A New Neo?

The Last Airbender is M. Night Shyamalan’s latest blockbuster project and is an adaptation from the cartoon aired on the Nickelodeon channel. M. Night Shyamalan is famous for producing supernatural movies that leave the audience on the edge of their seats, such as The Sixth Sense and The Village. So viewers may have an idea of what to expect from The Last Airbender. The story is set in ancient China where the elements of fire, air, water and earth maintain the balance in the world. The Avatar, Aang, is the one who overlooks over all the kingdoms. When he disappeared, the Fire Nation took control over the other kingdoms. Then a century later, the waterbender Katara and her brother Sokka discover Aang suspended in a ball of ice. They help Aang in his journey to master all the elements and to eventually overthrow the Firelord Ozai from power.

The trailer opens with an advertisement of the production companies, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, which also serves to attract audiences because of their stable reputation in the film industry. The background is black with white smoke and viewers are given short clips that fade into black after every bell. Already the audience is given a sense of mysteriousness. The short clips hook the audience into the next visual without giving too much information. The gong of the bell creates an image of a mysterious temple and the short pauses add to the tone being set. The low pitch and slow speech of the voice over suggests that the words said should be taken seriously. The colors throughout the trailer are pale blue and black, which evoke a sense of coldness and impending doom.

Then music is introduced in the background but the dialogues and the voice over are still the main focus. The music gradually transitions the trailer into the more up-beat and action-filled segment. Once the music changes into the blood-pumping music of a base guitar, viewers get samples of the action of the movie. Aang’s spinning of a staff, the wind effects, and his sliding on one knee may attract fans of martial arts and action. The bold words “The last of his kind will risk everything for mankind” create a sense of nobility; in a way, those words serve as the lyrics for the background music, which is now more audible. Again, viewers can hear the gong of a bell. In old churches the bell usually rings before the start of Mass to alert lay people. Here the bell is calling people to come and watch Aang in his journey. Then a woman’s voice says, “He will need you. And we all need him.” The woman’s voice creates an image of someone wise with age or a prophet. This is reminiscent of the famous line “He is the one” from The Matrix. It invites people to see the movie and maybe see a new “one”.

This movie definitely has a more serious tone than the cartoon from Nickelodeon. The comedic relief that is characteristic of the cartoon is not evident of this movie from the trailer. Aang is not seen making jokes in the movie and in fact he does not seem to smile at all. There is no evidence of the banters between Katara and Sokka. There is also a shot of a bone yard, which might scare kids. The kissing scene also implies a certain maturity level, although there are now kissing scenes in some cartoons. However, it seems that the movie is only serious up to a certain level to attract older audiences. The movie would make more money if kids and adults go to see the movie.

The combination of casts is interesting; they are mostly fresh faces in Hollywood. Jackson Rathbone plays the character Sokka and Dev Patel plays Zuko. Rathbone is most famous for playing Jasper Cullen in Twilight. Dev Patel stars in Slumdog Millionaire as Jamal Malik. Their casting may attract fans from their previous movie roles. The ethnicities of the casts do not match the ethnicities of the characters in the cartoon version. There is not much evidence that the story takes place in ancient China in the movie, except for the clothes and some clips of buildings similar to Chinese temples. This makes me wonder how much the story in the movie deviates from the story in the cartoon. Although the movie looks interesting, it has not convinced me enough to make me go watch it on opening night. The short flashes of scenes have a negative effect on me. They make me believe that it is the producer’s way of attracting viewers to go see a movie in which the only good parts are the ones seen on the trailer and the rest of the movie just fills in the time. However, for those of you who are interested, the movie comes out on July 2010.