My first question to M. Night would be, since he wrote, produced and directed the film, had he actually even watched the animated series?
First off the casting was terrible. The entire film I kept getting distracted by Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show attempting to play the evil Commander Zhao. The script was a nightmare. It felt less like a film and more like a PBS special that didn't trust the audience to figure out the premise on it's own so it just narrated it to them. And the special fx were also nothing to write home about.
In comparison of the series to the film they fucked up across the board. Aang lost that playfulness which he uses as a distraction from the weight of the responsibility at hand. Sokka was more miserable then the funny stumbling comedic relief. Katara wasn't able to capture the beacon of hope that she had in the show. Prince Zuko was attempting to be the deep tortured soul but just came off as over done. The Fire Lord was not menacing in the least. In fact, the only character which seemed interesting was Zuko's uncle Iroh.
And if M. Night couldn't have beaten this to death enough, the filming was especially terrible considering the career the man has had. The entire movie was rushed. You didn't get a chance to care about the character's. There was no emotion felt especially during the scene when Aang finds out about the genocide of his people. Then, the final setting within the northern water stronghold just dragged on up until a very anti-climactic ending.
Everything about this film was trash. The over stylized fight scenes, the fact that the villains always seemed to just stand around and wait to get hit, the bland sets, the robotic acting, the choppiness of the script, etc etc etc. I honestly feel as if I just sat through the most expensive high school play I had ever seen.
Add this one up to the growing trash pile of M. Night films right after Unbreakable (The villain was the ultimate breakable man. He could have sneezed on the brother and killed him. I'll give it a point though because the villain is a rare comic book dealer.), Signs (extraterrestrials flew billions of light years in highly advanced space crafts but die if you spill water on them. The unspoken hero of that film was a clumsy bus boy.), The Village (Twilight Zone rip off that I figured out within 10 minutes.), Lady in the Water (I don't wanna talk about.), The Happening (Nothing happened that whole film.), and Devil (Boring.). Honestly, the only thing we can think M. Night for at the end of The Last Airbender was that he didn't put in some stupid twist.
But of coarse, this is Hollywood and crap directors always get more jobs. How else can you explain the career of Uwe Boll. So M. Night is currently in production of the films One Thousand A.E. and another Bruce Willis flick entitled The Connected. After these 2 abortions M. Night would like to produce a sequel to The Last Airbender. I have a better idea. Instead, M. Night should pretend he never made The Last Airbender because we are all pretending that we never saw it. Then, they should hand off the franchise to the creative master that is Guillermo del Toro. Atleast with del Toro if the dialogue is shit it will still be visually stunning.
Final Grade: F
In the scale of Burn It, Wait and Rent It, Wait and Buy It, Go and See It, Obsess Over It, Turn It Into A Religion: I say burn it but I'm pretty sure not even hell will accept this awful afterbirth of an amazing television series.
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