The Last Airbender (2010)

The story follows the adventures of Aang, a young successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations.

Director:

M. Night Shyamalan

Writer:

M. Night Shyamalan

Stars:

Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz

5 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Noah Ringer	...	Aang
Dev Patel	...	Prince Zuko
Nicola Peltz	...	Katara
Jackson Rathbone	...	Sokka
Shaun Toub	...	Uncle Iroh
Aasif Mandvi	...	Commander Zhao
Cliff Curtis	...	Fire Lord Ozai
Seychelle Gabriel	...	Princess Yue
Katharine Houghton	...	Katara's Grandma
Francis Guinan	...	Master Pakku
Damon Gupton	...	Monk Gyatso
Summer Bishil	...	Azula
Randall Duk Kim	...	Old Man in Temple
John D'Alonzo	...	Zhao's Assistant
Keong Sim	...	Earthbending Father

Storyline

The world is divided into four kingdoms, each represented by the element they harness, and peace has lasted throughout the realms of Water, Air, Earth, and Fire under the supervision of the Avatar, a link to the spirit world and the only being capable of mastering the use of all four elements. When young Avatar Aang disappears, the Fire Nation launches an attack to eradicate all members of the Air Nomads to prevent interference in their future plans for world domination. 100 years pass and current Fire Lord Ozai continues to conquer and imprison anyone with elemental "bending" abilities in the Earth and Water Kingdoms, while siblings Katara and Sokka from a Southern Water Tribe find a mysterious boy trapped beneath the ice outside their village. Upon rescuing him, he reveals himself to be Aang, Avatar and last of the Air Nomads. Swearing to protect the Avatar, Katara and Sokka journey with him to the Northern Water Kingdom in his quest to master "Waterbending" and eventually fulfill ...

---

Plot Keywords:

fire | avatar | water | kingdom | prince | 

---

Taglines:

Four nations, one destiny

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Fantasy

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for fantasy action violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [fr] Official site [jp]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 July 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Filming Locations:

Beltzville State Park, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,653,776 (UK) (13 August 2010)

Gross:

$131,564,731 (USA) (17 September 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, Blinding Edge Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jesse McCartney was originally cast to play Zuko, but was replaced with Dev Patel due to scheduling conflicts.

---

Goofs

During the scene where Aang is being tested by Zuko's uncle Iroh, Iroh pours a cup of water onto the table and it coalesces into a circle (at around 26 mins). In the next shot, Iroh places a rock on the table where the water had just been (at around 29 mins), but the water has inexplicably disappeared.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Katara: A hundred years ago all was right with our world. Prosperity and peace filled our days. / The four Nations: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air Nomads lived amongst each other in harmony. / Great respect was afforded to all those who could bend their natural element. / The Avatar was the only person born amongst all the nations who could master all four elements. / He was the only one who could communicate with the Spirit World. With the Spirits' guidance the Avatar kept balance in the ...

---

Crazy Credits

As the credits start to roll, Aang, Katara and Zuko bend the elements: water fire and air. No earth bending is demonstrated, but an airy figure of Aang stand on top of stone pillars.

---

Connections

Referenced in Bad Movie Beatdown: The Happening (2011)

User Reviews

$150 million dollar disappointment

I went into the movie knowing it would not be even a fraction as good as the real show. However, I didn't know that would make me literally want to leave the theater in the middle of the very movie. How someone could do such damage in approximately an hour and forty minutes is entirely beyond me. It was ridiculous, the only way to describe it is a $150 million dollar failure. I could understand if the effects were not up to par but the biggest disappointment was the acting. It was so stiff and it never once felt like the actors meant a word they were saying. I caught a glimpse of an interview with Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone on TV and even their approach to that felt so wrong. It felt kind of disgusting to see as I've lately been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (with extras) almost religiously for the past month.

The script in itself should have been tossed into the garbage and burnt and it's remains locked away so that no one would ever have to suffer looking at such garbage. That's why I'm not really sure if it's the actors or the script that's really to blame for the atrocious "movie" that's resulted. The long and, I'm assuming this what they were going for, "inspirational" speeches merely consisted of crudely strung together clichés and the language left much to be desired. I found myself almost twitching at the phrase (something along the lines) "You guys are AWESOME people!"...

What I find the be so incredibly amazing is how someone could honestly fail to such a proportion when they literally have a blue print already created. The fans know how the characters look and sound and while I understand that no one fits the package perfectly one out of two would be better than nothing. As well, suddenly deciding to change the pronunciation of the characters name is definitely not the best idea, while I do understand that he wanted the names to sound like their Asian origin, it didn't go over well and the whole time I was just cringing at the mere mention of Aang and Sokka's names.

This movie does not hold a candle to the original show. Heck, it should be retitled as it is hardly resembles the original in any way shape or form. While I do realize that not all episodes can be featured, the sequence of events just left you feeling awkward and confused. I, also, loathed the way they worked the bending in like it took five minutes of moving ones hands around awkwardly before any actual bending occurred. Most of the fighting was like fifteen minutes of martial arts with like the occasional bit of air bending and a little water being splashed around.

There was nothing to love in this movie not even the most adorable of characters such as Momo. Momo had literally what three minutes in the entire movie which I found extremely depressing as Momo was always one of the characters I just wanted to cuddle because of his adorable mannerisms but in the movie I had no love for the digitized Momo. Not even Appa was interesting.

This movie leaves me hoping and praying that M. Night Shyamalan goes broke and is black listed so that he can't ruin the series even more so. This is definitely something you will spend some time just trying to forget.