Movie review: M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender"

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I've read some terrible, terrible reviews of this movie. I'd like to thank those reviewers for preparing me for the absolute worst. I believe that it was through their pessimistic help that I was able to thoroughly enjoy myself.

Let's get a couple of things out of the way. If you go in expecting a live-action Avatar cartoon, you will be extremely

Comments

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Agreed. I attempted to cover that in noting the writer, director, and producer.

That's the thing I find interesting about this movie: the pacing and acting are not surprising to me, since I saw Signs back in the day. Since everyone else has covered it, I leave the question of who thought it was a good idea to the guy who (spoiler alert) made an alien attack movie all about hiding in a basement and staring at each other.

Honestly, given that I never saw Unbreakable, this is the most action I've ever seen in a Shyamalan flick.

As for whether that's bad... If their goal was to be faithful to the source material, I don't know what they were thinking. Subjectively, I had fun. The voids Shyamalan leaves in the on-screen emotion draw me in. I think that's one of the reasons his spooky movies are effective... He makes me as an audience member chase him into the fiction he's creating on-screen, and once I'm there, he can jump out at me and go booga-booga. It works, and he actually uses it in a couple of points in Airbender that I felt were subtly powerful.

Even still, weird production choices if the goal was to be faithful to the source material. I would not have tapped that production talent.

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Ugh. I'm so DONE with LiveJournal.

/I leave the question of who thought it was a good idea to the guy who (spoiler alert) made an alien attack movie all about hiding in a basement and staring at each other/I leave ALONE the question of who thought it was a good idea to BRING IN the guy who (spoiler alert) made an alien attack movie all about hiding in a basement and staring at each other.

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Did you like Signs? If so, then that may also explain our differences in opinion. I thought Signs was positively dreadful. I mean, it wasn't nearly as bad as The Happening, but it wasn't good by any measure.

Please don't think I'm prejudiced against Shyamalan movies. The Sixth Sense was a masterful piece of genius. I liked The Village well enough. And much as the critics hated it, I absolutely adored and loved Lady In The Water. I had hoped that I would have a similar experience with The Last Airbender - the critics would lambast it, and I'd have a great time watching it. But alas, it was not so.

It wasn't emotional voids I found unappealing, it was a lack of emotion. There's an actual difference. Emotional voids are deliberate. Lack of emotion is bad acting. Like, the whole thing with Sokka and the Moon Princess. The sparklepire's acting was flatter than Florida, and I was too distracted by her eyebrows to notice whether or not she emoted.

Meh. I hated it, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

(I'm still a little hung up on the fact that they changed the pronunciation of the word "avatar." Really? Really?!)