Movie Reviews  |  PG  |  View Trailer  |  Jun 30, 2010

It was a bad omen from the beginning when M. Night Shyamalan had to drop “Avatar” from the title of his adaption which was originally titled “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Because of the success of Cameron’s epic about Pandora and its inhabitants, Shyamalan’s movie title was snipped to just read “The Last Airbender.”

Coming off of the extreme disappointment surrounding “The Happening,” Shyamalan tries his hand at writing and directing an adaption of a children’s cartoon. Maybe it’s me, but it’s hard to take a film seriously whose title is preceded by “Nickelodeon Movies Presents.” Shyamalan, one of the great storytellers of our time, finds himself mired in a movie lacking heart, soul, and brains. Then again he’s the one that got himself stuck there in the first place.

The world we visit in “The Last Airbender” is made up of four different factions, all having to do with the main elements of life: earth, water, fire, and air. The fire nation are the bullies, trying to usurp dominion over the other three nations. Within these nations are “benders.” People with bending abilities are able to control their respective elements. Fire benders shoot flame balls with a swoop of an arm, while water benders call up columns of water to freeze their opponents in cocoons of ice.

We’re clued in by a helpful narrator that not only are each nation controllers of their respective elements, but there is also one who is born that can bend all the elements. That person is called the Avatar. One day a young water bender named Katara finds something unusual in the ice. A boy who has been frozen there for who knows how long. He has strange tattoos on his head and back, and he’s able to control the element of air. This is important since the prophecy says that the Avatar is supposed to be born as an air bender and because of that the fire nation wiped out the entire air bending race. Having been locked away for one hundred years, this young air bender named Aang, is ready to accept his role as Avatar, and free the people from the evil, dominating hordes of fire benders.

There’s a compelling story lost somewhere in here, I just know it. A world consisting of the base elements is an interesting prospect, but Shyamalan as writer and director fails to explore the world like Peter Jackson did with “Lord of the Rings.” Or investigate further the obvious religious symbolism going on here – warring factions who pray to different deities, all brought under control by one person. Instead much of the history of the world is glossed over by quickly retold stories from characters that have no other purpose than to dispense this kind of information. Shyamalan’s dialogue is oddly rigid, and surprisingly unoriginal. The entire narrative is sleep inducing.

I’m not sure there’s one scene in this film that doesn’t apply some sort of green screen CGI technology. So focused on what the special effects will look like Shyamalan’s voice as a storyteller is completely lost. His distinct visual style is nowhere to be found. At no point during this movie can you say, “Oh yeah, this is totally made by that guy who did ‘The Sixth Sense.’” Sadly, he’s sold out to a wannabe franchise that doesn’t measure up to other fantastical franchises like “Harry Potter,” or “Lord of the Rings.”

“The Last Airbender” feels suspiciously like another “Eragon.” Remember when they ended the movie “Eragon” with a cliffhanger that was never resolved because the movie was terrible and no other films were made? Well, the beginning of “The Last Airbender” gives us a subtitle for this movie, “Book One: Water.” Are we supposed to assume that there will eventually be more books for fire, air, and earth? If so, these are books that ought not be written.