The bottoming out in the sad and stupefying career trajectory of director M. Night Shyamalan came in the form of a live-action adaptation of a popular animated series (titled Avatar: The Last Airbender — the film was renamed to avoid confusion with the James Cameron movie). The production got some unwanted publicity over the decision to cast white actors for roles that, in the cartoons, were clearly Asian.
WHAT OTHERS SAID:
“… Shyamalan and his team have devised a fantasy environment that’s both bland and murky; it’s not a world that rewards the search for visual grandeur or eccentricity. … The movie’s lavish scale is matched by its amateur-hour naiveté—as if a Wall Street plutocrat had spent millions on a monumental pageant for his 10-year-old daughter’s birthday party, then staged it himself on his country estate and invited his neighbors and their kids to play the leads. …”
— Richard Corliss, TIME, July 2, 2010
ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 6%
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egQ79OrYCs]