It takes a while to get a grip on confusing ‘Last Airbender’

By Colin Covert

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

“The Last Airbender” covers a lot of ground in just under two hours, and viewers who are unfamiliar with the popular Nickelodeon animated series that inspired the film may find themselves wishing the movie had opened with five minutes of maps, timelines and explanatory notes.

Long story short, we’re visiting a mystical world where geopolitics is a four-way rivalry among nations affiliated with Air, Water, Earth and Fire (insert 1980s funk band joke here). Psychically gifted citizens of each place can defend themselves by chucking quantities of their native element at adversaries. The fire nation is the most warlike, and its Napoleonic leader is determined to subjugate the others, with ash-belching battleships and ninja-clad warriors who are literal flame throwers. Against them stand Katara and her brother Sokka, teen warriors from the Water tribe, and Aang, a 12-year-old thawed out after a century encased in ice. He is an Avatar, capable of commanding all four elements and blowing evildoers to sparkling, satisfying smithereens.

Groggy yet? Hold on, you haven’t met headstrong Prince Zuko and his courtly guardian uncle Iroh, fierce Fire Nation Admiral Zhao, Fire Lord Ozai or Princess Yue, whose prematurely white hair somehow powers the moon. The plot here is like Hansel and Gretel’s bread-crumb trail after a hurricane. This is pure introductory adventure, meant to immerse us in the series’ richly complicated universe. In truth, there is more metaphysics and exposition in the movie than I could digest. At a certain point my brain ceased processing new input and simply switched to sensory input mode. From there on, I had a fine time. The story is at best incidental to the pleasures this film has to offer.

Despite significant stretches of talky tedium, there is plenty here to hang a franchise on. “The Last Airbender” is one of the most visually luscious and exhilarating entertainments I have seen this year, full of giddy fireworks and kinetic pleasure. I suspect writer/ director M. Night Shayamalan has been watching intricately art-directed Chinese superproductions like “House of Flying Daggers” and the early “Star Wars” films.

The film is chockablock with gee-wow marvels. The Asian-inspired sets are extraordinary. And in the Lucas manner, the warfare is bloodless, with fighters felled by special effects showers of ice or wind or sparks, so that combat has a sort of gorgeous grandeur.

With its continent-hopping escapades and ever-escalating battles, the film feels rushed, with characters and situations whipping by so quickly that most feel underdeveloped. When we reach the climax, a smooth handoff to the next link in the series, we feel a key element is missing. For all its spine-tingling satisfactions, “The Last Airbender” hasn’t staked a unique claim on our imaginations as it recycles set pieces from earlier blockbusters. Maybe that cohesive vision, that elevating passion, that soul arrives in the next installment.

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