The Last Airbender’s story is a Joseph Campbell hero’s quest whose reluctant protagonist,Aang, is a boy with cabalistic tattoos on his forehead. Airbender's wonder worldconsists of four nations, corresponding to the ancient elements of fire, water,earth and air. Not unlike the Dalai Lama, Aang was identified as the latestincarnation in a line of spiritual leaders called Avatars, who balance the fourelements and communicate with the primeval spirits of nature.
The world in whichAang finds himself is seriously out of balance, thanks to the Fire Nation.Armed with steampunk technology and an industrial-age ethos that demands thesubjugation of nature and the domination of other races, the Fire people’styrant king is bent on world conquest. Aang is the messiah figure that might thwartthe assault. According to the sages, much of his authority, aside frommanipulating (“bending”) the elements, resides in his power to change the humanheart.
The mythology isinteresting, but like many directors before him, Shyamalan strains against thesclerotic conventions of epic fantasy cinema. Dialogue that sounds profound onthe page or from animated figures can fall wooden from the mouths of actors.Noah Ringer, a perky little Buddha, manages to inject some life into theproceedings. But rather than allow the story to show itself through action,Shyamalan relies on chunks of exposition recited by the characters. Some of theeffects are splashy, but many scenes still resemble those old plastic 3-Dpostcards and are a poor representation of the unreachable horizon of reality.
