NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

You can fuck up your career with your own stupid ideas all you like, Mr. M Night Shyamalan, but for the love of God please don't ever destroy somebody else’s story.

The Last Airbender had so much potential to be a great trilogy of family films but Shyamalan has royally fucked this up on a quite grand scale (although this should come as little surprise to anyone who has been following his career of late). There was not a single competent element here and I fear a lot of people unfamiliar with the original series will probably blame the source material as much as the woefully poor execution.

Firstly, it looks unbelievably cheap almost bordering…

72

Listen, I get it. This is probably (most definitely) atrocious as adaptation. Even as someone who hasn't seen the original show, its plotting is frequently rushed and the representation issues of the main players is tough to stomach. There's no getting around its stilted mannerisms or over-reliance of digitality, but it's also a Shyamalan movie, so exactly none of that matters to me. What is so satisfying is, instead, The Last Airbender's preoccupation with nature, in addition to the graceful form of its inspirations, including Tsui Hark and Zhang Yimou, that rise above its clunky details. Shyamalan's surroundings in literal elements provides a basis in carefully-designed frames, action/dance sequences, and delicate blocking. Many of the sets are rooted in…

I do, father

??? genuinely the worst movie i’ve EVER seen i think i can’t think of a movie that i have found to be this bad omg... not saying that 2 b quirky it’s just THE WORST MOVIE i’ve seen ever. it’s not an insult, it’s a fact.
sooo i decided to watch this bc i just finished watching all of avatar for the first time ever n i fell in loveeeeeee 🥺 so i was like lemme c how bad the movie was (i already knew it was bad i just wanted 2c how it was interpreted) and yeah it was fun seeing how the first scene and some of the characters got adapted it’s like oh looky…

I had heard this movie was rough for a decade now but I didn’t know how rough it was until I saw it with my own two eyeballs.

Wow.

The casting issue has been addressed several times over (and rightfully so): the whitewashing of the main trio, casting darker skinned Asian actors as the villains, other Asian actors sprinkled in the background, etc. are disappointing and infuriating. Oh yeah and there’s the rando Black monk in the flashbacks. Anyhoo, more qualified folks have discussed these issues in depth, even here on LB, so I won’t go super into them.

I’ve recently been watching the original series. It’s beautifully animated and scripted. Aang, Katara, and Sokka’s quest is high stakes as…