Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Release Date: 05 August 2010
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Running Time: 110 minutes
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Producers: M Night Shyamalan, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Sam Mercer, Scott Aversano
Writers: M Night Shyamalan
Casts: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Shaun Toub
Plot: M. Night Shyamalan's latest is about Aang, a 10-year old successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations.
THE VERDICT
Everyone loves watching The Last Airbender every Saturday morning animation on the Nickelodeon tube. It has to be one of the most amazing animation that I have seen for many years and remains as one of those that I tried to catch-up every single episode. Unfortunately, not all good stuffs prevailed once Hollywood decided to take it into a larger format of silver screen. For most of the time including this, the final product you watch will always ended up been stupid or submissively horrible. What disappoints the most is the fact that the movie is helmed by an once golden-boy M Night Shyamalan.
The Last Airbender starts of on what supposedly a trilogy franchise story by introducing Aang (Noah Ringer), a reluctant hero who prefers adventure over his job as the Avatar. An Avatar is unique and been the special one who can bends all four elements, thus holds the balance in the world of Four Element Nations - fire, water, air and earth. When the Fire Nation planned an attack that will changed the course of the world, Aang, been the last of his kind that can controls air and having the advantage of been an Avatar; was forced to do what ever he can to hold the balance back.
Once upon a time, M Night Shyamalan is the man who can change the world. From his entity scripts that truly mesmerizing and keeping audience into the game of supernatural plot-twisting, we were left to marvel his early creations like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. However, it seems that he has lost his charm and very unfortunately indeed that The Last Airbender is one *sucky* movie that nobody can accept. May the real M Night Shyamalan please stand up?
Never mind about the racial slur and racism allegation surrounding the movie, The Last Avatar failed in almost all aspects of providing a comprehensible story telling. The pace is uneven and it seems like the movie is in rush at most of the time. It does not allow any room for the audience to truly appreciate what is going on or rather deepens themselves into the characters. Perhaps, one most annoying stuff is that Shyamalan failed to ignite a proper story that suits the ambiance of mystical and fantasy elements, while also failed to blend them into a proper place in the first place.
The end result, The Last Airbender becomes purely a structural juvenile fantasy movie that served with bad writing, bad dialogue and boredom. The story in my honest opinion, should have include more emotional and backbone story into it. Aang that we watched on television is no longer the same Aang we watched on this movie. Instead of jumping the scenes to quickly, emphasizing too much on unnecessary subplots or providing a bitter taste of climax, The Last Airbender should have avoided those to become an enjoyable movie. The excellent graphic and effects or maybe even a shitty 3D conversion did nothing to lift the movie spirit.
In the nutshell, The Last Airbender is fated to not become a turning point in the career of Mr Shyamalan. If he continues to produce this kind of movie, he makes no differences with the two idiots that know how to spoof movies. Promising expectations of a great trailer ended up squashed by a terrible, messy and uneven film-making, Mr Shyamalan should learn now or never. Seriously, skip this if you can or else.....
THE VERDICT
The end result, The Last Airbender becomes purely a structural juvenile fantasy movie that served with bad writing, bad dialogue and boredom. The story in my honest opinion, should have include more emotional and backbone story into it. Aang that we watched on television is no longer the same Aang we watched on this movie. Instead of jumping the scenes to quickly, emphasizing too much on unnecessary subplots or providing a bitter taste of climax, The Last Airbender should have avoided those to become an enjoyable movie. The excellent graphic and effects or maybe even a shitty 3D conversion did nothing to lift the movie spirit.
THE RATING
Story - 1.0 stars
Casts - 2.5 stars
Cinematography - 3.0 stars
Effects - 3.5 stars
OVERALL - 2.0 stars
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 8.5