Battle at the Box Office: “The Last Airbender” vs “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”

Two of the biggest adventure movies of the year hit cinemas today, M Night Shyamalan’s long awaited anime adaptation The Last Airbender, and the latest from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. But are either worth your time? Read on to find out.

The Last Airbender

Director: M Night Shyamalan
Starring: Noah Ringer, Jackson Rathbone, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel
Released: 13/08/2010
Rating: PG

Based on the critically acclaimed “Avatar: The Legend of Aang” (titled Avatar: The Last Airbender across the atlantic) anime style Nickelodeon cartoon, this film had a lot to live up to, and unfortunately, it just fails to deliver on every single front

In a world divided into four nations, each can control an element – fire, water, earth or air. The Fire Nation has taken over the world and is trying to ensure their eternal power. That is until Aang (Noah Ringer), the last of the Airbender tribe returns after 100 years. But there’s something special about Aang. He is The Avatar. He can control not just air but all four elements, and is the only one who can bring balance to the four nations and defeat the fire nation.

Shyamalan, best known of late for ever worsening films, including The Happening, and Lady in the Water has once again failed to impress. He’s never tried his hand at fantasy epics to date, and we can but hope he won’t be trying again any time soon.

Never has someone throwing balls of fire out of their hands looked so dull. It’s as if the effects are off time somehow, happening a second or two after the move, and so it lacks the fluidity it would need to seem real. This takes you out of the action completely. Speaking of “off time”, there is literally no chemistry between any of the characters, it’s as if they are just speaking lines at the air rather than too each other or particularly caring about each other.

Having forced the entire first series of the show into 90minutes, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the script seems to be lacking in coherency. We’re forced to sit through both a badly written romance and a badly written epic joining together to make something even worse than the sum of its parts. One minute we’re hearing the standard quest garble about how Aang is “the One”, the next its as if we’re hearing two angsty teenagers chatting, and it just doesn’t mesh together well at all.

This won’t excite the fanboy’s and it won’t excite the more casual cinema goer either. This might just be the disappointment of the summer.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Director: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina
Released: 13/08/2010
Rating: PG

Far more versed in the art of the adventure movie than Shyamalan, producer Jerry Bruckheimer has been responsible for bringing National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean to our screens, and this experience shows through here.

The Sorceror’s Apprentice follows physics nerd Dave Stutler (Baruchel from She’s Out of My League) as he learns that he is infact a sorcerer. He is to be trained in the art by none other than Merlin’s apprentice: the one thousand year old Balthazar Blake (Cage)

Throw in Alfred Molina as the twisted dark wizard Horvath, and some brilliant effects work and what you get is an exciting thrill ride set against a familiar New York background.

Part magic, part science, the sorcery we see here is less Harry Potter and instead obeys the basic laws of physics – indeed magic in the movie is simply knowledge of how to channel energy to defy these laws. This makes for some great visuals both during the magic duels. But the visuals don’t stop there, and the more nerdy scenes watching Baruchel building a functioning tesla coil are just as mesmerising to behold.

Chocked full of pop-culture references from Star Wars to the scene in Fantasia which share’s this film’s name, (yes, the mops and the brilliant tune from the original scene are both present) there are moments which are actually laugh out loud funny.

Nicolas Cage shines as the wise old wizard, and is the true star of the movie. You truly feel for him as we learn of the many sacrifices he has made to save the world from Horvath, who is determined to release Morgana – the greatest of all dark witch of all time.

If you’re looking for a great movie to sit, enjoy and eat your popcorn to, this is definitely the way to go.

Conclusion
There really can only be one choice when it comes to which of these two that gets our recommendation then. Go see Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and let The Last Airbender die off. Hopefully it truly can be: the last of its kind.

James Gordon

Tags: dev patel, fantasy, last airbender, m night shyamalan, nicolas cage, sorcerer’s apprentice