'Airbender' has a rough Night
The only element Aang (Noah Ringer) can't control is the poor level of epic fantasy filmmaking. (Paramount Pictures)
The Last Airbender
Running time: 103 minutes
MPAA rating: PG (fantasy action violence)
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If "The Last Airbender" isn't the worst film of the year, the hokey compilation of cheesy kung-fu moves attached to special effects enhancements will certainly be one of the prominent artistic bottom-feeders.
Writer-director-producer M. Night Shyamalan began his career with a flourish. "The Sixth Sense," especially, dazzled in 1999. More recent efforts, "The Village," "Lady in the Water" and "The Happening," pretty much fizzled.
"The Last Airbender," a would-be epic with the interest quotient of a slug taking a tongue bath, just baffles.
The hook in this fantasy yarn about a Fire Nation able to bully nations of air, water and Earth is that the prophesied Avatar (Dallas native Noah Ringer as Aang), an airbender who can control all the elements, has been absent for 100 years.
Boy wonder Aang arrives in an ice ball along with a gigantic furry creature and is quickly befriended by Katara (Nicola Peltz), a young waterbender, and her protective brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone, also on screen as the vampire Jasper Hale in "Twilight: Eclipse").
According to Shyamalan's adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated TV series "Avatar: The Last Airbender," Aang ran away from Avatar training before he could fully master water, fire and earth bending. The challenge here is to fend off the evil Fire Nation flame-throwers and avoid capture by Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, who's not exactly feeling his daddy's love at the moment.
Aang may be a little behind on his element altering courses, but thanks to a laughable plot by Shyamalan, someone here is fully capable of halting time. I've never seen just over an hour and a half feel like an eternity before. Nothing much works here. The special effects, while accomplished enough, only manage to perpetuate the silliness.
At least this film is being released in 3-D. So if your child drags you to it, you might be able to nap behind the glasses without anyone noticing.
Ringer, the Dallas-based American taekwondo martial arts state champ, convinces as the young Avatar (no relation to James Cameron's epic wonder of the same name). I just feel sorry for "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel, who made a poor follow-up film choice to play Prince Zuko.
Of course Shyamalan is the one who'll suffer most if this turkey bombs, which it should.
Unless something much more accomplished happens in the near future for the "Sixth Sense" filmmaker, I see a dead career.
Writer-director-producer M. Night Shyamalan began his career with a flourish. "The Sixth Sense," especially, dazzled in 1999. More recent efforts, "The Village," "Lady in the Water" and "The Happening," pretty much fizzled.
"The Last Airbender," a would-be epic with the interest quotient of a slug taking a tongue bath, just baffles.
The hook in this fantasy yarn about a Fire Nation able to bully nations of air, water and Earth is that the prophesied Avatar (Dallas native Noah Ringer as Aang), an airbender who can control all the elements, has been absent for 100 years.
Boy wonder Aang arrives in an ice ball along with a gigantic furry creature and is quickly befriended by Katara (Nicola Peltz), a young waterbender, and her protective brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone, also on screen as the vampire Jasper Hale in "Twilight: Eclipse").
According to Shyamalan's adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated TV series "Avatar: The Last Airbender," Aang ran away from Avatar training before he could fully master water, fire and earth bending. The challenge here is to fend off the evil Fire Nation flame-throwers and avoid capture by Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, who's not exactly feeling his daddy's love at the moment.
Aang may be a little behind on his element altering courses, but thanks to a laughable plot by Shyamalan, someone here is fully capable of halting time. I've never seen just over an hour and a half feel like an eternity before. Nothing much works here. The special effects, while accomplished enough, only manage to perpetuate the silliness.
At least this film is being released in 3-D. So if your child drags you to it, you might be able to nap behind the glasses without anyone noticing.
Ringer, the Dallas-based American taekwondo martial arts state champ, convinces as the young Avatar (no relation to James Cameron's epic wonder of the same name). I just feel sorry for "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel, who made a poor follow-up film choice to play Prince Zuko.
Of course Shyamalan is the one who'll suffer most if this turkey bombs, which it should.
Unless something much more accomplished happens in the near future for the "Sixth Sense" filmmaker, I see a dead career.
