The Last Airbender (M. Night Shyamalan, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed at Camino Real Cinema, Santa Barbara, CA.

  The Last Airbender  is a live-action martial arts fantasy film, based on the Nickelodeon anime series Avatar.

Brother and sister team Sokka and Katara (Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz), find and rescue Aang (Noah Ringer) from frozen captivity.  Aang soon discovers he is the last of the airbenders, capable of controlling the four elements of water, air, fire, and earth, and Zuko (Dev Patel) the Prince of Fire, is in hot pursuit of him.

At odds with Zuko is Admiral Zhao (Aasif Mandvi), a Fire commander who is also pursuing Aang and attempting to destroy Zuko, who’s a castaway.

Sokka, Katara and Aang seek the help of Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) of the Northern Water Tribe, for protection, training, and in the case of Sokka, a tender romance.

This film however is neither tender nor romantic.  It is also not funny or thrilling or scary or exciting.  It is not predictable nor is it unpredictable, and it did not suspend my disbelief.

Basically the martial arts suck, as well as the acting, casting, directing, writing, and dialogue.  Admittedly not a huge fan of CGI, in this case it’s the only thing holding the film together – it’s a snoozer!

In a nutshell:

Acting – Nicola Peltz (Katara) comes off as a whiny, cry-baby, and over-emotional.

Casting – At 25, was Jackson Rathbone (Sokka) really the best actor available to play a 15 yr. old Asian character?

Directing – M. Night just had too much on his plate.

Writing – My 11 yr. old daughter’s scripts are more concise.

Dialogue – “Hey guys” and “let your emotions flow like water” just doesn’t cut it for me.

To set the record straight, I’m a fan of M. Night and I dig his out of the box creativity.  Supposedly M. Night was writing the rough draft for part II (in this planned trilogy), during filming of part I.  Maybe he’s doing too much and should just concentrate on writing (OR) directing, maybe he picked the wrong material (his family are fans of the series), maybe he needs a long vacation at a spa, but his multi-tasking is working against him now, and someone in his camp should point this out.

Two great films I recommend are The Sixth Sense and UnbreakableThe Village and Signs are also worth watching, but the three to avoid are Lady in the Water, The Happening, and this recent fiasco.


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