Benders

The Last Airbender (2010)

Armed with a huge budget an a group of child actors director M. Night Shyamalan adapts a successful cartoon series for the big screen. In a fantasy world a trio of kids set off to restore balance to the land using elemental super powers.

This film took a pretty big hammering both from critics and at the box office but while it does have it's problems I really do not think it is that bad. Visually the film is really good with some decent martial arts, great scenery and nice locations. No doubt being the first part of a trilogy and trying to mash a full series into one film does not help matters so the plot is a bit wobbly in places and glosses over details by the truck load.

There are some complaints over not casting enough ethnic actors in the main roles but realistically the whole concept is cultural theft on large scale anyway as the series appears to be very much an American take on eastern influenced mythology. It is easy to point out all the missed opportunities for greater depth and better story telling but in the end the film is a visually impressive diversion even if it could have been much better.

3/5 not as bad as you probably heard.