Cast: Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub,
Aasif Mandvi, Cliff Curtis

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Screenwriter: M Night Shyamalan

Someone, somewhere in Hollywood still believes M Night Shyamalan can re-create the same movie magic evident in The Sixth Sense. However, that film was released over ten years ago and, although he followed this up with a few solid films (Unbreakable, Signs), to be brutally honest, after his more recent flops (The Happening, The Lady in the Water) and his latest foray on the silver screen – The Last Airbender – the possibility that his earlier much-acclaimed effort was simply a matter of good luck, rather than any kind of consistent creative ability, seems more plausible than ever.

To be fair, it’s not to say that The Last Airbender is the worst film we have ever seen, but it is extremely poor – lacking any real purpose, tension or vision and coming from a filmmaker of his supposed calibre, it becomes even more of a disappointment.

It’s obvious that Shyamalan had a big budget to play with here but the 3D and CGI effects fail to thrill. The reason why? Because the storytelling is simply awful. The acting is wooden, yes, but this is made all the worse by the script. Not only is the dialogue largely cringe worthy but the pace of the action is all wrong. The audience does not have time to connect with any of the characters before the next scene cuts in.

However, the story itself is based on a much-loved Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender so you can understand why it may look like a sure-fire hit on paper. The story is set in a world divided into four kingdoms – Water, Air, Earth, and Fire. Following the disappearance of young Avatar Aang (Ringer), the only being who can control all four elements, speak to the spirit world and maintain balance and peace, the Fire nation launches an attack to wipe out all Air nomads, the tribe to which Aang belongs, in order to achieve world domination. A century passes and the Fire nation maintains its power by conquering the other nations and imprisoning anyone with elemental bending abilities in the remaining kingdoms.

One day, young water bender Katara (Peltz) is out practicing her skills with her brother Sokka (Rathbone) when they discover Aang trapped in the ice. It soon becomes evident that the young chap is the prophesied Avatar – the lone weapon that can repel the Fire nation’s onslaught and ultimately restore balance to the war-torn world.

But, unfortunately, as this would be a far shorter film if it was not the case, as Aang ran away from his destiny before learning how to bend the other elements he has to go on a quest to learn the other skills he needs. This film focuses on his mission to learn water bending, and the two other parts to the trilogy, should they be made, would therefore outline his future Earth and Fire adventures.

Yes, on paper, it sounds ok. But on the big screen it falls short by a long way. There is no empathy with any of the characters because we do not spend enough time getting to know them. The time spent on endless shots of Aang trying to perfect his tai-chi type bending moves would be better spent on developing our emotional attachments. For instance, Sokka falls in love with Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) in about one minute, the next she has to sacrifice herself to save the moon spirit (don’t ask!). Problem is, it is just hard to care.  Dev Patel, of Slumdog Millionaire, plays Prince Zuko and is a fine performer, and his character has a sad back story, but it’s never fully fleshed out and therefore it is of little concern whether he meets a sticky end or not.

Maybe these are elements that Shyamalan hopes to iron out in the films follow ups, but judging by the achievements of the first part of his trilogy, it’s not certain whether he will be given another chance.

By Louise Meeson

The Last Airbender is released on 13 August courtesy of Paramount.