| 
| 
Is it worth $10? No
Is it worth $14 (3-D)? Heavens No
M. Night Shyamalan has failed us again. “Signs” was released in 2002, and since then “The Village,” “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening” have been huge disappoints. Now you can add “The Last Airbender” to the list of misfires, especially if you include the hapless 3-D.
And oh is this 3-D terrible. Aside from a few scant moments in the very beginning, nothing pops from the screen. For example, there’s a scene where the main character speaks with a dragon spirit. The dragon’s head fills the screen, but is cut off at the top and bottom. Even the worst 3-D should have the head extending from the screen toward our faces. This is what happens when movies are made in 2-D and retrofitted for 3-D (“Clash of the Titans,” “Alice in Wonderland”) – the conversion is clunky and uninspired, and drags the rest of the movie down.
What’s more, most of the visuals are dark and gloomy, which is depressing and sleep-inducing. The story: 100 years ago, the nations of Earth, Air, Fire and Water lived in peace. Select members of each nation could even “bend” their respective elements for good use, and such manipulations of fire and water were seen as great assets. But since the Avatar – the one person who can “bend” all four elements – disappeared, the Fire Nation has waged war against the neighboring tribes.
As the movie opens, two Water Nation youngsters (Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone) discover the Avatar (Noah Ringer). They eventually convince him to help fight off Prince Zuko (Dev Patel, the “Slumdog Millionaire”) and other Fire Nation warlords to try to restore peace.
A word on the acting. It’s terrible. Ringer has little screen presence as the Chosen One, and no one is able to make the convoluted dialogue work. Blame Shyamalan for this, because he wrote the script and casted the movie. You can also blame him for the visual effects, which are predictable and lame. Let’s also blame him for the clumsy plotting, dreary visuals and lazy editing while we’re at it.
“The Last Airbender” is based on the animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which aired on Nickelodeon from 2005-08. I can only hope it was more pleasant to watch than this.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
