The Last Airbender (3-D)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
With: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub
Note: This movie has nothing to do with Avatar by James Cameron.
This is a film with many problems and few virtues. First, the 3-D. As it is, we are donning the equivalent of polarized sunglasses to watch a movie. This makes many 3-D movies seem dimly lighted. The Last Airbender was filmed in 2-D and jiggered digitally to the current form. This makes the movie even murkier. The advantage here is that the thing is not worth seeing in the first place, but I’d hate to have you plunk down the bucks to learn this.
Adapted from a Nickelodeon cartoon series, the story is simplistic and confusing at the same time. The dialog is trite and wooden, the acting amateurish and the directing, well, the name M. Night Shyamalan should say it all.
After The Sixth Sense, certainly his best movie and the only one worth seeing, he has unleashed a bunch of stupid, misbegotten and ridiculous turkeys, like Lady in the Water, The Village and The Happening. Some people love Unbreakable. Pray for them.
In this movie’s world, there are four nations: Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Each tribe can manipulate, or “bend” their medium. Air tribe has been destroyed except for Aang (Ringer), who may also be the Avatar, a kind of messiah. Aang has been frozen in water for 100 years (don’t ask) and when he returns he finds a planet ruled by the Fire meanies. He is the (ta-da!) Last Airbender, and a kid about nine years old who looks and lived like a Buddhist monk. Found by two cute teens from the Water tribe, Katara (Peltz) and Sokka (Rathbone), he must find his skills to become the Avatar and save the planet from the Fire meanies. Where is Jackie Chan when we need him?
Okay, I’ve already spent too much time with this mess. What’s worse than this movie is that it is the first of a projected trilogy. M. Night Shyamalan, not content with foisting one-shot disasters on the public, is now attempting to string the awfulness out for years. Is he actually expecting people to be looking forward to a second and third? I guess so, unless someone (his financial backers) stops him. Or, the people who stay away from his movies in droves.
Save your money.
F