at it without the show in mind, the movie is still boring, tiresome, and awkward. Lastly, I completely agree with your recommended viewings. The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable are Shyamalan best, and simple amazing movies.
10. Nick Visger 10.15.10 / 10pm

    I also found this film to be extremely dull and played out. Unfortunately the first time I viewed the film I spent ten dollars to take a nap in the theater. I have since watched the film again and must say it was extremely boring and the acting was awful. The visual effects seemed to be a couple of years behind. M. Night has made some pretty terrible films but this seemed to be on a level of its own. The last exciting Night movie I’ve seen is the 1999 hit The 6th sense and I would have to rate this film far below that. Releasing The last Airbender after Avatar was anything but a good idea.
11. Corey Schulz 10.16.10 / 12am

    When I watched this movie in the summer I came out of the theatre thinking the exact same thing. Boring. When I saw the trailer for this film I knew that there was a possibility of me not enjoying it. M. Night Shyamalan lost his touch with directing a long time ago. This film was poorly put together and put the tv series to shame. In the film they even pronounce the names incorrectly. I was and still am a huge fan of the show, I can watch re-runs anytime I see that the program is on. The way M. Night wrote this film was crap, the main character had barely any lines in the film. Katara would not shut up about saying Aangs name or claiming he was the Avatar. All the actors and actresses in this film did not have much experience which is why this film ultimately ended up terrible. The CGI effects were not impressive at all, there should have been more effects of the skills and training that benders must go through. Also, in the series there are morals learned in the end of almost every episode, in this film no moral’s were learned and there was no ending lesson. The end was also ultimately boring, all together this film was unimpressive and disappointing.
12. Derrell Jones 11.01.10 / 1am

    To me it looks like M. Night Shyamalan made this film before actually watching the film. The cultural differences from the cartoon show in the film are striking, and completely destroy the film. If you are a fan of the cartoon show you simply cannot enjoy this film because of the perplexing selections of the cast. The fire nation which are portrayed in the tv show as Asian appeared in the film to be Asian. M. Night Shyamalan looks like he took a self-indulgent approach to this film and completely disregarded how the film should be made for audiences to enjoy, and created a film that he enjoyed.
13. Carolina Soto 11.10.10 / 3am

    I saw this movie at the cinema, and that was the first time I fell asleep during a screening. I thought the movie was going to be cooler than it showed. It was so boring and the acting was humiliating.
    I shouldn’t write to much about this, considering I slept most of the time.
14. Sophie Sterling 02.14.11 / 4pm

    I unfortunately have to agree that this movie was complete rubbish. I’m a huge fan of the animated series, and have been for several years. It’s funny, exciting, inventive and at times very sweet, and the animation and voice acting is absolutely gorgeous. It sets the bar other shows much strain to reach for. That’s why the live action film was such a huge letdown. Even though my expectations were not high entering the movie, I tried to stay optimistic but was horribly disappointed. The acting was wooden at best, the special effects were shoddy, and a lot of critical plot line information and content was cut out. This is a faithless adaptation of an excellent series, and it should never have been handed over to Shyamalan.
15. Manpreet Toor 07.15.13 / 12am

    I completely agree with the author of this review. I had watched the entire animated series on Nickelodeon and I loved it very much. However, the movie is a poor depiction of the show and lacks many things presented in the animated series. In my opinion, there is not enough emotion and action presented. In the show one can clearly see the attraction Aang acquires for Katara. Yet, in the movie there is no chemistry to be witnessed. Moreover, I believe that the storyline was also not as great as it could have been. The only part of this film that slightly made it better was the martial arts. Otherwise, I must admit, I was very disappointed with this film.

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