While critics and fans largely regard M. Night Shyamalan’s
The Last Airbender to be a cinematic turkey (though I would rather watch it as
opposed to say, a political documentary), the Nickelodeon cartoon on which it’s
based is much, much better by comparison. It begins with two siblings from the
Southern Water Tribe encountering the eponymous last airbender, Aang, frozen in
ice for a century along with his air bison, the antagonistic Fire Nation
seeking to conquer the world around the time of his disappearance. The Avatar
must learn to master all four elements: water, earth, fire, and air, in order
to stand a chance at defeating the Fire Lord.
The characters are for the most part well-developed and
memorable, such as the deadpan-snarking Sokka, although the rogue Prince Zuko
of the Fire Nation is probably my favorite character, given his enjoyable plot
arc along with his uncle. Luckily, unlike the film, the show doesn’t attempt to
cram a season’s worth of events into one and a half hours, and there’s plenty
of cool elemental action throughout the series. The setting is mostly
Asian-based, with much advanced military technology, and it very well emulates
the style of anime and has definitely aged well. If the live-action Netflix
remake series escapes development hell, I would definitely watch it.
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