Day of the Black Sun The Last Airbender movie

I've been watching Avatar: The last Airbender off and on. It's not bad. It's a heavily anime influenced quasi martial arts animated series shown on Nickelodian. The creators have done an excellent job of manufacturing a colorful mythology and very good job at character development. The series is aimed at older kids and young adults, but there are enough lighter moments and action to interest younger kids as well. A few of the fan sites on the web have made the comparison between Aang (the main character) and Jesus. Now I suppose you can come up with a few parallels, but I think that's a little heavy to be reading into a cartoon. Personally I think the Moses story is a bit closer. 

I remember a few years back an attempt to use E.T. as a metaphor for the Christ story. There were several books available in christian book stores that tried to use the movie as a conversion aid. E.T. did came down from the heavens, came back from the dead (Resurrection), healed the sick and phoned home (read pray). He was also taken back into the heavens, it all sounds pretty Christlike to me. He even had a band of apostles.

Superman is another Christ/Moses like figure. Sent by his father from the heavens (planet Krypton) as an infant in a womb like space craft to a childless couple (Joseph and Mary and arguably a virgin birth of sorts). Superman becomes the saviour of earth and he has on a occasion died and come back to life. To make parallel even more complete the Superman character was created by two very nice Jewish boys (coincidence,I think not!).

Aang the Last Air Bender himself was frozen in an iceberg, thawed and brought back to life to save the world. So the argument is not without merit. So what's going on here? Do authors of fantasy, science fiction and comic books crave to be "saved"? Or is it just an archetype, a cultural, perhaps even a racial memory or lingering genetic programing to look for a saviour. Tied in somehow with our pattern seeking compulsion, looking for that undefinable big father in the sky to send help. 

So any way, I digress. the movie was a little disappointing. If you were looking for resolution, forget it. I found the second half hour to be a little frustrating. I am assuming that that was the setup for the next season. So I can't give it my highest rating, but if you're a fan it's worth a look.

Day of the Black Sun, now in repeats on Nick and Bit torrent. 

2 Antlers (out of four)