By Matt Brunson
THE LAST AIRBENDER
*1/2
DIRECTED BY M. Night Shyamalan
STARS Noah Ringer, Dev Patel
The live-action spectacle The Last Airbender is based on the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and were writer-director M. Night Shyamalan really as brilliant as his admirers insist, he would have demanded that the studio retain the word Avatar in the title — that act alone could have added an extra $10 million to the coffers from ill-informed folks thinking they were going to witness a sequel to the James Cameron smash. Left to its own devices, though, it’s difficult to ascertain whether the picture will earn enough to warrant its planned sequels or not even make enough to allow Shyamalan to Super-Size his next fast-food order.
The answer, I suppose, rests on how many parents will be dropping their children off at the multiplexes to catch a matinee. Because unlike most of the family-friendly films of today (especially those from Pixar), The Last Airbender has nothing to offer adults — this is strictly kid stuff all the way. That may not be the case with the source material, which has been enjoyed by viewers of all ages, but it’s unlikely anything here — beyond some of the special effects — will capture the imagination of anyone over 12.
Those effects are occasionally excellent, and they’re the only things that provide any pulse to an otherwise poorly executed story of how one young lad, Aang (Noah Ringer), proves to be the only person in his world with the ability to control all four elements of air, water, fire and earth. His leadership is needed as the Fire Nation wages an all-out war against the other tribes; in order to restore balance and save countless lives (including his own), he teams up with Waterbender Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone, doing double duty since he’s also playing Jasper in the Twilight series).
Shyamalan’s habit of giving himself choice roles in his own projects — which wouldn’t be a problem if he could, you know, act — mercifully ends here, since he’s nowhere to be seen on screen (of course, if someone needed to bend some hot air, he would have been perfectly cast). But focusing less on his thespian aspirations hasn’t helped his writing or directing prowess, since The Last Airbender is a clunky, soporific undertaking punctuated by some truly cringe-worthy dialogue. Then again, maybe it’s a good thing pearls of prose weren’t wasted on this lackluster cast. No one fails to make an impression: Even Dev Patel, so charismatic as the Slumdog Millionaire, comes across as a colorless novice in his role as Prince Zuko. Like everyone else in this dud centered around the elements, he’s clearly out of his.
This article appears in Jun 29 – Jul 5, 2010.
The actual genders and races of what the elements represent are in Rodney St.Michael’s book, Sync My World: Thief’s Honor GA SK. (myconnected.webs.com)
Air = Yellow “race” = male = scholars
Water = Small Browns = female = shaman
Earth = Blacks = lesbian = social ubuntu business class
Fire = Whites = gay = military, militant business class
Ether or Metal = Big Browns = bisexual = working class, bi-military
(females & bis go together like Katara & Sokka or brown females and males)
Therefore Aang should be Chinese.
Katara should be a Malay like a Filipina.
The Earth Kingdom should be African.
Zuko should be White like Hitler, Alexander the Gay or Gen. Arthur McArthur.
The Fire Nation’s army should be like the fiery Sacred Band of Thebes (an ancient elite gay army that Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell troops would be envious of) or the much-feared homosexual stormtroopers of Hitler.
And the Slumdog Millionaire (casted as Zuko) should be Sokka.
This film is just as messed up as the movie Angels and Demons. The branding of the priests were incorrect.
But anyway, from the guy who gave you the Sixth Sense, which did not portray childhood schizophrenia accurately or anywhere near the real world, what do you expect?
Bisexuals love horror and terror. They also scam people, just like the Wizard of Oz. The old Oz film which is also about the Elements is understandably all-white because they were ignorant back then. People have higher standards now, and realism is a must.
But M.Night, the Wizard of South Asia also has lessons for everyone after conning them:
1) Clearly, when people don’t play roles that fit them, everything is messed up. (e.g. “male” clergy in what should be a female realm, forbidding gays in the military which is their territory)
2) Whites are not fit to play the leading roles of Air and Water in the world scene. Leave that to the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, Korea and South East Asia).
3) Arabs are not necessarily the greatest evil in the world. Ocassionally, they float like Ether to the ranks of Water. It is fiery whites that fits the role of Lucifer or Satan.
4) By acquiring objective reviews from leading critics, they have agreed themselves that these are all factual objective realities.
Thus, the Wizard, even if he is a con man, is also an accidental pseudo teacher. Partly, it’s called sunyata or “emptiness.”
Is it just me or does that Avatar kid look like he has the mumps or cotton balls stuffed into his cheeks?
@ Guanxi- That’s a fascinating elemental universe but here that just doesn’t apply. I agree that Aang can be chinese or Katara Malay but, if following the source material…which it doesn’t, there are no Western Europeans. In the context of the show, Zuko looks very much an East Asian male but certain things like Yellow/amber eyes make him almost solely fantastical. The way the cast is supposed to look in Live Action however is not something I even want to start talking about.
@ Critic Speaker-I want to hear the rest of the quote.
@ msn- Someone else said he has a really underdeveloped jaw line but he’s a kid.