The Last Airbender – The Last Movie?
I try not to be super negative, both in general and on my blog. I understand how difficult it is to make movies. I know how much work and dedication goes into them. The prep, planning, long nights, exhaustion, desperation, loneliness, hopelessness, jubilation, joy, triumph, the feeling of completion. I know all of these feelings. So when I say this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen… I mean it.
First, I do not have any nostalgia for the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender show. I’ve never seen it. Besides reading some articles, I have no idea how faithful the film was to the show. That’s not my issue.
Second, I do not blame our good friend M Night for this, at least not fully. He seems to know the movie didn’t work and regrets directing it. His mission of telling the story of the first season of the show in the runtime of one movie was doomed from the start. It’s a rushed mess.
The story of this piece of media is kicked off when Sokka and his sister Katara find a young boy, Aang, frozen in a block of ice. They save him, and quickly learn he is the Avatar, the mythical person who can “bend” all four elements. However, Fire Nation finds out of his existence and vows to destroy him, as he threatens their power over the world.
On its own, that is not a bad story. But how it is told… made me lose hope quickly.
The acting is, for my money, one of the biggest sins. None of the actors seemed to enjoy being there. Not one of them brought any emotion or heart to their roles. Everyone felt wooden and miserable. You could see it on their faces. Many of the actors have since come out to express their disdain for the film.
The visuals were mostly uninspiring. This is a fantasy film – where people have powers to manipulate matter. I can’t buy that idea or immerse myself in that idea when the special effects looks like an afterthought.
The story is absolutely superfluous. Things just happen onscreen and your options become either go with it or turn it off, which I quickly would have done if I was not so dedicated to this series. This movie goes fast. I don’t mean that it flies by, I mean the pacing is so quick and the characters do so much in so little time that it doesn’t even feel real. The film itself drags on and feels too long, even though compared to M Night’s other films, it’s about average length.
Characters would change their minds for seemingly no reason at all. They would flip sides mid-battle, betraying all they stood for for no reason at all. Character motivation? Never met her.
I would really like to stop down and say something positive because I don’t want to be a hater. I really want to do that here. Alas…
Shyamalan Rankings:
We are truly in a dark place.
- Signs
- The Sixth Sense
- Unbreakable
- The Village
- Wide Awake
- The Happening
- Lady in the Water
- Praying With Anger
- The Last Airbender
With a bullet. I cannot emphasize enough how much I despised this.
Come back next Friday to see if Shyamalan’s flop era continues with After Earth.
