The Last Airbender
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: July 1, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
20
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
9
Negative:
23
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
USA TodayScott Bowles
He hasn't mastered the craft yet, but M. Night Shyamalan may be on to something with this action-movie thing. Read full review
60
MovielineStephanie Zacharek
Completely harmless and inoffensive, and at the very least, Shyamalan appears to be having a little fun here. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie is "Star Wars" with martial arts, plus a touch of "The Last Emperor." Technically, it's not badly done; I enjoyed the physical clash of elements, the water balls rising like sculpture in the air. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Unfortunately, this all proceeds at a supersonic tempo, with Shyamalan's directorial finger stuck on the fast-forward button. Significant plot points whiz by in this movie equivalent of speed-dating. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The story is a much more serious problem, a run-on, overstuffed narrative that feels like a very long prologue for a climax that never comes. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazinePam Grady
The problems begin with Shyamalan's script, which is an orgy of exposition. The characters explain and explain and explain some more, points driven home with the subtlety of a jackhammer. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Airbender, whether intentionally or not, is pegged almost exclusively to a small-fry state of mind. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
With a surprising lack of verve, humor, and narrative tension, Shyamalan's live-action foundation film is unlikely to woo new fans to the tale. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith Uhlich
Only "Slumdog Millionaire's" Dev Patel, as the bastard prince of the villainous Fire nation, truly gets jiggy with the fantasy. Everyone else stares off into green-screen space and waits for lunch to be called. Read full review
40
EmpireIan Nathan
Far from the catastrophe the US bewailed, but still disappointingly clunky. Notch it between Eragon (below) and Dragonslayer (above) on a sliding scale of fantasy filmmaking. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The Last Airbender (they couldn't use the series' "Avatar" title because another film got there first, without all the bending) is more about marshaling extras and interpolating tons of computer-generated effects and keeping the factions straight. It's a tough sit. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
A toxic potion that will put children to sleep and kill his (M. Night Shyamalan) career. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
It's a little bit Tolkien, a little bit Lucas, a little bit "Matrix," a little bit "Dune" and rather too much Philip Pullman, all stuck together with some powerfully expensive effects and lots of cute kids doing tai chi. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
While the special effects are impressive enough, M. Night Shyamalan's film doesn't make a lick of sense. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Even during the climax, the film still is struggling to introduce the world of the film and its strange rules. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Shyamalan takes the beloved Nickelodeon anime series -- the full title was Avatar: The Last Airbender -- and turns it into 103 minutes of overproduced, stilted nonsense. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Last Airbender is an insult to anyone with a triple-digit I.Q. and a willingness to use it inside the confines of a movie theater. This is bad filmmaking and bad storytelling. It also sounds what should be the death knell to M. Night Shyamalan's career. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Playing a hero who's meant to be something akin to the young Dalai Lama, Ringer brings less than zero gravitas to the role. He makes the kid who plays Gibby on "iCarly" look like Sir Laurence Olivier. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The Last Airbender is like a Care Bears movie that got waylaid in the fourth dimension. It's insufferably silly. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The Last Airbender' is dreadful, an incomprehensible fantasy-action epic that makes the 2007 film "The Golden Compass,'' a similarly botched adaptation of a beloved property from another medium, look like a four-star classic.
25
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
This colossal folly, the fiasco of the summer of 2010 - gives us all a ringside seat at the sight of Mr. "I See Dead People's" career gurgling down the drain. Read full review
20
VarietyPeter Debruge
This is all enormously disappointing, of course, since the best we could hope for from a live-action "Avatar" adaptation is the mind-blowing equivalent of our first encounters with wire-fu, rather than this cartoony nonsense. Read full review
20
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The problem -- the catastrophe -- of The Last Airbender is not in the conception but the execution. The long-winded explanations and clumsy performances are made worse by graceless effects and a last-minute 3-D conversion that wrecks whatever visual grace or beauty might have been there. Read full review
20
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
The current national priorities should be as follows: reduce carbon emissions and stop funding the films of M. Night Shyamalan. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Unfortunately, its positive attributes are thrown out of balance by its abundant negatives - including chintzy effects, lumbering storytelling and an overstylized, earnest incompetence that evokes "Speed Racer." Read full review
12
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. Read full review
10
L.A. WeeklyRobert Wilonsky
This is one muddled attempt at franchise making: confusing, drab, sluggish. (Ugly, too, if you're forced to see it in 3-D.) Read full review
0
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
The Last Airbender makes the cartoon version with its ratchet-jawed characters and clunky animation seem like a Pixar classic. Read full review
0
TimeRichard Corliss
Surely the worst botch of a fantasy epic. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The filmmaker has delivered yet another iteration of what has become a classic M. Night Shyamalan film, only much bigger than before, and, as a consequence, mind-bendingly turgid. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A dull, boring, poorly acted, limply written and thoroughly unappealing fantasy, featuring bland characters locked in a struggle of no interest. Read full review
0
New York PostLou Lumenick
If M. Night Shyamalan sold his soul to the devil for the success of "The Sixth Sense," I think His Satanic Majesty has finally collected in full with The Last Airbender. Read full review
0
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The Last Airbender isn't that much different from the rest of this summer's generally dire multiplex fare-from "The A-Team" to "Jonah Hex"... But it is remarkable in one respect: It's the worst of them. Read full review
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