The Last Airbender (2010)

The Last Airbender

• Actors: Dev Patel, Noah Ringer
• Directors: M. Night Shyamalan
• Format: NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
• Studio: Paramount
• Run Time: 103 minutes
  

Over the past few years M. Night Shyamalan's career as a director has faced a plummeting downfall. His latest work, "Avatar: The Last Airbender", is the biggest disappointment of that career, as well as the biggest disappointment of the year. I had very high hopes that Shyamalan would redeem himself as the talented filmmaker he once was, but those expectations went up in flames as soon as the film started. While writing this now it is still hard to fathom how something that could appear so worthy of watching turn out to be the exact opposite. I finally understand the truth about Hollywood advertising.

"Avatar: The Last Airbender" follows the path taken by movies like "Ultraviolet" and "Dragon Ball: Evolution". It throws all of these visually stunning effects into a blender of stale, undeveloped characters with a plot that goes absolutely no where. The final conclusion is a movie that is poorly acted, written, and directed, but overall just humiliating to watch. Even the much needed fight scenes were almost tedious to watch. But, when there is bad, there is also some good. I was thoroughly impressed by the Avatar World and how intriguing it was with how it was divided among the four elements, which is why I'm not giving this film just a star. However, visual appeal is not enough to save a film.

Overall, fan or no fan of the series, this movie still is a let down and unbearable to watch on every level to either audience. Even the 3-D isn't able to lift it out of the gutter, it just sinks it farther on in by creating a headache. I still have some hope for Shyamalan in that one day he will deliver a film as good as "The Sixth Sense", "The Village", or "Signs" in the future, but for now we are left with "Avatar: The Last Airbender", or what it should be call, "Avatar: The Film That Single-Handedly Killed Shyamalan's Film Making Career".