Two Years Two Weeks

I was sitting in my Multimedia class my junior year of high school. I had some free time, so I was perusing some Avatar: The Last Airbender fansites and stumbled across the press release that announced that M. Night Shymalan would be directing a live action movie based on the Nickelodeon hit show "Avatar: The Last Airbender".

From that point on, I've followed the journey through it's highest and lowest points. I've eagerly awaited casting announcements, script leaks, trailers and any other small droplet of anything to do with the movie. In all honestly, I feel that I've just been killing time since that faithful day and that July 2nd is going to be the first day of the rest of my life.

Yeah, that's pretty ridiculous. But hey, I'm more excited for this movie than I have ever been for any Christmas or birthday. It's been two years! Try waiting for your birthday for two years with the knowledge that you'll receive a truly awesome gift.

There are still a lot of doubts about this movie. Because, hey, this movie has as much going for it as it has against it. As excited as I am, I'm trying to stay realistic and realize that this could be a pretty bad movie. But alas, time will tell. And by time, I mean fifteen days.

Which, frankly, I still can't wrap my head around. Two weeks plus a day. Two years to two weeks. Holy cow!

Well, while I'm here, and on the subject (and by subject, I mean Avatar HUR HUR) I might as well introduce my review system for the film. Because, yes, I have thought about an entire system to help me review the movie to the best of my ability.

The movie will be graded as follows:

Loyalty - How close is it to the source material (e.g. the show)? Are the changes necessary and/or justified? Will fans of the original show generally find it likeable?

Acting - Did they deliver a believable performance? Is there a clear understanding of the character and his or her motivation?

Atmosphere - Are the sets and locations true to the original source material? Do they incapsulate the spirit of each respective nation? Do they provide a realistic setting for the characters to interact in?

Special Effects - Are the bending effects believable? Are the creatures animated to seem canon to the world around them? How do the pure CG effects interact with the real physical elements?

Each category will be worth ten points, giving the movie an overall score of forty points possible. I will not only grade it like this after the first time I see it, but I will reevaluate it once more after my third or fourth time seeing it. So you'll be getting my first impression as well as more analytical approach. Because I'm cool like that.

That's all for now. Over and out!