The Last Airbender [DVD]

Like some of the other reviewers who rated this film five stars, I don't understand why it has been criticized so much. I personally love this film with its messages of fighting to protect the balance of the world without actually beating the hell out of people, along with the actual burden of bearing the future of the world on one's shoulders and knowing that others expect you to make the world a better place altogether, as Aang, played spectacularly by Noah Ringer realizes all too well. Now that's a massive responsibility for a thirteen year old boy to carry out! Wouldn't it just be easier to run away from it?The truth is it's so easy to think you can run away from your responsibilities, and that immediately makes it easy to empathize with Aang, as brother and sister Sokka and Katara of the Southern Water Tribe do, played by Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz respectively. Driven by their own instincts for good as well as sympathy and affection for Aang, they become rather like his guardians first and his friends second and all three of them together make a cool team. No, I have not seen the original manga anime television series, but that doesn't mean I have to watch it unless I want to and I am perfectly happy with the film as it is. Noah Ringer is really engaging as Aang; you can get seriously involved with him, particularly when he permanently closes down his mind to the material world and enters the immaterial, which is the spirit world where he is immediately rebuked by a breathtakingly enormous Asian Lung dragon spirit (voiced by the brilliant John Noble who played Denethor in "The Lord Of The Rings") for having been absent from the world for one hundred years, and also when he's being told to concentrate by Katara as she attempts to teach him her skills of water bending. Another character with whom you can sympathize as well is Prince Zuko, played splendidly by Dev Patel, whose quest to find and capture Aang in order to win his father's approval and take back his place as the rightful heir to the throne is constantly hampered by his arch enemy Commander Zhao (Aasif Mandvi), and doubted by his father Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis) to prove successful, both of whom have plans to preserve their own skills with fire while also eradicating all other nations in the process. This pompous self serving act with no regard to the balance spells out disaster as far as the thinking man of the Fire Nation, General Iroh is concerned when he learns of it, and I just love him; he's noble, honest and wise and the actor Shaun Toub who plays him is also really good looking! I particularly love the scene in which he offers his wise counsel to Princess Yue, another looker with a conscience played very deeply by Seychelle Gabriel, therefore prompting her to do her own responsibility for her people without hesitating. It's also great that she doesn't fall for the devastated look on Sokka's face; she's not going to be swayed by his own desperate need for her to hang around when she's got to mend the balance for others. I also love the growing affection between Aang and Katara; Aang's serious outlook on life just leaves him whenever she's there to support him.The acts of air bending, fire bending, water bending and earth bending enhanced with top notch special effects and fantastic action are all simply gorgeous (and they're even cooler in the end credits where they're all purely animated and you can also see Aang manipulating fire and earth; therefore showing that he harnesses all four elements in the end), and since the four elements and the exercises that go with them are explained in the featurette "The Origins Of The Avatar" over on the Special Features as well as the three main characters of Aang, Sokka and Katara and their personalities, everything about them in the film just makes perfect sense. True, the character of Fire Lord Ozai is not nearly as villainous a father as he's meant to be in the original television series and I'm not immediately terrified of him, however, the way in which he inquires after his son and afterwards speaks of him with no affection or approval or acceptance is very cold, and he is altogether a self satisfied, power hungry git. Also, Prince Zuko justifies his claim to capture Aang and prove he's a worthy son in the process brilliantly, putting in the facts of his own unhappy upbringing and the shame that he's been led to believe he is within his family, therefore making you want to root for him in the race to find Aang before Commander Zhao; he's got much more sound and positive reasons than Zhao's which are heavily influenced by greed and ambition. It's just sad though that Zuko feels this is a mission he's been given when in fact it was just an excuse his father made to banish him from the Fire Nation completely.The scenery is just stunning, every single location in the film looks beautiful, from the snows of the South and North Poles to the towns and villages of the Earth Kingdom and the vast golden fields of the Fire Nation. So too are the temples, including the temple that Aang visits only to find all of the reincarnations of himself of previous years captured in still art form. The speech that Aang makes when he is looking at all of the statues is charged both with trepidation and huge solemnity, as well as guilt at having been so unwilling to take up the mantle of all of the lives where he was willing before. It's no wonder then that Aang feels so daunted at having to be the God of his elemental world. The music is also wonderful; it's deep and profound and really touching, especially when Aang finally releases all of his inner conflict over having blindly attempted to run away both from the responsibility to be the Avatar and from all of his teachers and friends who wanted him to be the Avatar, and embraces the power to fend off the Fire Nation. Yes he looks serious a lot of the time, so it's lovely whenever he's happy, and at the same time beautiful to see him bow to everyone at long last as encouraged by Katara. He practically learns the value of accepting the role that destiny carves for him the hard way and it's really hard; you don't get what you want handed to you on a silver platter as Fire Lord Ozai would like to think that he can. Also among the Special Features that I've mentioned before are some deleted scenes, which are pretty cool and also quite funny, like "Talk To The Dead" in which a crazy medium uses simply awful guesswork to pinpoint a presence in the atmosphere until her voice suddenly changes into something else entirely. The outtakes are fantastic, there's a lot of goofing around which is fun, actors trying to stay in character until they slip up and a good amount of dancing, as after all, the exercises for each of the four elements are a bit like a dance, and they're meant to be! Just listen to the creators of the television series, it's got nothing to do with looking weird! I'm very happy with this purchase, it came in great condition and well on time and it's a firm favourite of mine.

Love this film I can see why it didn't do so good but still a great film.

I can see why people were disappointed with this film.The music, fight sequences, emotion, and bending and effects are all well done. But the writing is a lil stale. And the actors sound a bit wooden at times, because the writing is stale.Plus I feel they tried to cram too much into one movie, there was a lot covered and the scenes sometimes cut sharply. Also the opening could have been better. They spent some time on Earth bending and the villages, which is fine and was pretty good, but they probably should have focused more of the movie on water.If the writing had been ironed out better this film would be top tier.It's still a good watch, especially if you grew up on the cartoon, but it definitely could have been a lot better.And unfortunately we never got the following (I assume they intended 3 more) movies. So you are left without a resolution.But still a fun watch, just don't have really high expectations, or expect it to adhere to the cartoon.

Great movie. Although this was a long movie, it captivated my boys and we managed to watch a movie together the whole way through! ( which is an achievement) 😊😊😊😊

An excellent film, great to business with seller , highly recommended

I feel compelled to write a review for this beautiful film as so many people have left negative comments, it seems such a shame - as this film is a joy to behold. I've never seen the animated cartoon version, so maybe I'm not as biased as the other fans, but in a way I think that's a bonus. New eyes and an open view.The overall feel and tempo of the film is very spiritual and uplifting, with beautiful scenery, amazing special effects and a wonderful story-line (the ending leaves room for a sequel!). Buddhist themes and spirituality run throughout the film, along with honor, courage and self control. I found the film a complete surprise and I felt uplifted after seeing it, I do hope the director makes a sequel as I'd love to enjoy even more of the 'Benders' journey. If you enjoy spiritual elements, buddhist philosophy, stunning scenery and a journey for the soul in your films - then I'd certainly recommend this one!Enjoy! Blessings x x

Bought this specifically for it being a 3D film. Was most disappointed. A couple of times during the film we took our glasses off and checked the settings because we couldnt believe it was 3D, having watched many 3D films before this one and enjoying the special effects. Not worth the money i paid for it, might just have well bought a normal dvd and saved money.

Splendid

toda la pelicula esta muy bien

Love this film. So sad there weren't any sequels.

好きなので購入しました。とても気に入っています。

Mir hat der Film super gefallen und ich hoffe, dass trotz der vielen Kritik die anderen Teile auch noch verfilmt werden.

Excellent Direction By M. NIGHT