Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Run Time: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
Rating: PG
The Bouw-Man.
Let me start by saying that I have no intention on seeing “The Last Airbender.” The trailer makes it seem about as interesting as watching grass grow on your lawn. More appealing than the film alone is the plight of Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan.
For all intensive purposes his career began in 1999 when the surprise hit “The Sixth Sense” entered the film landscape. It was an original thrill ride that proved you didn’t need gore and excessive violence to make a really scary film. He brought a great story with a surprise ending to the screen, and relied on the audience’s psyche to intensify the experience. After “The Sixth Sense” came “Unbreakable” in 2000, and “Signs” in 2002. Both were formidable follow-ups, and some people (not me) may argue that “Signs” was his best effort. If he would’ve quit right then and there, he would’ve gone down in history as a legendary icon that revolutionized the industry. Today we see more and more horror/thriller films being made with a “PG-13” rating, and Shyamalan was largely responsible for leaving more to the imagination to accomplish this with the genre.
However, as we know the career of Shyamalan has gone straight downhill since “Signs.” You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has a kind word to say about “The Village,” “Lady in the Water” or “The Happening.” They weren’t scary, thrilling, original or even intriguing in any way whatsoever. He even used a lame marketing campaign with “The Happening,” proclaiming it was his first rated “R” movie.
Prediction.
There are probably some fans of Shyamalan’s earlier work who will give him the benefit of the doubt with “The Last Airbender.” After that, it will take some pretty strong critical reviews and “word of mouth” for people to give it a chance. It better have some great special effects, because Shyamalan has been short on storytelling for almost a decade. Let’s go with $15 million due to the Writer/Director’s name recognition, and because it’s the 4th of July weekend.
Opening Weekend Gross: $15 Million
Noodles.
I'll admit to being a little jazzed up by this trailer. My kids enjoy Avatar: The Last Airbender, adn after watching a few of the cartoons myself, I can say that the source material for this film has rich background to take from. The special effects look amazing, but in this day and age you really have to work at having crappy effects in a movie. Plus the story looks like they're lifting a number of the key elements from the show and incorporating it here.
The Problem...With great stories come great responsibility. The show on Nickelodeon is told in sagas that allow Aang to develop over time into the great and powerful warrior capable of defeating the Fire Nation. Clocking in at an hour and forty minutes, my fear is that most of the richness of the story will be sidetracked in favor of the superficial. Then the question remains did they make this movie open ended or will it be able to stand on its own? With M. Night directing, especially with his recent track record, part of me thinks they will make this one a film that could be "one and done." However, that kind of rational forethought flies in the face of Hollywood's fascination with milking a franchise to death. I guess we'll see.
Prediction.
The only other competition for this film is Twilight and fortunately each film is aimed at a very different audience. Then of course this falls into the category of a kid's film so according to the The Kid's Movie Rule...which states that a movie made for children, will always do a little better than another film of a different genre but of equal quality. For instance Marmaduke was awful but it did $12M when it should have made more like $6M. For Airbender I predict a solid opening of mid-seventies.
Opening Weekend: Gross: $75 Million
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