The Last Airbender
Movie Review
"The Last Airbender"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: C-
Rating: PG
Released: Thursday, July 1, 2010
Directed by:
Cast:
The first chapter of M. Night Shyamalan's career had the Indian-American filmmaker laboring in obscurity, writing and directing his own original stories without mainstream success. In the second chapter, his "Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable," and "Signs" -- all quality films -- made him a superstar. Chapter 3 was the downturn, where he used the same tricks as before but failed to produce much magic: "The Village," "Lady in the Water," "The Happening."
Now, with "The Last Airbender," he has moved on to the fourth chapter of his career, in which he writes and directs movies based on existing properties, leaves behind most of his trademarks ... and produces something flat, inert, listless, and unengaging. But hey, at least it's flat, inert, listless, and unengaging in new ways!
It was called "Avatar: The Last Airbender" when it was an animated series on Nickelodeon, but then I guess there was another movie called "Avatar"? Or something? So now it's just "The Last Airbender." Anyway, it takes place in a world divided into four nations, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire, and in each quadrant certain people are born with the ability to "bend" (i.e., manipulate, control) their native element. But there's one dude who can bend all four elements, if you can imagine such a thing, and he's known as the Avatar. He also has the ability to communicate with the Spirit World, which the movie assures me is important. He brings balance and peace to the four nations. Or at least he used to, until he disappeared a hundred years ago. Now the obnoxious Fire Nation, led by king Ozai (Cliff Curtis), is waging war against the other three lands, imprisoning or killing anyone who can bend anything other than fire.
Naturally, some children will save the day. Katara (Nicola Peltz), a tween girl who can bend water, and her older brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), who can't bend anything, are orphans living in the arctic part of the water country. Everyone else in their village appears to be Asian or Eskimo; perhaps they were adopted. They find a young boy named Aang (Noah Ringer) frozen in the ice, and you'll never guess who he turns out to be. Hint: He's the last airbender, and also the Avatar.
Aang, assisted by his new friends, must rally the people to fight against the Fire Nation, while the fire king's son, Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), scours the earth looking for him. The king probably thought he was sending his son on a wild goose chase, looking for a guy no one has seen in a hundred years. When Zuko discovers that Aang is the Avatar -- remember, that means he can control air, water, fire, and earth, and is pretty much the most powerful person on earth -- Kuzo tries to capture him by force. Why did he think that would work? You can see why king Ozai wanted his dipstick son out of the way.
There seems to be a fine mythology somewhere in here, all Tolkien-y and Star Wars-y and Harry Potter-y. There are royal uncles (Shaun Toub), duplicitous military commanders (Aasif Mandvi), and many scenes of people fighting each other and bending things. A lot of the visuals are impressive (but don't pay extra for the post-production 3D effects), and every now and then something happens to make you think, "Huh, I'll bet this was pretty good as a cartoon."
But the story is inherently silly. The act of bending an element requires dancing around as if doing tai chi, a sight that never stops being funny. To keep us from noticing the goofiness, Shyamalan goes full-speed in the opposite direction, treating everything with great solemnity and soberness. The result? It just seems MORE silly. Only now it's dour and stone-faced, too.
The lead actor, Noah Ringer, is 13 years old and was plucked from obscurity after a talent search. A talent search that came up empty, apparently. No, that's mean. The poor kid. I suspect a lot of the blame actually lies with Shyamalan not knowing how to bend a child actor in a special-effects-heavy production (see also: George Lucas). I hope Ringer gets another chance to act in a different kind of movie so he can show us our first impression was wrong. He'd do well to stay away from Shyamalan -- which might be easy, since Shyamalan might not get to make another movie after this one. Time to say goodnight, Night.
Grade: C-
Rated PG, mild action violence
1 hr., 43 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 14 comments
July 2, 2010 at 4:33 am
I'm making up this account on this random stupid website just so I can make fun of the people at Film.com posting about messing up some character's name in a C- movie. Did you know that Kuzo means "little kid" in Japanese? I actually like that name better. Far from being the rudest thing someone can do, which I would assume would involve urine and/or fecal matter, I look at it as a compliment. As someone blessed with the Kuzo name, I've been referred to a number of times as "Prince Zuko," but I've never found it offensive because I understand Prince Kuzo is not a commonly used name. I would not expect anyone else would be offended on my behalf, either, considering I'm a fictional character.
July 2, 2010 at 6:47 am
As a fan of the Avatar TV series, I'd be sad if the comments turn into your typical fanboy sea of flames, and I kinda doubt they will. Yeah, a couple of guys got overheated, but my first reaction was also that I should post and let Eric know that he'd typo'd the name, because it IS an unusual name, and I thought he'd want to fix it.
My sad reality is that all the bad reviews (9% on rottentomatoes, actually an improvement) have convinced me to pass, but my daughter loves the cartoon and is going to bug me to take her until I cave, so I'll wind up having to pay theater prices for what seems to be widely agreed is a lame, uninspired adaptation of a great series.
July 2, 2010 at 9:11 am
I did not heart this movie it was completely wrong and anime should not be turned into live action movies if this is how it will turn out
July 2, 2010 at 4:20 pm
As a fan of the show, there were certain things I was expecting from the movie... Most prominently, pronouncing the names right.
July 2, 2010 at 6:08 pm
It's absolutely outrageous that someone would accidently write Wind when we all know that the element's name is Water. Where did Eric D. Snider get his degree? Hack University? Back when I was in elementary school I used to be known as "Prince Water" and nobody even THOUGHT of misspelling it as Wind. The audacity! Shame on you, Eric D. Snider. SHAME!!
July 2, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Wow. I overreacted. Maybe I should have read some of the other comments first. Sorry. I am ashamed. :(
July 4, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Haha, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who obviously cracked up at those comments on the film.com website. That having been said, Eric, you gave this movie a better score than I expected, so I feel better for my friends who took their kids to see this even knowing how poor the reviews were.
July 4, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Aside from the dreaded Kuzo mishap, I don't really see how any fans of the show could fault Eric for this review, though... If anything, he was much too kind.
July 7, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Actually, in response to post #3, the Last Airbender 'toon is not an anime-it's an American production, not a Japanese one (Although I imagine some of the animation is done overseas). It's mainly a homage of sorts to anime in the character design, general Asian setting, certain other elements etc. Kind of like how the "Transformers" is based on the Japanese robot toy craze but is largely an American production.
However, there have been many anime-based films-Speed Racer and Dragonball Evolution being the most recent. So your point about them being awful still stands.
Sadly it looks like "Robotech" might be the next victim of the whole anime/cartoon film adaptation mess. ("Robotech" was an 80s toon kind of like Transformers but for a somewhat older audience), with ex-Spider-Man Tobey Maquire interested in the project.
July 8, 2010 at 7:43 am
Yes Eric, shame on you for making such a grievous typo! How dare you do something so deliberate to upset the fanboys? Lol
Like "Ericfan" said, this is not an anime. It's an animated series that was made here in America. It was inspired by the Japanese animation style, but it was NOT made in Japan.
I was disappointed with this movie to say the least. The trailers made it look kinda cool. Maybe if the actors had been even a little convincing, I could have enjoyed it at least a little.
There is one positive thing about the movie though, the costumes were pretty cool.
July 9, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Well it's always good to compartmentalize bad things together (bad movie reboots, Toby Maquire). I recently caught part of Spiderman 2 (or 3? don't remember) on TV, and god I can't stand the massively (fake) awkward way they made him act. It's actually making me look forward to the reboot.
On the topic of this movie, I won't be seeing it. Avatar: The Abridged Series on Youtube is really funny though, that's the only way I know anything about the TV show.
Episode 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zltbcBlDtPg
July 12, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Anime is short for animation, so technically this is an anime. it's just an American anime as opposed to a Japanese anime.
Also, if the actors in the show can't be bothered to pronounce their own character's names right, I don't see any reason Eric should feel obligated to keep them straight himself.
Anyway, I went to see this after reading this review, so I was expecting it to be bad, but it was far, far worse than I had expected. Perhaps it didn't help that I had watched the entire cartoon a week or two before. That was actually good, and made this all the more starkly terrible by comparison.
July 15, 2010 at 11:23 am
Not too late to add some juicy fart jokes, Eric. I hear the Japanese loooove a good fart joke!
'Pooot'! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
See?
August 18, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Where to begin. Well I will not rant on the race issue when there is so much else wrong with the film in itself. No one wants to flame a movie although it is very easy to do on the net but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it probably was a good story idea that M. Night cursed. All of Night’s excuses as well as those excuses stated by his apologists only add fuel to the flame.
All and all the Cinematography and Special effects were alright, although we have seen that quality of work in every film produced after the Matrix (which was a pioneer in that field and broke the mold) Moving water and pyrotechnics has been done to death since the Abyss and Carrie. As for action and CGI (Ohh the pretty colors!) go watch the Sorcerer’s Apprentice or any of the Ang Bak martial flicks out there. No fast paced movement or fluidity we come to expect from Crouching Tiger or Forbidden Kingdom, only Power Rangers in slow motion. Yes that bad. The real shame was the lackluster detail made to Appa. Can anyone say Falcor reject! Did you like that well those were the kindest words you will hear from me in this review.
The actions sequences in the movie were already shown in the trailers which leave nothing left to the movie but talk, talk, and yes you guess it more talking. That in itself would not be so bad; however the script is pure garbage. It’s like sitting thru a kindergarten play of the first Thanksgiving. The actors are simply going through the motions with no enthusiasm whatsoever. The transition to audio book will be seamless!
The Martial Arts (snicker) and Acting were at best mediocre and at worst laughable. Apparently this Noel ringer kid is a talented martial artist, why he held back in this film is anybody's guess. I saw better fighting in the Rundown (A modest film by the former wrestler The Rock which in my opinion is ten times more fun than this abomination). Really I saw better choreography at karate classes for 5 year-olds. Now the acting, everyone except Uncle Iroh and maybe Zuko was somewhat tolerable. Everyone else made you feel you were watching the second or third day of filming. No passion, humor, or chemistry; you simply do not care for anyone in this film. The girl they picked for Katara had one dimension, worrisome, and ran with it. Ang had a sad puppy dog expression and like the rest of the cast took himself too seriously. The guy who played Sokka looked high as a kite and I was waiting for the other cast mates to find him tapping a vein with his arm tied up with a piece of tube. Why so jittery and bug eyed!
I will not go over the changes made from the series because the fans will see and hate them on their own, while the rest of the public will find other things to be sick about. The Critics were so on target with this movie and it’s sad that such a great work of art the series was, was reduced to this effigy of laziness and incompetence. In short this movie has no soul at all. No brains or muscle either for that matter