The last Airbender

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He’s done, people.  D-O-N-E.  This is the third strike.  He’s out.  There’s no other way to put it, M. Night Shyamalan is finished and this, The Last Airbender, is the final nail in the coffin of his once-promising career.  The visionary mantle of Spielberg will NOT be passed on to this guy.  Gone are the wondrous moments of a tightly weaved together drama from Signs.  Missing is the layered knowledge of suspense he once showed with Unbreakable.  No longer do I care of what he once was capable of as evident with the shock of The Sixth Sense and the quiet eloquence of The Village because the creator of those films no longer exists.  He’s been replaced with a seemingly arrogant director who thinks that his own shit is soft and pretty and cloud-like and just doesn’t stink.  WRONG.  With The Last Airbender as an example, it is apparent that Shyamalan, who I once loved, has forgotten how to craft a BASIC story, direct a group of capable actors, and put together a generic film.

Full of a multitude of nausea-inducing moments, The Last Airbender, as I care to understand it, tells the messianic story of a long missing 112-year-old kid, Aang (Noah Ringer) who returns, after running from an upbringing by monks, to a world of magical flying creatures.  This world is divided into four separate nations: Earth, Air, Wind, and Fire.  Aang must unite its people and its Benders - those with the ability to mix their native element with some magical kung-fu – in order to fulfill the destiny he once ran away from and fight (after magically communing with a spiritual dragon) against the evils of Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis) and his disrespected son, Prince Zuko (Dev Patel).  Co-starring Nikkola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone, The Last Airbender, alongside its worthless 3-D special effects, is terrible.  Joyless and soulless, it’s quite simply a shameful waste of time.

Chock full of aimless scenes that explain none of the magic implied by the effects and the world of the beloved cartoon series, The Last Airbender is a lifeless and stale turd that quickly sinks to the bottom of the toilet.  Shyamalan’s actors, young and old alike, are mouthing the words of his poorly written dialogue (previously heard in The Happening) with as much passion as a piece of cardboard.  Who can blame them, though?  Shyamalan, continuing to ignore the criticisms from his last two efforts, is obviously in love with himself and his own work.  The man must believe his now vanquished hype and sold-out his artistic sensibilities to a delusioned ego.  How else can this horribly constructed narrative be justified for its kindergarten-like meanderings?  His insulting and pointless dialogue is at-once cold and amateurish and, while the predictable story could have EASILY been enjoyable in the hands of someone else, gets annoyingly deflated by poor pacing, badly timed edits and general laziness.

There is no excuse for the craptastic failings of this film.  None.  It has a bloated budget of over $100 million, an interesting enough premise, and a rabid cult-like following that are hungry for this film to work, but – as arrogantly declared by the thunderous end credits – it’s failings fall completely on the shoulders of its writer, producer, and director: M. Night Shyamalan.  In my lifetime of cinema- going there is but one film that pissed me off three times during its viewing: once because it insulted me with its self-important yet supremely inane stumbling, twice because I could not leave once I had become completely exasperated by its shortcomings due to my location in the theatre, and three times because I had to spend time reviewing it for the benefit of others so that they might be saved from the horrors I witnessed.  This, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, is that film.

You’ve been warned.


Component Grades
Movie

Blu-ray Disc
1 Star

3 Stars



Blu-ray Experience
2 stars

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - November 16, 2010
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles
: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD); Digital copy (on disc); DVD copy

Supplements:

Featurettes:

  • Discovering 'The Last Airbender' (1080p, 58:15)
    • Inspirations (5:49)
    • Spirituality (4:46)
    • Heroes (5:54)
    • Greenland (8:06)
    • World (5:33)
    • Action (7:01)
    • Effects (9:53)
    • Music (5:34)
    • Finale (5:41)
  • Siege of the North (1080p, 18:32)
  • Origins of the Avatar (1080p, 7:18)
  • Katara for a Day (1080p, 5:37)

Deleted Scenes/Alternate Endings:

  • Four deleted scenes (1080p, 11:24)
  • Gag reel (1080p, 4:29)

Avatar Annotations (1080p)

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