The Last Airbender: (July 1st, 2010): PG
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Opening Weekend Box-Office: #2 with $51,804, 232
Domestic Box-Office Gross to-date: $129,703,603
Gross Revenue: $198,764,525
Budget: $150 million
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
When it comes to adapting television cartoons into live-action movies, Hollywood has had an interesting mix of successes and failures. The Transformers films make up one of the most successful franchises in cinema history, but Speed Racer was panned by both critics and audiences…so, at the very least, there is some level of risk when trying to translate this type of source material to the silver screen. From a marketing perspective, Paramount had been releasing teaser trailers for Airbender as far back as June 2009, and with subsequent trailers attached to Percy Jackson and How to Train Your Dragon, it was clear that the studio was targeting children who were the most likely to be familiar with the cartoon series. If that’s not enough to convince you, consider the sheer volume of Airbender toys that were peddled through McDonald’s Happy Meals or the tie-in Nintendo DS videogame. The concept for the cartoon seemed cool enough, but a potentially big warning flag came from the fact that Airbender was written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, who has been messing up films since 2004’s The Village.
Here’s the basic plot: the story of The Last Airbender exists in a universe consisting of Four Kingdoms, each who have the ability to manipulate (“bend”) one of the four natural elements of fire, water, earth, and air. Each generation, a person is reincarnated as “The Avatar,” an individual who is able to bend each of the four elements and therefore maintain peace between the kingdoms. The current Avatar is Aang (Noah Ringer), a member of the Air Nation who disappeared years ago; in his absence, the Fire Nation declared war on the rest of the Kingdoms. Now that Aang has returned, he is a prime target for the Fire Nation. Though he is feared by the Fire Nation as the Avatar, the problem is that Aang disappeared before he could complete his training, and as a result, he is only able to bend air. In this film (the first of a planned trilogy), Aang travels to the Water Nation to begin his training and hopefully master another element and defend his newfound friends against the Fire Nation. While this concept sounds like it could produce an exciting and special-effects filled adventure, sadly M. Night Shyamalan completely misses the mark.
Anyone familiar with me knows that I’m fairly easy to please in the adventure fantasy realm, but even I cannot forgive the insultingly bad film that was presented to the audience. I was expecting a somewhat weak narrative given the source material, but the plot jumps around so much that it’s difficult to follow what exactly is going on for most of the film; here’s an example, at one point a Fire Nation general weakens the Waterbenders by killing their moon god, whose spirit is revealed to reside in a fish that this general ultimately stabs...even by cartoon standards that’s idiotic. I’ll also grant that acting probably won’t be the strongest point of a film when a majority of the cast is comprised of children, but the main character Aang is so devoid of a personality that it’s hard for the audience to relate to or even care about him. And let’s not forget the adult actors in the film, many of whom are villains; for instance, Dev Patel (from 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire) plays the prince of the Fire Nation, and the only acting that I can credit him for is being able to keep a straight face while he delivers laughable dialogue and tries to intimidate others.
Another big criticism involves the film’s special effects. Warriors that can manipulate fire, water, earth, and air, should be nothing short of source-material gold for visual-effects artists when it comes to wowing audiences, but with the exception of one scene where Aang dispatches assailants using ice (bending it as a form of water…duh), the martial arts and elemental manipulation are almost yawn-inducing. You can tell that Shyamalan was trying to be artistic with some of the choreography, but after watching some of the “warriors” flail around just to cause water to bubble or some rubble to shake is nothing short of embarrassing. I watched an episode of the cartoon to try and make sense of the film and make sure I wasn’t being too critical, and even though I can see how the original show was entertaining and developed a following, my criticisms were confirmed when I spoke to fans of the series, all of whom hated Airbender. I could go on-and-on with criticism, but that would be one hell of a long read for everyone…simply put, once again, M. Night Shyamalan had given audiences a reason to petition for his retirement.
Surprisingly, The Last Airbender has been performing moderately well at the box office, opening with just over $51 million its opening weekend, but I’m hoping that just had to do with the holiday weekend, and that negative word-of-mouth will do its job soon. Shyamalan planned Airbender as the first of a trilogy, with the second and third films showing Aang learning how to bend earth and fire respectively, but I am praying that Airbender loses enough money in this round to force Paramount to put the brakes on any future sequels. With a budget of $150 million and the near-universal hatred spewing from critics and audiences alike, it looks like Airbender will lose money and that audiences will be spared from another Shyamalan disgrace. Don’t waste your time or money moviegoers; you have better things to do with your day.
Overall Recommendation: Very Low
