PRAY IT’S THE LAST
The Last Airbender
*1/2
Review by Paul Preston
Wow, M. Night Shyamalan just sucks. I’d love to throw down some pithy critical spewage about his filmmaking abilities, but if you watch “The Last Airbender”, you’re going to come away saying, “Man, that guy sucks”. So I’m not going to deny myself that opportunity and mask it in analytical jargon. He sucks. Perhaps more important to address is the “what happened?” factor of a career that started with such promise.
“The Last Airbender” is based on a Nickelodeon TV show full of anime and/or content that doesn’t speak to my demographic, preventing me from having seen it. But the mythic plot is interesting – the elements of the world (earth, fire, water, air) are run by “benders” who can manipulate them. The benders await “The One” who can control all elements at once. Meanwhile, the Fire World aims to take over the other worlds. In the middle are two annoying kids.
As the writer (adapter) of the script AND the director, Shyamalan is squarely to blame here. He’s backed by some impressive special effects and the movie actually shows some life when they’re employed. Otherwise, nearly every scene is characters sitting around, talking about the plot, and most of the time, we’re already a step ahead of them. The most heinous users of this inane dialogue are the two kids, the two grossly-white-in-the-middle-of-an-all-ethnic-cast kids. They act like they’re in some bad afternoon tween sitcom on The Disney Channel, and any notion that the plot is still “mythic” is gone.
Cliff Curtis is a fine actor, wasted here. Dev Patel is a fine actor, HORRIBLE here. His overacting tried to be explained away that he was a younger brother eager to please, but that manic, unfocused energy never gets finessed into any other emotion. Shyamalan has a penchant for cheese, otherwise ruining a good thing. In this case, the cheese is young Aang (“The One”), played by Noah Ringer. I see where Shyamalan might’ve been going with this character, ‘cause despite his abilities, he’s essentially just a kid in the end. But he talks like a kid you’d probably beat the crap out of at school. Of course, you couldn’t beat the crap out of him, because he has mystical powers, which makes him more annoying.
The worst offender is Aasif Mandvi, as Zhao. I have chosen to believe that his performance is a direct result of Shyamalan’s direction. Mandvi barks, shouts and over does every line he has, and I can picture M. Night just off camera going, “Yes, we need drama, so give me drama!”, both actor and director forgetting that the movie doesn’t need drama, the movie needs us to believe the characters, and that never happened.
Remember one of the final scenes in “The Sixth Sense”, where Toni Collette is talking to her son Cole, and Cole tells her a story about her childhood that Cole couldn’t possibly know about? But he does know because he spoke with Toni’s dead mother to rectify an old misunderstanding? That’s my favorite scene in the film. The restraint showed by Shyamalan and the expert discovery and realism of the actors did the finale a great service, packing nearly as much emotional punch as the ending did shock.
That was eleven years ago.
There isn’t a TRACE of that skill on display in “The Last Airbender”. Relationships are on display for the sake of storyline, they’re not lived-in or genuine. Plot hustles by because, if you remember, the actors just said it would. All leading up to an egregious announcement that the battle isn’t over! There will be a sequel! This has been threatened the whole movie, as it opens up with the on-screen graphic: ‘BOOK ONE”. Spare us. The Academy-Award winning steaming pile known as “The Golden Compass” had a similar, leading ending and is most likely over and done. I beg “The Last Airbender” to go the same route.
He sucks. But perhaps the empty-headed moviegoers who helped this film to a SEVENTY MILLION dollar opening weekend are worse. Stop giving Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt. Paramount’s money is better spent elsewhere.
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Release Date: July 1, 2010
Run Time: 103 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: PG
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
