by James Angel

Created on: July 17, 2010   Last Updated: July 19, 2010

They Didn't Even Call Him Ang

Now, there are many things that can be said about M. Night Shyamalan's, "excellent", screen adaptation of the ever-popular American Anime series, "Avatar: The Last Air-bender".  To begin with, it crudely broke away from many aspects of the actual story-line; and being a big fan of the Avatar series, personally, I was greatly disappointed M. Night Shyamalan's output on the film.  In any case, there are many great things about the film, the sets and scenes are for the most part, beautiful, however it just couldn't best the amazing scenery in the actual animated series. 

I was wowed one moment and quit frankly bored the next.  For example the leamor bat creature Mo'mo was introduced in the film for about five seconds and then was no longer present.  Even while, in the series, Mo'mo was not very apparent for many episodesthe increadibly original and often-times humerous creature stilled had some-what of an interesting introduction; while in this film, Mo'mo did not.  

The point being stated is that, whilethe film did have lots of interesting trinkets, at-best, the film did not posses the necessary components of intrigue that (American) Anime naturally has.  However, the average person may have found this movie captivating.  That being said, most of the viewers of the film were lovers of the series (as-is the construct of many film adaptations, especially Anime), thus, many of its ticket holders were disappointed due to it's lack of Constancy as far as the comparison between story lines.  Even still, this was anticipated.  Many directors have tried and failed to make a good adaptation of a great Anime series.  

"I mean, why would any respect a film that can not even get the name of the main character correctly?" - authors opinion -  

I suppose the most obvious thoughts that can come from seeing this film are, why the very talented director claimed to love the series so much if he wasn't going to make it based more on the story line; or "Well, I suppose M. Night Shyamalan's last great movie is still and always will be - The Sixth Sense."  In any case, the film itself is deserving of an 8 out of 10, it wasn't totally bad, it just needs work.  In my own opinion, I hope that he will do better on the next film and make it more like the series. 

I.E: If you make prince Zuko's sister out to be as amazing as she is in the series, the fans may just take it easy on you Mr.Shyamalan. 

Either way, I hope that it (if Mr.Shyamalan does see this review) isn't taken too personally.  The movie was fantastic and many people enjoyed it, however, an adaptation will fail if it doesn't stick to the story, and we've all seen this time and time again.  The last adaptation to flop was the hard-hitting Dragon Ball Z film, Dragon Ball Evolution; and it all boils down to character placement and story line.  

- your friend the friendly nieghborhood anime lover - 

Learn more about this author, James Angel.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.