by M. Night Shyamalan. It is based on the first season of the Nickelodeon animated series

Avatar: The Last Airbender. The film stars Noah Ringer as Aang, with Dev Patel as Prince

Zuko, Nicola Peltz as Katara, and Jackson Rathbone as Sokka.

Development for the film began in 2007. It was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and distributed

by Paramount Pictures. The Last Airbender was made for $150 million. Premiering in New

York City on June 30, 2010, it opened in the United States the following day, grossing

an estimated $16 million. It received extremely negative reviews by

critics, who cited many flaws on the movie, such as inconsistencies both over the plot

and source material, acting, writing and cast choices, which most of the actors have different

racial traits from the characters of the original series, creating several controversial responses,

both by fans of the original series and even viewers of the film who were unfamiliar with

the series. The movie swept the Golden Raspberry Awards in 2010, with five wins including Worst

Picture and has been considered to be one of the worst films of all time.

Despite negative reviews, The Last Airbender opened in second place at the box office behind

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and eventually grossed $131 million domestically and $319

million worldwide.

Plot Fourteen-year-old Katara and her fifteen-year-old

brother, Sokka, are near a river at the Southern Water Tribe, a small village in the South

Pole. While hunting, they discover an iceberg that shoots a beam of light into the sky.

Inside of the iceberg is a twelve-year-old boy named Aang and a giant flying bison named

Appa. Unknown to them, Aang is the long-lost, mighty Avatar — the only person on the planet

able to "bend" all four elements. One hundred years have passed since the Fire Nation has

declared war on the other three nations of Water, Earth, and Air in their attempt to

conquer the world. Zuko, is an exiled prince of the Fire Nation

on a quest to find the Avatar and bring him as prisoner to his father, Fire Lord Ozai,

so he can return home. Seeing the light that appeared from Aang's release, Zuko and some

Fire Nation soldiers arrive at the Southern Water Tribe to demand the villagers hand over

the Avatar. Aang reveals himself as he surrenders himself to Zuko on the condition that he agrees

to leave the village alone. On the ship, Aang is tested by Zuko's paternal uncle Iroh to

confirm him to be the Avatar. After being informed that he is to be their prisoner for

passing the test, Aang escapes using his glider and flies to his flying bison brought by Katara

and Sokka. Aang and his new friends visit the Southern Air Temple where they meet a

winged lemur, who Aang later names Momo. Aang also learns that he was in the ice for a whole

century and that the Fire Nation wiped out all of the Air Nomads, including his guardian,

Monk Gyatso. In despair, he enters the Avatar State and finds himself in the Spirit World

where he encounters a Dragon Spirit that tells him that he only knows Airbending, and that

he also needs to learn Waterbending, Earthbending and Firebending in order to become a fully

realized Avatar. The Dragon Spirit tells him that he should learn Waterbending first, and

that the best teachers are in the Northern Water Tribe as there are no more experienced,

master waterbenders in the Southern Water Tribe.

To seek shelter, Aang's group arrives at a little Earth Kingdom village controlled by

the Fire Nation, and they are arrested because Katara tries to help a young boy escape from

Fire Nation patrol soldiers. They incite a rebellion by reminding the disgruntled Earthbenders

that earth was given to them. Katara is given a Waterbending scroll that she uses to greatly

strengthen and hone her Waterbending and to help Aang learn as they make their way to

the Northern Water Tribe and liberate and secure more Earth Kingdom villages in the

process, weakening the Fire Nation's food and water supplies.

During a side track to the Northern Air Temple on his own, Aang is betrayed by a peasant

and captured by a group of Fire Nation archers, led by Commander Zhao, a Fire Nation Commander

appointed by the Fire Lord. However, a masked marauder, the "Blue Spirit", helps Aang escape

from his imprisonment. Zuko is the masked vigilante, and Zhao realizes this. He arranges

to kill the prince. Zuko survives the assassination attempt on his life with Iroh's help. He sneaks

aboard Zhao's lead ship as his fleet departs for the Northern Water Tribe, which is a heavy

fortress, to capture the Avatar. Upon arriving, Aang's group is welcomed warmly by the citizens

of the Northern Water Tribe. Immediately, Sokka quickly befriends the Northern Water

Tribe princess, Yue. After a few agreements, a Waterbending master, Pakku, teaches Aang

waterbending. Katara also becomes a much stronger and more powerful waterbender due her training

with Master Pakku. Soon, the Fire Nation arrives and Zhao begins

his attack while Zuko begins his search for the Avatar on his own. After defeating Katara

in a battle, Zuko captures Aang as he enters the Spirit World to find the Dragon Spirit

to give him the wisdom to defeat the Fire Nation who tells him to let his emotions flow

like water. Returning to his body, Aang battles Zuko before Katara freezes him. Before leaving

to join the battle, Aang lowers the ice so that Zuko can breathe. As the battle escalates,

Iroh watches Zhao capture the Moon Spirit, with which its Ocean Spirit counterpart had

assumed the form of a fish. Despite Iroh's pleas, Zhao kills the Moon Spirit to strip

all of the Waterbenders of their powers and abilities to Waterbend. Yue explains to everyone

that the Moon Spirit gave her life, willing to give it back as she dies in the process.

With the tables turned, Zhao finds out Zuko survived. They almost fight before Iroh appears

and tells Zuko it's not worth it. Zhao is drowned by Waterbenders after Zuko and Iroh

leave him to his fate. Aang remembers his life before being trapped in the ice, including

when he left his home, seeing his master's face. With his Waterbending powers and his

emotions "flowing like water", Aang enters the Avatar State and raises the ocean into

a gigantic wall in order to drive the armada back. Aang now fully embraces his destiny

as the Avatar as he, Katara and Sokka prepare to continue their journey to the Earth Kingdom

to find an Earthbending teacher for Aang. The Fire Lord learns of the defeat, and angry

about the betrayal of his brother Iroh and the failure of his eldest son Zuko, he tasks

his youngest daughter Azula to stop the Avatar from mastering Earth and Fire before the arrival

of Sozin's Comet, which she accepts, giving a sinister smile.

Cast

Noah Ringer as Aang He is an Airbender who disappeared from public sight a hundred years

ago. While chronologically one hundred and twelve years old, Aang still retains his biological

age of twelve. He is the latest incarnation of the Avatar Spirit. Though he is capable

of bending all four elements, at the beginning of the film he has only learned to Airbend.

It is also his duty to maintain balance in the world, which conflicts with his easy-going,

fun-loving personality Dev Patel as Prince Zuko a sixteen-year-old

Fire Nation prince who travels with his Uncle Iroh. The former heir to the throne, he was

exiled by his father, Fire Lord Ozai, and ordered to capture the Avatar in order to

regain his lost honor. Nicola Peltz as Katara a fourteen-year-old

girl of the Southern Water Tribe and its last remaining waterbender. Since the death of

her mother, Kya, she has served as the maternal, motherly figure in her family, and is no stranger

to responsibility despite her young age. Jackson Rathbone as Sokka a fifteen-year-old

warrior from the Southern Water Tribe and Katara's older brother. He can be condescending,

and has no waterbending abilities. He often takes up leadership roles by virtue of coming

up with most of the workable plans and tactics. Shaun Toub as Uncle Iroh Zuko's paternal uncle.

He is extremely easy-going and friendly, and often acts as a surrogate father to Zuko.

Formerly a great general of the Fire Nation, personal tragedies led to his retirement,

and the role of heir-presumptive passed to his younger brother Ozai.

Aasif Mandvi as Commander Zhao a hot-tempered Fire Nation Commander in pursuit of the Avatar.

He is Zuko's principal rival. He has an obsession with libraries.

Seychelle Gabriel as Princess Yue The princess of the Northern Water Tribe,

who was Sokka's first girlfriend, and romantic love interest. In a tragic turn of events,

she sacrificed herself to save the water tribe and the balance of the earth, by turning into

the moon. Cliff Curtis as Fire Lord Ozai

The leader of the Fire Nation as well as Prince Zuko's father.

Summer Bishil as Princess Azula She appears once at the battle where Zuko

refuses to fight and again at the end where she accepts the role as hunter of her older

brother and uncle, and destroying the Avatar. Francis Guinan as Master Pakku

He is a water bending master of the Northern Water Tribe; he taught Aang to water bend.

Randall Duk Kim as Old man in temple He is an Earth Kingdom villager, who often

visits the remains of the Northern Air Temple. Isaac Jin Solstein as Earth bending boy

He is based on Haru of the cartoon series. He started the prison uprising by earth bending

a pebble to the back of the lead Fire Nation soldier's head.

Keong Sim as earthbending father He is based on Tyro of the cartoon series.

He and other Earth benders in his occupied village agreed to be imprisoned in exchange

for the non-benders to live in peace. He reneged the terms of surrender by bending an earth-barrier

to protect his son from the lead soldier's retaliatory Fire bending attack.

John Noble as Dragon Spirit He is a new composite character taking over

the roles of Avatar Roku, Fang, Koh and Guru Pathik from the cartoon series.

Production Development

According to an interview with the co-creators in SFX magazine, Shyamalan came across Avatar

when his daughter wanted to be Katara for Halloween. Intrigued, Shyamalan researched

and watched the series with his family. "Watching Avatar has become a family event in my house

... so we are looking forward to how the story develops in season three," said Shyamalan.

"Once I saw the amazing world that Mike and Bryan created, I knew it would make a great

feature film." He added he was attracted to the spiritual and martial arts influences

on the show. Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators Michael

Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko voiced their opinion within an interview regarding

M. Night Shyamalan writing, directing and producing the film. The two displayed much

enthusiasm over Shyamalan's decision for the adaptation, stating that they admire his work

and, in turn, he respects their material. Producer Frank Marshall explained that they

have high hopes to stick to a PG rating. "I'm not even sure we want to get in the PG-13

realm. Furthermore, Shyamalan said, "A lot of the inspiration for the direction we took

comes from a friend of mine. A Nathan Blackmer helped shape this Idea into the film it became.

I took away a little bit of the slapsticky stuff that was there for the little little

kids, the fart jokes and things like that...We grounded Katara's brother...and that really

did wonderful things for the whole theme of the movie." Paramount's president Brad Grey

said that despite the director's career being inconsistent, he "believed in [Shyamalan's]

vision and that he could execute it," adding that "It's a bold step because he had to create

a potential new family franchise." The studio was willing to spend $250 million in a trilogy

of films, one for each season. The Last Airbender's budget wound up being $150 million, with later

over $130 million being spent on marketing costs, making it Shyamalan's most expensive

film. Casting

M. Night Shyamalan originally offered the roles of Aang to Noah Ringer; Sokka to Jackson

Rathbone; Katara to Nicola Peltz; and Zuko to Jesse McCartney. In an interview with People,

Shyamalan claimed that he did not want to make The Last Airbender without Nicola Peltz,

"I said that only once before in my career, and that was when I met Haley in The Sixth

Sense auditions." In February 2009, Dev Patel replaced Jesse McCartney, whose tour dates

conflicted with a boot camp scheduled for the cast to train in martial arts. Katharine

Houghton played "Gran Gran", the grandmother of Katara and Sokka, and Seychelle Gabriel

portrayed Princess Yue, another of Sokka's love interests and princess of the Northern

Water Tribe. Isaac Jin Solstein played an earthbending boy. Comedian Aasif Mandvi played

Commander Zhao, Cliff Curtis played Fire Lord Ozai, and Keong Sim was cast in the role of

an Earthbender. Ringer began practicing Taekwondo - the martial

art and national sport of South Korea - at the age of 10. His skills later garnered accolades,

including the title of American Taekwondo Association Texas State Champion. He began

shaving his head during his martial arts training to help cool off, which gave him the nickname