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MY RATING: 7

The Last Airbender (2010)

DIRECTED/PRODUCED/WRITTEN BY: M. Night Shyamalan

STARRING: Noah Ringer; Dev Patel; Nicola Peltz; Aasif Mandvi; Shaun Toub

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In a world plagued by the benders of fire, a boy, the last bender of all the elements, must stop them.

PROS: Excellent choreography; Nice scenery and terrain; Artistic special effects;

CONS: Horrible screenplay; Characters and plot elements too superficial;

BOTTOM LINE: Though artistic and beautiful in its design, The Last Airbender leaves much to be desired when it comes to depth of character and skill in writing.

I was honestly excited to see The Last Airbender. After viewing the trailer and knowing what little I did about the back-story I hoped I was in for a relaxing film viewing experience. While the effects and scenery fulfilled every promise, everything else - didn't.

The film is of a group of tribes and nations, each controlling one of the four elements: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. The Fire Nation currently dominates the other three. Legend indicates that an "Avatar" will be born who will control all elements and provide a balance eagerly hoped for among the other tribes. But the Fire Nation will stop at nothing to keep the Avatar from being born.

So let's get the worst over with. M. Night Shyamalan is a decent director and in the past I have thoroughly enjoyed his films. However, I'm not sure what happened here. First of all, he should have hired a different writer. Many scenes were either painfully obvious, or completely unnecessary. Examples include the opening line read by Nicola Peltz and also unnecessarily displayed on the screen. Please pick one or the other but not both. Many lines often seemed forced as if Shyamalan tried too hard to get the story to move in the way he wanted. If you ask me, Shyamalan was trying to make the film a "blockbuster" instead of relying on his tried and true directing and writing style.

The acting was also superficial, each actor rehearsing his/her lines without really giving any depth of character to the people they played. The only ray of light in this film was the character of Katara (played by Nicola Peltz) who's poise and wit freshen the mood of the film, although somewhat dimmed by poor writing of the character.

However, the flip side of the coin is the film's artistic qualities in the special effects and design. Some of the environments, such as the Water Nation's ice wall, and the Air Nation's monasteries, were truly beautiful. Also the delicate choreography and martial artistry implemented in the bending of elements was also impressive and gave the sense that "bending" an element is something of a science, not easily mastered. The final half-hour of the film was by far the best, very satisfying, and I would have nothing negative to say had I just seen that portion.

So did I like it? Yes. Did I love it? No. Were a sequel to be made (something heavily implied), would I see it? Absolutely. It has its weaknesses (monstrosities, would be a better word), but every coin has two sides. There is something to be enjoyed in this film.