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For anyone who has only ever seen the abomination that is M. Knight Shamylan’s The Last Airbender, it may be difficult to understand just how good Avatar: The Last Airbender (AKA Avatar: The Legend of Aang) was. The simplest way I choose to describe the show is Lord of The Rings quality. Sure it has a ‘goofy’ side, but that’s not just a sacrifice to it’s medium and target audience, it’s actually a necessary release and counterpoint to what is actually a pretty engaging and dark storyline that covers an entire world, slavery, child abuse, terrorism, rebellion, love, revenge pacifism and that (whilst it has some genuinely evil and unhinged characters) bothers to remember that the problem with evil, especially when dealing with armies, is that most of the people on the ‘evil’ side think they are doing the right thing; at the very least for their own people, if not for the world at large.
The story that was inconceivably squeezed into little more than 90 minutes of film took closer to 400 minutes of television to tell and there was very little fat to it. Characters that were met along the way served a purpose and would often return at later points o serve even greater functions later on. There was an internal logic to what happened and to how everything worked that was abandoned by a filmmaker with little respect for te source material and even lesser understanding for it. No better example of this than the Earth Bender prison camp. In the TV show prisoners with the ability to Earth bend were sensibly kept on an off shore prison camp, like a oil rig; far from shore and too far from the sea bed for their ‘powers’ to be effective. In the film not only were these prisoners kept on land (the equivalent of throwing your prisoners behind bars with saws, metal cutters and the keys thrown in for good measure) but they appeared o be in a valley! Earth on either side then as well as underfoot??? But that was OK because the prisoners simply decided not to bother trying to use their powers until a few kids turned up and suggested that they, well you know, use their powers.
Anyway the nightmares have almost stopped now and we can look forward to a new series set in that world from the creators of the original show Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Komietzko.
“70 years have passed since Firelord Ozai was defeated and the world began a new era of peace. The previous Avatar, Aang, has passed away and the next Avatar has arrived. Korra, the new Avatar, is a rebellious young woman from the Southern Water Tribe who has already mastered Waterbending, Earthbending, and Firebending. She must now master Airbending, and to do so she travels to the metropolis Republic City to seek out the master Airbender Tenzin, the son of her predecessor Aang and his wife Katara. However, the city has been overrun with crime and anti-bender revolts. As the Avatar it is Korra's mission to protect the city.”
I’d almost forgotten how beautiful the music for the show was too. The only other thing I can say here is that I’m waiting for the return of The Walking Dead, the return of Game of Thrones and I’m waiting for this.
Here’s the trailer...
Sounds interesting. I haven't seen Shyamalan's attempt to squeeze in 400 min into 90. I really like Shyamalan. Really -I do. However, after seeing "The Happening" I'd say the man has lost his way. I recently analysed "The Lady in the Water" and came to the conclusion that part of his motive for filming it was to present himself as a misunderstood genius : ) But, I think it is a funny film and I like the character Farber ha,ha.
ReplyDeleteFor me he hasn't made a great film since Ungreakable; I'm not sure he's een managed a 100% good film since then. Parts of Signs were decent , but the story as a whole was dull and pretty stupid as well. The Village was half a decent film, but it wasn't fully realised and was all about thee twist / mstrey, which was neither very mysterious, nor very interesting. Lady in The Water had some interesting character, but again was as you say, just an ego trip. The Happening.. Well, what to say about that film eh? Simply dreadful from start to finish. The only good thing I can say about the Happening is that at least it isn't as bad as The Last Airbender.
ReplyDeleteThe only goo thing I can say about The Last Airbender is that I didn't think Shamylan could get any worse. I was wrong and I've given up on him. For years we were hoping they'd get around to making Unbreakable 2; I hope not now, because I really don't care to sit through anything else he does.