Movie Review: The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender

The easiest way to explain this movie: I wanted to poke my eyeballs out and go deaf . . . I should have just left the theater.


Brief Synopsis (with some spoilers):
Four tribes exist in this world: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.  Each tribe has a "Bender" or someone who is magically inclined as per their tribe (ie, a Fire Bender can manipulate fire).  There is always one Bender (The Avatar) that can bend all elements, and he/she keep all other tribes in check.  Fire tribe, in their attempt to get rid of the the Avatar kill all of the Air Benders (we find out that with the death of the Avatar, the Avatar is born again, but rotated among the tribes).  But they miss one Air Bender.  He is a little boy that will save the world.

Critique:
I have to say that M. Night Shymalan has failed to impress ever since Signs (I thought The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs were good movies).  This movie does nothing to change my view.

The dialogue was so poorly written and contrived that you wonder if ears were bleeding on the set as actors were required to speak them.  Shymalan constantly relied on his characters voicing thoughts or random bits of information so you would understand what is happening.  Literally, this is the director's only tool/method of helping his crowd stay up  with the movie.  What happened to his visual story telling, etc?

I knew it was bad when you are checking your watch and it has only been 20 minutes, 20!  I was already bored.  My favorite part was trying to figure out the resemblance of each tribe to a culture in our world.  Only the Fire Tribe seemed clear cut with being Indian/Pakistani, etc.  The other tribes appear to have a majority, but always have Asian influence throughout.  Oh, well.

The movie reminded me of the Power Rangers.  You always knew when they turned into the really, really big robot, they were going to win. . . even if it took 2 or (gasp!) 3 episodes.  The fight scenes could have been amazing, but the last air bender never failed to dominate his opponents.

This movie doesn't cause you to wonder at the plot, only wonder why you came.

Will I buy the DVD?  No.  Though I may steal some and burn them so others don't have to buy them.

Should you go to the theater?: No.  If you ever see it on TV, turn it off.

Rating: 5% (out of 100)