Monday, July 5, 2010

Huh, what?: The Last Airbender


It's rare when a film comes along and reminds just how bad it can get. Usually, even some of the worst movies have something you could gleam from them, even if it's a Mystery Science Theater 3000-induced chuckle. Ed Wood's films were cheap, starred non-actors and had stupid plots, but they at least they followed one or two proper film making rules, and I thought Glen or Glenda was genuinely thought provoking.

But The Last Airbender? Jesus fucking Christ. There is not a single thing right about this film. It seems to break even the most basic, most essential storytelling rules, and just out-right refuses to be engaging. I don't know who is the most to blame for this. Director M. Night Shyamalan, even at his worst, can still engage his audience. Is this bland cracker of a film the fault of the studio, the producer?

I expect we'll learn a lot of telling behind-the-scenes stories about this film. The way it's poorly put together, with bad narration filling in for actually having to show us anything, and I'd like to assume that M. Night originally turned in a two-and-a-half hour cut that the studio forced him to trim it down to a hundred minutes. But even if that's the case, I don't think any amount of additional scenes could fix this film's fundamental problems.

There's no humor. The action is slow and boring. 90% of the characters are completely irrelevant to the plot. The acting is wooden. There's no sense of scope. The film world lacks detail. The CGI creatures are pointless and unimaginative. And from what I hear, the film is a pretty big disgrace to the animated television show from Nickelodeon. I haven't seen more then an episode, but if this film has done one thing, it's compel me to check the series out.

I strive for more eloquent prose in my reviews, but for The Last Airbender, I got nothing. So, as simply as I can say it, don't see this movie. It is a bad movie.

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