Avatar: The Last Airbender was actually a pretty solid kid's cartoon, and it deserved so much better than this disappointment. Sure, things didn't bode particularly well when M. Night Shyamalan, a man whose career's meteoric rise and subsequent fall has been unparalleled in the modern era, was attached to direct. Or when they had to change the name of the film, so as not to be confused with James Cameron's vastly superior Avatar. And yeah, it was probably a bad sign that the biggest names attached to the project were Dev Patel of the surprise hit Slumdog Millionaire and Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show. But even so, there was no excuse for the movie to be anywhere near as bad as it was. And as usual, the critics were merciless. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle summed it up best, calling it, "a dull, boring, poorly acted, limply written and thoroughly unappealing fantasy, featuring bland characters locked in a struggle of no interest." Cliff Doerksen from the Chicago Reader went further, suggesting that, "the current national priorities should be as follows: reduce carbon emissions and stop funding the films of M. Night Shyamalan."
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
