Avatar

Ignoring James Cameron's overhyped winter blockbuster (not saying it was bad, I just got sick of 'omg best film/worst ever' from everyone), Avatar is great. And by that I mean The Legend of Aang/the Last Airbender.

What started out as a fairly simple idea; a bunch of westerners making a psuedo-anime, aimed primarily at 6-11 year olds, became a cult phenomenom, spawning its own high-budget live-action film directed by M. Night 'Whattatweest' Shymalan.

What can I say? It made my face hurt it was so awesome. The visuals and the effects were tremendous and the actually process of element bending was done amazingly, with all the martial arts styles done spectacularly (Northern Shaolin; fire, Hung Gar; earth, Tai Chi; water, Ba Gua; air) and with some snazzy costumes (I want a Fire Nation armour uniform, and the costume Zuko, played by Dev Patel of Skins fame, has during the Northern Water Tribe sequence). The only grievances were the condensation of a 20 30min episode series into 1hr43. The end sequence was the most plot heavy and the beginning of the film, covering the first 3/4 of the series was rushed, not so much missing vital information, but used far too much voice over exposition to deal with it. In some ways it was a little cheap/cheating, but overall didn't ruin the film. However, there was a distinct lack of upset cabbages (fans of the series know what I mean) and also a lack of Hei Bai, the best forest spirit ever (sod Totoro).

Basically, while disappointing in some ways, some of the differences were great and didn't utterly rape the storyline, and it was nice to see an adaptation that wasn't 'OMG HAVE TO BE IDENTICAL/FAITHFUL AS POSSIBLE' (I'm looking at you Zack '300/Watchmen' Snyder).

I say this as a fan of the series and someone who likes to see films made well. Which raises a point that could have its own thread, What do you think being a fan is about? Mindless, ravening zeal and crusader like defense, or the ability to realise as much as you love the thing in question, you know its not perfect?