The Last Air Bender

M Night Shyamalan returns once again in a little bit of a break from his normal subject matter. No twist ending, and this time a children's blockbuster. (The film is rated pg)

While ones opinion of the director might already be tainted- His last film "The Happening" was nearly universally disregarded by crtics as forgettable. I on the other hand liked all of his previous works. The 6th sense was brlliant, Unbreakable- my personal favorite. The village, and Lady in the water had their moments. (In my opinion that is) And aside from popular belief, I felt the Happening was about as scary as global warming could get.

My admiration for Shyamalan's previous films only adds to my dissapointment in his latest project- The Last Airbender. While you will certainly hear fans of the series anguish over some of the names they got "wrong" this is the least of my issues with the film.

The Last Airbender begins with the Avatar returning after one hundred years of vanishing from earth. The Fire tribe- out of the Earth, Water, and Air- have declared war since the "Avatar's" absence. The Avatar is unique in the fact that only he can control the four elements.

In an age of film, where transformers are depicted as real as can be and superheroes finally depicted in realistic fashion. Shyamalan has no excuse as to why he could not do the same. My main qualm being the fact that the film is rated pg- when pg-13 would have been much more appropriate. The film is dark as it is, no need to dumb down the screenplay, and/or acting to appeal to the younger crowd- Shyamalan does both. And the results are horrible. The film doesn't flow, there is no suspense - Shyamalan's supposed strong suit. And most importantly, the story is just not believeable. Perhaps the only bright spot from this theatrical experience is the title. Lets hope for all of our sakes that this is actually- the last Airbender.