Many people jumped on the anti-Last Airbender bandwagon the instant they found out that it was being directed by M. Night Shyamalan. They brought out the one-hit-wonder charges, and talked about how everything since The Sixth Sense has been terrible. I'll admit, I was skeptical at first, but when I started watching the trailers, and I thought "maybe this is it; maybe this is the film to bring M. Night out of his slump." Unfortunately, Mr. Shyamalan is determined to prove folks like me wrong, because The Last Airbender is one of the worst films to come around since, well, Shyamalan's own The Happening (2008).
Based on the popular and critically acclaimed Nickelodeon anime series, The Last Airbender is set in a world divided among kingdoms of the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Certain people in these kingdoms can "bend" (ie: manipulate) elements, with a prophecy telling of an "Avatar" who will come and be able to bend all four, and bring balance to the world (the fire nation has become increasingly aggressive; air is all but gone, etc...). I'll admit, I'm a sucker for this type of action/fantasy, and from what I've heard, the cartoon pulled it off with an almost Miyazaki-like grace. This can't be said for Shyamalan's adaptation, which takes on too much (condensing the 20-episode first season into 90 minutes) and delivers waaaaay too little. It's almost easier to write this review from the angle of "what went right?" because so little does. And there are some things that do go right. Some of the visual effects are nice, even fun (the swirling elements have a genuine verve to their pixelation), and James Newton Howard's score has some shining moments. Everything else? A bit of a train wreck, though not as laughably enjoyable as The Happening. The potential (though really, is there any doubt?) Avatar, Aang is played with too much seriousness and becomes boring, and the other performances aren't helped by Shylamalan's sloppy directing of his players. Characters also spout stiff, expository dialogue, with occasional narration, which leads to one of the most horrendously rushed romances in screen history. We're told in narration that two people like each other, and then only 20 minutes later, without ever seeing them do or say anything remotely charming or romantic, we're put in a scenario that's supposed to make us believe that they've been in a love affair for the ages. Then there are the elements of the world that are just slapped on, like the importance of (apparently) vital "spirits" to the water kingdom, that the fire army is going to try and kill to reduce the water benders' power. So wait, does this mean that all of the kingdoms have/had spirits of their own? I'll be damned if I know. Oh, and Aang can talk to a strange dragon creature whenever he (involuntarily?) enters some nether-world, and he has a flying bison for a pet, which barely gets any screen time at all and is never explained or discussed in any manner. The film seems to expect its audience to simply buy whatever it throws out as part of its world/mythos, without ever doing these myriad elements any justice in terms of development or explanation. Really, the only aspect of the story that holds any interest is that of exiled Prince Zuko (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel) and his uncle (Shaun Taub), both members of the fire kingdom, and villains (sort of). But perhaps M. Night's biggest error is that he took a (again, allegedly) engaging, exciting story and made it dull, through both casting and writing, much like George Lucas ruined his own universe with the Star Wars prequels. But perhaps Shyamalan's offense is worse, because instead of ruining something that he created, he's ruined the creation of others. Here's hoping that the title proves prophetic.
Grade: D+
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