The Last Airbender (2010) Review

THE LAST AIRBENDER (2010)
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan
Produced by: M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Di Martino, Kathleen Kennedy, Bryan Konietzko, and Scott Aversano
Music by: James Newton Howard
Edited by: Conrad Buff
Starring: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, and Aasif Mandvi
Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes
Rating: PG (fantasy action violence)
Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Family
Release Date: July 2, 2010

A Quick Warning: I just want to let everyone know that for me, school has just restarted (gag), so I may not be able to get posts out as frequently as I was in the summer both because my time is limited and I don't tend to watch as many movies during the school year. I will try my best to get reviews out as frequently as I can, but I can't guarantee I'll get one out a week. Anyway, let's move on to the review, shall we?

Intro: When I was in 4th and 5th grade, nearly all of my friends watch the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. While I never watched it, I heard it was a good show from a lot of people. Several years later, I heard they were making a movie out of it (I originally thought this was what the movie Avatar was going to be about). I didn't have much interest in seeing it until the b-movie fan in me saw that it got 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and was getting universally panned by reviewers. I remember during summer school that year, I was talking to someone about it. They said, "I kind of want to see Last Airbender, but I heard it's really bad." I replied, "That's WHY I want to see it." Anyway, I didn't get around to seeing it until this summer when I bought it from a nearby closing Blockbuster (in the same trip I got Pan's Labyrinth on). Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good of a fulfillment of my money as Pan's Labyrinth. The Last Airbender has a lot of potential with an interesting and engaging premise and decent special effects, but it's horrible writing kills it and makes the movie wholly unsatisfying and frustrating to watch.

Plot: It's the same basic premise for the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. If you're familiar with the show, you probably won't need to read this section. For those who aren't here's the plot: In some world (not sure if it's this one or not) there are 4 nations: the earth, wind, water, and fire nations that all have special abilities to manipulate (or bend) the given elements. There is a group called the airbenders that can bend all 4 elements that keep all 4 nations in balance. However, the fire nation went on the offensive and killed the airbenders and is on the path to conquering the world. Then one day, a young girl (Peltz) and her brother (Rathbone) in the water nation find a boy (Ringer) frozen in the ice and after unfreezing him, they realize he's the last airbender (hence the title) who has been cryogenically frozen for 100 years and his name is Aang. Meanwhile, the fire nation finds out Aang exists and the exiled Prince Zuko (Patel) is hellbent on capturing and killing him. Aang must contend with the fire nation while completing his airbending training throughout the world.

Things people may find “objectionable”: It's a PG movie, so nothing major. There is some "fantasy violence," but it is all very mild. No blood or gore at all, which made everything a little unrealistic. Still, I can see them turning down the blood and gore to keep the movie a family film.

Ratings:

     -Directing/Cinematography: 7/10. Really not half bad direction. It's clear Shyamalan knows how to direct, and he has a couple of acclaimed films under his belt in The Sixth Sense and Signs (both are on my "to see" list). Now his ability to write is a different matter...

     -Acting: 6/10. The actors are really not that bad, just the words they say as part of the script are bad. I couldn't believe they got Aasif Mandvi, who is a comedian and a Daily Show correspondent, to play the main bad guy. Though he played a serious role, it was impossible for me to take a comedian playing the main bad guy seriously.

     -Writing: 1.5/10

          -Story: 2/10. Let me quickly differentiate the premise from the story so I don't look like a hypocrite by liking the premise and then giving the story section a 2. The premise of the movie, which for Last Airbender is really pretty cool, is the starting point for the story. The story is what happens to the characters following what the premise sets up. Anyway, the story is completely plagued by a stupid storyline that was so cliché and formulaic. The writing was awful and it undoubtedly ruined the movie. 

          -Script: 1/10. Terrible script to match the bad story. The lines are really stupid for the most part. Please, any studio that M. Night Shyamalan is working for, never let him write another script!!!

     -Special Effects: 9/10. The effects are all really pretty good. They're not the greatest in the world, but they really are pretty decent.

     -Music/Score: 4/10. Nothing special.

This Youtube Commenter got it right.

     -Power/Emotion: 3/10  Well, I can't say I cared that deeply about any of the characters. The plot was so formulaic that I really didn't have to be concerned with the safety of the main characters. For any aspiring writers out there, please keep in mind that if the plot is formulaic, it wrecks a lot of the ability of viewers to care for your characters. If it's really clear what's going to happen to the characters (as in, X person is going to live and/or X and Y person are going to fall in love), there's really no sense in getting to care about the characters' fates. If you add an element of unpredictability, suddenly the characters become more important to the viewer and they are much more likely to care about them. Anyway, that's exactly what Shyamalan's bad writing does, as it ruins a lot of my feelings for the characters just because it's so easy to see what's going to happen to them.

     -Adrenaline: 4/10. Though there are numerous action sequences, the movie ends up being pretty dull. This is probably for a few reasons. One is, as I explained at length in the previous section, that it was hard to care about the characters that much. Also, the millions of clichés in the script made the outcome of the fight scenes incredibly predictable, therefore making them less exciting since you pretty much know what's going to happen.

     -Stupidity: 5/10. Everything's really pretty solid. That is, except for the writing. The lines are incredibly stupid and the story is stupidly written.
     -Humor: 2/10. This isn't the point of the movie, but there's a couple mildly funny moments inserted obviously for comic relief.

     -Best Credit: Chris Brewster as "Kicking Firebender."
     -Final Score: The Last Airbender is a frustrating movie to watch. It is mainly this way just because it squanders so much potential for being good and it ends up being completely unsatisfying. The writing ruins the movie, as it is bad and extremely formulaic. If you're a fan of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender, I would not suggest watching it because you will likely be mad at how badly the movie messes up a really pretty cool concept. Even if you're not familiar with the show (like me), I don't recommend the movie, as it is just frustrating and unsatisfying to watch.

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