M. Night Shylaman has given us some pretty awesome movies. The creator of the Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village brought some pretty cool filmmaking to the table. Once he got to the Village things started getting shaky. Despite his recent lesser films I decided to give his latest, The Last Airbender, a benefit of the doubt.
Unfortunately, I am a fan of the anime series Airbender is based on—a big fan. You could say I’m an Airhead. The reason why this is unfortunate is because it requires me to drastically reduce my expectations of the film adaption. Despite reducing my expectations, The Last Airbender is a mediocre retelling of a truly epic story.
Nobody likes hearing bad news first so let’s start off what I liked about the movie. First of all, the film is gorgeous. Everything from the costumes, to the scenery, to the amazing special effects was top notch. Seeing Appa the sky bison and Momo the lemur come to life sent excited shivers through my nerves. Seriously, it was almost like I saw my dream pets come to life before me. The movie certainly looked like an authentic faithful adaption of the tv series. However, what it had in looks it was lacking in spirit and character development.
Wow. What happened with Mr. Shylaman? He used to be a decent writer when he wrote his first few movies. He even did a good job creating archaic dialogue in the Village. Granted, since that point he’s gone downhill. Lady in the Water had some super cheesy words spoken that no one would really say. And now, Airbender is propelled by lifeless one-liners. This movie had bad dialogue, let me just leave it at that.
It’s really a shame too. If the dialogue and scenes were written by someone more fitting, the movie would have been a lot better. The actors proved they were capable of capturing their characters in some scenes but came off as lifeless because of the writing. They even could have had more lighthearted moments to balance the characters out but only if the writing had been better. The only characters I really felt were real were Momo and Appa, and they’re animals!
The movie also felt brief and forced. Everything was so rushed and it didn’t feel like it flowed naturally. It didn’t help that the dialogue barely ever related to the central conflict at hand. The climax almost suddenly happened and only a handful of one liners built up to it. I wondered after the movie was over if an extended edition would be a better movie or a worst disaster.
Also, the score was really generic. There were too few scenes with music and the music itself was more like forgettable ambient sounds of eastern pipes. It doesn't help that the music written for the television series is fantastic.
There’s a lot more I didn’t like with the movie and I can't tell if it's due to my love of the awesome tv series or my respect for decent filmmaking. To be fair, I won’t be bringing that up in this review. If you want to try to enjoy this one, see it before you see the tv series. Actually wait, skip this and pick up the three seasons of the awesome television series. If you’re already a fan, I’d wait for a DVD release to cringe and/or laugh with.
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