The Last Airbender
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''The Last Airbender'' is a 2010 American
action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
-
adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...
written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, produced by
Nickelodeon Movies Nickelodeon Movies is the film production arm of American children's network Nickelodeon and the family film distribution label of Paramount Pictures launched on February 25, 1995 and based in Los Angeles, California. The division has earned n ...
and distributed by
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
. Based on
the first season ''The First Season'' is a Canadian drama film, released in 1989. The film stars Kate Trotter as Alex Cauldwell, a woman in British Columbia who, following the death of her fisherman husband Frank (Dwight Koss), tries to support herself and her dau ...
of the
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...
''
Avatar: The Last Airbender ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (abbreviated as ''ATLA''), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions or simply ''Avatar'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and ...
'', the film stars
Noah Ringer Noah Andrew Ringer (born November 18, 1996)Ringer, Noah"The Last Airbender". Interview by Karen Valby. ''EW.com''. Entertainment Weekly, November 3, 2010. Web. February 1, 2010. is an American actor and martial artist. He starred as Aang in the ...
as
Aang Avatar Aang ( zh, c=安昂, p=Ān Áng) is the title character and protagonist of Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko), voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang ...
, with
Dev Patel Dev Patel (; born 23 April 1990) is a British actor. His breakthrough came in 2008 with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama ''Slumdog Millionaire'', for which Patel was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leadin ...
,
Nicola Peltz Nicola Anne Peltz Beckham (born January 9, 1995) is an American actress. Primarily known for her roles in dramatic film and television, she has performed in some blockbuster adaptations and has since been nominated for a Young Hollywood Award. Sh ...
and
Jackson Rathbone Monroe Jackson Rathbone V (born December 14, 1984) is an American actor, singer, and musician best known for his role as Jasper Hale in ''The Twilight Saga'' film series. From 2008 to 2012, he was the vocalist and occasional guitarist, bassist, ...
playing
Prince Zuko Prince (later Fire Lord) Zuko (), also known as the Blue Spirit, is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''. Created by Eric Coleman and designed by series creators Michael Dante DiMar ...
, Katara and
Sokka Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and its sequel series ''The Legend of Korra''. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack De ...
.Marnell, Blair
"'Last Airbender' Star Noah Ringer Joins 'Cowboys And Aliens' Cast."
''MTV''. April 19, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
The film tells the story of Aang, a young Avatar who must master all four elements of air, water, fire and earth and restore balance to the world while stopping the Fire Nation from conquering the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom. Development for the film began in January 2007, and the casting and pre-production process happened during 2008. Filming began on March 2009 and ended on September 2009, with a preliminary schedule held in
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
for two weeks, and the rest of the film were shot in major locations across
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States. Post-production began in August and took several months due to extensive visual effects. The name ''Avatar'' was dropped from the title to avoid confusion with
James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...
's 2009 film ''
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
''. ''The Last Airbender'' premiered in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on June 30, 2010, and was theatrically released in United States the following day. In contrast to the universal acclaim for the animated series, the film was widely panned by critics, audiences, and fans of the original series upon its release, with some considering it to be one of the worst films ever made. Many criticized the screenplay, acting, direction, casting, effects, editing, action sequences, plot holes, unfaithfulness to the source material, characters, and 3D conversion. However,
James Newton Howard James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...
's score received some praise. Produced on a $150 million budget, the film grossed $131 million domestically and $319 million worldwide. ''The Last Airbender'' was originally envisioned as the first of a
trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...
of films based on the three seasons of the series, but due to the near-universal backlash and disappointing box office performance of the film, the planned trilogy was ultimately scrapped.


Plot

A century has passed since the Fire Nation declared war on the other three nations of air, water, and earth in their attempt to conquer the world.
Sokka Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and its sequel series ''The Legend of Korra''. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack De ...
and his younger sister Katara, who live in the Southern Water Tribe, discover an unusual
iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...
. Breaking into the iceberg releases a beam of light and reveals a 12-year-old boy named
Aang Avatar Aang ( zh, c=安昂, p=Ān Áng) is the title character and protagonist of Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko), voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang ...
and his pet flying
bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
Appa Appa or APPA may refer to: Organizations *American Pet Products Association, an industry association in the United States * American Psychopathological Association, a scientific professional organization * American Philosophical Practitioners As ...
.
Zuko Prince (later Fire Lord) Zuko (), also known as the Blue Spirit, is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''. Created by Eric Coleman and designed by series creators Michael Dante DiMartino ...
, the disgraced prince of the Fire Nation, detects the light from Aang's release and arrives at the Southern Water Tribe to demand the villagers hand over the Avatar: the only person capable of manipulating, or "bending", all four elements of air, water, earth, and fire. Aang surrenders himself to save the village, but escapes the Fire Nation ship and flies to Appa, brought by Katara and Sokka. The trio travel to Aang's homeland at the Southern Air Temple, where Aang learns he was in the iceberg for a century and that the Fire Nation wiped out the other Air Nomads, including his guardian Monk Gyatso. In despair, Aang enters the Avatar State and finds himself in the Spirit World where he encounters a Dragon Spirit. Katara's pleas bring Aang out of the Avatar State. The group arrives at an Earth Kingdom village controlled by the Fire Nation. When they are arrested and imprisoned, they incite a rebellion, battling and defeating the Fire Nation soldiers occupying the village. Aang tells Katara and Sokka that he only knows airbending and has yet to master the other three elements. They make their way to the Northern Water Tribe where Aang can learn from waterbending masters. During a side trip to the Northern Air Temple, Aang is betrayed by a peasant and captured by Fire Nation archers led by Commander Zhao. However, a masked marauder called the Blue Spirit helps Aang escape. Zhao realizes that Zuko is the Blue Spirit, and has a crossbowman fire a bolt that knocks Zuko out, but Aang uses his skills to escape with the unconscious Zuko. Aang watches over Zuko until morning, then leaves to reunite with Sokka and Katara. Zhao tries again to kill Zuko by blowing up his ship, but Zuko secretly survives and sneaks aboard Zhao's ship. Upon arriving, Aang and company are welcomed by the citizens of the Northern Water Tribe, and waterbending master Pakku teaches Aang and Katara. The Fire Nation arrives and Zhao begins his attack while Zuko continues his independent search for the Avatar. After defeating Katara in battle, Zuko captures Aang, who reenters the Avatar State to search for the Dragon Spirit for help to defeat the Fire Nation. The Dragon Spirit advises him to "use the ocean and show the power of water". Returning to his body, Aang battles Zuko until Katara freezes Zuko in ice, then leaves to join the battle. Zuko's uncle Iroh and Zhao make their way to a sacred cave where Zhao captures the Moon Spirit. Despite Iroh's pleas, Zhao kills the Moon Spirit to strip all the waterbenders of their abilities. Enraged by Zhao's sacrilege, Iroh reveals his mastery of firebending, frightening Zhao and his entourage out of the sacred cave. Princess Yue gives her life to revive the Moon Spirit. Zhao finds out Zuko survived and they prepare to fight, but Iroh talks Zuko out of it and Zhao is drowned by waterbenders. Recalling his life before being trapped in the ice, Aang enters the Avatar State and raises the ocean into a gigantic wall to drive the Fire Nation back. Zuko's father
Fire Lord Ozai This is a list of significant characters from the Nickelodeon animated television programs ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', its sequel ''The Legend of Korra'', co-created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, and its live-action remakes ...
learns of the defeat and tasks his daughter Princess
Azula Princess Azula () is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'', created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and voiced by Grey DeLisle. In the show, Azula is the crown princes ...
with preventing the Avatar from mastering earth and fire.


Cast


Production


Development

On January 8, 2007, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies announced that they had signed M. Night Shyamalan to write, direct, and produce a trilogy of live-action films based on the
series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...
. The first of these films was to be a faithful adaptation of the main characters' adventures in Book One: Water. According to an interview with the co-creators in '' SFX'' magazine, Shyamalan came across ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' when his daughter wanted to be Katara for
Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
. Intrigued, Shyamalan researched and watched the series with his family. "Watching ''Avatar'' has become a family event in my house... so we are looking forward to how the story develops in season three," said Shyamalan. "Once I saw the amazing world that Mike and Bryan created, I knew it would make a great feature film". He added he was attracted to the spiritual and martial arts influences on the show. ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' co-creators
Michael Dante DiMartino Michael Dante DiMartino (born July 18, 1974) is an American animator, producer, writer, and director. He is best known, together with Bryan Konietzko, as the co-creator of the animated TV series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and ''The Legend of ...
and
Bryan Konietzko Bryan Konietzko is an American animator, writer, producer and musician. He is best known, together with Michael Dante DiMartino, as the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and ''The Legend of ...
voiced their opinion in an interview regarding Shyamalan writing, directing, and producing the film. The two displayed much enthusiasm over Shyamalan's decision for the adaptation, stating that they admire his work and, in turn, he respects their material. In a 2014 interview, Konietzko and DiMartino said that the project was given the go-ahead without their approval, and when they tried to provide input, it all got pushed to the wayside. Konietzko added even further that "A) We didn't want it to be done at all. Before anyone was attached, we didn't want it. And then B) If it was going to be done, we wanted to do it, but they weren't going to let us. C) When they attached Night, we just thought, 'Well, this is what we've been dealt. We'll just offer help when it's asked of us, and if it's not, we'll stay out of the way'. In the beginning, it was more positive and we offered help, but then we had a big falling out". Producer Frank Marshall stated he hoped for the film to achieve a family-friendly rating: "I'm not even sure we want to get in the PG-13 realm." Furthermore, Shyamalan said, "A lot of the inspiration for the direction we took comes from a friend of mine. A Nathan Blackmer helped shape this Idea into the film it became. I took away a little bit of the slapsticky stuff that was there for the little little kids, the fart jokes and things like that...We grounded Katara's brother...and that really did wonderful things for the whole theme of the movie." Brad Grey said that despite the director's career being inconsistent, he "believed in hyamalan'svision and that he could execute it," adding that "It's a bold step because he had to create a potential new franchise." The studio was willing to spend $250 million on a trilogy of films, one for each season. ''The Last Airbenders budget wound up being $150 million, in addition to over $130 million spent on marketing costs, making it Shyamalan's most expensive film. During production, the name ''Avatar'' was removed from the title to avoid confusion with the highly successful 2009 film ''
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
''.


Casting

Shyamalan originally offered the roles of
Aang Avatar Aang ( zh, c=安昂, p=Ān Áng) is the title character and protagonist of Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko), voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang ...
to
Noah Ringer Noah Andrew Ringer (born November 18, 1996)Ringer, Noah"The Last Airbender". Interview by Karen Valby. ''EW.com''. Entertainment Weekly, November 3, 2010. Web. February 1, 2010. is an American actor and martial artist. He starred as Aang in the ...
;
Sokka Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and its sequel series ''The Legend of Korra''. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack De ...
to
Jackson Rathbone Monroe Jackson Rathbone V (born December 14, 1984) is an American actor, singer, and musician best known for his role as Jasper Hale in ''The Twilight Saga'' film series. From 2008 to 2012, he was the vocalist and occasional guitarist, bassist, ...
; Katara to
Nicola Peltz Nicola Anne Peltz Beckham (born January 9, 1995) is an American actress. Primarily known for her roles in dramatic film and television, she has performed in some blockbuster adaptations and has since been nominated for a Young Hollywood Award. Sh ...
; and
Zuko Prince (later Fire Lord) Zuko (), also known as the Blue Spirit, is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''. Created by Eric Coleman and designed by series creators Michael Dante DiMartino ...
to
Jesse McCartney Jesse McCartney (born April 9, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama ''All My Children'' as JR Chandler. He later joined boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a solo mus ...
. In an interview with ''
People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'', Shyamalan claimed that he did not want to make ''The Last Airbender'' without Nicola Peltz, "I said that only once before in my career, and that was when I met Haley in ''
The Sixth Sense ''The Sixth Sense'' is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist whose patient (Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead. Released by ...
'' auditions." In February 2009,
Dev Patel Dev Patel (; born 23 April 1990) is a British actor. His breakthrough came in 2008 with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama ''Slumdog Millionaire'', for which Patel was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leadin ...
replaced
Jesse McCartney Jesse McCartney (born April 9, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama ''All My Children'' as JR Chandler. He later joined boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a solo mus ...
, whose tour dates conflicted with a boot camp scheduled for the cast to train in martial arts. However, McCartney has since claimed that he had been replaced by the producers for political reasons shortly before filming began, and had no say in the matter.
Katharine Houghton Katharine Houghton (born Katharine Houghton Grant; March 10, 1945) is an American actress and playwright. She portrayed Joanna "Joey" Drayton, a white woman who brings home her black fiancé to meet her parents, in the 1967 film ''Guess Who's ...
played "Gran Gran", the grandmother of Katara and Sokka, and
Seychelle Gabriel Seychelle Suzanne Gabriel is an American actress. On television, she portrayed List of Falling Skies characters#Main characters, Lourdes Delgado in ''Falling Skies'' (2011–2014) and voiced Asami Sato in ''The Legend of Korra'' (2012–2014). Sh ...
portrayed Princess Yue, a love interest of Sokka's and princess of the Northern Water Tribe. Isaac Jin Solstein played an earthbending boy. Comedian
Aasif Mandvi Aasif Hakim Mandviwala (born March 5, 1966), known professionally as Aasif Mandvi (, ), is a British-American actor, comedian and author. He was a correspondent on ''The Daily Show'' from 2006 to 2017. Mandvi's other television work includes the ...
was cast as Commander Zhao,
Cliff Curtis Clifford Vivian Devon Curtis (born 27 July 1968) is a New Zealand actor. His film credits include '' Once Were Warriors'' (1994), ''Three Kings'' (1999), ''Training Day'' (2001), '' Whale Rider'' (2002), ''Collateral Damage'' (2002), '' Sunshin ...
as Fire Lord Ozai, and
Keong Sim Keong Sim is an American actor. He portrayed Dr. Sung Park in the TNT (U.S. TV network), TNT medical drama ''Monday Mornings'' and Pastor Wayne in the Netflix series Dead to Me (TV series), ''Dead to Me''. He currently is living in Los Angeles. ...
was cast in the role of an Earthbender. Ringer began practicing
Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...
– the martial art and national sport of
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
– at the age of 10. He began shaving his head during his martial arts training to help cool off, which gave him the nickname "Avatar" due to his resemblance to Aang from the animated series. When he heard about the film adaptation, he made an audition tape with his instructor and sent it to the filmmakers. Having not acted before, Ringer was required to attend acting school a month before filming commenced. Peltz was familiar with the character before submitting for the part of Katara, having been a fan of the animated series. Before ''
Slumdog Millionaire ''Slumdog Millionaire'' is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel '' Q & A'' (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel ...
'' was released, Patel auditioned for the role of Zuko by submitting a tape to the studio. Shyamalan called Patel personally to inform him that he got the part. Training for the film was intense, as he had to learn Wushu and different martial arts. Patel recalls fighting, punching, and throwing, and said the experience was "truly amazing." While he was filming ''Slumdog'' in India, he would finish a take and turn one of the channels over to the animated series. Even though it is based on a cartoon, he wanted to bring as much of himself as possible to the character he was portraying.
Shaun Toub Shaun Toub ( fa, شان توب ; ; born February 15, 1958) is an Iranian-born American actor. He has played the character Yinsen in '' Iron Man'' (2008) and ''Iron Man 3'' (2013); Farhad in ''Crash'' (2004); Rahim Khan in ''The Kite Runner'' (2 ...
, who was cast as
Iroh Uncle Iroh (), also referred to as General Iroh and credited simply as Uncle, is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender''. Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the charact ...
, describes his character in the first film as "loose" and "free". He compares Zuko's "obsession" to his childhood memories and how kids are always looking for their parents' approval, saying that Zuko just wants his father's. "He isn't necessarily bad; he just has a great deal of built up anger and forgets to consider others. I think people will understand that he's not bad, he's just angry and hurting because he really wants his father to love him, but his father is too busy with other things." He says that Patel was able to influence him into appreciating the business of filmmaking more. While comparing the animated series to the film, he says the film is much more serious. He attributed this change to the director trying to relate to every age group, rather than just kids.


Casting controversy

The casting of white actors in the
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
n and
Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
-influenced Avatar universe, as well as the fact that the casting of the heroes and villains seemed to be racially backward from the show, triggered negative reactions from fans marked by accusations of racism, a letter-writing campaign, and various protests. "To take this incredibly loved children's series, and really distort not only the ethnicity of the individual characters but the message of acceptance and cultural diversity that the original series advocated, is a huge blow," said Michael Le of Racebending.com, a fan site calling for a boycott of the film. As a result of the casting, the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans also called for a boycott of the film. "This was a great opportunity to create new Asian-American stars...I'm disappointed," stated Guy Aoki, president of the organization. After a casting call specifically looking for "Caucasians and other ethnicities," Shyamalan explained that "Ultimately, this movie, and then the three movies, will be the most culturally diverse tent-pole movies ever released, period." to reassure critics. Furthermore, Paramount provided a statement about the casting choices, "The movie has 23 credited speaking roles – more than half of which feature Asian and Pan Asian actors of Korean, Japanese and Indian descent. The filmmaker's interpretation reflects the myriad qualities that have made this series a global phenomenon. We believe fans of the original and new audiences alike will respond positively once they see it." Shyamalan commented on the issues regarding fans' perceptions of the casting, "Anime is based on ambiguous facial features. It's meant to be interpretive. It's meant to be inclusive of all races, and you can see yourself in all these characters...This is a multicultural movie and I'm going to make it even more multicultural in my approach to its casting. There's African-Americans in the movie...so it's a source of pride for me. The irony that rotesterswould label this with anything but the greatest pride, that the movie poster has Noah and Dev on it and my name on it. I don't know what else to do." Rathbone also dismissed the complaints saying, "I think it's one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan. It's one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit." The controversy was poorly received by critics as well. Film critic
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
was one of the critical voices against the casting. When asked about casting a white cast to portray the characters, he said, "The original series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' was highly regarded and popular for three seasons on Nickelodeon. Its fans take it for granted that its heroes are Asian. Why would Paramount and Shyamalan go out of their way to offend these fans? There are many young Asian actors capable of playing the parts." In July 2013, series co-creator Bryan Konietzko responded to an online comment about skin color in ''
The Legend of Korra ''The Legend of Korra'' (abbreviated as TLOK), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Korra'' or simply ''Korra'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko for Nickelode ...
''. Konietzko wrote that his work on the two series "speaks for itself which obviously does not include the gross misinterpretations and misrepresentations of our work in hyamalan'swork."


Filming

Pre-production began in late 2008, while
filming Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of Film, motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (o ...
began on 13 March 2009 in
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
. After two weeks, the cast and crew moved to
Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...
, where production designers and special effects crews worked for several weeks, preparing the local site for the film. A production team scouting the area found the
Pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
on Mount Penn, which served as an ancient temple in the film. Reading mayor Tom McMahon explained that crews made road improvements and buried electrical lines surrounding the structure. Filming also took place in Ontelaunee Township and at the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower in Pennsylvania after the production crew finished at the Pagoda. Some scenes were also shot in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
after the Berks Economic Development company showed the production "a number of buildings, but couldn't come up with enough to meet their requirements" because "they needed buildings to shoot all the interiors, and were looking for a group of buildings with high ceilings and specific column spacing". The production offices were leased from Temple University Health System at its corporate offices located at 2450 West Hunting Park Avenue. Rehearsals also took place at this location. Filming took place inside the abandoned Budd Company complex across the street, which was fitted out as a studio including temporary air conditioning piped into the set. Filming ended on 26 September 2009.


Visual effects

Pablo Helman Pablo Helman (born July 5, 1959) is an Argentine visual effects supervisor. He was nominated for three Academy Awards for his work on the films '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' (2002), ''War of the Worlds'' (2005) and ''The Ir ...
, who previously worked on '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'', was the visual effects supervisor for the
Industrial Light and Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...
team on the film. He worked with Shyamalan, reviewing each scene and talking about the visual effects needed to tell the story, and ultimately worked with about 300 people to reflect the director's vision, who he said
storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...
ed it. Industrial Light and Magic were tasked with visualizing the elemental tribes of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire; most importantly creating the "bending" styles of these elements. Additionally, they were required to animate creatures and enhance stunt work with digital doubles. "The work was challenging," shares Helman. "We had to figure out what "bending" is for fire, water, air and earth." The project was started without the desired technology needed to create the effects. Rather than software, computer graphic cards were the basis for "bending" the elements, allowing previews to be viewed more swiftly. This resulted in Shyamalan having to direct more than sixty takes before the effect was finished and lined up with his visions. Due to reality-based expectations, fire and water were the hardest elements to effectively bend, and because of particle work which was unable to be rendered in hardware, earth bending also was difficult to create. With water, the variety in different scales required Helman and his team to create different techniques. The concept for air was derived from the animation of the television series. To create the air bending effect, visual effects art director Christian Alzman and digital matte department supervisor Barry Williams explained that seeing dust and snow particles, rather than seeing the air itself, helped shape the real-world effect of bending the element. Before the bending effects could be applied, though, the actor's movements had to be matched; Shyamalan, therefore, wanted each character's bending styles to be unique to fit with their unique personalities. The challenge for fire did not come with making it look realistic, but rather making the fire behave in an unrealistic way that would be believable to the audience. The film that inspired ''The Last Airbender''s fire style was the sixth ''Harry Potter'' film, which was re-engineered to reflect two-dimensional simulations. Helman's team referenced images of flames being pushed through the air by giant fans for certain shots needed throughout the film. The team also considered using a meshed image of real and digital fire, but in the end, went with the richer, deeper texture of computer-generated flame. The film also used
matte paintings Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image (e.g. actors on a set) with a background image (e.g. a scenic ...
, which had to be in 3D because the visual style included long-duration shots in which the camera always moved. The climax, which was enacted on a set, had to be merged with stills of the Greenland landscapes, as well as the low-angle lighting that was captured on location there. The camera was animated to get angles needed for different shots in the film by importing these stills into the computer. Multiple cameras were utilized to achieve the different wire-work and animation that was used to create the creatures and many fight scenes within the film. In creating these creatures, the team looked at various real-world creatures to influence the look of the lemur
Momo Momo may refer to: Geography * Momo (department), a division of Northwest Province in Cameroon * Momo, Gabon, a town in the Woleu-Ntem province of Gabon * Momo, Piedmont, a town in the province of Novara, in northern Italy * Joffrey Tower, in ...
's wings. In order for them to be believable, they looked for examples of the same size and weight as the animated character and then produced hybrids from different animals to make each species distinct. This was done by observing actual animals to get a take on how they would act. Shyamalan's take on the personality of each creature also influenced the creation stage of the creatures. For example, Momo has flying mechanics based on a giant
fruit bat Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera (bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genera ''Acerodon'' and ''Pteropus''—flying foxes. They are the only member of the sup ...
. Other elements, such as texturing, hair or scale simulation, and light and shadow complementary to the live action, were added to make the final animation appear as real as possible during the later stages of character development.
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
made an announcement in late April 2010, revealing that ''The Last Airbender'' would be released in 3D. This decision came after an increasing number of films being made or converted to 3D, such as ''
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
'', ''
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' and '' Clash of the Titans'', made a decent profit at the
box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicke ...
. Although Helman stated that Shyamalan's way of shooting without fast edits and the film's visuals could lend itself to the 3D conversion well,
James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...
voiced his disapproval on any film being converted using this process, saying, "You can slap a 3-D label on it and call it 3-D, but there's no possible way that it can be done up to a standard that anybody would consider high enough." Despite this, Shyamalan opted to work with Stereo D LLC, the company who worked on James Cameron's own ''Avatar''. The conversion process for the film cost between $5 million and $10 million, adding to the reported $100 million that already went into the film.


Music

In December 2008,
James Newton Howard James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...
was announced as the composer for ''
The Last Airbender ''The Last Airbender'' is a 2010 American action-adventure fantasy film written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, produced by Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Based on the first season of the Nickelodeo ...
''. The film marks the seventh collaboration between Howard and M. Night Shyamalan, with the latest being the 2008 film '' The Happening''. On May 13, 2009, producer Frank Marshall announced that Howard was recording music for the teaser trailer that was later released that summer; it was later confirmed by Marshall that all of the film's trailers featured original music by Howard himself. The soundtrack, released by Lakeshore Records on June 29, 2010, required Howard to hire a 119-member ensemble. Running at about 66 minutes, it contains eleven tracks ranging from three to seven minutes, and one track, "Airbender Suite", that is nearly eleven minutes long. Reviews for the score were overwhelmingly positive.


Marketing


Promotion

The
teaser trailer A teaser (or more specifically teaser trailer) is a mini- trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release move or television show advertisement. Short in length, te ...
for the film was attached to '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'', released in theaters on June 24, 2009. The teaser trailer was also shown exclusively on the June 22, 2009 episode of ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...
''. The trailer shows Aang airbending in a temple which is being attacked by a multitude of Fire Nation ships. Three additional trailers were released leading up to the film's release. The first TV spot aired during
Super Bowl XLIV Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champions New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...
on February 7, 2010. It showed parts of the film that were not shown in the teaser trailer and had no
diagetic Diegesis (; from the Greek from , "to narrate") is a style of fiction storytelling that presents an interior view of a world in which: # Details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narr ...
dialogue, but merely
narration Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to storytelling, convey a narrative, story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deli ...
. On February 10, the theatrical trailer was released online. On February 9, 2010, Nickelodeon Consumer Products also debuted the upcoming line of toys based on ''The Last Airbender''. It includes various 3-inch action figures, as well as larger, action-enabled figures, costumes, and other props. Among the toys featured in the line were figures based on Aang, Prince Zuko, Sokka, Katara, and a fully ride-able Appa the Sky Bison. "We worked very closely with M. Night, the rest of the Paramount team and our in-house design team, along with our partner Spin-Master, to come up with the right assortment, the right size for these action figures and make sure we had representation of all the nations within the 'Airbender' series," said Nickelodeon's Lourdes Arocho. ''The Last Airbender'' action figures released in three "waves"; with wave one beginning on June 1, wave two near the film's July release date, and wave three near the 2010 holiday season.
THQ Studio Australia THQ Studio Australia was one of the subsidiaries of electronic game publisher THQ. Based in Brisbane, Australia, the studio have developed titles for the Sixth generation of video game consoles, Sixth and Seventh generation of video game console ...
also developed a video game based on the film, which was released on June 29, 2010, for the
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
and the
Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
.


Graphic novels

Two original black-and-white
graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
s, entitled '' The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story'' and ''The Last Airbender'', drawn in the
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
style, were written by
Dave Roman Dave Roman (born May 26, 1977) is an American writer and artist of webcomics and comics. Career Roman attended the School of Visual Arts in New York. He started working in comics as an intern at DC Comics, then got a full-time job at Nickelodeon M ...
and Alison Wilgus. "''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' has shown incredible crossover appeal with manga fans. The release of ''The Last Airbender'' movie and original tie-in manga gives us the chance to share completely new stories with Avatar fans looking for more about Aang, Zuko, and their favorite characters." Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of
Del Rey Manga Del Rey Manga was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. History Del Rey Manga was formed as part of a cross-publishing rela ...
said in a statement. The second manga was released on June 22, 2010. The plot, like the film, is a condensed version of the first season of the series. The prequel, ''Zuko's Story'', is co-written by Alison Wilgus and Dave Roman and illustrated by
Nina Matsumoto Nina Matsumoto (born 18 November 1984) is a Japanese-Canadian cartoonist, also known as "space coyote", and most known for creating the comic book series ''Yōkaiden'' for Del Rey Manga. She created the webcomic ''Saturnalia'', and has worked as ...
and was released on May 18, 2010. The synopsis for the graphic novel was released in early 2010, "When Prince Zuko dared to question authority, his father, Fire Lord Ozai, banished him from the Fire Nation. Horribly scarred and stripped of everything he held dear, Zuko has wandered the earth for almost three years in search of his only chance at redemption: the Avatar, a mystical being who once kept the four nations in balance. Everyone he encounters believes that this is an impossible task, as the Avatar disappeared a century ago. But Zuko stubbornly continues the search. He must regain his honor, so his quest is all he has left." Roman and Wilgus, who developed comics based on the series for
Nick Magazine ''Nickelodeon Magazine'' is a defunct American children's magazine inspired by the children's television network Nickelodeon. Its first incarnation appeared in 1990 and was distributed at participating Pizza Hut restaurants; the version of the ma ...
, consulted series creators Mike Dante DiMartino and
Bryan Konietzko Bryan Konietzko is an American animator, writer, producer and musician. He is best known, together with Michael Dante DiMartino, as the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'' and ''The Legend of ...
, and the head writer for the show
Aaron Ehasz Aaron Gabriel Ehasz (born June 16, 1973) is an American screenwriter and television producer. His body of work primarily consists of animated series, including as head writer and co-executive producer of ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', although h ...
while they were developing ''Zuko's Story''. The four wanted to try a comic that would fit into with the continuity of the show. The prequel, though mostly associated with the film, was meant to be a prequel to the series. Roman explained, "In a lot of ways, it's like an expanded origin. With the film and the series, there are differences and there are places where they split off, but the setup for both is exactly the same – so when you're introduced to the characters, that's the part where they're completely identical." The prequel allowed the expansions of different details told in the series; for example, an episode called "The Blue Spirit" in the series was seen in the film. However, since explaining everything that happened in that episode was hard to translate onto film, the prequel allowed for them to "delve" into that specific story. What more, when asked about whether he answered some questions that were left open at the end of the series, Roman stated that, while he had a strong relationship with the show's creators and got their blessing for his project, it wasn't his plot to address.


Release

To avoid confusion with James Cameron's ''
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
'', the title was changed from ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' to simply ''The Last Airbender''. The film premiered in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on June 30, 2010, and opened the following day in 3,169 theaters, against '' The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'' which also stars Jackson Rathbone.


Home media

''The Last Airbender'' was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
on November 16, 2010. At the same time, a Blu-ray 3D version was also made available exclusively at
Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...
locations. ''The Last Airbender'' was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 25, 2017. The film has earned $48.7 million from DVD/Blu-ray sales, with 1.6 million DVDs and 300,000 Blu-ray discs sold as of December 2010.


Reception


Box office

''The Last Airbender'' had grossed $131,772,187 in the United States, and $187,941,694 in other countries, making for a total of $319,713,881 worldwide. On its opening day in the United States, ''The Last Airbender'' made $16,614,112, ranking fifth overall for Thursday openings, and placed second behind ''The Twilight Saga: Eclipse''. For its opening three-day, Fourth of July weekend, ''The Last Airbender'' accumulated a total of $40,325,019. The following Monday, it grossed $11,479,213. 54% of its total gross was from 3D presentations at 1,606 screens. On Thursday, July 1, 2010, its opening day, it debuted at #2 behind ''The Twilight Saga: Eclipse''. Opening internationally in 923 sites, the film grossed an estimated $9 million, $8 million of which was from 870 sites in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, making it the number one film there. The film grossed $9.4 million from its second weekend in international markets. The film was the twentieth highest-grossing film of 2010, and is the fourth-highest-grossing film produced by Nickelodeon Movies, behind '' The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water'' (2015), ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Miche ...
'' (2014), and ''
The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...
'' (2011).


Critical response

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''The Last Airbender'' holds an approval rating of 5%, based on 193 reviews with an average rating of 3/10, making it the lowest-rated film produced by
Nickelodeon Movies Nickelodeon Movies is the film production arm of American children's network Nickelodeon and the family film distribution label of Paramount Pictures launched on February 25, 1995 and based in Los Angeles, California. The division has earned n ...
, as well as Shyamalan's worst-reviewed film to date. The site's critical consensus reads, "''The Last Airbender'' squanders its popular source material with incomprehensible plotting, horrible acting, and detached joyless direction." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, it has a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 20 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average rating of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Liam Lacey of ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' stated the film had little chance to develop its characters and therefore suffered, with the overall storyline of the film becoming a run-on narrative. According to
Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
from ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'', who gave the film a C, "''The Last Airbender'' keeps throwing things at you, but its final effect is, in every way, flat."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film half a star in his review, stating that it "bores and alienates its audiences," and notes the poor use of 3D among the film's faults. Keith Phipps of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' gave the film an F, criticizing the performances of the child actors, overuse of exposition, and shoehorned 3D special effects, calling it the worst summer blockbuster of 2010. Kirk Honeycutt of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' said that the lack of correct casting caused the film to lose substantial credibility in regard to its source material, but did praise the casting and acting of Ringer as Aang. Peter Debruge of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' criticized the casting and the score, saying that the overall effect of each play into making the film a bore.
Rifftrax RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...
put the film at number 5 of The Top 10 Worst Movies of All Time, saying "We CAN state for the record that it is quite easy to detest this movie even if you've never seen a frame of the TV show." Charlie Jane Anders in the review by
io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...
criticized "the personality-free hero, the nonsensical plot twists, the CG clutter, the bland romance, the new-age pablum...", concluding that "Shyamalan's true achievement in this film is that he takes a thrilling cult TV series, ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', and he systematically leeches all the personality and soul out of it – in order to create something generic enough to serve as a universal spoof of every epic, ever." Anders summarized the experience of watching the film by stating that, "Actually, my exact words when I walked out of this film were, 'Wow, this makes ''
Dragonball Evolution ''Dragonball Evolution'' is a 2009 American science fantasy superhero-martial arts film directed by James Wong, produced by Stephen Chow, and written by Ben Ramsey. It is based on the Japanese ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyam ...
'' look like a masterpiece.'" ''
Ain't It Cool News Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book proje ...
review questioned why Shyamalan was allowed to write the script, as well as why he was even chosen to direct such a high-profile film after a string of previous flops: "Burdened by never-ending onslaught of expository dialogue awkwardly delivered by actors giving career-worst performances across the board, ''The Last Airbender'' is so outrageously bad it's a wonder it ever got before cameras." Scott Bowles of ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' gave a generally favorable review, claiming that Shyamalan delivered on fight scenes and the film worked as a kid's film, although he also added that poor scriptwriting made some of the performances sound wooden. Another favorable review came from Stephanie Zacharek of MovieLine, who praised the way Shyamalan captures the art of action and human motion. David Roark of ''
Relevant Magazine ''Relevant'' (often styled as ''RELEVANT'') is a bi-monthly Christian lifestyle magazine. The magazine is published by Relevant Media Group with an average distributed circulation of 70,000 copies. According to a demographic study in 2012, 86% of ...
'' accused other critics of having a bias against Shyamalan and gave the film a positive review, stating that its visuals and heart far outweighed the clunky plotting and "awful" dialogue.
Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...
of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' noted an unfortunate linguistic problem that reduced British viewers to "a state of nervous collapse" due to laughter. In
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
, 'bent' is a slang term for gay, with 'bender' meaning a gay man, giving an entirely different meaning to lines such as, "I could tell at once that you were a bender." Bradshaw commented that the response from the audience to such lines was "deafeningly immature" and would "inevitably be repeated in every cinema in the land showing ''The Last Airbender''." Bradshaw expressed his amazement that Shyamalan has managed to make a film worse than ''
Lady in the Water ''Lady in the Water'' is a 2006 American fantasy psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who produced with Sam Mercer. The film features the starring cast of Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard with Bob Balaban, ...
'' or '' The Happening''. Kirk Honneycut of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' wrote, "Shyamalan, who never has mounted an epic film before, gets only passing grades. Huge sets and unit work from Greenland to New Zealand all look strangely underlit. One wonders whether the projector blew a light bulb. The movie was foolishly converted to 3D after principal photography, but if anything, this conversion is worse than ''Clash of the Titans''." A ''
Collider.com ''Collider'' is an entertainment website and digital video production company, with a focus on the film industry, television series, and video games. ''Collider'' focuses on entertainment news, analysis, and commentary, along with original fea ...
'' review says: "I'm calling it: ''The Last Airbender'' is the worst movie of 2010. It's too disturbing to consider that there could be something even more hideous out there."


Crew responses

Shyamalan argued that his style and art-form of storytelling resulted in the negative reviews of the film and compared it to asking a painter to change to a different style: "I bring as much integrity to the table as humanly possible. It must be a language thing, in terms of a particular accent, a storytelling accent. I can only see it this certain way and I don't know how to think in another language. I think these are exactly the visions that are in my head, so I don't know how to adjust it without being me." Shyamalan also addressed criticisms about the barely 90-minute runtime of the film, which was considered bizarre given that it had to condense a 20-episode TV season into one film, and is a far shorter runtime than is typical for summer blockbusters. Shyamalan's response was that all of his previous films were 90 minutes because they were small-scale supernatural thrillers, and as a result, his instinct for the pacing of the film was to edit it down to 90 minutes. This short runtime indirectly led to several other problems which multiple critics objected to: characters frequently resort to giving long speeches of exposition to summarize entire scenes that were cut for time, and a running voiceover commentary by Katara was added in which she summarizes entire subplots (e.g. Sokka's relationship with Yue) that barely appear on-screen. When Shyamalan gave the Ashok C. Sani Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence lecture at NYU's Stern School of Business on April 16, 2019, he revealed that he regretted accepting the directing position on the film, stating "There has always been this inexorable pull to join the group, a constant seduction in the form of whatever you want to tally, in the form of money, or safety, ease, not getting criticized. I did these movies, and I rightfully got crushed, because they rightfully said, 'You don't believe in yourself, you don't believe in your own voice, and you don't believe in your values." Shyamalan would go on to begin financing his own projects as a result.
Dev Patel Dev Patel (; born 23 April 1990) is a British actor. His breakthrough came in 2008 with the leading role of Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's drama ''Slumdog Millionaire'', for which Patel was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leadin ...
expressed regret and dislike for his role and his experience with the film. At a 2016 actor's roundtable with ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' while promoting his film ''
Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
'' during Oscar contender season, Patel said, "I don't know what I would like to play, but I know what I'm afraid of playing: those big studio movies. After '' Slumdog'', I did a film that was not well received at all. The budget of ''Slumdog'' was like the budget of the craft services of this movie." He added, “I completely felt overwhelmed by the experience. I felt like I wasn't being heard. That was really scary for me, and that's really when I learned the power of no, the idea of saying no. Listen to that instinct you get when you read those words for the first time." He described his performance as Prince Zuko as being as though he "saw a stranger on the screen that I couldn't relate to." In a question-and-answer session on Reddit with
Dante Basco Dante R. Basco (born August 29, 1975) is an American film, television and voice actor. He is best known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's ''Hook'', and Julian Lee in '' Fakin' da Funk'', and for his many vo ...
, the original voice of Prince Zuko, when he was asked what he thought of the ''Last Airbender'' film, he responded by saying that the show's creators, Konietzko and DiMartino, told him not to see it.


Accolades

''The Last Airbender'' received nine nominations at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture. The film went on to sweep the
Razzies The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
with five awards: Worst Picture, Worst Director (Shyamalan), Worst Screenplay (Shyamalan), Worst Supporting Actor (
Jackson Rathbone Monroe Jackson Rathbone V (born December 14, 1984) is an American actor, singer, and musician best known for his role as Jasper Hale in ''The Twilight Saga'' film series. From 2008 to 2012, he was the vocalist and occasional guitarist, bassist, ...
), and a special award, "Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3D."


Canceled sequels

Shyamalan or Paramount/Nickelodeon did not immediately confirm the "go-ahead" or whether the plug would be pulled on the trilogy. While filming ''The Last Airbender'', Shyamalan mapped out a
rough draft In the context of written composition, "drafting" refers to any process of generating preliminary versions of a written work. Drafting happens at any stage of the writing process as writers generate trial versions of the text they're developing. ...
for a second film that was "darker" and includes
Azula Princess Azula () is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series '' Avatar: The Last Airbender'', created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and voiced by Grey DeLisle. In the show, Azula is the crown princes ...
, portrayed by Summer Bishil, as the main antagonist. In a July 2010 interview with ''
New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...
'', Shyamalan commented "In the next few months we'll be able to know whether we have that opportunity or not" when asked about the sequel. No such announcement was made, and in a September 2010 interview when asked if he knew when the sequel will be made, he replied, "I don't, because there are so many factors they take into account", adding, "I guess it will get into an area where it becomes a discussion – like pros and cons." In September 2015, Shyamalan told Metro UK that he may work on the sequel after completing his next thriller, which was supposed to start shooting in November 2015. In October 2018, an unrelated live-action
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...
of the original ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' for
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
was announced, ending any lingering speculation of a potential sequel to ''The Last Airbender''.


See also

* List of ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' characters *
List of films considered the worst The films listed below have been cited by a variety of notable critics in varying media sources as being among the worst films ever made. Examples of such sources include Metacritic, Roger Ebert's list of most-hated films, ''The Golden Turkey ...


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Last Airbender, The 2010 films 2010 3D films 2010s fantasy adventure films American 3D films American children's adventure films American fantasy adventure films Avatar: The Last Airbender Films about reincarnation Films shot in Greenland Films shot in Pennsylvania Films shot in Vietnam Live-action films based on animated series Blinding Edge Pictures films The Kennedy/Marshall Company films Paramount Pictures films Race-related controversies in film Casting controversies in film Film controversies Nickelodeon Movies films Films scored by James Newton Howard Films directed by M. Night Shyamalan Films produced by Frank Marshall Films produced by M. Night Shyamalan Films with screenplays by M. Night Shyamalan Golden Raspberry Award winning films 2010 martial arts films American martial arts films Films set in Antarctica 2010s English-language films 2010s American films