If you follow me on twitter or facebook, then you know I have been in a perpetual state of anticipation for a movie that came out this week. The Last Airbender. I was SO excited it was going to be my next entry in The Bucket of Awesome. But then, the reviews came out. And ouch. It looked bad, really bad. And suddenly I was scared. I didn’t WANT to see it, I didn’t want to ruin a story that had become one of my favorites. But my kids have reached that age where they KNOW things, and they knew that the movie had been released and I had promised to take them to see it. I had to stick by my promise. So I took a deep breath, pushed all those reviews aside, and went to see it. (In 2D, I am SO over 3D, and this is not a 3D movie, take my advice, SKIP the 3D.)

And?

I liked it. I ALMOST loved it, but I definitely liked it. Here’s why.

First, the story. The movie is based on a fictional earth…wait, excuse me a minute (Mr. Ebert, could you come here a sec? Yeah, just need to tell you something. So you know that review you did of the The Last Airbender? The one where you were all It’s really bad? Remember that? Good. Here’s the thing- next time you review a movie MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S ABOUT. This isn’t based in some ‘future’ time, after some apocalypse. Holy cow! How did you EVEN come up with that shit? It’s a fantasy world, like, say Tatooine or Middle Earth. Duuude, retire. Retire now.)

Ok, back to the movie. Ficitonal earth. In this earth some people can bend elements, but only one, the Avatar, can master all four. After he dies he is reincarnated, so Avatars have been around forever. At the start of the movie, Katara and Sakka find Aang who has been frozen in ice for over hundred years, and who is now The Last Airbender, and also, the Avatar.

You can’t talk about this movie without talking about the elephant in the room. The white actors. M. Night Shyamalan is now universally reviled for being racist for casting white actors in roles, that (some say) are clearly Asian in the cartoon series. I say, it was a gamble. It didn’t pay off, but in this fictional earth as in the real earth there are many races, and he tried to portray those. The worst cast, by far, is Katara, But the others work, and Dev Patel does a good job as Prince Zuko, and will bring the depth the character needs in later chapters. Some say the Aang is the worst, and I can see why. His delivery of lines is cringe worthy. But he gets a pass. Why? He does the avatar part well, and he’ll get better. (Anyone watched the first Harry Potter movie again, lately. Dude, Radcliffe is embarrassing.)

But how did Shyamalan treat the material? For the fans, this is the most important questions. And the answer is, in some cases, very well, in others, he did the best he could. Here is what I miss: Aang is a child, we miss that playfulness of him as you rush through the scenes, and Sakka is Mr. Sarcasm- and the comic relief. That needs to come back next time. Seriously. And a warning: I see that you are playing with idea of Zuko and Katara being together. DO. NOT. DO. IT. You have been warned.

Should you go see it? If you liked the series, and can get past the fact that it won’t look like a cartoon¹, then yes. Some moments are to die for (all within the last half hour, sadly). And you will like the changes the director has made. If you have never seen the cartoon, then maybe read up about it on a wiki, and go see it, I give you a 50/50 chance at liking it.

And Aapa and MoMo are cute.

There are three books in the series: Water, Earth, and Fire. And, hopefully, three movies. So please hire a writer, next time. This is mandatory. And build on what you did here, Mr. Shyalaman. It wasn’t your best work, but neither did you ‘ruin’ the franchise. It does needs some improvement. But not Iroh, Iroh is perfect. Just needs to drink more tea next time.

1. why do I even have to point that out, anime is an art form- movies are a separate and DIFFERENT art form