The Last Airbender Review

Latest News Update: I was worried. I really was. I was worried that I'd go to see (in a press screening mind you; I wasn't going to spend any money on) M. Night Shymalan's racebending The Last Airbender ... and actually enjoy myself. After all, Shymalan has been known (once or twice) to put on a good movie. It's not inconceivable that he could made a halfway decent ride out of Nickelodeon's children's animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender -- despite the fact that he cast all white actors in the heroic roles of an Asian-inspired fantasy world, and all swarthy, middle-eastern-looking actors as the villains. So I was worried that the movie would have some aesthetically or narratively redeeming features that would muddy my hatred. I am, at heart, an honest gal, and would have had to, grudgingly, say so, if there was anything to like here.

But fear not, dear readers, there is nothing to like here. The movie has no redeeming features whatsoever. The acting was atrocious. The writing was horrific. The direction looked like a film-school final project. The CGI, around which the entire movie was built, was utterly unimpressive (but at least it didn't stand out.) The 3-D was obviously tacked on at the end and made the whole movie unnecessarily dark. The art direction was good in spots ... because it was stolen directly from the original TV series. Where the costumes didn't rip off the TV series, they were simply cliché. The action scenes were all 50% slo-mo. (Not kidding.

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