The American reviews for M Night Shyamalan's latest film have been jawdroppingly bad - it currently has a score of only 7 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes - so it is with some trepidation that European critics approach the new film from the director of The Sixth Sense. Can it really be worse than his last two films, the hugely derided Lady In The Water and The Happening?
First, some explanation. If you are over the age of 15 or don't have access to the Nickelodeon TV channel, it's unlikely that you will have heard of The Last Airbender. It was an award-winning animated children's series set in a fantasy version of Earth where humans are divided into four groups, according to their ability to meld the elements of water, earth, air and fire. Unfortunately for British audiences, they are collectively known as Benders.
This is the only humorous thing about Shyamalan's big screen version, which despite clearly having lavish set-pieces and spectacular sets is as po-faced as it comes. 100 years after some sort of cataclysmic event, a mysterious young 'Airbender' is discovered in a remote frozen tundra. He is the last of his breed and becomes the key to the plot: the Earth and Water tribes want him to help them defeat the nasty Fire tribes, who in turn will do anything to capture and destroy the young Bender.
Shyamalan has taken a simple story of good and evil - which clearly has some potential - and ruined it. There are several reasons why, but most of all it is a very boring affair. Adults are more than likely to spend their time wondering about other, more interesting, things in their lives such as their tax returns or what to have for dinner, while children will simply find the whole thing very tedious.
The acting doesn't help. Shyamalan has managed to find some young actors and squeeze any potential talent out of them, while the adult characters are stock figures spouting either incomprehensible or laughable dialogue (among them Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel). It's also a very dark film: physically it is often quite difficult to see what is going on.
It's certainly different from the director's last two films (and has also unfortunately been retro-fitted to make it into a supposed 3-D experience), but is it worse? It's hard to say: The Happening is so gloriously bad that at least it has some rewatch value for fans of terrible films. It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever want to watch The Last Airbender again.
Paul Hurley
