The Last Airbender (2010 Movie)

Facepalm.
Facepalm.
Facepalm.
Facepalm.
Facepalm.
Facepalm.

Facepalm.

That was literally what I did the entire time I sat through this horrifying exercise. I swear I tried to give it a chance. I really did. Despite all the negative reviews everywhere. Since I had held M. Night Shyamalan in high regard — The Village, The Sixth Sense and Lady in the Water are three of my most memorable Shyamalan films — I told myself that I would set aside my love for the Nickelodeon animated series (which I reviewed in 2007) and treat this as a separate entity.

A near impossibility, I would discover. Shyamalan actually stuck true to the series, which may have been the movie’s downfall. It was a badly chopped-up rendition of the cartoon I had once been helplessly addicted to.

And the casting, my gosh! I don’t want to sound racist here, so I’ll keep my trap shut about that. (Dave Patel, despite the protests of some of the franchise’s fans, is actually the only decent actor in there.)  I will just say that I have never seen a worst set of actors — with absolutely ZERO chemistry — on the big screen. I’ll just quote my colleague, filmmaker Elvert de la Cruz Bañares, for he hit it right on the nail:

Shyamalan was aiming for “Star Wars”. In a way it was…..because it really looked like it was directed by a Production Assistant of George Lucas when the P.A. was aged 12. It’s one of the badly directed epic fantasy movies I have seen.

Oh, and yeah. I watched it in 3D. I would’ve liked to say that I did that so I would not be obsessing over artistic details (which I still did because the super tight shots unnerved me) but it’s actually because I had 3 hours to spare before my Game Design meeting. Excuse me while I cry over my PHP300 now…

10 Comments

  1. Rowena Wendy Lei

    July 22, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    Damn the kids want to watch that pa naman… nag-ipon ako ng Citibank charge slips for it! :p

  2. skysenshi

    July 22, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    At least you won't be wasting P300 for it now. *bawls*

  3. Keane

    July 22, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    As early as now, it should be in the minds of the executives at Nickelodeon to do a reboot!

  4. skysenshi

    July 22, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    Yeah, I mean…who's going to watch the sequel if everybody hated the first one?

  5. Karl

    July 22, 2010 at 11:14 pm

    I have to agree, the avatar franchise has been butchered. QQ

  6. jaja

    July 23, 2010 at 2:33 am

    LOL. As i read more reviews, I'm getting more and more convinced that I'm the only one that really liked the movie. I guess I'm really a sucker animation-turned-to-live-action type of movies. Sure the characters were out-of-character. Sure they through storyline continuity out the window. Sure they chose the wrong actors to play the main characters (Jackson Rathbone as Sokka? Really???). Sure… well I already forgot what my point was, looking back at those atrocities; but hey at least the graphics and soundtrack were good!

    *FACEPALM*

  7. skysenshi

    July 23, 2010 at 5:39 am

    I was actually thinking…Sokka looked too handsome in the movie. LOL! He's not supposed to be handsome, if you remember. Hahahahahaha!

  8. Andy Uyboco

    July 23, 2010 at 6:59 am

    Another scratch on my to-watch list. I wanted to give it a chance also, but not after reading this and Elvert's review.

    🙂

  9. skysenshi

    July 24, 2010 at 5:21 am

    Di bale, there's hope. There's Legend of Korra.

    I hope they don't make a movie out of this one. I'm also guessing, since Korra is 16, that Aang died at age 68.

  10. libys11

    July 25, 2010 at 6:49 am

    omg!!! i totally agree.. this movie = epic fail. and i so loved the cartoons!! booh!!

    Animated Confessions

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