The Last Airbender – Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews

It’s amazing to see how far the star of M. Night Shyamalan has fallen over the last decade. He made a name for himself when he directed The Sixth Sense. Following that, Unbreakable and Signs were also hits for him. He became known for his plot twists and surprise endings. But somewhere between then and now, he lost all the luster he once had. His last three films, The Village, The Happening, and The Lady in the Water have been busts. Things actually looked promising for him, though, when everyone learned that he would be taking a popular Nickelodeon television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and bring it to the big screen.

With the world in chaos, hope for a great Avatar to emerge and calm warring nations has been lost, following a century of inactivity allowing the powerful Fire Nation to rise up and terrorize the land. As members of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), have discovered young Aang (Noah Ringer) trapped in ice, quickly freeing him and soon befriending the young monk. They soon discover that he is the last Avatar. Aang begins to test his bending powers, learning of his purpose to unite the elemental forces of the planet. He does all of this while preparing for war against the Fire Nation, led by Admiral Zhao (Aasif Mandvi), and a determined threat in the form of disgraced Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), who needs Aang to repair his reputation.

The Last Airbender is definitely targeted towards fans of the popular Nickelodeon series. Adults – no so much. That’s surprising since this is supposed to be a big action blockbuster movie. The biggest negative is that this first film is actually nothing more than a prequel to things to come. This was supposed to be the first of a series of movies, but it never takes time to make this first movie actually worth watching. To make matters worse, the action scenes are few and far between, and fairly dull when they do begin.

It also doesn’t help that the acting is not that good. The dialogue is also very amateurish, and that definitely doesn’t make the acting any better. For the most part, the characters just describe to everyone what is happening in the film. Noah Ringer, as the young star of the film, is actually somewhat decent as far as new actors go. Not the next Haley Joel Osment or anything, but then again, what is he doing these days? The best thing about this film is that it’s relatively short and the scenery and cinematography look great.

M. Night Shyamalan took a popular kids television series and didn’t even try to make The Last Airbender entertaining for those who have never seen the show before. The entire thing is supposed to set up future films, but who wants to watch more of these films, if Shyamalan is in charge? The acting certainly doesn’t help overcome the shoddy writing either, but credit must be given to Shyamalan for not making this film an extra hour longer. Young kids who love the television series might be able to be entertained and enjoy this, but there is just not enough going on for everyone else.

This Blu-ray Disc set contains both the Blu-ray and standard DVD version of this film. The video on the Blu-ray Disc is presented in 1080p/AVC/MPEG-4 at the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen color ratio, which is enhanced for 16:9 TVs of course. This transfer is great. All of the images and colors look bright and vibrant. The video for the standard definition DVD is presented in anamorphic widescreen color at the 2.35:1 ratio as well. This transfer is great too and about on par with other new release DVDs. There is really not much difference between either version to the average eye, though. No major video problems on either disc.

The audio included on the BD is available in either English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Surround sound, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, French Dolby Digital Surround sound, or Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French as well. The audio included on the standard DVD is available in either English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, French Dolby Digital Surround sound, or Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French as well. Both discs feature dialogue and music that come out loud and clear. As expected, the Blu-ray disc sounds a little better than the standard definition DVD, but there is really not much difference between the two versions. No major problems on either disc here either.

Two-Disc Blu-Ray Exclusives

“Avatar Annotations” Feature – This is an option to view the film with Picture-in-picture and have various featurettes, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage pop up over select scenes. Most of this can be found on the aforementioned featurettes.

“Discovering The Last Airbender” Featurette – This runs 58 minutes and and it’s basically an extended, 9-part, making of featurette. Everything is covered here from the idea behind the series/film all the way through filming. Unfortunately, it’s not as in-depth as you might expect. More time is given for the usual fluffy interviews with cast and crew who try to sell this movie as the best ever.

“Siege of the North” Featurette – This runs 18 minutes and it’s all about the set design, where cities were constructed. There is also talk about the stunts used during filming.

“Katara for a Day” Featurette – This runs 6 minutes and we go along with actress, Nicola Peltz, as she goes from make-up to shooting. Just a day in her life on set while filming.

Special Features found on both the standard DVD and Single Disc BD

“Origins of the Avatar” Featurette – This runs 7 minutes and creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko talk about the backstory of the television series and how martial arts was involved in creating it.

Deleted Scenes” Featurette – There are 4 scenes that didn’t make the final cut of the film, and they total 11 minutes.

Gag Reel – There is 4 minutes of the usual unfunny gags, bloopers, and joking around while filming.

The Last Airbender looks good, but it would be hard for anyone to enjoy this movie, except for hardcore fans of the original cartoon series. So for the younger fan base it’s probably a purchase or nothing, but for everyone else, it’s only a rental if there is nothing left you can watch.


Paramount Home Entertainment presents The Last Airbender. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Cliff Curtis, and Shaun Toub. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated PG. Released on Blu-ray and DVD: November 16, 2010.

I'm not embarrassed to say that my favorite television show of all-time is The O.C. I live by the motto "you can't fight fate!" More importantly, I watch WAY too much television, but I do so for the benefit of everyone reading this now. So to my mom and my wife, I say thanks for reading! To everyone else that might stumble across this, remember TiVo should be your best friend!