The Last Airbender is the latest movie brought to us by possibly the most mysterious writer / director in Hollywood, M. Night Shyamalan and is produced by one of the world’s legends, Frank Marshall. It’s set for release this Friday, 13th August but does the date have a bearing on the movie’s performance? Read on to find out.
The Last Airbender stars Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, Cliff Curtis and is based on the first season of the animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The story follows the adventures of the successor to a long line of Avatars who must put aside his irresponsible ways and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. Here’s the official synopsis:
Synopsis: Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war-torn world.
Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film ‘The Last Airbender’ directed by M. Night Shyamalan is the opening chapter in Aang’s struggle to survive.
The Last Airbender does it’s best to unify lots of different elements, both in the storyline and in the way it’s been put together. Using green screens and state of the art CGI, Shyamalan is able to morph in and between worlds unlike any other movie I’ve ever seen. All of the effect driven elements are fantastic but does that mean that the film works in the world in which the characters are placed?
I did enjoy The Last Airbender but I didn’t love it. This is the first movie that Shyamalan has made in which he didn’t create the concept. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially as his last movie, The Happening was internationally criticised (even though I didn’t think it was that bad).
The acting performances in this were a little wooden, especially from Twilight actor, Jackson Rathbone, who has a very woollen and poor interaction with his on-screen sister Katara, played by Nicola Peltz and on-screen girlfriend, Princess Yue, played by Seychelle Gabriel. Noah Ringer plays Aang, aka The Last Airbender, puts in an equally poor acting performance but you have to give him credit for his martial arts skills. This movie is full to the brim of amazing martial arts choreography and some of the sequences in which they are shot are magnificent.
Dev Patel plays the badie in this movie which will take some getting used to from anyone who’s seen Slumdog Millionaire. Although in that movie he completely draws you in, in this, he isn’t really given the leverage to shine in this like we’ve seen him before. I know that he’s now only made two feature films and it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a movie like Slumdog again but given the chance, I think Patel could be an all-time great.
Unfortunately Airbender suffers from a pretty poor script with unfortunate lines like “one day you will become a great bender”, which obviously no one in the cast or crew picked up on to let them know that line may not work as its supposed to. Having the whole cinema laughing during this scene was rather hilarious!
If you like martial art or CGI rich movies then you may like this one. The worlds created in a computer are excellent but unfortunately it’s the people in it and the script that they’re given which let this movie down.
I was hoping for better from Shyamalan and Marshall but it seems the dip in from Night continues for the time being. The Last Airbender ends with a blatant look at what we can expect from the second installment but we’ll have to see if the box office gives Paramount enough of a nudge to kick-start a second dose of this bender!
