THE LAST AIRBENDER is M. Night Shyamalan’s first attempt at an adaptation of previously established material. After his last pair of critical-disasters, the once heralded filmmaker made what seemed to be a logical step into a big-budget, effects-heavy fantasy film to presumably salvage his career via summertime box-office number$. However, M. Night fails to employ any of his signature touches in this, the biggest POS of 2010 thus far. Boring, uninspired, and devoid of life, AIRBENDER would not even entertain a 10-year old.
Divided into four nations (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water), the world is in chaos, all because the Avatar (Noah Ringer), also known as Aang, has been lost for a hundred years. His frozen ass, along with his fuzzy, floating riding creature, is accidently thawed out by Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), who are residents of a Water tribe. Realizing his destiny, Aang and his new pals set out on a path of destiny, looking to improve upon their element-bending powers and thwart the evil deeds of the Fire Nation.
The journey of Aang and his gang (hey, that rhymes) is a classic, albeit overused journey of destiny and adventure. AIRBENDER manages to kill the charm by telling an adventure story where little seems to happen. The film is loaded with exposition, with the life beaten out of it by uninspired dialogue that is so bad it’s nearly shocking. Overall AIRBENDER feels like watching someone else play a videogame: Action Sequence. Cutscene to gain more powers. Action Sequence.
Not much time is spent on character development, as their relationships are wedged together like a square peg in a round hole. The real shocker of this film is just how BAD the acting is. The wooden dialogue is supported by the oak-like acting that borders upon amateur hour. The most developed character is Fire Nation Prince Zuko (Dev Patel, of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE), but he does very little with the material given to him, and still manages to hold on to the slackjawed, droopy-face look he sported in SLUMDOG (which only confirms his suspected limited range).
AIRBENDER is all flash with no substance. Not even the action sequences with their bloated CGI can breathe life into it. M. Night seems completely absent from the final product; gone is any kind of tension-building or clever camera-work. The one-time Oscar-buzzing director has really Jumped The Shark, Nuked The Fridge, and Shit The Bed with this one.
BOTTOM LINE: Fuck it.
Wow. I thought this was going to be a peice of crap film and your review does make it seem that way.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you did not mention the 3D aspect of the film (since I know you will go to 2D for the first viewing. From all the reviews and postings about it, this movie might single handedly kill the 3D movement of retrofitting 2D movies.
One can only hope.