Please God, Let This Be the Last Airbender

Reviews epically bad for M. Night Shyamalan's would-be epic
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 1, 2010 9:14 AM CDT

If you believe the critics, the Last Airbender isn't just bad, it's epically bad. At this writing, the movie's hovering at 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ready for some vicious quotes? I knew you were:

  • The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented,” writes Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, “The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here.”

  • “The film should probably have stayed a cartoon; live-action kills it dead,” laments Ty Burr of the Boston Globe. The script "curls up and dies,” under the endless exposition, and the 3D is absolutely horrendous. “Really, I’ve got winking-Jesus postcards that look better.”
  • The Last Airbender is an insult to anyone with a triple-digit IQ,” writes James Berardinelli of ReelViews. "The only word I can use to describe the acting is embarrassing.” This has to end Shyamalan's career. “It's astonishing to think that any studio would entrust this man with another project.”
  • The movie ends on a cliffhanger, but the thought of a sequel “seems either delusionally optimistic or downright cruel,” writes AO Scott of the New York Times. "The best way to watch The Last Airbender is probably with your eyes closed.”
(More The Last Airbender Review stories.)

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