Anyone who can spell Wu-Tang or who has seen even one preview for the new "Karate Kid" starring Will Smith's son Jaden Smith (and that is everyone - because surely everyone has seen one preview) - so anyone and everyone has at least one example of the connection between hip-hop and action, especially martial art action movies.  There are several other connections but that is a subject for another write-up.  The purpose of this write up is to provide feedback, some review of, and key-take aways on The Last Airbender. 

Above we mentioned Jaden Smith, and his father, extremely successful hip-hop star Will Smith recently said that you should strive to produce art that will inspire someone, or basically make them a better person because they came in contact with your art.  For that reason, we cannot say enough great things about The Last Airbender!!  For a movie that I completely expected to dismiss, it not only changed my mind but catapulted itself to the forefront of my favorite hand to hand combat action series movies, at a stretch it is actually approaches the path of "The Matrix" and "The Lord of the Rings" triologies. 

Now for integrity's sake and to set aside my own personal favorite parts I must admit that most people will say "do not put this movie anywhere near the category of The Matrix or Lord of the Rings" but it has made its way to my list of personal favorites following in the spirit of those two great series.

So - if so many people may not see the greatness we see, then what is so great about The Last Airbender?

1. Faith - we LOVE how the main character Aang played very well by Noah Ringer relies on his Faith & Meditation at every hard turn.  Unlike many of us, whenever Aang was faced with adversity or conflict he quickly resolved that he must find a place to meditate and seek divine guidance.  How well so many of us would do to follow this example instead of seeking the opinion of all the most likely haters who surround us on a daily basis?! (Proverbs 3:5, Psalm 118:8)  Next time you have a big issue - do like Aang, look up and look within.  Find a quite place to ask all the questions you have out loud (go ahead and do it, don't feel silly, if you find a quiet place no one will see you anyway) ask all the questions to Him above, then visualize the answers you want, breathe them in...and watch your life change.
    
2. Talent - Noah Ringer played the stoic part of Aang quite well, he showed all of the necessary parts this complex character needed and did well in the action sequences too.  He was able to be confident, child like, a protector and afraid as needed - well done Noah!
3. Nuance - the manner in which fighting using the elements was presented in this movie was both novel and put simply? "It was hot".  This movie was was fast paced without being predictable, and reflective for audiences new to the "Avatar" cartoon franchise upon which it was based without getting caught up in overdoing flashbacks.  Finally it was straight forward enough for young viewers to understand and appreciate the plot and lessons contained within without losing all of the complexity necessary to entertain adult audiences.
4. Special Effects - simply put they were great.  The effects were believeable, they were not overstated, they were impressive, artful, and fit well within the context of the rest of the movie without overpowering the plot.

• John Legend's words, not his hairline - don't be distracted by nonsense!!  He gave a great call to action, a call that, if responded to, can upgrade YOUR community.  Not only should those with great wealth and money look at how they can influence positive change - we should all look at the choices we make and how we choose to spend our time, are there better choices that you can make?  Make time to help someone else - today :-)
   
• The message in the Gospel segment on Haiti - no matter how bad we *think* things are in America, most of us have no experience with the level true suffering that our brothers and sisters are experiencing in Haiti - imagine, listening to your mother, or child die three feet from you in the rubble, imagine sleeping in rain, mud and bugs...your entire family dead and dumped in a ditch, forever, and at the same time you are hungry, thirsty and sick...we have great reason to be thankful and Praise God - praise Him that you breathe clean air and access to clean water...then please take this encouragement to use the many non-profits, school resources, church ministries and other things that are here to help you live your BEST life - don't take these things for granted!  Your life does not have to be dictated by your environment.  Video here >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Umo5dEQ8d0                                                                                                                                                           
• Diddy's tenacity! - throughout his performance I kept hearing "Let's work" even with all his fame and fortune this man is still focused on working hard everyday - please don't believe the hype that successful people just lounge around going to parties all day - many of the artists on stage last night have less free time than you (assuming you don't work 80 - 120 hours per week) - school, work, and chores provide a great opportunity to practice doing what you don't want to do today so that you can have anything you want tomorrow
• Kanye is human - Kanye gave an awesome performance, we hope that he will continue to do well.  We encourage everyone to remember that this extremely talented young man is possibly still in mourning as it is obvious that he was so very close to his mommy, so enjoy the great things to come from him but allow him to still be human, meaning allow him to possibly make mistakes (hopefully not big one's Kanye, for your own sake) - but still allow him time, space & to find his footing again - encourage him to be that positive awesome leader that he has the capacity to be for our community.  He once told me personally that he basically isn't aiming to say hey let me be everyone's role model - maybe he isn't but we kinda wish he would! - - Glad to have you back Kanye.
• T.I.'s Road to Redemption - T.I. is back and doing his thing, remember that you can go positive and land on top - we hope that the same T.I. who helped young men find their path, make better choices, walk away from lives of crime and who encouraged young women to see their true value beyond what some rap songs say about them (SMH) - we hope that that T.I., the road to redemption T.I. will continue to become a force in media and our communities to push positive social change for our young people.  We also hope that other rappers and celebrities follow suit and put their own "road to redemption" efforts to work, our young people need to know that what they hear and see on T.V. is not how life should be lived, that going after solid positive things is cool, and that most of these rappers are happy that they don't have t sell drugs or their body to make ends meet - our young people need help and encouragement to find better paths!  We hope that T.I.'s "Dead and Gone" was true for him.
• Overall: The show went well, we love the local heros segment (see, helping your community instead of poisoning your community is HOT!), we also loved mostly clothed performances, re-enacting poetry from Love Jones instead of "it's gunz & I hate you Jodi" from Baby Boy like last year, we loved feeling like this is an awards show and not a minstrel show, thumbs up, hoping this is "doing better because they know better"  More on the hottest heros can be found here: http://betawards.bet.com/articles/local-hero-geoffrey-canada