Can Nickelodeon cartoon adaptation, The Last Airbender, mark a return to form for director M Night Shyamalan?
Even so, the quality of Shyamalans earlier work shouldnt be forgotten.
From his name-makingThe Sixth Sense,to the almost-as-good-but-not-quite follow-up,Unbreakable, Shyamalans initial movies showed genuine imagination.
Or so I thought.
Then there are the villains, who includeSlumdog Millionaires excellent Dev Patel, Cliff Curtis and Aasif Mandvi.
Fluid, expressive and fast, his style and movement recalls a younger, thinner Sammo Hung.
InAirbenders universe, fireballs seldom set things on fire.
In fact, theres evidence everywhere of a troubled production.
Shaun Toubs character, the enigmatic Uncle Iroh, spends much of the film doing nothing.
Then we come to the films 3D, which is a mess.
Instead,The Last Airbenderis the third in a hat trick of awful films.
It may not be the financial catastrophe that many were predicting, but Golden Raspberries undoubtedly beckon.
Rating:
1 out of 5
