The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender is an adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon created by Michael Dante Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko. My children and I discovered the series while looking through Netflix and decided to give it a try. Needless to say we were hooked from the get go and ran the gamut of the three seasons as fast as Netflix could ship the discs to us. So it was with growing excitement that I uncovered the news of a live action movie, then my excitement turned to one of trepidation upon hearing that M. Night Shymalan was helming the film.
Me and Night have a very convoluted history. At one time he was my favorite director and I was excited by every project he announced. Then came Lady in the Water. My excitement lessened a bit. Then came The Happening. All heck broke loose. How could such a promising director fall from grace so quickly in so little time? That is a question to be answered in an upcoming article I'm working on. But this is about Airbender, so let's focus on that. Then maybe we can see if Night has managed a comeback.
The Last Airbender takes place on a world that is ruled by four tribes: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. There are a select few in each tribe called "benders", who are able to control their respective elements. To ensure balance between the tribes, a powerful being called the Avatar, a being who can control all 4 elements, maintains peace. The story opens with the Avatar missing from the world for 100 years, until he is discovered in a block of ice by two young members of the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka and Kitara. Surprisingly the Avatar is an airbender, the last of his kind, and also inhabits the body of a 12 year old boy, Aang. The story follows Aang as he looks to master the other 3 elements and help fight the world wide takeover by the fire nation. There is also an outcast prince of the Fire Nation, Zuku, who is trying to regain his honor by finding and delivering the Avatar to his father.
Critics are already bashing Night's latest film. Roger Ebert gave it a 1/2 star. Chris Bumbray from joblo.com rated it 1 out of 10. Many critics have said it is worse then the newest Twilight chapter, Eclipse (and without even seeing that film, I already know that is saying a lot). And just like many of his previous films, Night is getting bashed left and right.
Today I managed to find some time to see the film with my two young sons. We have been waiting anxiously to watch it since it started development. So.....is it as horrible as they say? No. But it's not great either. The film actually is not too bad. But it does have several flaws.
The first problem being the screenplay, most notably the dialogue. It is often very stilted and awkward. It is also very very very flat (but some of that comes from the acting, which we will get to soon). In several places, I recognized lines from the show, almost like Night lifted them from the series and form fitted them together to suit his needs. The structure of the movie is also at times awkward. There is a voice-over from Kitara that feels very out of place. I like the opening, much like the opening to the show, and I like the ending also. It's the progressions between the large action scenes that seem to kind of run very dry and flat too.
Then there is the acting. Wow. Terrible in some places. Many critics found faults with Night casting white actors to play Asian counterparts. This did not bother me, or I should say, would not bother me if they could just act. The cast is very young, especially the three main protagonists. And they are also fairly new to Hollywood. Their inexperience shows. But this I do not blame the actors for. With a young cast it is the director's responsibility to coach and help them be where they need to be for the film. I think Night phoned this part of the job in. It seems like he took the first take on everything. The best of the three is Nicola Peltz, who plays Kitara. Jackson Ratbone (Sokka) looks like he is two seconds from crying in every scene. Noah Ringer plays Aang and at first I was confused by his casting. He actually grew on me as the movie progressed. But you can tell how young he is from his acting chops. Dev Patel, the kid from Slumdog Millionaire, plays Zuku. He is fine but when I think of Zuku, I do not think Dev Patel is it. Of course, they could have went with their first choice, Jesse McCarthy (excuse me while I vomit. Okay, I'm back.)
Critics really hated the special effects. I actually enjoyed them immensely. The fights are fun to watch, the bending is neat and kind of beautiful as the actors go through their martial arts moves. The creatures, Oppa and MoMo, were fine. I thought it was on par with any other big budget movie.
Did Night regain any form in this reviewer's eyes? Or did he lose even more ground? Neither. He is still in a holding pattern it seems. Airbender could, and should, have been Night's return to prominence. We have been waiting to see what he can do on a property that is not his own creation for some time now. I expected much much more from him here, and it seems he was more interested in playing it safe. Disappointing.
The movie looks to have a large opening weekend, which almost assuredly means sequels. I would like to see the other two chapters in the proposed trilogy. One, because I love the series and want to see more airbending, and two, because I am now curious to see what Night does next with the project.
I'm sure critics will continue to pan this movie, hard. But they need to remember who the movie is made for: children. At a time when Twilight has teenyboppers all a titter, Percy Jackson pushes the violent content of a PG rating, and the Harry Potter franchise continues to get darker and darker, there is room for a kid-friendly series like Airbender. Kids will love this movie. And rightfully so.

Grade: B-