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The Last Airbender
(2010)
  
Review
M. Night Shyamalan first gained
recognition as a filmmaker because his films (notably
The Sixth Sense,
Unbreakable and
Signs) had edge and audacity, written
and shot from a different perspective, with something unique to
communicate. There is nothing unique about Shyamalan's latest outing,
The Last Airbender, however. It is a self-absorbed and glossed fantasy adventure
which boasts little else than all the mandatory ingredients for this
rapidly self-destructing subgenre: a chosen Messiah figure, a simple
good/bad dichotomy, furry mythical animals, and wild and grandiose
scenery. There's nothing wrong about the story's outline or morals in
itself, it's
just that the film appears completely inane and flat before our eyes.
Shyamalan somehow drains all potential vivacity from the story, seemingly
trying to make his film as generic as possible while still ceremoniously
insisting on the story's importance and pathos, forgetting in the
process that we've been told and seen all this many
times before – and in better versions. The dialogue and the acting contribute to the same conclusion, perhaps with the exception of Shaun
Toub, who exhibits something which in another movie could have been a
touch of class. And the fighting scenes, which should have been filled
with aggression and tension, instead look like tamely choreographed
practice sessions from So You Think You Can Dance.
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