Review: THE LAST AIRBENDER

With THE LAST AIRBENDER, M. Night Shyamalan returns to the big screen for the first time since 2008’s THE HAPPENING, which received mixed critical reviews, at best… heavy on the side of dissent. Shyamalan has been suffering a nose dive in general favor of audiences and critics alike since 2006’s LADY IN THE WATER, which was widely considered a disaster. Personally, both of his last films – considered by many to be his worst – I have enjoyed a great deal.

The full title being THE LAST AIRBENDER – BOOK ONE: WATER, this is a story of a special young boy with great elemental powers returning to a land ravaged by war after a 100-year absence. This boy named Aang is discovered quite accidentally by Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her big brother Sokka (Jackson Hathbone) in the icy Southern Water Nation. His coincidental arrival could not be better timed as the industrious and greedy Fire Nation, led by the Fire Lord Ozai, wages a devastating war on the Water, Air and Earth Nations, striving to prove their dominance and superiority by systematically isolating and imprisoning the “benders,” special people with the ability to bend their birth elements to their will. Aang is the prophesized one known as The Avatar, meant to bring balance between the four Nations, but he finds he has some learning and maturing to do before he can realize his fate.

THE LAST AIRBENDER marks the first film Shyamalan has taken on that is not of his own original creation. Shyamalan’s film — which he both wrote and directed — is an adaptation of the 2005 animated television series titled AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER. One can assume that the title was changed, dropping AVATAR, in some part due to the recent release of James Cameron’s 2009 CGI sci-fi adventure film AVATAR.

This brings me to one of the smaller complaints I have about Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER, being an accumulation of “little things” that, on their own are insignificant, but when combined create a snowball effect throughout the 103-minute running time. The main character, Aang (played by Noah Ringer), is repeatedly referred to as The Avatar, pronounced “Ah-vatar” in the traditional Schwarzenegger dialect (think “Ah-nold”). My only explanation for this is that an effort was being made to further distance this film from Cameron’s, despite the two having absolutely nothing to do with each other.

Having never seen the animated series myself, I can only speculate on many of the small plot details and such, but I can say – based on various audience reactions during and after the film from folks clearly aware of the animated series – that Shyamalan did not stick strictly to the source material. Unfortunately, that is all I’m able and willing to say on the subject until having seen the series myself… a goal I hope to accomplish in the not-so-distant future.

Speaking of the animated series, which runs in the same rather broad category known as anime, Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER appears to suffer from a tragic condition of cinema… the dreaded Double-E! That stands for “excessive extrapolation” and this film is riddled with it from beginning to end. There’s something to be said for this style of dialogue as it’s used in traditional anime fare, especially in the many often long-running and complex series that involve endless characters and plot lines. However, in a feature film, especially a live-action feature film with real actors portraying characters we need to connect with, excessive extrapolation does not fare well.

One of the oldest rules in the big book of filmmaking is to “show rather than tell” with dialogue. Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER violates this rule on two fronts: First, there is far too much screen time wasted with characters explaining to other characters what needs to be done, what they will do, etc. “Show” this to us, which will ultimately find the audience far more engaged than having that character tell us what they’re going to do. Second, there is too much voice-over narration. This isn’t taboo is and of itself, but the use of it when not necessary can actually pull the audience out of the story and even result in boredom… often the case with my own experience watching the film. Voice-over narration is a sticky-tricky storytelling technique and should be used sparingly and cautiously.

Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER is not a terrible film, but I am having difficulty liking the experience I had. Truth be told, I did walk away from the film having been mildly entertained and did not feel cheated, but there are many flaws. The cast is not one that glitters with big stars and familiar faces. Perhaps the most recognizable name and face is that of Dev Patel, who plays the banished Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. Patel is best known for his lead performance in the Academy Award-winning SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

Aside from Patel, few of the cast may look vaguely familiar, such as Cliff Curtis (10,000 BC) who plays Fire Lord Ozai and Prince Zoku’s cold and heartless father. In a film where Shyamlan strove to cast relative unknowns, I can’t criticize the performances, given the script they had to work with. More than anything else, the dialogue is the lynch-pin in Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER.

Fortunately, THE LAST AIRBENDER has plenty to praise, making the film a worthwhile matinee option, especially for those with kids. I suspect the film — which is likely the first of a trilogy, assuming it doesn’t suffer a fate similar to THE GOLDEN COMPASS – will do well amongst young boys up to the age of 8-10. Any older and there runs a great risk of this audience being familiar with (or even fans of) the animated series. This presents a problem if the film hasn’t followed the source material closely enough, turning fans off and creating negative word of mouth.

The most successful factor in Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER is two-fold, beginning with the score. THE LAST AIRBENDER’s score is composed by James Newton Howard (DEFIANCE, THE DARK KNIGHT) and offers a great deal of atmosphere and mood to a story that seems to be something of an allegory, pitting a modern technological culture unconcerned with selfless acts of compassion against a more traditional spiritual culture that respects and honors life and a balance in nature.

While not extraordinary, the special effects in THE LAST AIRBENDER are certainly worth noting as a saving grace for the film. Just the idea of watching martial arts action play out through characters connected with the elements in a way to use them as tools of war is cool, and the film pulls this off with relative success. The action choreography, quite naturally, is heavily CGI, but uses the technology in a way that draws minimal attention to itself. The sets, landscapes and structures are largely CGI as well, but are accomplished and welcome visual treats, including Aang’s giant floating beast called Appa that resembles the offspring of a pug and a beaver.

M. Night Shyamalan will not amaze audiences, which is a shame as many hoped this would be his Hail Mary effort to reestablish himself as the phenomenon he was with THE SIXTH SENSE. He may however, manage to pull off enough of a box office success from genre fans and kids to earn himself a foot back in the door. My initial response was to give THE LAST AIRBENDER 2.5 stars out of 5, but I have decided to defer an additional half-star to Shyamalan for the effort, in the hopes that THE LAST AIRBENDER – BOOK TWO: EARTH will benefit from his learning from past mistakes.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars