Ten years ago, M. Night Shyamalan, the director of “The Sixth Sense” who was once considered “promising,” temporarily abandoned mystical thrillers, adapted a children’s fantasy series, and definitively cemented his title as the “biggest disappointment of the 2000s.”
In a world inhabited by nations of four elements, not all is peaceful. To begin with, it is already a world inhabited by nations of three elements: the warlike “fire-benders” invaders heard that a unique Avatar mage, capable of controlling the four elements, was about to be born in the Air nation, and, without going into details, wiped out the entire nation. But a hundred years passed, and one day, while hunting for a seal, “water-benders” Katara and Sokka found a boy named Aang in the ice. Bald and frozen solid (after a hundred years!), he turned out to be the very Avatar who had run away from his own initiation on the eve of it and saved himself only thanks to this. Now Aang, as often happens with boys who have survived, must thwart the power-hungry “fire-benders” and restore harmony between the nations.
When “The Sixth Sense” was released, its author, M. Night Shyamalan, was declared almost the most promising director in Hollywood – and ten years later, when his “The Last Airbender” has already received the dubious title of “Most Criticized Film of the Year,” it can be safely said that the smiling Indian has not kept his promises.
Behind the Scenes of The Last Airbender
- The original series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” brought Nikelodeon several awards, including an Emmy for best animation.
- Dev Patel got on the project almost by accident: initially the role of Zuko was given to Jesse McCartney, but he did not work out with the schedule.
- Unlike the series, in the film, people from the Fire Nation need external sources of fire to control it and are not able to create it themselves.
- The film was planned as the first part of a trilogy.
- The film’s production budget was 150 million. Another 130 was spent on advertising.
Many expected that “The Last Airbender,” a costly and colorful adaptation of the Nikelodeon children’s series, would become a kind of “comeback” for Shyamalan after his last two failures – also panned by critics “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening.” In the end, the studio will not let him waste his millions on nonsense, – we kept our fingers crossed. But Shyamalan still wriggled out, and made an adaptation not so much even talentless, but stunning in its naivety and frivolity, with which the author neglects all the components of the concept of “good cinema.” Actually, it is precisely the consistency with which the director neglects these components that makes one suspect him not so much of talentlessness as of a secret intent, the essence of which is incomprehensible.
Decoding the Enigma of Shyamalan’s Choices
Having erased from your head the general bewilderment and individual remarks like “the brother and princess immediately liked each other,” you can, nevertheless, entertain yourself for quite a long time by searching for explanations. For example, obliged by the idea to adapt the series to his 12-year-old daughter, the director was certainly making a children’s film. In addition, having received the aforementioned millions, and with them an unprecedented opportunity for himself to draw ice cities and tsunamis in full growth, Shyamalan could get somewhat carried away with the visual side of things, which simply forgot about the existence of heroes and some kind of system of relations between them. Finally, the whole story might have been needed for him to sublimate internal aggression, making Buddhists-Hindus the main villains – the representatives of the fire nation here are played by Shyamalan’s compatriots, dressed up as ancient Roman legionaries, and for Dev “Slumdog Millionaire” Patel in the role of Prince Zuko, you can forgive the director everything. Including the murder of a film critic in “Lady in the Water.”
The Unanswered Question: What Happened to Shyamalan?
One way or another, we will not find the only correct answer to what happened to the guy who made “The Sixth Sense,” “The Village,” and “Unbreakable.” But let’s not lose hope that one day he will still stop watching his children’s series, call a good screenwriter and, stopping experiments on the audience’s patience, will shoot… well, at least “Unbreakable 2.” After all, there were such rumors.