When I heard the hit Nickelodeon TV show Avatar was being made into a feature film called The Last Airbender, I was ecstatic. I thought a live action adaptation would be really spectacular. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, check out this video.
Looks pretty epic, right? Then I realized M. Night Shyamalan was slated to direct and my heart sank because he has a habit of, well, sucking. Yet, I held out for hope. He might be an awful writer, but his visual sense has always been very dynamic and he expressed in lots of press that he was a fan of the show. Worst-case scenario, it would be mediocre, but Shyamalan would still capture the spirit of the show
Well, folks. The jury is in: The Last Airbender is the biggest cock tease in cinema.
Problem #1: This time, it’s personal.
Shyamalan has a personal agenda to address with this film.
“I’m a martial arts freak and I’ve been dying to figure out a way I can make a martial arts movie.” -M. Night Shyamalan, “The Last Airbender: Revealed,” Nickelodeon.
This results in Shyamalan’s version of “bending,” or controlling the elements, boiling down to intricate martial arts choreography with too many flourishes and not enough actual control over the elements. In a movie hailed as containing some of the most cutting age special effects, I was left wondering where they were. During the climax of the film, two of the world’s most powerful benders fight each other and Shyamalan gives us a good three minutes of hand-to-hand combat sans bending. There’s an even more infuriating scene where Katara and Aang work on their water bending skills together. They perform what ends up being a boring Tai Chi sequence, and NOTHING HAPPENS. As my friend put it quite aptly after the film, “SHIT WOULD BEND!”
Problem #2: Hey fan base! Fuck you!
One of the best things about making a film adaptation of a cult classic from a marketing prospective is that there’s a built-in audience. Unfortunately, in the case of The Last Airbender, Shyamalan hijacks the story and uses it to whine about his own cultural hang-ups.
“I changed the pronunciation of a handful of the names to the Asian pronunciations and that was for me a way to ground the movie, make it more realistic, and honor the source material… But that’s the reason the names changed. It’s because, um, I’m Asian.” -M. Night Shyamalan, “The Last Airbender: Revealed,” Nickelodeon.
In another interview, Shyamalan goes further into his reason for making us cringe every time the name of a beloved character is uttered:
“At the end of the day a South Indian guy directed the movie. It’s a personal thing. So ‘Aang,’ like Tang, is ‘Aang,’ like Tong… See, my first name is Manoj as Man-oh-j and everyone mispronounced it in school and butchered it as ‘Man-ahhj.’ So this is coming from a specific place, from a multicultural appreciation. –M. Night Shyamalan, Interview with Jordan Hoffman, UGO Entertainment
Sadly his efforts at “multicultural appreciation” alienate the very people who want to enjoy his film the most. Moreover, he seems to scoff at Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the shows original creators, who happen to be Caucasian Americans. Shyamalan refuses to allow the story to live in a universe that’s inspired by different cultures rather than rooted in them. While Avatar is undeniably influenced by Asian philosophy, mythologies, and cultures, Shyamalan forgets that the story lives in its own fictional world. The Earth Kingdom isn’t China, it’s The Earth Kingdom. This is a fictional world created by DiMartino and Konietzko. Fans have been playing in this swimming pool for years and Shyamalan basically arrives and takes a piss in the pool rather than joining us in a game of Marco Polo.
Problem #3: I want cake.
Shyamalan opted to ground the film directly in the cultural settings that inspired the source material instead of focusing his energy on cinematically developing a magical world. By removing the magic and fun from the movie, it ended up taking itself way two seriously. Shyamalan has missed the point of what makes Avatar special, which is not so much the culture of the world as it is the philosophy, the characters, and the mysticism. Chris Gravenstine, a fellow viewer of this cinematic atrocity put it succinctly.
“When you’re say you’re serving cake, you don’t put out separate bowls of eggs, flour, milk, and sugar on the table and say, ‘Here you go. I made you a cake.’ It doesn’t taste good and I feel betrayed.’” -Chris Gravenstine, NYC
Problem #4: The dialogue makes the Star Wars prequels look like Gone with the Wind.
One of the most agonizing things about the movie is that it is extensively overwritten. Shyamalan tells us what is happening at every turn via voiceover narration that not only keeps the audience from connecting with his characters, but also keeps the characters from connecting to each other. We are told who is in love as soon as we see them in remote proximity to each other for the first time and we are told that the characters are starting a rebellion without really seeing them do it in any way that allows character development. If I hadn’t seen the TV show, I wouldn’t be able to name one defining personality trait for any of the characters.
Shyamalan is faced with the impossible task of cramming the action from the entire first season of the TV show into an hour and a half of screen time that ends up feeling like a lifetime because so much of the dialogue is repetitive for the sake of making sure the audience knows what’s going on. We are stuffed with over-explained mythology and scenes where actors look at each other desperately and utter complicated lines of dialogue when a simple shot of them holding hands for the first time would do the trick. Actions speak louder than words, Shyamalan.
Problem #5: If that’s acting, then what is Meryl Streep doing?
Another huge problem is that the acting in the film is atrocious. Even more experienced actors like Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone and Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel fall flat amidst the rich landscapes and sets. It seemed like these more seasoned actors were struggling to explore any morsel of personality for their characters, and I’m fairly sure they’re not to blame. The way the lines were written, anyone could have said them. They lacked the soul and the essence of what makes each character so singular. Emily Floyd, who watched the film with me, had the following to say.
“All of the events were there, all of the characters where there, but none of the heart… [When Aang and Katara meet in the television show], the first thing he says is, ‘Will you go penguin sledding with me?’ In the movie… you’re just waiting for the penguin sledding, and it doesn’t happen… It’s the essence of ‘penguin sledding’ that is missing from the movie.” -Emily Floyd, NYC
In addition to cutting out any shred of charm the characters have in the show, Shyamalan also decided to cast unknowns for the two main characters, Aang and Katara. I’m all for discovering new young talent, but they had the power to scour the world for the best people to play these roles, and they chose a kid who was great at martial arts but who has never acted before. Would you want to bank the success of a three-movie cycle on someone like that? Apparently, M. Night Shyamalan would.
“The lead of the movie is the first person ever cast off the internet. When we were looking for this kid, Aang, I was like, this kid has gotta exist… We searched for every actor kid in every country and then I get [a DVD of] one kid who’s in his basement dressed up like the character, head shaved, and then he does a whole [martial arts] routine… So the secret is, I just picked a kid off the internet.” -M. Night Shyamalan, “The Last Airbender: Revealed,” Nickelodeon.
Secret or epic fail, Shyamalan? Not only was the heart omitted from the story, but sadly, Noah Ringer didn’t have the acting chops to make us care about Aang and his struggle to accept the massive responsibilities of the Avatar. In her turn as Katara, Nicola Peltz was whiny, tearful, and useless. She lacked the power and determination of the water bending prodigy all the fans idolize.
Problem #6: It cannot be unseen.
I know if you’re a true fan, you’ll want to see this movie no matter what I tell you, but I urge you to stay away. The worst part about the whole thing is that it can never be unseen. Shyamalan has managed to ruin my ability to watch the original series without thinking of his cinematic catastrophe. The Last Airbender is not only the worst movie I’ve ever seen because it didn’t work on a basic story telling level, but because it had the potential to be very special fell incredibly short.
Do yourself a favor and watch this story unfold the way it was meant to be seen; by streaming the TV show’s three perfect seasons on Netflix: http://ow.ly/27Qzu or watching reruns on Nickelodeon.
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