Posted on: June 30th, 2010 REVIEW: The Last Airbender
Oh M. Night Shyamalan. I can’t think of another working filmmaker that’s had this many chances (Uwe Boll and Paul Anderson don’t count) and continues to disappoint. Though The Last Airbender – an adaptation of the celebrated animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender – isn’t nearly as bad as his 2008 cinematic abortion The Happening, there’s almost nothing to enjoy about this mish-mash of children’s movie and fantasy epic.
The story, from what I could make of it, is as follows: the world (what world it is, I’m not sure) is split up into nations based on the elements fire, water, wind and air. Within each nation are benders, folks that can control their respective element – firebenders can manipulate fire, waterbenders can manipulate water, and so on. When the firebenders decide to wage war on the rest of the nations, a young Avatar (keep your lawyers at bay James Cameron, it’s pronounced Ah-vatar) with the ability to manipulate all four elements appears in the arctic, with the ability to bend all four elements. Apparently this little bald kid will bring balance to the force… err… nations, and it’s a race between the fire nation and an outcast firebender to capture young Aang, the last airbender and ah-vatar.
For the record, I haven’t seen, nor am I really familiar with the Nickelodeon series, but I’ve heard very good things about the show. It’s apparently full of character and charm and excitement, none of which are an element of the film. The Last Airbender is totally confused. It knows what it wants to be, and could very well have been something great, but is never given the chance or the appropriate avenue to shine. It’s equal parts serious, dense fantasy and superfluous children’s programming. What happens because of this, is a story that moves at such an erratic pace that you can’t quite follow what’s going on or who the characters are. The characters that get little development and provide nothing for us to latch on to. Even if I wasn’t wearing those awful 3D sunglasses, a dark layer of film over my eyes would remove me from anything happening on screen. I simply didn’t care, from the first scene – a couple paragraphs of exposition, followed by the arctic discovery of our young ah-vatar – to the last scene – a clumsy, anti-climactic battle scene between the waterbenders and firebenders.
Aside from the script, which I’m assuming M. Night wrote after chugging some NyQuil, the film fails miserably due to its performances. The acting in the film is cringe-worthy, even for young, inexperienced actors seen here. The absolutely stale dialogue notwithstanding, there isn’t one memorable stand-out in the cast. Aang, the titular airbender, has about as much personality as creamed corn. Now now, all you creamed corn enthusiasts, settle down, I’m just saying it’s hard to buy a character’s goals and struggles when there is nothing to like about them at all. No excitement. No Neo.
There’s a ton of backlash for The Last Airbender already, and the film hasn’t even come out yet. Roger Ebert calls it “an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented”. While Airbender is not a good movie, I think that’s a little harsh. The film does have a few interesting effects sequences and the set-design is top-notch. The best thing in the movie though, is the score from James Newton Howard. It was almost enough to bring me into the film’s finale. But still, too little too late.
I would love to say that this film could work for kids, and that the 11 year-old in me would enjoy it, but sadly I think this one will be lost on your youngins. For them it will be too boring, too confusing and just plain bland. They’ll be clamoring for Speed Racer after 15 minutes.
Remember the shockingly bad 3D in Clash of the Titans? Well, just like that film, Airbender’s 3D was the product of post-conversion. The funny thing is, the 3D in Airbender is barely noticeable. Seriously, the film looks like normal 2D almost all of the time, with exception to a few action scenes. Even then it’s toned down so much that it basically feels like you’re watching a decent looking film with a pair of Raybans on. With that in mind, if you must see the film in the theater, don’t spend the extra dollars for the 3D version, you’d be throwing your extra dollars away.
I’m curious to see how the film plays out this opening weekend. With Twilight Eclipse shattering records already this week, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of coming in #1. The property does have a built-in and rather feverish audience though, so we’re bound to see some numbers. I’ve heard the film, although poor, is fairly faithful to the source material, so maybe the fans will be more forgiving. There’s also no doubt that this is set up for a trilogy of movies – the film opens with a ‘Book 1: Water’ title, and let’s just say that it finishes glaringly open-ended.
I’m taking bets on whether or not Shyamalan can keep his head above the water much longer to see this one out.
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5 Responses to “REVIEW: The Last Airbender”
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Moks Says:
July 1st, 2010 at 1:30 amWaitasecond…did you really mention Uwe Boll and Paul Anderson in the same sentence? Are you really comparing Postal to There Will Be Blood?
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Tommy Day Says:
July 1st, 2010 at 3:53 am@Moks – he’s talking about the Shitty Paul Anderson of AvP and videogame adaptation fame.
This is a huge bummer. My wife and I just watched all 3 seasons via Netflix and fell in love with the show. Like, we’re geeking out about how awesome this show was. I like most M Night movies, but now I’m not looking forward to this one as much as I was. It will be interesting to see how the hardcore fans react.
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Nate Says:
July 1st, 2010 at 8:13 amI’m assuming that he meant Paul W.S. Anderson.
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Ryan Ferrier Says:
July 1st, 2010 at 9:50 amNate got it. Paul Anderson is to Resident Evil, as P.T. Anderson is to Boogie Nights.
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Moks Says:
July 5th, 2010 at 12:41 amPhew….just wanted to clarify. I was a trifle nervous there…