"The Last Airbender" Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Spencer Morton

Talk about a change of direction. M. Night Shyamalan, hoping to turn his career around, is taking a crack at a new genre. Renowned for his skills in intensity-building and twist endings, Shyamalan’s last few films have been critically panned  He’s decided to make a film adaptation of the first season of popular Nickelodeon children’s show, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

The trailer for “The Last Airbender” was released last week, and it leaves a lot to be desired. The film takes place in a world where the elements--Air, Earth, Fire, and Water--can be controlled by people known as ‘benders.’ There is a brutal war between the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Water Tribes. Aang is a 12-year-old boy and the sole survivor of the Air Nomads. He also is the Avatar.

The Avatar can control all four elements and is destined to maintain peace and harmony on Earth. In “The Last Airbender,” Aang must fight off the villainous Fire Admiral, Zhao, and instill serenity on earth.

Though the basic plot (a child is the world’s last hope, but there are evil forces trying to thwart him) is familiar, this story has potential. The whole ‘bender’ idea is clever and could give way to a measure of originality. Unfortunately, the trailer makes the movie seem keen on settling for overused visuals and cliché storytelling.

There are a lot of visually impressive moments in the trailer for “The Last Airbender,” but nothing that hasn’t been done before. The slow motion dodge effects used in the trailer’s fight scenes, a la “The Matrix,” are tiresome. Much of the dialogue is also old and not intriguing.

Watch to see if this develops into something a little more appealing as more trailers are released. “The Last Airbender” hits theaters on July 2, 2010.

View the trailer for "The Last Airbender" below. What are your thoughts?