I am a huge fan of the show but I actually have the ability to leave myself open to enjoying other versions of stories (i.e. I actually liked the "Star Trek" movie for what it was and how it looked, and felt no need to point out any points of ludicrousness and etc that some other fans and diehards had).

This movie seemed to have sucked all of the exciting visuals, martial arts and the impressive character development that made both children and adults fall in love with the animated series. In it's stead are wooden actors, a script where every line is exposition (thus breaking one of the most important writing rules - "show don't tell" and martial arts that look like the stunt doubles were rejects from "So You Think You Can Dance" (yes, some of these moments are that bad). Even worse, there is a pretty large epic fail with the graphics used to show Airbending and Waterbending to the point where both look so useless that the energy the actors spend kicking and punching empty space might have been more effective if used to punch or kick the bad guys directly. Katara had quite a few good character arcs in the cartoon - unfortunately neither her feminist challenge to the sexist traits of the Waterbending training system, her motherly role to the group nor her position as Aang's teacher really appear here. The most ridiculous part of the movie is when she voice overs that Sokka and the Princess became friends (literally telling us, instead of showing us) and then literally stands there on-screen.

I went with a friend who had not seen the animated cartoon series, so was not as potentially biased as I could be. He said it was OK. He also said that the story seemed very complicated and that he was sure that was why it seemed so heavy. This was somewhat sad to me, because one of the things I liked about the series and hoped to see brought to the screen was the fact that the storyline was inherently basic, and that it was the character development that really set this series apart from other cartoons. The whole movie has this whole feeling of being dead in the water, and none of the actors seem to have fun. I asked him if he would go see the sequel to which he immediately said 'No', so the movie neither pleased fans of the cartoon nor people who have never seen it.

Taken on it's own, the movie bored me. I usually watch an entire movie through to the end with no pauses, but I felt perfectly fine getting up to re-butter our popcorn at one point and then go the restroom at another. When I got back, nothing had really progressed on the screen. What really struck me was that, unlike with "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter", which had moviegoers of all ages standing up to clap at the conclusion and inspired kids to hum the score and talk about how cool they were in the lobby, the entire group of people watching the matinee at the same time I did, kids and all, just silently left the theater - perhaps wondering 'What the heck did I just spend $17.50 on?' to themselves. I actually felt bad for my friend, because he really only went because I wanted to see it, and until I told him that it bored me he pretended to somewhat like it.

1 out of 5 stars.