The LOST Airbender

I never saw "Highlander" in the movie theater. Instead, I watched this masterpiece of swordplay and Sean Connery on VHS (or maybe even Betamax!) and consequently was able to watch it over and over again. I would marvel at the transitions between scenes, the great historical flashbacks, and the Queen soundtrack. I knew every scene and could quote the dialogue. It was perfect.

Then I saw Highlander 2.

Gerry Evenwel and I sat in the movie theater, geeked out that we were about to see the sequel to our favorite movie on the big screen. They had even gotten Sean Connery back for the movie. This was going to be great, right? Wrong. Within the first five minutes, the subtitle suddenly told us that we were now on the planet Zeist (Zeist? Really?) and that the entire mythology behind the story was that the Immortals were...aliens??!! It just went downhill from there. People actually got up and left the movie theater. I didn't. I kept hoping that something would redeem the film. Not even two New Trier grads, Virginia Madsen and Rusty Schwimmer, couldn't save this dog. The writer, director, producer, movie company had ruined it. All I could do was mope out of the movie theater and head back home to watch the original and cleanse my pallet.

Well, it happened again with M. Night Shymalan's version of "The Last Airbender" and I was there to witness the train wreck first hand.

If you haven't watched every episode of this three season Nickelodeon animated series, then do yourself a favor and pick up the Complete Series of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" on DVD. This is a classic. There is a beginning, middle, and end. There is character development. There is complexity to character motivations but also some great humor that is at times goofy and other times sophisticated. The animation is excellent and the mythology is engaging. I've thought many times about making a character class based on a bender or even the Avatar itself. Because it is on cable, I've ended up watching the entire series at least three times now. Catherine and I have bonded over the series and both love it. Awesome.

So on Thursday after Catherine returned from camp, we bolted to the Glen to see the movie together. Now I'll admit that even Catherine had doubts about the live action version. The previews looked good but she was worried that it looked "too serious." I was worried that they were trying to pack too much into one movie. The series is divided into three "books" with each book making up an entire season. This movie was going to be one season. How would they handle character development? And the fanboys were all worried because this was directed by M. Night Shamalamadingdong. Nobody has liked this guy since "The Sixth Sense".

Turns out we were all correct. It was all our fears...and worse. The dialogue was wooden and for a moment I wondered if George Lucas had gotten ahold of the script. The acting was pretty awful. Clearly, this was edited down for time and it jumped over huge gaps of time. Midway through the movie, Catherine shifted in her chair and put her head on the armrest. She was bored and so was I. By the end of the move, the only thing we thought was cool about the movie was the ending credits due to some interested special effects. This is an expensive movie that looks great (in 2D) but is devoid of anything that made the animated series great.

Oh! We did NOT see it in 3D because Catherine doesn't like wearing the glasses and, quite frankly, I'm still unconvinced that 3D is desirable. From what I've read since, I made the right choice. I guess the 3D version of the film is even worse that the 2D because it is dark and washed out. So if you are going to go see this, avoid the 3D version.

But do yourself a favor and avoid it completely. Instead, go an purchase the new first season boxed set that was just released last week. I guess it has additional footage and is cheaper than the boxed set that came out three years ago. Then buy the next two box set releases so you can keep this classic on your shelf to watch again and again. And forget about this live action version, please.