Whether you’re a fan of his work or not, you can pretty much ALWAYS tell when you’re watching an M. Night Shyamalan film. (And not just because he semi-obnoxiously started putting “M. Night Shyamalan’s…” before the title of some of his movies.)In fact, he’s one of only a handful of directors (Tarantino is another) who has an instantly-recognizable style and rhythm in his work. Unfortunately, that style has become characterized by horribly wooden acting and a sea of self-indulgence over the course of his last few movies.
That being said, I admire that the man has his own style. I mean, even though I ripped into “The Happening” when it first came out, I’ve come to appreciate it for the unintentional comedic classic it is.
The good news for the Shyamalan haters is that for his latest project — “The Last Airbender” — nearly all traces of Shyamalan-ess have been removed. For better or worse it looks like almost anyone else could’ve directed this movie.
The bad news for everyone is that it’s still pretty bad.
“The Last Airbender” is based on the popular Nickelodeon animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (they didn’t want to use the “Avatar” part in the title for obvious reasons).
I’ve only gotten glimpses at the animated series, so I won’t join the fans of the show who are complaining about how Shyamalan changed certain characterizations or how Prince Zuko’s scar isn’t quite right because I just don’t care about that stuff. I’m also not going to get into the controversy that sprung up when Shyamalan cast white actors for the lead roles in a movie with Asian themes and characters.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for diversity in casting. I also believe that Asian actors should’ve been afforded the same opportunity to suck in this movie as much as the white actors did.
(I guess I lied – the trademark wooden acting from Shyamalan’s previous work DID show up in “Airbender”, so it’s not TOTALLY indistinguishable from his recent work.)
Ok, so maybe I’m being a bit harsh. Noah Ringer actually fits quite nicely into the heroic/bland mold established by the superior, epic fantasy stories (“Star Wars”, “Harry Potter”, etc.) that have come before “Airbender.” Ringer is Aang, the only person left in the world who can manipulate/bend air and the latest in a succession of Avatars, who can control all four elements.
Aang disappeared for 100 years and is discovered by Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (“Eclipse” MVP Jackson Rathbone), two members of the Water Nation, which is presently locked in a war with the world-domination-seeking Fire Nation.
The most impressive thing about the movie (other than the admittedly cool special effects and an appealing performance by Shaun Toub as Prince Zuko’s Uncle Iroh) is how each bender has to do a martial arts/dance combo to conjure up their power. I like that they don’t just “have” magic powers – they have to work for them a little bit.
Unfortunately, almost everything else is a borderline disaster.
Rathbone is stuck trying to (painfully) do comic relief, but he got more laughs in the “Twilight” series by just standing there with his ridiculous hair.
I’ve never seen or heard of Nicola Peltz before this movie, and I hope I never do again because she’s absolutely terrible. Her awful performance is doubly vexing because her pivotal role involves her inspiring and pushing our hero. On top of that, since the screenplay (you guessed it – written by Shyamalan) is a muddled, confused mess, we have to rely on Katara’s narration to tell us what’s going on in her deadly monotone. (Hey, how about that? Now Sokka is in love! Thanks for telling me instead of showing me, movie.)
Then we have Dev Patel (aka, the “Slumdog Millionaire” kid) as Prince Zuko, who I’m guessing is supposed to be some sort of tragic, Anakin Skywalker-esque anti-hero. Zuko has been exiled from the Fire Nation by his father and seeks to reclaim his honor by capturing Aang. The only problem is that Patel whines and overacts his way through so much of the movie’s first half that you’re pretty much done with him by the time his character gets some depth.
Should I keep going? How about the fact that one of the main antagonists – Commander Zhao – is a total joke? I mean, he’s REALLY a joke as in he’s played by comedian Aasif Mandvi (best known for his work on “The Daily Show”). I don’t know what’s weirder – that Shyamalan cast a comic actor as the villain but did NOT let him cut loose or that Mandvi still managed to deliver one of the movie’s better performances?
I could go on and on, but this feels like a good place to stop.
It’s not all bad news. The movie - intended as the first of a trilogy – is doing well at the box office. More importantly, it seems to be connecting with its young target audience, judging by the applause from all the kids at the showing I attended.
Unfortunately for me, I’m not 10 years old.
The Last Airbender…D+
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