For the past several months, the most anticipated pop culture event of the year — in my household — has been M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. The film is an adaptation of an acclaimed Nickelodeon animated series, an anime-style serialized epic (now concluded) that tells the story of Aang, a boy who can mystically manipulate the planet’s four elemental forces: earth, fire, water, and air. Together with his trusty friends Katara, Sokka, and Toph and a giant flying bison Appa, Aang must save the world from the megalomaniacal ambitions of the power-mad Ozai, the leader of The Fire Nation. Avatar is like Harry Potter built out of Asian culture influences. The best storyline involves Zuko, son of the evil Fire Lord, who undergoes a gradual, compelling redemptive transformation from enemy to ally. Think: Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, minus the dark and kinky season 6 Buffy sex. If you’re not familiar with the show, I strongly encourage you to check it out: Avatar: The Last Airbender, as it’s called on Nickelodeon, would easily rank among my 20 favorite TV series of past decade. (See some video embedded after the jump.)
My kids would consider my appraisal too modest. My son, age 9, and my daughter, age 7, would tell you that Airbender ranks among The. Greatest. Things. Ever! They’re obsessed with the show, in the same way that I was obsessed with Star Blazers when I was a kid (and was obsessed with Lost as an adult). They’ve been pretty pumped for the Shyamalan movie, and I’ve been planning to take them to see it on opening weekend — that is, until I saw the first round of reviews, including opinions from Roger Ebert and our own Owen Gleiberman. All of them have been decidedly negative. Ebert gave it only a half star, blasting the movie by writing: “The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented.” Gleiberman was less scathing, but concluded his review by saying: “The Last Airbender keeps throwing things at you, but its final effect is, in every way, flat.” He gave it a C. Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus opinion based on 59 reviews (56 of them rotten): “Despite flashy special effects, The Last Airbender squanders the potential of its popular source material on an incomprehensible plot, laughable dialogue, and a joyless sense of detachment.” Ouch.
Now, I always had some concerns about Airbender anyway, due to the curious, even offensive, casting choices. But now I’m really in a quandary. It sounds like the flick is going to be such a disappointment for my kids, I’ve been tempted to tell them about the disdain for the movie and encourage them to reconsider their desire to see it. Souring them on Shyamalan’s latest floppy folly would also save me from a wasted use of time — and save me the money. But maybe that’s selfish. Might it be crappy parenting, too? Perhaps informing my kids that the nation’s leading movie reviewers have deemed their dream-come-true to be a cinematic nightmare would rob them of a one-to-grow-on experience. Even if Airbender is enough to inspire my kids to throw spoiled fruit at the screen themselves, maybe I owe it to them to let them see the movie without the prejudice of other opinions and let them make up their own minds about it. After all, if you want to raise your kids to think critically about culture, you have to expose them to the good and the bad so they can discern the difference.
What do you think, Popwatchers? What would you do? Is a bad Airbender a good learning opportunity — or a waste of money? And in general: Is there a movie that you knew/were told was going to be bad but you felt you needed to see, anyway? If so, what movie was it, and why did you go see it?
Image Credit: Industrial Light & Magic
Let Them see the movie , Kids dont care about reviews
Ditto.
I agree. I LOVED Super Mario Bros The Movie as a child, and it got terrible reviews. I had no idea, and my ignorance led to a great childhood memory (and of course, the subsequent realization that the movie is, indeed, pretty damn terrible)…
I say take ‘em. Suffer the hour and forty and then come home and watch The Dark Knight to cleanse the palette. Or even The Sixth Sense, and remember fondly the good ol’ days.
Kurt Loader’s MTV review said that the kids in his theater loved it. I think they will enjoy it.
Uh yeah, take your kids to see a movie based on a recommendation from Kurt Loder. That guy’s totally hip to what’s happenin’.
Yes. If your kids want to see it, take them.
I’m having the same problem, Doc (you’ll never be Jeff again, in my eyes). My daughter is 8, my son 7, and my husband and I love the series almost as much as they do. It’s pretty brilliant. They are supremely stoked to see it this weekend, as is my husband, and I’ve been keeping these reviews from all three of them, because I ended up deciding that they have a right to make up their own minds about it. Telling them about the film being universally panned will only jade them, when it’s quite possible that their child minds will love it, given that film critics are all adults, and therefore tend to expect more automatically, not to mention the majority of them probably have a huge (deserved) grudge against Shyamalan anyway. So we’ll see it, and I’ll keep what I’ve read to myself. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll love it, which will be worth the price of our tickets alone.
They care about rubbish movies though. My 10 year old went to see Clash and was very let down. We were all expecting such great things. My girls are 5 and 10 I can’t tell you how much they, and their parents, were looking forward to this when that excellent Gun Kata (Bo Kata if you prefer) came out last summer. But over the past year, with the insulting casting, Zuko’s invisible scar and then the Clash of The Titans style 3D rushed conversion we started getting less and less enthused.
Of course when they saw a picture of Appa they said “at least Appa & Mo Mo will be good”. So there you have it. They’ve been prepared for the movie to be a let down for some time; so if it’s bad it won’t shock or disturb them. ?Have your kids been up to date on the problems the movie was having? If not tell them now, they won’t be as cushioned as our kids but it’ll help.
They generally like anything with bright colors and plenty of farts and pratfalls.
There may well be kids like that but a great many of them like a good story as well.
Oh, jeez, how is this even a question? Take them to see the movie they’re dying to see. They’ll probably love it. Since when do stuffy film critics reflect the popular consensus of children? Or anyone for that matter.
Kids of those ages (7 & 9) will probably love it, especially if they’re fans of the cartoon. They’ll be excited just by seeing live actors in the roles. The special effects will take care of the rest. They’re not jaded 55 year old movie critics, they’re kids and they love this kind of stuff. The bigger question, though, is if it’s a waste for an adults to go see it who (a) aren’t bringing kids along and (b) didn’t watch the cartoon?
Seems to me you’re not giving kids anywhere near enough credit here. They like the characters because they are well written, extremely well written, acted and in a set of extremely deep and complex stories.
Kids wwho’ve heard anything about this movie know they aare not their characyters, being the wrong race /colour for starters and missing key elements (Zukp’s understated scar belying an ignorance of its significance to his character, and his parents’ and sister’s too for that matter.
They may find “real life” bending and appa cool but that won’t stop them beingh just as bored and annoyedf as anyone else by a bad movie. In fact it’ll hit thrm harder because they know how good it should be.
You’ve got to let them see it, Doc. Even though it sounds like Mr. M. has ruined a great show, you’ve got to give them the opportunity to grow a little. My parents did it for me on many occasions.
I am a huge Last Airbender fan as well and I definitely think that you should take your kids to see it. All true Avatar: The Last Airbender fans have a right, no a duty, to see this movie and can base their own opinion on whether they like it or not. Besides I’ve waited two years for this!!!!!!!
So crazy that this article appeared just as I was debating the very same thing! My son and I are both huge fans of the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon series and reading the absolutely scathing reviews by both critics and fans of the cartoon series, like myself, really gave me pause. I have ultimately decided that since my son is so excited to see the movie we will go and I will let him decide whether he likes it or not without subjecting him to the opinions of critics/other fans. I am hoping that with my own expectations being as low as they are after all I have read that I might be able to get through it without too much disappointment/annoyance…here’s hoping lol!
I don’t think we should ream the Doc, however, for asking the question. The film is not just getting mixed reviews, it’s getting TERRIBLE reviews. 6% on RT with a 3 out of 10 average. That’s just slightly above the reviews for Battlefield Earth. Yikes.
Good news for Megan Fox, Jonah Hex is no longer the worst movie of summer 2010. I heard they’re already engraving a bunch of Razzies for Airbender to save time.
I loved Star Blazers too, along with Robotech and G-Force that the local stations played in the 80s. However I caught a G-Force episode a few years back…man, was it bad (though I think they messed with it, I KNOW they changed the characters names). So while I thought it was the coolest thing ever as a child, not so much now. Likely the same for other things kids love, whether it be TV, movies, music, etc. Yes, child and adult may both agree that the TV show is cool, but that doesn’t mean tin-eared diaologue or whatever MKS has screwed up will be noticed by children.
My brothers and I would try to beat our dad to the tv on the days that Star Blazers were on, or else we would be watching westerns all day.
Kids will enjoy almost any movie especially if it has decent CGI effects or a talking animal. Case in point: When I was 10, I thought Howard the Duck was great! Not so much any more.
I disagree with everyone else. Wait for Netflix? Why you say? Because if we keep supporting crappy movies like this then Hollywood will continue to make them. And also by taking your kids to see this, you are by way of your hard earned dollars, endorsing the offensive casting of this film.
Agreed!
I would take them. I’ve read plenty of bad reviews for movies that I love, and it hasn’t really changed my opinion of them or deter me from seeing them in the first place. Its nice to see someone elses opinon, especially when its a positive one, but it doesn’t necessarily mean its your (or your kids) opinion.
SUPER IMPORTANT QUESTION: Do your kids still show their disappointment by beating people with lightsabers?
it took me a second to get this. then i remembered totally lost. and now i’m just laughing out loud.
LOL!!!! NICE!!!!!
as a huge fan of the original series, i’m going in with low expectations.
i don’t know if an hour and a half movie could accurately capture even one season of such a brilliantly written show.
Every time my daughter sees the previews she yells I wanna see that its called Avatar. hahaha I have to tell her that it is really The Last Airbender and that Avatar has blue people in it.
i’m still going to see it anyway despite the awful reviews.
It’s getting terrible reviews because it’s by M. Night Shyamalan, whom reviewers love to tear down. Jeff, your article reads more like your selfish needs. Your kids are too young to be disappointed by something like this.
That’s what I thought too until I watched it
But yea the kids will love it