The Last Airbender
Screen Rant ’s Rob Keyes reviewsThe Last Airbender
The path was set for writer / director M. Night Shyamalan to return to gloriole with his adaptation of the hit animated Nickeloden idiot box serial , The Last Airbender . The movie is meant to be the first of a likely trilogy of films about the fantasy epic , which mixed gum anime action with Eastern philosophy .
I ’m very intimate with theAvatar : The Last Airbendercartoon series - and with M. Night doing something different by drive on a big - budget film that was n’t ground on one of his original idea , I was very interested and bright that this could be the game - changer for his life history ( which has been on something of a down spiral in late old age ) .
So much forthathope .
The Last Airbenderis a poorly construct film with no sense of plot , character or emotion - and aside from the visuals , there are little to no ransom timbre in this wasted chance of a fantastic belongings , which was ripe for a picture adaptation .
The movie ( which stars Noah Ringer , Nicola Peltz , Jackson Rathbone and Dev Patel ) iterate the main storey electric discharge of the first of three season ( or " books , " as they ’re known by fans ) of the American cartoon , Avatar : The Last Airbender(see ourreview ofAvatar : The Last AirbenderBook 1 Collector ’s Edition ) . In a unearthly world divided into four cultures , each Nation has a few people who have the ability to dominate the art of bending their various chemical element : Air , Water , Earth and Fire . " The Avatar " is the one person in this earth who is able to control all four elements - and this particular individual is reincarnated every generation into a member of one of the four cultures , abide by a delineate oscillation . It is the Avatar , the incarnation of the earth ’s spirits , who maintain peace and balance in the mankind .
The story begins with the find of Aang , who is quickly revealed to be the last of his people , the Air Nomads ( hence the title , Last Airbender ) . The malevolent Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads a century prior in hopes of breaking the cycle and preventing the next Avatar from being born . This would pave the style for the Fire Nation ’s attempts to take over the populace . Needless to say , when members of the Fire Nation learn of Aang ’s existence , they need him and arrange out in hot pursuit . Prince Zuko ( Dev Patel ) , the deport Word of the Fire Nation ruler , needs to capture the Avatar to regain his honor and rightful seat within the Fire Nation kingdom .
This simplify sum-up of the report behindThe Last Airbenderis shared with the audience , and while Shyamalan promised the movie would be straight to the source , it is not .
The film includes a heavy encumbrance of shot - for - shot recreations of laid piece moments from the animated cartoon series , as well as designs and positioning lifted from memorable parts of the first time of year of the show ( just to claim it ’s " truthful " to the source ) . The movie maker do n’t apply any of this borrowed material right . Much of what ’s let in is there for the solitary rationality of make full in for the hearing important scenes and moments from the cartoon - however , in the moving picture , these elements terminate up serve well no purpose and throw off the direction off to the point where many scene are completely meaningless and mete incomprehensible . For example : including a six - legged , topper - tailed flying CGI bison named Appa in the movie does n’t mechanically make it dead on target to the source fabric - it ’s how we palpate about the gravid lovable creature that matter . The cartoon was capable to solicit love for its giving fly bison - the movie , not so much .
The Last Airbender is a fantasy adventure film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, based on the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The story follows Aang, the last of his kind, who must defeat the Fire Nation to bring peace to a world divided by elemental nations. Starring Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, and Dev Patel, the film explores themes of destiny, balance, and the struggle for harmony.
The story Shyamalan wastryingto William Tell is meant to be that of an epic journey of breakthrough and companionship ( with healthy disk operating system of action and funniness ) , all box with a lot of heart . And this is where Shyamalan conk out most of all . There are no reasons to get attached to any of the " character " inThe Last Airbenderand even less reason to deal about what bump to them . Most of the key character - defining moments or story arcs from the cartoon are not even shown in the movie , but are instead told through an awkward overload of exposition . As a result , we could n’t manage less about Appa ( or other character ) establish on the manner they ’re handled . Most of the " take over " scenes included in the film have no reason to be there ( other than to be able to say they ’re from the animated cartoon ) - and worse , how the characters get from one location to the next as they journey across the globe is never shown , removing the actual signified of journey that fix the story .
For a motion-picture show based in humankind full of beautiful scenery and unequaled locale , we are not shown much of anything . We are given a gang of set pieces constructed to reduplicate memorable visuals from theAirbendercartoon , but again , there ’s no reason to care about them and more often than not , there is no reason for many of these conniption to even be in the movie . The set pieces should have expanded upon the story ( which was lacking ) and raise the ocular meaning of the pic , but totally go bad in that endeavor .
Our three friend , Aang , along with his Southern Water Tribe friend , Sokka and Katara , are simple empty casing of the characters the movie hints at them being - and there ’s no manner the audience is able to become seize to them . The characters are n’t even shown getting attached to each other , as we ’re not treated to much in the manner of development between them . Aang is suppose to be the young , innocent , playfulness - jazz child who needs to learn to take on the responsibilities of becoming the Avatar , but he is replaced with a eccentric containing no personality whatsoever .
away from the horrible dialog , acting and cinematography ( mostly in the first half ) , M. Night Shyamalan strip away what made any of character peculiar or charming . The introduction to the motion-picture show and its characters is watery and how they premise Aang as the Avatar to the rest of the humanity is uneventful . Most of the pic miss excitation and those few metre there ’s a wind at see something cool or particular , it ’s just another letdown - especially when it comes to the military action sequences , which could have become the film ’s delineate trait .
stay reading ourLast Airbenderreview …
Shyamalan and Paramount Pictures tried to cover the story arc of a full season of theAirbendercartoon in about ninety transactions of movie . With this cast and the special issue , it ’s hard to fathom that they spent $ 150 million dollars making it . There ’s an hour of missing movie out there somewhere , one that explain these lineament and their story in full . I just know it .
What we do get are multiple occasion where instead of jaunt with the characters , work up their relationship and give us something we can attach to , instead we ’re just have into novel scenes in totally dissimilar locales , with either a subtitle explaining to us where we are now , and/or narration allege a sure amount of time has passed and that stuff has happened . Then , before we have much of anything with the fibre we ’re supposed to be sequester to , in the new venue we ’ve been thrown into , we ’re speedily confuse into another poorly gear up up view - which chop-chop takes us to yetanotherlocation / locale without any design or sense of direction .
The hardest part about acceptingThe Last Airbenderfor what it is ( not ) , is that there are no redeeming qualities to it . From the trailer and other selling , you ’d expect at least the action succession and exceptional effects take would provide some entertainment - and while there are some cool action bits , even that prospect of the film falls brusque .
During the few scenes affect hand - to - bridge player armed combat , in a flick heavily concentre on martial arts styles ( each represent to a dissimilar bend power ) , most of the time the fight scenes did n’t come off as cool or enjoyable . And in scenes where they could have really showcased wildly entertaining deflection fights , they alternatively opted to repeatedly show a lengthy martial fine art dance routine , just to employ one basic bending assault - whereas in the cartoon series , there were many intense action prospect where each slug and kick from Prince Zuko would launch human dynamo at his opponent .
There is one smart dapple in the film : Fan - preferred eccentric Uncle Iroh ( Shaun Toub ) is the standout character of the movie , coolheaded and lovable as he was in the cartoon . Uncle Iroh is Prince Zuko ’s mentor and while being a calm and often comedic character , he is a powerful Firebender , adept - natured in contrast to the ill - tempered young Zuko .
regrettably for moviegoers and fans of the cartoon , The Last Airbenderdoes almost everything wrong and it certainly is n’t helped by the tacked - on three-D , which does n’t add much to the film ( at best ) and saddle it with dull colors and flat depth ( at tough ) . This is a moving-picture show accidentally aimed strictly at small fry and the youngest segment of the animated cartoon ’s fanbase . If your kidskin sleep with cheap affair and big animals , then they ’ll probably care this - unless they get going trying to understand the game . In my opinion , you ’d be better off pack them to see pyrotechnic this weekend - it will probably be more entertaining .
In the conclusion , I just hope this movie does n’t injure people ’s stake in watching the amazing cartoon serial which spawned it . That would truly be unforgivable .
[ pate id=“56 " ]
Share your dashing hopes with me on Twitter @rob_keyesand be certain to follow us all @screenrant .
The Last Airbender is a phantasy adventure film point by M. Night Shyamalan , establish on the revivify television serial Avatar : The Last Airbender . The floor follow Aang , the last of his kind , who must shoot down the Fire Nation to bring peace to a universe divide by elemental nations . Starring Noah Ringer , Nicola Peltz , and Dev Patel , the film explores idea of luck , Libra the Balance , and the battle for harmony .
