The Last Airbender
Encyclopedia
The Last Airbender is a 2010 American fantasy
adventure film
written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
. It is a live-action
film adaptation
of the first season
to the Nickelodeon
animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender
.
The film stars Noah Ringer
as Aang
, with Nicola Peltz
as Katara
, Jackson Rathbone
as Sokka
, and Dev Patel
as Prince Zuko. It was produced by Paramount Pictures
and Nickelodeon Movies
. Development for a film began in 2007; it was adapted by Shyamalan, who also served as screenwriter and producer. Other producers include Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Sam Mercer
and Scott Aversano
. The series from which it was adapted was influenced by Asian art, mythology and various martial arts
fighting styles and was created by Michael Dante DiMartino
and Bryan Konietzko
. Filming began in mid-March 2009, with locations in Greenland
and Pennsylvania
.
The Last Airbender was made for $150 million and marketed with a budget of $130 million, making total costs at least $280 million. Premiering in New York City
on June 30, 2010, it opened in the United States the following day, grossing an estimated $16 million. The Last Airbender opened in second place at the box office behind The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and eventually grossed $131 million domestically and $319 million worldwide.
This was Nickelodeon Movies' first live-action film to be based on a Nicktoon
, since The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
was based on the animated sitcom, SpongeBob SquarePants
in 2004.
The film and 3D
conversion was largely panned by critics and fans alike, and won five Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture in 2011.
) and her fifteen-year-old brother, Sokka
(Jackson Rathbone
), are near a river at the South Pole
. While hunting, they discover an iceberg that shoots a beam of light into the sky. Inside of the iceberg is a boy named Aang
(Noah Ringer
) and a giant flying bison named Appa
. Unknown to them, Aang is the long lost Avatar — the only person on the planet able to "bend" all four elements. One hundred years have passed since the Fire Nation has declared war on the other three nations of Air, Water and Earth in their attempt to conquer the world.
Zuko (Dev Patel
), an exiled prince of the Fire Nation, is on a quest to find the Avatar and bring him as prisoner to his father, Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis
). Seeing the light that appeared from Aang's release, Zuko and some Fire Nation soldiers arrive at the Southern Water Tribe to demand the villagers hand over the Avatar. Aang reveals himself as he surrenders himself to Zuko on the condition that he agrees to leave the village alone. On the ship, Aang is tested by Zuko's Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub
) to confirm him to be the Avatar. After being informed that he is to be their prisoner for passing the test, Aang escapes using his glider and flies to his flying bison brought by Katara and Sokka. Aang and his new friends visit the Southern Air Temple and he learns that he was in the ice for a whole century and that the Fire Nation wiped out all Air Nomads, including his guardian, Monk Gyatso. In despair, he enters the Avatar state and finds himself in the spirit world where he encounters a dragon spirit that tells him to make his way to the Northern Water Tribe to master Water Bending.
While at a small Earth Kingdom town controlled by the Fire Nation, Aang's group is arrested because Katara tries to help a young boy from a patrol. They incite a rebellion by reminding the disgruntled Earthbenders that earth was given to them. Katara is given a Waterbending scroll that she uses to perfect her Waterbending and help Aang learn as they make their way to the Northern Water Tribe and liberate more Earth Kingdom villages in the process.
During a side track to the Northern Air Temple on his own, Aang is betrayed by a peasant and captured by a group of Fire Nation archers, led by Admiral Zhao (Aasif Mandvi
), a Fire Nation Admiral appointed by the Fire Lord. However, a masked marauder, the "Blue Spirit", helps Aang escape from his imprisonment. Zuko is the masked vigilante, and Zhao realizes this. He arranges to kill the prince. Zuko survives the attempt on his life with Iroh's help. He sneaks aboard Zhao's lead ship as his fleet departs for the Northern Water Tribe to capture the Avatar. Upon arriving, Aang's group is welcomed warmly by the citizens of the Northern Water Tribe. Immediately, Sokka befriends the Northern Water Tribe princess, Yue (Seychelle Gabriel
). After a few agreements, a waterbending master, Pakku (Francis Guinan
), teaches Aang waterbending.
Soon, the Fire Nation arrives and Zhao begins his attack while Zuko begins his search for the Avatar on his own, capturing Aang as he enters the spirit world to find the dragon spirit to give him the wisdom to defeat the Fire Nation. Returning to his body, Aang battles Zuko before Katara freezes him. As the battle escalates, Iroh watches Zhao capture the moon spirit Tui, with which its water spirit counterpart had assumed the form of a fish. Despite Iroh's pleas, Zhao kills Tui to strip the Waterbenders of their powers and abilities to Waterbend. Yue explains to everyone that the moon spirit gave her life, willing to give it back as she dies in the process. With the tables turned, Zhao is drowned by Waterbenders after Zuko and Iroh leave him to his fate. Aang uses the ocean to drive the armada back. Aang now fully embraces his destiny as the Avatar as he, Katara and Sokka prepare to continue their journey to the Earth Kingdom to find an earthbending teacher for Aang. The Fire Lord learns of the defeat, and he appoints his daughter Azula (Summer Bishil
) to capture the Avatar.
' MTV Films
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 Avatar: The Last Airbender
series, the first of which would encompass the main characters' adventures in Book One. An announcement revealing the July 2, 2010 release date was made on April 15, 2008. The film was also renamed simply The Last Airbender to avoid confusion with James Cameron
's Avatar.
According to an interview with the co-creators in SFX magazine, Shyamalan came across Avatar when his daughter wanted to be Katara for Halloween
. 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 Mike DiMartino
and Bryan Konietzko
voiced their opinion within an interview regarding M. Night 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. Producer Frank Marshall explained that they have high hopes to stick to a PG rating. "I'm not even sure we want to get in the PG-13 realm. Furthermore, Shyamalan said, "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." Paramount's president Brad Grey
said that despite the director's career being inconsistent, he "believed in [Shyamalan's] vision and that he could execute it," adding that "It's a bold step because he had to create a potential new family franchise." The studio was willing to spend $250 million in a trilogy of films, one for each season. The Last Airbenders budget wound up being $150 million, with later over $130 million being spent on marketing costs, making it Shyamalan's most expensive film.
originally offered the roles of Aang
to Noah Ringer
; Sokka
to Jackson Rathbone
; Katara to Nicola Peltz
; and Zuko to Jesse McCartney
. In an interview with People, 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 auditions." In February 2009, Dev Patel
replaced Jesse McCartney
, whose tour dates conflicted with a boot camp scheduled for the cast to train in martial arts. Katharine Houghton
played "Gran Gran", the grandmother of Katara and Sokka, and Seychelle Gabriel
portrayed Princess Yue, another of Sokka's love interests and princess of the Northern Water Tribe, respectively. Isaac Jin Solstein played an earthbending boy. Aasif Mandvi
played Commander Zhao, Cliff Curtis
played Fire Lord Ozai, and Keong Sim
was cast in the role of an Earthbender.
Ringer began practicing Taekwondo
- the martial art and national sport of South Korea
- at the age of 10. His skills later garnered accolades, including the title of American Taekwondo Association
Texas State Champion. 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. He hadn't worked on a film before, but his resemblance to Aang—enhanced by painted a blue arrow on his already shaved head, swung him the role. Having not acted before, Ringer was required to attend acting school a month before filming commenced, calling the film a great experience. Peltz was familiar with the Waterbending character before submitting for the part of Katara, having faithfully watched Avatar: The Last Airbender
, the animated series on which the film is based, with her younger twin brothers. She describes her character as being a big role model with young girls and women, "She's really mentally and physically strong, strong-willed and -minded, but she's also caring and compassionate... The movie has a lot of values, but it's also fun. It's fantasy, but it's also a really cool battle between good and evil." She explained that she initially didn't know about Rathbone starring in the Twilight films
until after she met him and said that working with Shyamalan was an amazing experience. Rathbone, who originally auditioned for the role of Zuko, was approached by Shyamalan to audition for the film. After waiting for six months, he received a call informing him that he was cast as Sokka. Rathbone stated that his favorite scenes were the fight sequences, which he prepared for by stickfighting.
Before Slumdog Millionaire
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's first fight scene filmed called for him to be in a tub of water on a ship; he was to look at a picture of his family, which would give him the urge to fight. Patel recalls fighting, punching, and throwing and said it 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
, who was cast as Uncle Iroh
, 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 is an "18 year old with all this energy," and that Patel was able to influence him into appreciating the business of film making 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.
The casting of White actors in the Asian-influenced and Native American-influenced Avatar universe triggered negative reactions from some 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," Michael Le of Racebending.com, a fan site calling for a boycott of the martial-arts fantasy, said. As a result of the casting, the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans urged a film boycott for the first time in the organization's 18-year history. "This was a great opportunity to create new Asian-American stars...[nonetheless,] 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." 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." The studio also took the initiative to screen the film to boycotters at Racebending.com after the 3D conversion was complete.
M. Night Shyamalan commented on the issues regarding fans' perceptive of the casting in an interview with Washington Post columnist Jen Chaney, saying, "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 [protesters] would 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 was also one to dismiss the complaints in an interview with MTV
, 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 wasn't well received by critics either. Film critic Roger Ebert
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." Jevon Phillips of the Los Angeles Times
noted that despite Shyamalan's attempts to defuse the situation, the issue will "not fade away or be overlooked", and that this film exemplifies the need for a debate within Hollywood about racial diversity in its films.
. After two weeks, the cast and crew moved to Reading, Pennsylvania
, 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
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. When asked about shooting the film in Reading, Pamela Shupp, vice president of Berks Economic Development said, "They needed buildings to shoot all the interiors, and were looking for a group of buildings with high ceilings and specific column spacing. We showed them a number of buildings, but we couldn't come up with enough to meet their requirements. So the interiors will be shot in Philadelphia."
, was the visual effects supervisor for the Industrial Light and Magic
team on the film. He worked closely 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 planned it all in a story-board book.
Industrial Light and Magic was posed 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 inanimate 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. In order 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 in order to fit with their unique personalities.
The challenge for fire didn't 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 Airbenders fire style was the sixth Harry Potter
film, which was re-engineered in order 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.
In terms of matte paintings
, this was the biggest show that Helman had ever done. The paintings 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 200 by 200 ft (61 by 61 m) set, had to be incorporated with still of the landscapes shot in Greenland, 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 used to capture 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 referenced nature. In order for them to be believable, they looked for examples of the same size and weight as the animated character and then developed hybrids from different animals to make each species unique. 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, the lemur Momo has flying mechanics based on a giant fruit bat. Other elements, such as texturing, hair or scale simulation, and light and shadow complimentary 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
made an announcement in late April 2010, revealing that The Last Airbender would be released in 3D
. This decision came after an increased amount of films being made or converted to 3D, such as Avatar, Alice in Wonderland
and Clash of the Titans
, made a decent profit at the box office
. 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
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.
was announced as the composer for The Last Airbender
. The film would mark the seventh collaboration between Howard and M. Night Shyamalan
, after the 2008 film The Happening
. Most recently, Howard received acclaim for his work with Hans Zimmer
on The Dark Knight
. 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 Frank 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 approximately 66 minutes, it contains eleven tracks ranging from three to seven minutes, with a twelfth track, called "Airbender Suite" running at nearly eleven minutes. Reviews for the score were overwhelmingly positive.
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
. The trailer shows Aang airbending in a temple which is being attacked by a multitude of Fire Nation ships. A theatrical trailer was to be released around Christmas
2009, but it was pushed back until February 2010 because not enough visual effects shots were completed. This trailer was attached to the Percy Jackson
film released on February 12, 2010. A theatrical trailer was later released on March 25, 2010. It was then attached with How to Train Your Dragon
. The last theatrical trailer is attached to Iron Man 2
which was released May 7, 2010.
The first TV spot for the film aired during Super Bowl XLIV
on February 7, 2010. It showed parts of the film that were not shown in the teaser trailer and had no diagetic
dialogue, but merely narration. On February 10, the theatrical trailer was released online. It shows multiple scenes from the film and is an expanded version of the first TV spot. McDonald's
sold Happy Meals to promote the film.
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 are expected to be released in three "waves"; wave one on June 1, wave two near the film's July release date, and wave three near the 2010 holiday season. THQ Studio Australia
also developed a video game based on the film. Titled The Last Airbender
, it was released on June 29, 2010 for the Wii
and the Nintendo DS
.
s, entitled The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story and The Last Airbender, drawn in the manga
style, were written by Dave Roman
and Alison Wilgus. "We're excited to be working with Nickelodeon to bring these great stories to the manga audience", says Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of Del Rey Manga
. "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." The second manga, The Last Airbender, illustrated by Joon Choi, 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
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 Avatar: The Last Airbender
for Nick Magazine, consulted Avatar: The Last Airbender
creators Mike Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko
, and head writer for the show Aaron Ehasz
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 very good relationship with the show's creators and got their blessing for his project, it wasn't his plot to address.
on June 30, 2010, and opened the following day in 3,169 theaters, against The Twilight Saga: Eclipse which also stars Jackson Rathbone.
Opening overseas in 923 sites, the film grossed an estimated $9 million, $8 million of which was from 870 sites in Russia
, making it the number one film there. The film grossed $9.4 million from its second weekend in overseas markets.
As of November 21, 2010, The Last Airbender had grossed $131,601,062 in the United States box office. It had also grossed $187,340,196 in other countries, making for a total of $318,941,258 worldwide.
The film is the 20th highest grossing film of 2010.
, the film received a 6% "Rotten" approval rating from critics, with an average score of 2.8/10 and the critical consensus stating: "Despite flashy special effects, The Last Airbender squanders the potential of its popular source material on an incomprehensible plot, laughable dialogue, and a joyless sense of detachment." On Fandango
, 1 review states "Shyamalan's version of the story comes up short of the animated episodes in almost each category thinkable. If comparison is unjust, why was this movie made?" Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 6%. By comparison, Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 20, based on 33 reviews. CinemaScore
polls reported that the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was "C" on an A+ to F scale.
Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail
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
from Entertainment Weekly
, 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
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. The A.V. Club
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. The Hollywood Reporter
said 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 the main character, Aang. Variety
criticized the casting and the score, and said the overall effect each play into making the film a bore.
Charlie Jane Anders in the review by io9
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 leaches 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 look like a masterpiece.'" Ain't It Cool News
' review questioned why Shyamalan was allowed to write the script, as well why he was even chosen to direct such a high-profile film after a string of previous flops: "Burdened by [a] 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
gave a generally favorable review, claiming that Shyamalan delivered on fight scenes and the film worked as a kid's film. He also added that poor scriptwriting made some of the performances sound wooden. Another favorable review came from Stephanie Zacharek of MovieLine, who praises the way Shyamalan captures the art of action and human motion. David Roark of Relevant Magazine
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.
In a Vulture
interview, 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 movies 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 listed above 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.
Peter Bradshaw
of The Guardian
noted an unfortunate linguistic problem that reduced British viewers to "a state of nervous collapse". Colloquially, the word "bender" is slang for a homosexual male, giving an entirely different meaning to lines such as "I could tell at once that you were a bender, and that you would realise your destiny." 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."
The Last Airbender received nine nominations at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards
including Worst Picture. The film went on to sweep the Razzies with five awards: worst picture, worst director (Shyamalan), worst screenplay (Shyamalan), worst supporting actor (Jackson Rathbone as "Soh-ka"), and a new award, "Worst Eye-gouging Misuse of 3D."
and Blu-ray
on November 16, 2010. At the same time, a Blu-ray 3D version was also made available exclusively at Best Buy
locations. The Last Airbender grossed $12,757,094 and sold a total of 750,859 units in its first week on DVD.
for a second film that is "darker" and includes Azula, portrayed by Summer Bishil
, as the main antagonist. In a July 2010 interview with New York Magazine, 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."
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
. It is a live-action
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the first season
Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 1)
Season One of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon, aired 20 episodes from February 21, 2005 to December 2, 2005...
to the Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz...
.
The film stars Noah Ringer
Noah Ringer
Noah Andrew Ringer is an American teen actor of American Indian heritage and a martial arts practitioner. He starred as Aang in the 2010 film The Last Airbender and played Emmett in Cowboys & Aliens.-Life and career:...
as Aang
Aang
Aang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
, with Nicola Peltz
Nicola Peltz
Nicola Peltz is an American actress. Her most notable role to date is Katara in the 2010 film The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.-Career:...
as Katara
Katara
Katara is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Mae Whitman...
, Jackson Rathbone
Jackson Rathbone
Monroe Jackson Rathbone, V , better known as Jackson Rathbone, is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga and for playing Sokka in The Last Airbender....
as Sokka
Sokka
Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
, and Dev Patel
Dev Patel
Dev Patel is a British actor. He is best known for playing Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire , for which Patel won a number of awards, including a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award...
as Prince Zuko. It was produced by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and Nickelodeon Movies
Nickelodeon Movies
Nickelodeon Movies is the motion picture production arm of children's cable channel Nickelodeon, originally launched in 1995. Its first film was Harriet the Spy. It has produced films based on Nickelodeon programs, as well as other adaptations and original projects...
. Development for a film began in 2007; it was adapted by Shyamalan, who also served as screenwriter and producer. Other producers include Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Sam Mercer
Sam Mercer
Sam Mercer is a producer of many Hollywood films, including several projects directed by M. Night Shyamalan such as Signs and The Sixth Sense, as well as other films like Van Helsing and Things We Lost in the Fire. His career started during the early 1980s as a location manager and later advanced...
and Scott Aversano
Scott Aversano
Scott Aversano is an American film producer.Aversano was educated at The Lawrenceville School , Brown University and The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he earned an M.A. in English Literature...
. The series from which it was adapted was influenced by Asian art, mythology and various martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
fighting styles and was created by Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino is an American animation director, best known as the co-creator, executive producer and story editor of the hit TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon...
and Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko is the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has also worked as a character designer at Film Roman for Family Guy and as Assistant Director for Mission Hill and King of the Hill. He was a Storyboard Artist and Art Director for the...
. Filming began in mid-March 2009, with locations in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
The Last Airbender was made for $150 million and marketed with a budget of $130 million, making total costs at least $280 million. Premiering in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on June 30, 2010, it opened in the United States the following day, grossing an estimated $16 million. The Last Airbender opened in second place at the box office behind The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and eventually grossed $131 million domestically and $319 million worldwide.
This was Nickelodeon Movies' first live-action film to be based on a Nicktoon
Nicktoons
Nicktoons are animated television shows that are produced by and aired on the children's television channel Nickelodeon. Prior to 1991, Nickelodeon aired mostly foreign made animated series. The idea for Nicktoons was formed in 1989 and on Sunday, August 11, 1991, the first Nicktoon, Doug, was...
, since The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a 2004 American animated film based on the popular Nickelodeon television series SpongeBob SquarePants. The film stars the voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Doug Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, Alec Baldwin, Jeffrey Tambor, and...
was based on the animated sitcom, SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
in 2004.
The film and 3D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
conversion was largely panned by critics and fans alike, and won five Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture in 2011.
Plot
Fourteen-year-old Katara (Nicola PeltzNicola Peltz
Nicola Peltz is an American actress. Her most notable role to date is Katara in the 2010 film The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.-Career:...
) and her fifteen-year-old brother, Sokka
Sokka
Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
(Jackson Rathbone
Jackson Rathbone
Monroe Jackson Rathbone, V , better known as Jackson Rathbone, is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga and for playing Sokka in The Last Airbender....
), are near a river at the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
. While hunting, they discover an iceberg that shoots a beam of light into the sky. Inside of the iceberg is a boy named Aang
Aang
Aang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
(Noah Ringer
Noah Ringer
Noah Andrew Ringer is an American teen actor of American Indian heritage and a martial arts practitioner. He starred as Aang in the 2010 film The Last Airbender and played Emmett in Cowboys & Aliens.-Life and career:...
) and a giant flying bison named Appa
Appa
Appa is a fictional character on the Nickelodeon animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and in the film The Last Airbender. In the series, Appa is the only known living sky bison, a species of animals that can fly naturally, and is the animal guide of the protagonist, Aang...
. Unknown to them, Aang is the long lost Avatar — the only person on the planet able to "bend" all four elements. One hundred years have passed since the Fire Nation has declared war on the other three nations of Air, Water and Earth in their attempt to conquer the world.
Zuko (Dev Patel
Dev Patel
Dev Patel is a British actor. He is best known for playing Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire , for which Patel won a number of awards, including a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award...
), an exiled prince of the Fire Nation, is on a quest to find the Avatar and bring him as prisoner to his father, Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis
Cliff Curtis
Clifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...
). Seeing the light that appeared from Aang's release, Zuko and some Fire Nation soldiers arrive at the Southern Water Tribe to demand the villagers hand over the Avatar. Aang reveals himself as he surrenders himself to Zuko on the condition that he agrees to leave the village alone. On the ship, Aang is tested by Zuko's Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub
Shaun Toub
Shaun Toub is an Iranian-American film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Farhad in the 2004 movie Crash, as Rahim Khan in the movie The Kite Runner, and as Yinsen in the movie Iron Man.-Personal life:...
) to confirm him to be the Avatar. After being informed that he is to be their prisoner for passing the test, Aang escapes using his glider and flies to his flying bison brought by Katara and Sokka. Aang and his new friends visit the Southern Air Temple and he learns that he was in the ice for a whole century and that the Fire Nation wiped out all Air Nomads, including his guardian, Monk Gyatso. In despair, he enters the Avatar state and finds himself in the spirit world where he encounters a dragon spirit that tells him to make his way to the Northern Water Tribe to master Water Bending.
While at a small Earth Kingdom town controlled by the Fire Nation, Aang's group is arrested because Katara tries to help a young boy from a patrol. They incite a rebellion by reminding the disgruntled Earthbenders that earth was given to them. Katara is given a Waterbending scroll that she uses to perfect her Waterbending and help Aang learn as they make their way to the Northern Water Tribe and liberate more Earth Kingdom villages in the process.
During a side track to the Northern Air Temple on his own, Aang is betrayed by a peasant and captured by a group of Fire Nation archers, led by Admiral Zhao (Aasif Mandvi
Aasif Mandvi
Aasif Hakim Mandviwala , known professionally as Aasif Mandvi , is an American actor and comedian. He began appearing as an occasional contributing correspondent on The Daily Show on August 9, 2006. On March 12, 2007, he was promoted to a regular correspondent.-Early life and stage career:Mandvi...
), a Fire Nation Admiral appointed by the Fire Lord. However, a masked marauder, the "Blue Spirit", helps Aang escape from his imprisonment. Zuko is the masked vigilante, and Zhao realizes this. He arranges to kill the prince. Zuko survives the attempt on his life with Iroh's help. He sneaks aboard Zhao's lead ship as his fleet departs for the Northern Water Tribe to capture the Avatar. Upon arriving, Aang's group is welcomed warmly by the citizens of the Northern Water Tribe. Immediately, Sokka befriends the Northern Water Tribe princess, Yue (Seychelle Gabriel
Seychelle Gabriel
Seychelle Suzanne Gabriel is an American film and television actress and singer.-Life and career:Gabriel was born in Burbank, California, and is of Mexican descent. She graduated from Burbank High School....
). After a few agreements, a waterbending master, Pakku (Francis Guinan
Francis Guinan
Francis V. Guinan, Jr. is an American film, television and stage actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Edgar Teller the patriarch in the short-lived NBC series Eerie, Indiana....
), teaches Aang waterbending.
Soon, the Fire Nation arrives and Zhao begins his attack while Zuko begins his search for the Avatar on his own, capturing Aang as he enters the spirit world to find the dragon spirit to give him the wisdom to defeat the Fire Nation. Returning to his body, Aang battles Zuko before Katara freezes him. As the battle escalates, Iroh watches Zhao capture the moon spirit Tui, with which its water spirit counterpart had assumed the form of a fish. Despite Iroh's pleas, Zhao kills Tui to strip the Waterbenders of their powers and abilities to Waterbend. Yue explains to everyone that the moon spirit gave her life, willing to give it back as she dies in the process. With the tables turned, Zhao is drowned by Waterbenders after Zuko and Iroh leave him to his fate. Aang uses the ocean to drive the armada back. Aang now fully embraces his destiny as the Avatar as he, Katara and Sokka prepare to continue their journey to the Earth Kingdom to find an earthbending teacher for Aang. The Fire Lord learns of the defeat, and he appoints his daughter Azula (Summer Bishil
Summer Bishil
Summer Yasmine Bishil is an American actress. She first came to prominence for her role as Jasira in the 2007 film Towelhead. She has been chosen to portray Azula in the sequel to M. Night Shyamalan's film The Last Airbender....
) to capture the Avatar.
Cast
- Noah RingerNoah RingerNoah Andrew Ringer is an American teen actor of American Indian heritage and a martial arts practitioner. He starred as Aang in the 2010 film The Last Airbender and played Emmett in Cowboys & Aliens.-Life and career:...
as AangAangAang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
, who disappeared from public sight a hundred years ago. While chronologically 112 years old, Aang still retains his biological age of 12. He is the latest reincarnation of the Avatar. Though he is capable of bending all four elements, at the beginning of the film he has only learned to airbend. He loves Katara. It is also his duty to maintain balance in the world, which conflicts with his easy-going, fun-loving personality. - Dev PatelDev PatelDev Patel is a British actor. He is best known for playing Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire , for which Patel won a number of awards, including a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award...
as Prince Zuko, a 16-year-old Fire Nation prince who travels with his uncle Iroh. The former heir to the throne, he was exiled by his father, Fire Lord Ozai, and ordered to capture the Avatar (who had not been seen in almost a century, making the assignment a wild goose chase) in order to regain his lost honor. - Nicola PeltzNicola PeltzNicola Peltz is an American actress. Her most notable role to date is Katara in the 2010 film The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.-Career:...
as Katara, a 14-year-old girl of the Southern Water Tribe and its last remaining waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. Since the death of her mother, Kya, she has served as the maternal figure in her family, and is no stranger to responsibility despite her young age. She is Aang's good friend and love interest. - Jackson RathboneJackson RathboneMonroe Jackson Rathbone, V , better known as Jackson Rathbone, is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga and for playing Sokka in The Last Airbender....
as SokkaSokkaSokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
, a 15-year-old warrior from the Southern Water Tribe and Katara's older brother. He can be condescending, and has no bending powers. He often takes up leadership roles by virtue of coming up with most of the workable plans and tactics. - Shaun ToubShaun ToubShaun Toub is an Iranian-American film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Farhad in the 2004 movie Crash, as Rahim Khan in the movie The Kite Runner, and as Yinsen in the movie Iron Man.-Personal life:...
as Iroh, Zuko's uncle. He is extremely easy-going and friendly, and often acts as a surrogate father to Zuko. Formerly a great general of the Fire Nation, personal tragedies led to his retirement, and the role of heir-presumptive passed to his younger brother Ozai. - Aasif MandviAasif MandviAasif Hakim Mandviwala , known professionally as Aasif Mandvi , is an American actor and comedian. He began appearing as an occasional contributing correspondent on The Daily Show on August 9, 2006. On March 12, 2007, he was promoted to a regular correspondent.-Early life and stage career:Mandvi...
as Commander Zhao, a hot-tempered Fire Nation Commander in pursuit of the Avatar. He is Zuko's principal rival. Hence, he serves as the primary antagonist to both Aang and Zuko. - Seychelle GabrielSeychelle GabrielSeychelle Suzanne Gabriel is an American film and television actress and singer.-Life and career:Gabriel was born in Burbank, California, and is of Mexican descent. She graduated from Burbank High School....
as Princess Yue, the princess of the Northern Water Tribe, who was Sokka's first love interest. In a tragic turn of events, she sacrificed herself to save the water tribe and the balance of the earth, by turning into the moon. - Cliff CurtisCliff CurtisClifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...
as Fire Lord Ozai, the leader of the Fire Nation as well as Prince Zuko's father. He is a secondary antagonist of the film, and the main antagonist of the cartoon series. - Summer BishilSummer BishilSummer Yasmine Bishil is an American actress. She first came to prominence for her role as Jasira in the 2007 film Towelhead. She has been chosen to portray Azula in the sequel to M. Night Shyamalan's film The Last Airbender....
as Princess Azula, appears once at the battle where Zuko refuses to fight and again at the end where she accepts the role as hunter of her brother and uncle, and destroying the Avatar. She inherited her father's pleasure of killing which makes her father choose her to take over Zuko's previous task. - Francis GuinanFrancis GuinanFrancis V. Guinan, Jr. is an American film, television and stage actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Edgar Teller the patriarch in the short-lived NBC series Eerie, Indiana....
as Pakku, a waterbending master of the Northern Water Tribe; he teaches Aang to waterbend. - Randall Duk KimRandall Duk KimRandall Duk Kim is a Korean-American stage, television and film actor. Kim was also the artistic director and mainstay lead actor at the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which he founded with Anne Occhiogrosso and Charles Bright...
as Old man in temple - Issac Jin Soletein as Haru (Earthbending boy)
- Keong SimKeong SimKeong Sim is an American actor. A Korean American, he is a native to the city of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts in English literature graduate of the University of Chicago. He is a comedy mentor of Laughter for a Change, and has acted in numerous television, film and stage productions...
as Tyro (Earthbending father) - John NobleJohn NobleJohn Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...
as Dragon Spirit
Development
On January 8, 2007, Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
' MTV Films
MTV Films
MTV Films is the motion picture production arm of cable channel MTV. Founded in 1996, it has produced films based on MTV programs such as Beavis and Butt-head Do America and Jackass: The Movie, as well as other adaptations and original projects. Its films are released by fellow Viacom division...
and Nickelodeon Movies
Nickelodeon Movies
Nickelodeon Movies is the motion picture production arm of children's cable channel Nickelodeon, originally launched in 1995. Its first film was Harriet the Spy. It has produced films based on Nickelodeon programs, as well as other adaptations and original projects...
announced that they had signed M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
to write, direct and produce a trilogy of live-action films based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz...
series, the first of which would encompass the main characters' adventures in Book One. An announcement revealing the July 2, 2010 release date was made on April 15, 2008. The film was also renamed simply The Last Airbender to avoid confusion with James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
's Avatar.
According to an interview with the co-creators in SFX magazine, Shyamalan came across Avatar when his daughter wanted to be Katara for Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
. 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
Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino is an American animation director, best known as the co-creator, executive producer and story editor of the hit TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon...
and Bryan
Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko is the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has also worked as a character designer at Film Roman for Family Guy and as Assistant Director for Mission Hill and King of the Hill. He was a Storyboard Artist and Art Director for the...
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 Mike DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino
Michael Dante DiMartino is an American animation director, best known as the co-creator, executive producer and story editor of the hit TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon...
and Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko is the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has also worked as a character designer at Film Roman for Family Guy and as Assistant Director for Mission Hill and King of the Hill. He was a Storyboard Artist and Art Director for the...
voiced their opinion within an interview regarding M. Night 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. Producer Frank Marshall explained that they have high hopes to stick to a PG rating. "I'm not even sure we want to get in the PG-13 realm. Furthermore, Shyamalan said, "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." Paramount's president Brad Grey
Brad Grey
Brad Alan Grey is the Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, a position he has held since 2005. Under Grey’s leadership, Paramount has finished No.2 in market share in 2008, 2009 and 2010 despite releasing significantly fewer films than its competitors.Since arriving at Paramount in 2005,...
said that despite the director's career being inconsistent, he "believed in [Shyamalan's] vision and that he could execute it," adding that "It's a bold step because he had to create a potential new family franchise." The studio was willing to spend $250 million in a trilogy of films, one for each season. The Last Airbenders budget wound up being $150 million, with later over $130 million being spent on marketing costs, making it Shyamalan's most expensive film.
Casting
M. Night ShyamalanM. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
originally offered the roles of Aang
Aang
Aang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
to Noah Ringer
Noah Ringer
Noah Andrew Ringer is an American teen actor of American Indian heritage and a martial arts practitioner. He starred as Aang in the 2010 film The Last Airbender and played Emmett in Cowboys & Aliens.-Life and career:...
; Sokka
Sokka
Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
to Jackson Rathbone
Jackson Rathbone
Monroe Jackson Rathbone, V , better known as Jackson Rathbone, is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga and for playing Sokka in The Last Airbender....
; Katara to Nicola Peltz
Nicola Peltz
Nicola Peltz is an American actress. Her most notable role to date is Katara in the 2010 film The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.-Career:...
; and Zuko to Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney is an American singer-songwriter, actor and voice actor. McCartney 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 musical career...
. In an interview with People, 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 auditions." In February 2009, Dev Patel
Dev Patel
Dev Patel is a British actor. He is best known for playing Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire , for which Patel won a number of awards, including a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award...
replaced Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney is an American singer-songwriter, actor and voice actor. McCartney 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 musical career...
, whose tour dates conflicted with a boot camp scheduled for the cast to train in martial arts. Katharine Houghton
Katharine Houghton
Katharine Houghton is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Joanna "Joey" Drayton, a Caucasian woman who brings home an African-American fiancé to meet her parents, in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...
played "Gran Gran", the grandmother of Katara and Sokka, and Seychelle Gabriel
Seychelle Gabriel
Seychelle Suzanne Gabriel is an American film and television actress and singer.-Life and career:Gabriel was born in Burbank, California, and is of Mexican descent. She graduated from Burbank High School....
portrayed Princess Yue, another of Sokka's love interests and princess of the Northern Water Tribe, respectively. Isaac Jin Solstein played an earthbending boy. Aasif Mandvi
Aasif Mandvi
Aasif Hakim Mandviwala , known professionally as Aasif Mandvi , is an American actor and comedian. He began appearing as an occasional contributing correspondent on The Daily Show on August 9, 2006. On March 12, 2007, he was promoted to a regular correspondent.-Early life and stage career:Mandvi...
played Commander Zhao, Cliff Curtis
Cliff Curtis
Clifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...
played Fire Lord Ozai, and Keong Sim
Keong Sim
Keong Sim is an American actor. A Korean American, he is a native to the city of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts in English literature graduate of the University of Chicago. He is a comedy mentor of Laughter for a Change, and has acted in numerous television, film and stage productions...
was cast in the role of an Earthbender.
Ringer began practicing Taekwondo
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
- the martial art and national sport of South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
- at the age of 10. His skills later garnered accolades, including the title of American Taekwondo Association
American Taekwondo Association
The American Taekwondo Association was founded in 1969 in Omaha, Nebraska by Haeng Ung Lee of South Korea. It is one of the largest taekwondo organizations in the United States, and in association with the Songahm Taekwondo Federation and World Traditional Taekwondo Union , is one of the largest...
Texas State Champion. 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. He hadn't worked on a film before, but his resemblance to Aang—enhanced by painted a blue arrow on his already shaved head, swung him the role. Having not acted before, Ringer was required to attend acting school a month before filming commenced, calling the film a great experience. Peltz was familiar with the Waterbending character before submitting for the part of Katara, having faithfully watched Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz...
, the animated series on which the film is based, with her younger twin brothers. She describes her character as being a big role model with young girls and women, "She's really mentally and physically strong, strong-willed and -minded, but she's also caring and compassionate... The movie has a lot of values, but it's also fun. It's fantasy, but it's also a really cool battle between good and evil." She explained that she initially didn't know about Rathbone starring in the Twilight films
The Twilight Saga (film series)
The Twilight Saga is a series of supernatural romance fantasy films from Summit Entertainment based on the four Twilight series novels by the American author Stephenie Meyer. The films star Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner. The series has grossed over $2 billion in worldwide...
until after she met him and said that working with Shyamalan was an amazing experience. Rathbone, who originally auditioned for the role of Zuko, was approached by Shyamalan to audition for the film. After waiting for six months, he received a call informing him that he was cast as Sokka. Rathbone stated that his favorite scenes were the fight sequences, which he prepared for by stickfighting.
Before Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
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's first fight scene filmed called for him to be in a tub of water on a ship; he was to look at a picture of his family, which would give him the urge to fight. Patel recalls fighting, punching, and throwing and said it 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
Shaun Toub is an Iranian-American film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Farhad in the 2004 movie Crash, as Rahim Khan in the movie The Kite Runner, and as Yinsen in the movie Iron Man.-Personal life:...
, who was cast as Uncle Iroh
Uncle Iroh
Iroh is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender...
, 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 is an "18 year old with all this energy," and that Patel was able to influence him into appreciating the business of film making 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.
The casting of White actors in the Asian-influenced and Native American-influenced Avatar universe triggered negative reactions from some 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," Michael Le of Racebending.com, a fan site calling for a boycott of the martial-arts fantasy, said. As a result of the casting, the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans urged a film boycott for the first time in the organization's 18-year history. "This was a great opportunity to create new Asian-American stars...[nonetheless,] 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." Furthermore, Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
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." The studio also took the initiative to screen the film to boycotters at Racebending.com after the 3D conversion was complete.
M. Night Shyamalan commented on the issues regarding fans' perceptive of the casting in an interview with Washington Post columnist Jen Chaney, saying, "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 [protesters] would 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 was also one to dismiss the complaints in an interview with MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, 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 wasn't well received by critics either. Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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." Jevon Phillips of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
noted that despite Shyamalan's attempts to defuse the situation, the issue will "not fade away or be overlooked", and that this film exemplifies the need for a debate within Hollywood about racial diversity in its films.
Filming
Pre-production began in late 2008, while filming began in March 2009 in GreenlandGreenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. After two weeks, the cast and crew moved to Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
, 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
Pagoda (Reading, Pennsylvania)
The Pagoda is a pagoda-styled novelty building built atop Mount Penn, overlooking Reading, Pennsylvania. Now a symbol of the city, it is also the logo for the minor league Reading Phillies baseball team.-History:...
on Mount Penn
Mount Penn, Pennsylvania
Mount Penn is the name of a mountain peak and a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,076 at the 2009 Census. The peak is sometimes recognized as the southern end of the Reading Prong mountains.-Geography:...
, 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. When asked about shooting the film in Reading, Pamela Shupp, vice president of Berks Economic Development said, "They needed buildings to shoot all the interiors, and were looking for a group of buildings with high ceilings and specific column spacing. We showed them a number of buildings, but we couldn't come up with enough to meet their requirements. So the interiors will be shot in Philadelphia."
Visual effects
With a film as technologically advanced as Avatar, the expectations of realistically throwing balls of fire and water were pushed to the limit on The Last Airbender. Pablo Helman, who previously worked on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the ClonesStar Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the fifth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the second in terms of the series' internal chronology...
, was the visual effects supervisor for the Industrial Light and Magic
Industrial Light and Magic
Industrial Light & Magic is an Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and is owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given...
team on the film. He worked closely 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 planned it all in a story-board book.
Industrial Light and Magic was posed 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 inanimate 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. In order 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 in order to fit with their unique personalities.
The challenge for fire didn't 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 Airbenders fire style was the sixth Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy film directed by David Yates and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the sixth instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman and David Barron...
film, which was re-engineered in order 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.
In terms of matte paintings
Matte (filmmaking)
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 with a background image . In this case, the matte is the background painting...
, this was the biggest show that Helman had ever done. The paintings 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 200 by 200 ft (61 by 61 m) set, had to be incorporated with still of the landscapes shot in Greenland, 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 used to capture 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 referenced nature. In order for them to be believable, they looked for examples of the same size and weight as the animated character and then developed hybrids from different animals to make each species unique. 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, the lemur Momo has flying mechanics based on a giant fruit bat. Other elements, such as texturing, hair or scale simulation, and light and shadow complimentary 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
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
made an announcement in late April 2010, revealing that The Last Airbender would be released in 3D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
. This decision came after an increased amount of films being made or converted to 3D, such as Avatar, Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
and Clash of the Titans
Clash of the Titans (2010 film)
Clash of the Titans is a 2010 fantasy and action remake of the 1981 film of the same name . The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film was originally set for standard release on March 26, 2010...
, made a decent profit at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
. 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 Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
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 HowardJames Newton Howard
James Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films...
was announced as the composer for The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender (soundtrack)
The Last Airbender is the soundtrack album of the fantasy film The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The score was composed by James Newton Howard.-Track listing:-Reception:...
. The film would mark the seventh collaboration between Howard and M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
, after the 2008 film The Happening
The Happening (2008 film)
The Happening is a 2008 science fiction thriller film written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that follows a woman, her husband, the husband's best friend, and the friend's daughter as they try to escape from an inexplicable natural disaster. The plot revolves around a mysterious...
. Most recently, Howard received acclaim for his work with Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
on The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
. 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 Frank 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 approximately 66 minutes, it contains eleven tracks ranging from three to seven minutes, with a twelfth track, called "Airbender Suite" running at nearly eleven minutes. Reviews for the score were overwhelmingly positive.
Promotion
The teaser trailerTrailer (film)
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
for the film was attached to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series...
, 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
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...
. The trailer shows Aang airbending in a temple which is being attacked by a multitude of Fire Nation ships. A theatrical trailer was to be released around Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
2009, but it was pushed back until February 2010 because not enough visual effects shots were completed. This trailer was attached to the Percy Jackson
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is a 2010 fantasy-adventure film directed by Chris Columbus. The film is loosely based on The Lightning Thief, the first novel in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series by Rick Riordan...
film released on February 12, 2010. A theatrical trailer was later released on March 25, 2010. It was then attached with How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon (film)
How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 3D computer-animated action fantasy film by DreamWorks Animation loosely based on the 2003 book of the same name. The film stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher...
. The last theatrical trailer is attached to Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2 is a 2010 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the sequel to 2008's Iron Man, the second film in a planned trilogy and is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Directed by Jon...
which was released May 7, 2010.
The first TV spot for the film aired during Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference champion New Orleans Saints to decide the National Football League champion for the 2009 season. The Saints defeated the Colts by a score of...
on February 7, 2010. It showed parts of the film that were not shown in the teaser trailer and had no diagetic
Diegesis
Diegesis is a style of representation in fiction and is:# the world in which the situations and events narrated occur; and# telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting.In diegesis the narrator tells the story...
dialogue, but merely narration. On February 10, the theatrical trailer was released online. It shows multiple scenes from the film and is an expanded version of the first TV spot. McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
sold Happy Meals to promote the film.
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
Aang
Aang is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang is depicted as the show's main protagonist, and as such has appeared in all but one...
, Prince Zuko, Sokka
Sokka
Sokka is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jack DeSena...
, 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 are expected to be released in three "waves"; wave one 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
THQ Studio Australia was one of the subsidiaries of electronic game publisher THQ. Based in Brisbane Australia, the studio have developed titles for last and current generation games consoles and managed the development of hand held versions of their games utilizing smaller local and interstate...
also developed a video game based on the film. Titled The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender (video game)
The Last Airbender is a video game based on the film of the same name for Wii and Nintendo DS. It was released on June 29, 2010 in North America. It was released in Europe on August 6, 2010 and will be released in Australia on September 2010. Like the previous Avatar games, it was developed by THQ...
, it was released on June 29, 2010 for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
.
Graphic novels
Two original black-and-white graphic novelGraphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
s, entitled The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko's Story and The Last Airbender, drawn in the manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
style, were written by Dave Roman
Dave Roman
-Career:Roman is the co-creator of Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden , a Harvey Award-nominated webcomic. He also co-created Teen Boat , an Ignatz Award-winning webcomic. Both were with artist John Green....
and Alison Wilgus. "We're excited to be working with Nickelodeon to bring these great stories to the manga audience", says 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. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
. "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." The second manga, The Last Airbender, illustrated by Joon Choi, was released on June 22, 2010. The plot, like the film, is a condensed version of the first season
Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 1)
Season One of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon, aired 20 episodes from February 21, 2005 to December 2, 2005...
of the series.
The prequel, Zuko's Story, is co-written by Alison Wilgus and Dave Roman and illustrated by Nina Matsumoto
Nina Matsumoto
Nina Matsumoto is a Japanese-Canadian comic book artist and writer, also known as "space coyote", and most known for creating the comic book series Yōkaiden for Del Rey Manga...
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 Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz...
for Nick Magazine, consulted Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated television series that aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who served as executive producers along with Aaron Ehasz...
creators Mike Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko
Bryan Konietzko is the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has also worked as a character designer at Film Roman for Family Guy and as Assistant Director for Mission Hill and King of the Hill. He was a Storyboard Artist and Art Director for the...
, and head writer for the show Aaron Ehasz
Aaron Ehasz
Aaron Ehasz is an American television writer and producer whose body of work primarily consists of animated series, although he did serve as a producer on the live-action series The Mullets and Ed.-Career:...
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 very good relationship with the show's creators and got their blessing for his project, it wasn't his plot to address.
Release
The Last Airbender was rumored to be released in the summer of 2010 before it received a formal release date of July 1, 2010. In order to avoid confusion with James Cameron's Avatar, the title was changed from Avatar: The Last Airbender to simply The Last Airbender. On June 16, 2010, it was revealed that the film would be released on July 1, 2010, and after questions about the definition of the release being limited or wide, was later confirmed by the studio to be a full nationwide release. The film premiered in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on June 30, 2010, and opened the following day in 3,169 theaters, against The Twilight Saga: Eclipse which also stars Jackson Rathbone.
Box office
On its opening day in the United States, The Last Airbender made $16 million, ranking fifth overall for Thursday openings. For its opening three-day, Fourth of July weekend, The Last Airbender accumulated a total of $40.3 million. The following Monday, it grossed another $11.5 million. 54% of its total gross was from 3D presentations at 1,606 screens. On Thursday, July 1st, 2010, its opening day, it debuted at #2 behind The Twilight Saga:Eclipse. It stayed #2 until Monday, July 5th, 2010, when it went down to #3 now behind The Twilight Saga:Eclipse and Toy Story 3. On July 9th, it went down to #5 behind Despicable Me, The Twilight Saga:Eclipse, Predators and Toy Story 3. By Friday, July 23rd, it was down to #9 behind Inception, Salt, Despicable Me, Ramona and Beezus, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Toy Story 3, Grown Ups and The Twilight Saga:Eclipse.Opening overseas in 923 sites, the film grossed an estimated $9 million, $8 million of which was from 870 sites in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, making it the number one film there. The film grossed $9.4 million from its second weekend in overseas markets.
As of November 21, 2010, The Last Airbender had grossed $131,601,062 in the United States box office. It had also grossed $187,340,196 in other countries, making for a total of $318,941,258 worldwide.
The film is the 20th highest grossing film of 2010.
Reception
The film has been universally panned by film critics. Based on 173 reviews collected by Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film received a 6% "Rotten" approval rating from critics, with an average score of 2.8/10 and the critical consensus stating: "Despite flashy special effects, The Last Airbender squanders the potential of its popular source material on an incomprehensible plot, laughable dialogue, and a joyless sense of detachment." On Fandango
Fandango
Fandango is a lively couple's dance, usually in triple metre, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets or hand-clapping . Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has an instrumental introduction followed by "variaciones"...
, 1 review states "Shyamalan's version of the story comes up short of the animated episodes in almost each category thinkable. If comparison is unjust, why was this movie made?" Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 6%. By comparison, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Normalization (statistics)
In one usage in statistics, normalization is the process of isolating statistical error in repeated measured data. A normalization is sometimes based on a property...
rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 20, based on 33 reviews. CinemaScore
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:...
polls reported that the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was "C" on an A+ to F scale.
Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
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
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
from Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, 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 Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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. The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
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. The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
said 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 the main character, Aang. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
criticized the casting and the score, and said the overall effect each play into making the film a bore.
Charlie Jane Anders in the review by io9
Io9
io9 is a blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The blog focuses on the subjects of science fiction, futurism, and advancements in the fields of science and technology....
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 leaches 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 look like a masterpiece.'" Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles, dedicated to news, rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic-book and action genres...
' review questioned why Shyamalan was allowed to write the script, as well why he was even chosen to direct such a high-profile film after a string of previous flops: "Burdened by [a] 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."
| "The Last Airbender" is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that. |
| —Roger Ebert Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The... , Sun Times |
Scott Bowles of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave a generally favorable review, claiming that Shyamalan delivered on fight scenes and the film worked as a kid's film. He also added that poor scriptwriting made some of the performances sound wooden. Another favorable review came from Stephanie Zacharek of MovieLine, who praises the way Shyamalan captures the art of action and human motion. David Roark of Relevant Magazine
Relevant Magazine
RELEVANT Magazine is a bimonthly magazine providing content on “God, life, and progressive culture”. It is published by RELEVANT Media Group and a circulation of 56,667. Its companion web presence, RELEVANTmagazine.com, launched in 2002 with the email newsletter, 850 Words of RELEVANT...
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.
In a Vulture
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
interview, 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 movies 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 listed above 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.
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
noted an unfortunate linguistic problem that reduced British viewers to "a state of nervous collapse". Colloquially, the word "bender" is slang for a homosexual male, giving an entirely different meaning to lines such as "I could tell at once that you were a bender, and that you would realise your destiny." 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."
The Last Airbender received nine nominations at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards
31st Golden Raspberry Awards
The 31st Golden Raspberry Awards or Razzies is a parodic award ceremony that was held on February 26, 2011, at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood to honor the worst films of 2010. The nominations were announced on January 24. Per Razzies tradition, both the nominee announcements and...
including Worst Picture. The film went on to sweep the Razzies with five awards: worst picture, worst director (Shyamalan), worst screenplay (Shyamalan), worst supporting actor (Jackson Rathbone as "Soh-ka"), and a new award, "Worst Eye-gouging Misuse of 3D."
Home media
The Last Airbender was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on November 16, 2010. At the same time, a Blu-ray 3D version was also made available exclusively at Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
locations. The Last Airbender grossed $12,757,094 and sold a total of 750,859 units in its first week on DVD.
Awards and nominations
| Award | Year | Category | Result | Cast/Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teen Choice Awards Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with... |
2010 | Choice Summer: Movie | ||
| International Film Music Critics Association International Film Music Critics Association The International Film Music Critics Association is a professional association for online, print and radio journalists who specialize in writing about original film and television music.-History and purpose:... Awards |
Film Music Composition of the Year for Flow Like Water | James Newton Howard James Newton Howard James Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films... |
||
| Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror film | ||||
| Young Artist Award Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist... |
Best Performance in a Feature Film (Leading Young Actor) | Noah Ringer Noah Ringer Noah Andrew Ringer is an American teen actor of American Indian heritage and a martial arts practitioner. He starred as Aang in the 2010 film The Last Airbender and played Emmett in Cowboys & Aliens.-Life and career:... |
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| Best Performance in a Feature Film (Supporting Young Actress) | Seychelle Gabriel Seychelle Gabriel Seychelle Suzanne Gabriel is an American film and television actress and singer.-Life and career:Gabriel was born in Burbank, California, and is of Mexican descent. She graduated from Burbank High School.... |
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| Golden Raspberry Awards Golden Raspberry Awards A Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in movies. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day... |
Worst Picture | M. Night Shyamalan M. Night Shyamalan Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around... Frank Marshall Kathleen Kennedy Sam Mercer Sam Mercer Sam Mercer is a producer of many Hollywood films, including several projects directed by M. Night Shyamalan such as Signs and The Sixth Sense, as well as other films like Van Helsing and Things We Lost in the Fire. His career started during the early 1980s as a location manager and later advanced... |
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| Worst Director | M. Night Shyamalan M. Night Shyamalan Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around... |
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| Worst Supporting Actor | Dev Patel Dev Patel Dev Patel is a British actor. He is best known for playing Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire , for which Patel won a number of awards, including a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award... |
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| Jackson Rathbone Jackson Rathbone Monroe Jackson Rathbone, V , better known as Jackson Rathbone, is an American actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga and for playing Sokka in The Last Airbender.... |
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| Worst Supporting Actress | Nicola Peltz Nicola Peltz Nicola Peltz is an American actress. Her most notable role to date is Katara in the 2010 film The Last Airbender, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.-Career:... |
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| Worst Screenplay | M. Night Shyamalan M. Night Shyamalan Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around... |
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| Worst Screen Couple/Ensemble | The Entire Cast | |||
| Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel | ||||
| Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3D |
Sequel
While there has been much speculation regarding a sequel, no official announcement by Shyamalan or Paramount Studios and Nickelodeon has been made regarding the "go-ahead" or whether the plug will be pulled on the trilogy. While filming The Last Airbender, Shyamalan mapped out a rough draftRough Draft
Written in 2005, Moscow, Rough Draft by Sergey Lukyanenko is a fantasy novel of the "parallel world" genre, the first of a duology.The sequel of this novel is Final Draft.-Plot introduction:...
for a second film that is "darker" and includes Azula, portrayed by Summer Bishil
Summer Bishil
Summer Yasmine Bishil is an American actress. She first came to prominence for her role as Jasira in the 2007 film Towelhead. She has been chosen to portray Azula in the sequel to M. Night Shyamalan's film The Last Airbender....
, as the main antagonist. In a July 2010 interview with New York Magazine, 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."