RIP M. Night Shyamalans career
Lover: Taken from IMDB
“I have never seen the cartoon, but I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I am surprised at all the negative reviews, but I think most people just want to bash M. Night Shyamalan. Some of his movies are good, some not as good. This is no different from any other director. Sometimes Spielberg and Lucas make bad/mediocre movies too. But I digress. This movie was wonderful. I liked the fact that each nation was represented by a different race. I thought this brought diversity to the movie. I also liked the tone of the movie. It's darkness was what attracted me, like the later Harry Potter movies and books, I saw this as a way to attract older fans without ruining a kids movie. I thought the effects were great. They weren't overblown or disgustingly obvious, they all seemed natural. The dialogue was good as well. It was not stiff like some reviews are saying. Overall, I thought this was one of Shyamalan's best works. I believe he put a lot of thought and effort into this script, ass much thought and effort as in the Sixth Sense. I am glad I ignored all the negativity and saw this movie anyway. It's turned me back on to Shyamalan's movies.”
Hmm, make no mistake this is the WORST film he has made and the dialogue was not “good” by any stretch of the imagination!
Hater: Taken from IMDB
“I went to see the Midnight showing of The Last Airbender tonight. I am a huge fan of the series and had been awaiting this movie for months. I understood that this was to be a children's movie, but the series was for children as well and I loved that. What could go wrong? This movie was a cinematic abomination. The entire movie, which covers the first "Book" of the series is rushed together and jumps around in a totally nonsensical manner. There is absolutely NO time spent on characterization. None of the characters had any depth at all and may as well have been cardboard cutouts. Major plot points are summarized through narration or montage and the film would leave any person not familiar with the story absolutely dumbfounded. With all of my heart I discourage you from seeing this movie. Go see Karate Kid. Go see Killers. Go see (I cannot believe I am saying this) Eclipse. Just stay away from this movie. “
Good advice and that’s from someone who like the animated series.
What I thought:
Remember The Happening? Remember how it was destroyed by the critics and joe public? Well I jumped to its defence, despite its many many problems there are some very effective chilling scenes at the beginning and pretty dark death scenes throughout. However I have just watched The Last Airbender and I’m afraid M Night Shyamalan has gone one giant step too far. I defended the director because I think he’s extremely talented and The Sixth Sense still blows me away today. I simply cannot do that with Airbender, it’s such a horrible mish mash of child friendly fair and moody fantasy and it is not good enough any more.
A real shame when you realise its set on what is such a well loved animation that is rich in history and adored by its fans. It’s hard to know what they thought but they should at least know that as a film on its own, it sucks. It’s scripting is wallowing and dull, full of such gems like “I could tell at once that you were a bender, and that you would realize your destiny.” the film plods along with such cheese that the whole film wreaks of Stilton, One or two cheesy lines in a film is ok but a script with nothing but is annoying. It may work for the cartoon but not on the big screen. Of course that’s before you even start on the derogatory meaning of the word Bender, especially in the UK.
Not only has Shyamalan lumped himself with all the work again (Directing, Writing etc etc) but he’s done it all in an impossible running time. Whether or not he had budgeting constraints or something we may never know, but there’s simply not enough time in the film for character development or even any cohesion and real flow to the story! For once even I can’t defend him, maybe his career is like his films building us up to the big twist ending and he’ll bring out something Award worthy…
Available on DVD and Blu Ray
Cert:PG
Running Time: 99 mins
