Movie Review: THE LAST AIRBENDER

If its directed by M. Night Shayamalan, I certainly hope so. This movie already needs a "Batman re-start."

If you are a fan of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Series found on the Nickelodeon Channel, then you will be disappointed in the movie. AND DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE 3D VERSION, IF YOU MUST SEE IT.

The characters that are so rich in the cartoon are pale, wan copies in the movie. The humor that makes you laugh out loud is...just gone. So much time is wasted watching Aang perform kung-fu "bending" kata, time that could have been used for character development, two main characters are barely there. The only thing that I can recommend is the cinematography (that's not ruined by bad 3d) and the imagery. Aapa, the sky bison rocks.

Logic and plot holes are big enough to make even my 10 year daughter realize that this movie was, well.......not what it was supposed to be.

Don't take my word for it.

Here's an excerpt from Charlie Jane Anders at io9:

Shyamalan's true achievement in this film is that he takes a thrilling cult TV series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and he systematically leaches all the personality and soul out of it — in order to create something generic enough to serve as a universal spoof of every epic, ever. All the story beats from the show's first season are still present, but Shyamalan manages to make them appear totally arbitrary. Stuff happens, and then more stuff happens, and what does it mean? We never know, because it's time for more stuff to happen. You start out laughing at how random and mindless everything in this movie is, but about an hour into it, you realize that the movie is actually laughing at you, for watching it in the first place. And it's laughing louder than you are, because it's got Dolby surround-sound and you're choking on your suspension of disbelief.

And if that's not enough, here is Roger Ebert:

"The Last Airbender" is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that.

Let's start with the 3D, which was added as an afterthought to a 2D movie. Not only is it unexploited, unnecessary and hardly noticeable, but it's a disaster even if you like 3D. M. Night Shyamalan's retrofit produces the drabbest, darkest, dingiest movie of any sort I've seen in years. You know something is wrong when the screen is filled with flames that have the vibrancy of faded Polaroids. It's a known fact that 3D causes a measurable decrease in perceived brightness, but "Airbender" looks like it was filmed with a dirty sheet over the lens.

That's just the start of an accurate portrayal. And I don't usually agree with Roger Ebert about anything.