The Last Airbender

Welcome to another episode of The "D" List.

Today's review is The Last Airbender. Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Based on the Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender created by Michael Dante DiMartino &
Bryan Konietzko.

MPAA Rating: PG for fantasy action violence.

Cast

Noah Ringer - Aang

Dev Patel - Prince Zuko

Nicola Peltz - Katara

Jackson Rathbone - Sokka
   
Shaun Toub - Uncle Iroh

Aasif Mandvi - Commander Zhao

Cliff Curtis - Fire Lord Ozai

Seychelle Gabriel - Princess Yue


Every once in a while, it's a good thing to not have prior knowledge to a film based on a popular book, video game or comic book. This ebb and flow of ignorance can at times enhance a movie viewing experience because you are not looking at the project through a different set of eyes. The objective stance keeps you grounded and allows you to just take in what you are seeing then judge for yourself. This was the case for me here with The Last Airbender. I haven't watched a single frame of the cartoon. I just know the basic story which mimics the plot of the film.

The world at a time was in a harmonious balance consisting of people who have the ability to manipulate or "bend" the 4 natural elements. Air, Water, Earth and Fire. These people lived with others who could bend the same elements as they do thus creating a social yet peaceful division between the 4 separate elemental tribes. The only thing that kept any one individual tribe from decaring war on another was the presence of the Avatar. A very powerful being that has the ability to bend all 4 elements. The Avatar is the one who maintains the balance of elements and peace on the planet.

An event forces the Avatar to disappear, this allows the Fire nation to attack the other elemental tribes in an attempt to secure world and elemental dominance until the Avatar suddenly reappears in the form of a 12 year old boy named Aang. He spends the rest of the series reacquainting himself with his powers while making friends along the way who are rebelling against the Fire nation.

Sounds simple enough right? How could this be screwed up right? I have 3 words for you.

M.....Night......Shyamalan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit the following date for you. August 6, 1999. What is so important about this date you ask? This was the date that The Sixth Sense was released. Thus introducing the world to the filmmaking of M. Night Shyamalan, the world's most OVERRATED DIRECTOR THIS PLANET HAS EVER SEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The success of The Sixth Sense created a wave of excitement in response to what this man was capable of when it came to cinema. I for one was not a fan of The Sixth Sense. I thought it was draggy and predictable. In fact the only M. Night film that I loved was Unbreakable. Don't get me wrong, that movie was flawed as well, I just loved how he turned the comic book movie genre and dropped it on it's head with one of the most intriguing super hero origin stories ever made. Over the course of M. Night's directorial career he began to engage in a very public spat with Disney after they expressed disdain for his insufferable ego and reluctance to loosen his leash of power. This coming after his endless roster of pictures after The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable failed to meet expectations from the critics, fans and most of all the studio's wallets.

This of course led to M. Night's dismissal from Disney and venture over to Warner Bros. Well guess what? The change of scenery did not do any good. He kept on making crap movies that made no money and were vilified by fans and critics. Many believed that when he was hired to direct The Last Airbender that he would finally loosen the reigns and let someone else pen the screenplay.

Well a man can hope can't he?

This of course didn't happen. He insisted on writing the script, the end result was an endless mess of childish, expositional dialogue that fails to move the story forward. It hinders the audience's capacity to follow a narrative that exists in very small spurts. To make matters worse he just left the task of the mostly child actors to just absorb the dialogue as they saw fit which yielded some of the worst performances of the year in any film. This is 100% the director's failure. These kids weren't great actors to begin with but M. Night needed to coach them on what emotions he needed from them. Instead you got cardboard looks and expressions that accompanied an absolute mess of storytelling.

It was evident that M. Night had no clue whatsoever on how to adapt this 5 season epic cartoon series into a live action film. The plan was to adapt the series into a trilogy so clearly the 1st film of said trilogy needs to set the tone. The tone in this case is so off key that my ears were bleeding at the end of the credits.

I offer this plea to Mr. "Scam"alan. Get off your high horse and let some of the MANY talented people in tinseltown write. It drives me insane when people take what little power they have in the business and leverage it into this unreasonable perception of their self worth. It's a fact that micro managers DO NOT HELP THE PROCESS. As much as they think they are, the exact opposite is occurring. Their insatiable need to be involved in every single detail of a production does nothing but complicate and more importantly create a sense of mistrust among the crew hired to be their support. Remember, filmmaking is A TEAM EFFORT. I don't care what you say. 1 person CAN NOT AND DOES NOT make a film happen. When you walk around with this "It's my way or the highway" attitude you are asking for trouble.

It's time for M. Night to swallow this pill and LET GO!!!!!

You do have talent and that talent can be enhanced if you allow other talented people to collaborate with you. I just hope that you get a chance to right this wrong because with the avalanche of bad reviews for this film coming out left and right, you might not get another chance.

On the plus side.......if you can imagine that, the special effects combined with the martial arts choreography was very impressive and beautiful to look at. Unfortunately there wasn't enough here to pace me between the long winded draggy nature of the jumbled, misaligned plot.

On the 5 star scale. The Last Airbender gets 1.5  stars (for the effects and fighting) with a "Save The Loot" recommendation. If you have kids that watched the show and are mega fans, this recommendation is especially for you. I promise you they will be disappointed. Take them to Toy Story 3 instead or wait a week for Despicable Me.

That's all for today. Up next is Despicable Me and Predators.

Until Next Episode....."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"