The Last Airbender: Please Let It Be So

Overall, in my estimation, The Last Airbender is a terrible movie. Consider all the things that contribute to a good film - an engaging plot, compelling characters, sharp dialogue, stunning visuals, good acting, mesmerizing cinematography, heartache and humor, suspense and revelation - The Last Airbender lacks all of these things. It is a cold, emotionless, boring, mess of a movie. At least, that is what I thought as I watched, no, endured it.

Then, I talked to my friends, and some of them had very different opinions of the movie. A few of them forgave it. A few of them tolerated it. A couple of them even liked it. After picking my jaw up off the floor, and quickly evaluating my friends and deciding that yes, I do respect these people's opinions, I probed deeper. "Why?" I asked, "Why do you forgive/tolerate/like this train wreck of a film?"

Let's begin with those that forgave it. These friends watched The Last Airbender and decided to overlook the cliche-ridden, exposition-filled dialogue and muddled, complicated plot and see instead a noble intention on the part of the filmmaker.

They admitted that The Last Airbender, like many recent Shyamalan films, is permeated by a vague sense of morality and spirituality. There is another world beyond what we can see, Shyamalan's films seem to suggest, though his film doggedly refuse to define that world in any way. "It's as if Shyamalan doesn't really believe anything or wants to accept everything," one friend said, "and so his films lack conviction and fidelity."

And then there are my friends who tolerated the movie. Most of them praised the world the movie is based on. The Last Airbender is the theatrical version of a popular animated show, Avatar: The Last Airbender, which aired between 2005 and 2008 on Nickelodeon. I've only seen one episode of the show, but many of my friends are die hard fans.

Admittedly, the concept of the show is intriguing, and the world of The Last Airbender is complex. There is great potential in the material Shyamalan had to work with. Perhaps there is too much potential. Shyamalan tried to fit the entire first season of the show into an hour and a half movie. Because of this, there isn't the time to develop the characters and plot visually, and so the audience is incessantly told verbally what is happening and what characters are feeling. As a result, I felt like the movie thought its audience was ignorant and incapable of following a plot or understanding character development. It's a shame Shyamalan didn't try to boil the story down into something capable of fitting into a feature film's running time. All that potential is wasted.

Finally, there are my friends who actually enjoyed the movie. From what I can gather, they responded to the explicitly stated message of the film - battles are won not by force but in the heart. The film's hero, Aang, (and the audience) is told by a grandmother figure that his destiny is to bring peace to all humankind not by violently defeating all aggression, but by changing the hearts of the violent ones. My friends resonated with this message, and I appreciate that about them.

We do, after all, serve a God who incarnated Himself among us to bring peace to the earth by changing our hearts. Christ gave us hope for life which compels us to live differently than those who are plagued by dread of death. Aang is, in some ways, an imaginative avatar of Christ.

As the story plays out however, Aang fails to live up to this comparison. As the plot progresses, we learn that the battle is not to change the hearts of humanity, but to change Aang's heart. Only then is he able to command the element bending power that is his birthright and overcome his aggressors through an impressive display of force. Like my friends who enjoyed the movie, I can identify where the film came close to truth, and I am willing to celebrate that, but I mourn that the narrative ultimately misses the point.

I do not enjoy writing negative reviews, because I truly love movies, and I want others to enjoy movies as much as I do. I truly believe that there is almost always something to celebrate in every film. My friends helped me identify the good in this film. The Last Airbender attempts to be respectful to all faith-bents, it contains a rich and complex story-world, and it recognizes truth. Unfortunately, in the end, in my opinion, it lacks conviction, squanders its potential by being overambitious, and falls sadly short of the life-giving good it aspires to emulate

I'm indebted to my friends for this review. I'm indebted to my friends for lots of things actually, but I credit this review especially to them, because without them, I wouldn't have anything good to say about M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, The Last Airbender.

(That's not entirely true. I liked James Newton Howard's score. I liked the art direction, because I'm a sucker for bold, primary color schemes. The element-bending, what little occurred in the movie, was cool. I think the movie might make a great screensaver.)

Overall, in my estimation, The Last Airbender is a terrible movie. Consider all the things that contribute to a good film - an engaging plot, compelling characters, sharp dialogue, stunning visuals, good acting, mesmerizing cinematography, heartache and humor, suspense and revelation - The Last Airbender lacks all of these things. It is a cold, emotionless, boring, mess of a movie. At least, that is what I thought as I watched, no, endured it.

Then, I talked to my friends, and some of them had very different opinions of the movie. A few of them forgave it. A few of them tolerated it. A couple of them even liked it. After picking my jaw up off the floor, and quickly evaluating my friends and deciding that yes, I do respect these people's opinions, I probed deeper. "Why?" I asked, "Why do you forgive/tolerate/like this train wreck of a film?"

Let's begin with those that forgave it. These friends watched The Last Airbender and decided to overlook the cliche-ridden, exposition-filled dialogue and muddled, complicated plot and see instead a noble intention on the part of the filmmaker.

They admitted that The Last Airbender, like many recent Shyamalan films, is permeated by a vague sense of morality and spirituality. There is another world beyond what we can see, Shyamalan's films seem to suggest, though his film doggedly refuse to define that world in any way. "It's as if Shyamalan doesn't really believe anything or wants to accept everything," one friend said, "and so his films lack conviction and fidelity."

And then there are my friends who tolerated the movie. Most of them praised the world the movie is based on. The Last Airbender is the theatrical version of a popular animated show, Avatar: The Last Airbender, which aired between 2005 and 2008 on Nickelodeon. I've only seen one episode of the show, but many of my friends are die hard fans.

Admittedly, the concept of the show is intriguing, and the world of The Last Airbender is complex. There is great potential in the material Shyamalan had to work with. Perhaps there is too much potential. Shyamalan tried to fit the entire first season of the show into an hour and a half movie. Because of this, there isn't the time to develop the characters and plot visually, and so the audience is incessantly told verbally what is happening and what characters are feeling. As a result, I felt like the movie thought its audience was ignorant and incapable of following a plot or understanding character development. It's a shame Shyamalan didn't try to boil the story down into something capable of fitting into a feature film's running time. All that potential is wasted.

Finally, there are my friends who actually enjoyed the movie. From what I can gather, they responded to the explicitly stated message of the film - battles are won not by force but in the heart. The film's hero, Aang, (and the audience) is told by a grandmother figure that his destiny is to bring peace to all humankind not by violently defeating all aggression, but by changing the hearts of the violent ones. My friends resonated with this message, and I appreciate that about them.

We do, after all, serve a God who incarnated Himself among us to bring peace to the earth by changing our hearts. Christ gave us hope for life which compels us to live differently than those who are plagued by dread of death. Aang is, in some ways, an imaginative avatar of Christ.

As the story plays out however, Aang fails to live up to this comparison. As the plot progresses, we learn that the battle is not to change the hearts of humanity, but to change Aang's heart. Only then is he able to command the element bending power that is his birthright and overcome his aggressors through an impressive display of force. Like my friends who enjoyed the movie, I can identify where the film came close to truth, and I am willing to celebrate that, but I mourn that the narrative ultimately misses the point.

I do not enjoy writing negative reviews, because I truly love movies, and I want others to enjoy movies as much as I do. I truly believe that there is almost always something to celebrate in every film. My friends helped me identify the good in this film. The Last Airbender attempts to be respectful to all faith-bents, it contains a rich and complex story-world, and it recognizes truth. Unfortunately, in the end, in my opinion, it lacks conviction, squanders its potential by being overambitious, and falls sadly short of the life-giving good it aspires to emulate.

-- Elijah Davidson