1. Do you enjoy happiness?
2. Do you have standards... like at all?
3. Do you have taste in movies?
4. Are you not suicidal?
If you answered "Yes," "No," "Maybe," or "I don't know" to one or more of the questions above, you owe it to yourself to avoid The Last Airbender as though it were the plague manifested as Nicolas Cage chasing after you and trying to molest you.
Without further ado, my original review of The Last Airbender:
I'm all for judging an adaptation separately from its source material, because any medium in art has different strengths and weaknesses, so thus, the same story told different ways will lead to very different presentations of said story. However, there are certain things that you expect from an adaptation. One thing so simple that it shouldn't even have to be said is the pronunciation of the hero's name. Or the pronunciation of the name of the TV show/what the main character is, which is actually a word in the English language, and thus, should be pronounced properly. It's clear right from the introduction (which is inexplicably changed from the show) that this movie cares little about being faithful to the amazing TV show on which its based. Instead, we get another Shyamalan mess that rivals The Happening for the worst in his body of work, but unfortunately doesn't have that campy, so-bad-it's-good quality to it. The unintentional laughs are few and far between here, and the movie suffers because of it.
Another fairly basic expectation of a fan going to see an adaptation of something he or she loves is that the characters will look (at least somewhat) like the actual characters. This is where we might want to look at Harry Potter, which did a phenomenal job bringing J. K. Rowling's descriptions to life. Were they all completely faithful to the book? No, but they all embodied what the characters represent, and there's not a bad egg in the bunch. But here, when viewers have an actual picture to base their expectations on, it just doesn't make sense to go race-swapping for every part and casting people who look absolutely nothing like their animated counterparts. This is especially glaring in the case of Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub), who looks something like Jafar from Aladdin. As my friend pointed out, this miscasting is akin to replacing the Sultan with Jafar. That's how great the discrepancy in appearances are.
In fact, the character who looks most like his cartoon character is Aang (Noah Ringer). That's wonderful and all, but it's not particularly helpful when the kid can't act to save his life. Child acting is one of the worst aspects of the film. Ringer and Nicola Peltz are completely stiff, and few (if any) of their costars fare any better. It makes you wonder what was going on during the casting process. They weren't looking for physical characteristics or acting ability. So what were they looking for? Low self-esteem that translates into a willingness to star in a crappy movie? It's sad, really.
Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame is the biggest name in the cast, and he probably comes off the best of anyone in the cast as Zuko. He manages to portray some of the character's tortured-ness, which is high praise in a film where most of the players feel like cardboard cutouts in the emotional department.
While the cast fails to impress, the visuals do. The special effects are often beautiful, especially the work done on Appa and Momo. The elemental effects are also well-done, though they aren't put to good use (more on that in a moment). The worst effects are used when Aang crosses over into the spirit realm, when everything takes on a cheap, blurry dreamworld look, which is always accompanied by a look of utter surprise on Aang's part. You'd think he'd get used to it after taking a few trips there. Luckily, those underwhelming visual tricks are accompanied by a wonderfully-rendered dragon, so they cancel each other out, more or less.
Of course, you would expect these visuals to all be in support of the action scenes, which could perhaps redeem the bad acting and questionable plotting, but it is not to be. While the hand-to-hand combat scenes are fine if unremarkable, when bending comes into the equation, everything slows down to a painfully sluggish pace. Any bit of bending requires a ten-second dance, it seems, and the little snakes of water and walls of rock, while cool, aren't worth the time investment. The larger scale battles are rarely not shown in slow-motion, killing the momentum even then (although it's cool to see the details of Aang's icy awesomeness as he slides through the crowd).
So, the acting and the action both fail. But we still have the show's enjoyable plot, right? Barely. With Shyamalan not only directing, but writing, we get a broken plot with awful dialogue that feels utterly incomplete. This is understandable to a point, because this film represents the first season of the show, but the failure of anything meaningful happening in the film's final scenes leaves the viewer feeling empty. You may say, "Isn't Aang's mastering of water bending meaningful?" Technically, yes. But when the film keeps such a distance from its characters, it's hard to care much about their personal development.
If you're a fan of the series, you're sure to be disappointed, and if you've never seen the show, you're likely to wonder what the fuss is all about. The film lacks the humor, characterization, fast-paced action, and charm of the show. Instead, it's another Shyamalan-created perfect storm of missteps and bad decisions, and one of the summer's most disappointing movies.
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