Avatar Aang

I'm a huge fan of the Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Air Bender. I love that story. This show may sound silly and goofy because I used the words Nickelodeon and cartoon in the same sentence. But, don't let those two terms fool you. The Nickelodeon presentation of Mike DiMartino's epic masterpiece is unfolded through his nigh flawless story telling while dressed in the medium of solidly good animation. The show ranked high in ratings among adults, kids, and critics alike.

But when I heard that the movie adaptation directed by M. Night Shyamalan was on the horizon, I had mixed feelings. I was excited to know that people wanted to see more of Avatar (no, not Cameron's twelve-feet-tall blue people. I mean Avatar Aang).

But I wasn't very excited about Shyamalan being the director.

After all, how can the nigh perfect story be told even better?

I don't think one can unless one does a better job of bringing the original story to life.

Shyamalan did not accomplish this. He deviated from the original story in subtle ways that irked true Air Bender fans. Add on rushed story telling, rushed character development, and bland acting and you end up with critics and Avatar Fans alike slamming Shyamalan very hard for what is being declared a cinematic block-blunder.

I've read people say that Shyamalan only has one more chance to make a good movie before Hollywood throws him out of the movie making business. And people are already saying that the rest of the Air Bender movies will never get made because he sank the Air Bender cinematic franchise before it ever went afloat.

But let it be known, that this movie and all the bitter reviews are in no way a reflection upon the original series headed by Mark DiMartino and his partner Bryan Konietzko.

See, when a co-worker of mine told me that she really enjoyed watching Avatar: The Last Air Bender, yet she hated all other anime . . . I knew this Avatar cartoon had be great stuff.

So, I eventually started with renting disk one, season one from Netflix and our family watched every single episode in every single season-- all the way to the end (over the course of several weeks, mind you).

I might have to watch the entire cartoon series all over again in order to wash my mind of the mediocre movie experience I had watching The Last Air Bender movie adaptation.

If Shyamalan somehow gets clearance to make any of the other Air Bender movies, he would be well advised to sit down and pay closer attention to the cartoon series himself. Apparently, he missed the heart of the story. Shymalan and DiMartino need to have a serious talk if the rest of the movies have any hope of being successful.