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The Last Airbender
is based on the anime series, ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’, which ran
on Nickeldeon for three seasons starting from 2005. The story line is
basically the same. This movie is based on the first season of the
series. The other two series may be portrayed in sequels. This
probability is very high against the sequels, judged against this
highly unimpressive first part.

According to the
story, the earth is divided into four nations capable of “bending”
(controlling) the elements – fire, water, air and earth. Each nation
has a mastery of one element. But amongst the Airbenders is the Avatar,
the only person in his generation who is able to bend all four
elements; and tasked with maintaining peace amongst the four nations.
Raised by monks, the Avatar’s destiny was only revealed to him when he
turned twelve. Frightened by the weight of the responsibility ahead of
him and wanting instead to live a normal life, he runs away and is
never seen again.

The action begins
hundred years later when the Avatar, also called Aang, is discovered in
and rescued from an iceberg by Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender and
her brother Sokka (Jason Rathbone). During the period of Aang’s
disappearance, the three other nations have been subdued by the Fire
Nation or Firebenders who have also annihilated the entire Air Nation,
making the Avatar the last Airbender.

Now with the help
of Katara and Sukko, Aang will seek to take his place amongst the
nations by bringing about peace, as dictated by his destiny. But he has
a problem. Aang had not being taught how to master any of the other
elements apart from his own. Also, hot on his heels as he flees from
the murderous Firebenders is Prince Zukko (Dev Patel of ‘Slumdog
Millionaire’), the disgraced son of the Fire Lord Ozai. Zukko is
determined to capture the Avatar and take him back to his nation in
order to regain his honour and place amongst his people.

The movie has been
classified as an epic, fantasy and action. Being an epic, it also
contains some drama. There were slight touches of comedy with Sokka,
often serving as the comic relief. However, the comedy, when it came,
often fell flat like those jokes you have to replay in your head in
other to get the punch-line. Rathbone is also not very good at being
funny or the butt of a joke.

The fight scenes
also lacked excitement. Noah Ringer who stars as Aang, the Avatar is
currently the Karate champion in his home-state of Texas, USA. There is
only the barest whisper of this in his stunts. The choreography and the
accompanying computer enhancements were ordinary and – sorry – flat.
Dev Patel in particular when he was not over-acting, just basically
displayed ineptitude in portraying even the simplest of martial arts
skills, a high-kick, convincingly. The CGI was lackluster and did not
wow. Compared to available CGI technology, this was really a
disappointment.

Having never
watched the anime series, I expected to watch the movie without any
sentimental bias whatsoever – just basically wanted to enjoy a movie by
a director I like, M. Night Shyamalan. But towards the middle of the
movie what should have been pure unadulterated fun became a chore and I
could not wait to get off my seat.

Previous M. Night
Shyamalan movies are not known for their action. They are
suspense-filled and often backed by good story-telling. This mix worked
for the critically-acclaimed and award-winning ‘Sixth Sense’, helped in
‘Unbreakable’, was endurable in ‘Lady in the Water’ and totally
nerve-wracking in Signs.

In The Last
Airbender, although I found the narration interesting to listen to and
actually liked the almost formal dialogue, these do nothing to help the
movie. Based on its origins, the movie is meant to be mostly
action-based so here the Shyamalan style would not and did not work at
all. That it was actually applied, shows that the director has great
difficulty in moving away from what he knows. Judging by his dropping
popularity right from the Sixth Sense, The Last Airbender (his most
expensive movie so far) might just have been the vehicle to propel him
back to the genius list but instead it props him higher up the list of
over-hyped talents.

For a much anticipated adaption in the league of Lord of the Rings
and the Harry Potter series, the Last Airbender may very well deserve
the angst it will get from the typical sentimentally-biased audience
and then some more rage.