The Last Airbender
Good job he's the last
Review
Crossing the Atlantic can be fraught with difficulties. There is a moment about ten minutes into M. Night Shyamalan's latest offering when the lead character's grandmother recalls ”I remember when we found out you were a bender.“ Sniggers ripple round the audience and you get the feeling this film might no translate so well into British English.
The benders in question are the gifted few who are able to bend the elements, and the last airbender, the young, Dali-Lamaesque Aang (Noah Ringer) found frozen in a glacier. The world is divided into warring races that each control a different element and only the Avatar Aang has the power to control all four elements and restore order to the world. 
Aaang must team up with Southern Water benders, siblings Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) and Katara (Nicola Peltz) to unite the dispersed tribes of the world against the tyrannical fire people, while avoiding the disgraced Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) who has vowed to capture the Avatar in order to regain his honour.
Though the relentless bender references jar with a British audience, in truth, this film has far more fundamental problems than unknowing innuendo. Based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, the film fails to convey any of the sense of journey of its source material. We are given snapshots of the action lifted directly from the cartoon's first season or 'book' without any attempt to give depth or feeling to our protagonists. With characters far more two dimensional than their harbingers the overly long and oddly camp action sequences leave a befuddled audience singularly disengaged. 
More worrying is the decision to ethnically cleanse our heroes, who were Asian in the original series but have miraculously become Caucasian, while happily casting Dev Patel and The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi as the bad guys.
Despite throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at the film's special effects, The Last Airbender marks a new low in the car crash career of M. Night Shyamalan, who has fallen far from his Sixth Sense heyday. Long, preposterous and bereft of any charm, let's hope this is the last time Shyamalan is given the opportunity to blow such a colossal amount of money.
www.thelastairbendermovie.com
Zach Brown
Aaang must team up with Southern Water benders, siblings Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) and Katara (Nicola Peltz) to unite the dispersed tribes of the world against the tyrannical fire people, while avoiding the disgraced Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) who has vowed to capture the Avatar in order to regain his honour.
Though the relentless bender references jar with a British audience, in truth, this film has far more fundamental problems than unknowing innuendo. Based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, the film fails to convey any of the sense of journey of its source material. We are given snapshots of the action lifted directly from the cartoon's first season or 'book' without any attempt to give depth or feeling to our protagonists. With characters far more two dimensional than their harbingers the overly long and oddly camp action sequences leave a befuddled audience singularly disengaged.
More worrying is the decision to ethnically cleanse our heroes, who were Asian in the original series but have miraculously become Caucasian, while happily casting Dev Patel and The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi as the bad guys.
Despite throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at the film's special effects, The Last Airbender marks a new low in the car crash career of M. Night Shyamalan, who has fallen far from his Sixth Sense heyday. Long, preposterous and bereft of any charm, let's hope this is the last time Shyamalan is given the opportunity to blow such a colossal amount of money.
www.thelastairbendermovie.com
Zach Brown
