The Legend of Aang

With "The sixth Sense", M. Night Shyamalan rose virtually overnight to become one of the greatest directorial hopes of contemporary mainstream cinema. Though his critics have grown in number with each successive film, there is no denying that Shyamalan's films have always had the air of something special about them. Even his last work, the bottom-line disappointing eco-horror "The Happening", had some very strong moments. But with the film adaptation of the popular anime series "Avatar - The Lord of the Elements", Shyamalan disappoints even his strongest advocates.

The film represents the first chapter in a planned - or, after watching the work, more accurately threatened - trilogy, and tells of a time when very special people could control the four elements, water, air, earth and fire. Among them there is a chosen one, a "Avatar", who is the only one who can control all elements equally. Young Aang (Noah Ringer), freed from his prison in the eternal ice by waterbender Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), appears to be the next Avatar. But to restore peace to a war-torn world, Aang must first learn to control and properly use his abilities. And so he sets off on a dangerous journey with Katara and Sokka to follow his destiny. Along the way, he's always hunted by young Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), who wants to finally regain his powerful father's respect by capturing the Avatar...

"The Legend of Aang" isn't really bad. But it is a bitter disappointment. Because even if the work has some show value and at times really good special effects to offer, the bottom line is that the film is just boring. From "grosse Schlacht" and all sorts of dangerous monsters is primarily only told. The viewer only gets to see a small fraction of it. Anyway, for a movie that is aimed at an already rather impatient young target audience, there is a hell of a lot of talking - always, of course, in a meaningful tone of voice with a dramatic gaze directed into the distance. And when Aang does get to master the elements, more attention is paid to his taming rituals than to giving the characters something like depth or even character. Thus, despite good actors like Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") or Cliff Curtis ("Whale Rider"), all the characters remain extremely pale.

The Legend of Aang" was shot in conventional 2D. But since there is a lot of money to be made in 3D right now, and even lower quality films are succeeding, Shyamalan's work was also converted to 3D after the fact, much like "Fight of the Titans". The result, for which viewers must pay a 3D surcharge, is weak, disappointing, and in some moments downright bad. That's because in rather dark scenes, where all of the effects worth watching are still visible in the 2D version, they fade almost completely in the 3D version. It's movies like this that could do lasting damage to the 3D trend. Because at some point, even the most ardent 3D devotees will notice that this subsequent 3D conversion damages the film in terms of quality and only serves to extract more money from the audience's pockets. And unfortunately, this scam still works far too well.

But back to the movie. Because no matter if in 2D or 3D, M. Night Shyamalan's movie unfortunately doesn't have more to offer than some pretty looking effects. The original, which is not only popular with young anime fans, but also with older viewers and would have offered enough potential for a great cinematic adventure, remains largely unused. The film does take its cues from the events of the series' first season, but ticks them off in a loveless and unimaginative manner. As a result, it neither succeeds in creating suspense, nor does it succeed in getting the audience emotionally attached to the characters. The fact that the story isn't finished at the end and that there could be two sequels in principle doesn't really matter. Unlike, say, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, where as a fan you couldn't wait for the next installment to hit theaters, there are likely to be few viewers of "The Legend of Aang" who really want to see more of the adventures of Aang and the other Element tamers. Pity all the wasted opportunities

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp