Lame dialogue, awkward acting drag down 'The Last Airbender'

Posted June 30, 2010 11:00 pm

Dann Gire

"The Last Airbender" blows.

The main characters in this special-effects stuffed epic don't just bend air.

They bend fire, water, earth, plus logic, humor, acting and storytelling so far they almost reach the breaking point.

Two months ago, M. Night Shyamalan's 2-D, silver screen remake of an old Nickelodeon animated TV series was reprocessed as a 3-D feature at an estimated cost of around $10,000 a minute.

That might have made the marketing of "Last Airbender" a little easier during Hollywood's current mad rush to join the 3-D fad, but the extra-dimensional transfer didn't do the movie's visual quality many favors.

In fact, the polarized lenses necessary to create the 3-D effect actually turn the already dark images even darker, so the experience of watching "Airbender" is a lot like seeing a regular movie through sunglasses.

That's a shame, especially because "The Last Airbender" is one big, blubbery whale of a special effects movie imbued with cheesy Saturday morning cartoon dialogue, some embarrassingly awkward performances, and tired, passionless direction from a filmmaker who has lost his knack for flicks, at least temporarily.

The Nick TV series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was something of a critical milestone for animated shows.

Highly influenced by Asian anime, the series divided the world into the Air Nation, Water Nation and Earth Nation, all under attack from the Fire Nation, led by the young Prince Zuko (no apparent relation to Danny Zuko of "Grease Sing-A-Long" opening next week).

Shyamalan's "Airbender" - the "Avatar" part of the title had to be dropped because some other movie already used it - follows the TV premise.

A young waterbender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her brother Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) see something under the ice. We know, because Sokka says, "There's something down there!"

He tries to break through the ice, and the entire area beneath their feet suddenly caves in. We know, because Sokka says, "It's caving!"

Inside a giant ice cube, they find a young airbender named Aang (Noah Ringer, a dead ringer for the wide-eyed animated hero on TV). He thinks he's been asleep a few days.

Try 100 years, Aang.

Katara suspects Aang could be the last avatar, the only one who can bend all the elements and restore peace among the nations.

Meanwhile, Prince Zuko ("Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel), anxious to win back the approval of his harsh firebending daddy, Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis), sets out to capture airbender Aang before he can master bending all the elements and stop the Fire Nation's campaign for world domination.

After racking up commercial and critical successes such as "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable" and "Signs," the India-born Shyamalan fell off his creative bicycle and apparently can't get back on.

His subsequent films "The Village," "Lady in the Water" and "The Happening" played like rejected pilots for the old "Twilight Zone" series.

"The Last Airbender" is the filmmaker's most ambitious production so far. Yet, despite the epic, digitally created spectacles at his command, Shyamalan pulls one-note, surface performances from his cast members, who seem as if they're auditioning for their roles instead of supplying polished performances.

(That the major characters are played by Caucasian actors seems to be a little odd when everyone around them appears to be Asian.)

A key scene when the lovely Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) sacrifices her life and her hair color to save a fish water spirit should have produced geysers of tears. It barely draws yawns.

One character explains why Aang is dangerous to the Fire Nation: He has the power to change hearts and "changing hearts is how wars are won!"

And how audiences are won over.

If only Shyamalan's movie could bend hearts as easily as Aang bends air.

"The Last Airbender"

★½

Starring: Noah Ringer, Jackson Rathbone, Nicola Peltz, Cliff Curtis, Dev Patel

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG. 103 minutes

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