The Last Airbender

Better than 'Clash of the Titans' and 'Golden Compass'; more interesting and multi-faceted than a Star Wars prequel. A pimped up martial arts fantasy (with a handful of fights), that has the potential to be deep and meaningful, but is drowned by hasty and clumsy direction. Still engaging enough to watch.

Hadn't been to the cinema in ages, and felt like going tonight. Choices that I would have been interested to see: 'Knight and Day' - which looked like a more-American MI:2, only with a different leading lady; 'The A-Team' - which looks like a no-brainer contrived to fit the original, inevitably falling short of expectation; which left 'The Last Airbender'.

I had seen trailers for that last movie about a year ago, and had been quite excited about it. The visuals coupled with a seemingly authentic martial arts proponent looked quite impressive indeed.

I was subsequently dismayed to hear that it has been widely lambasted by the media at large: derided, critically panned, the scorn of all the popular voices pertaining to the film world.

Knowing this, I still wanted to see it for myself. I have had a crappy past week, and was up for some martial arts fantasy to potentially be engrossed with - irrespective of the quality. It was more in tune with my sensibilities compared to the other two.

I'm glad I did see it.

Make no mistake about it. This is no work of genius, or a masterpiece to say the least. But there are elements of it that make for captivating, engaging, and entertaining cinema. It's definitely worth watching, and didn't think it a waste of the £1.50 extra I paid to see it in 3D, in addition to the £0.80 for the glasses I neglected to bring with me.

There is a serious attempt to do justice to the material - a certain respect and gravitas imbued into the production, which is in part underlined and helped by James Newton Howard's score (The Dark Knight). There's a definite sense of grandiosity. Locations in Vietnam, and New Zealand influence the aesthetic.

But it's complicated and complex - and not necessarily in a high sophistication sort of way. Very dense in esoteric Avatar-ism, which I'm sure only the most die-hard fans of the anime cartoon series would be most comfortable following. For the lay, such as myself, it was a struggle. But you get the general jist of what's going on. There's a couple of genuinely surprising twists in the movie that keep the drama interesting, but it's not explicit enough - you're left questioning your sanity a bit throughout the movie: Did that just happen, or didn't it?

Moderately amused by how all the primary villains were straight up English or American, despite looking explicitly Asian, and of a 'foreign land'. Would have been better if there was more of a culturally diverse flavour, the odd subtitle here and there, even if it was gibberish (Lord of the Rings).

15% action scenes/martial arts sequences that left us wanting more. Much like the Duel of the Fates sequence at the end of The Phantom Menace - you wanted more. But what you did see was fairly spectacular.

Ultimately it's clumsy and awkward direction that fails the movie. In better, more capable hands, this really could have been something spectacular. A truly epic fantasy. Some cringe moments, punctuate the movie quite frequently, as do comparisons with other epics that wreak of contrivance (see Anakin and Amidala and the non-chemistry between them). Whilst we identify with the plight of the protagonists, we don't feel or identify with the protagonists themselves - we don't care about them. A shame because there's huge potential there. That the Avatar Shaolin dude is who he is becase he abandoned responsibilities forced on him by his parents, makes for huge dramatic potential... Taken to the wheyside by the special effects, but not drowned by them completely.

I think is says something about a movie, when, in it's opening week, it's only available in 3D. As if it needed that gimmick for anyone to see it, a 2D offering would be expectantly empty/deserted - I imagine the marketing analysts were thinking.

Visually spectacular, full of promise and potential. The action sequences are intelligent, engaging, enthralling, though sparse. Delivers in part, but not a wholly rewarding or satisfying experience. Definitely not a no-brainer though, gotta keep your noggin' on to follow and appreciate the good stuff of which there is much of.