When 3D means dingy, dull and downright ugly

Hideous effects make

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It’s not just the presence of titles like “The Karate Kid”and “The A-Team”: If you’re heading to the movies this summer, it really is1983 all over again. That was the last time we had this kind of an onslaught of3D extravaganzas — with the accompanying headaches and eye-aches from sloppyfilmmaking and sub-par projection.

“The Last Airbender” was shot in 2D and hastily (andhideously) converted to 3D. If you had the misfortune to see “Clash of theTitans” a few months ago, you have an idea of what you’re in for in“Airbender.” The conversion process leaves distracting “ghosting” patternsaround some images (the sort of thing you see on ancient video tapes) anddouble-prints other details, resulting in characters that seem to havemisshapen heads or hairdos that float above and behind their scalps. In onetruly laughable close-up, the perspective is so woefully distorted that theeyebrows of our young hero, Aang (Noah Ringer), seem to have retreated deepinto his forehead.

Another drawback to the bogus 3D is its tendency to darkenevery scene, to the point where even when Aang and his followers are outdoorsin broad daylight it still looks as if they’re standing beneath ominous stormclouds. Unfortunately, large segments of “Airbender” are set in murky corridors,shadow-filled caves and in similarly sunless locations. In these scenes, itbecomes a major challenge to even see what’s going on, much less follow thechases and battles.

“Airbender” was inspired by a popular animated series knownas “Avatar: The Last Airbender” or “Avatar: The Legend of Aang,” whichoriginally ran on Nickelodeon from 2005 through 2008. (It seems someone elsedecided to call his movie “Avatar,” so “The Last Airbender” had to suffice.)

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (who was probably hungryfor some kind of a hit after the debacles of “Lady in the Water” and “TheHappening”) has followed the basic outline of the series, although my15-year-old niece Rachael — an “Airbender” expert — complained many of thecharacter names were either mispronounced or dropped altogether in Shyamalan’sscreenplay, which labors dutifully to set up what Paramount hopes will be atrilogy. The filmmakers aren’t particularly subtle about this: The movie beginswith the subtitle “Book One: Water” and ends with a cliffhanger custom-designedto segue into the next installment.

Seventy years ago, “Airbender” would almost certainly havebeen a serial; now, it’s a would-be blockbuster.

Picture “Harry Potter” with a Buddhist bent, and you’ll havea good idea of what to expect from “Airbender.” Set in a future in whichcivilization has splintered into far-flung nations — the Water Nation, theEarth Nation, the Fire Nation, etc. — the story opens with Katara (NicolaPeltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) hunting for food in the frozen wastes theycall home. Instead of bringing home dinner, they discover a mystery: YoungAang, dressed like a miniature monk and adorned with odd tattoos on his shavenhead, emerges from an enormous bubble beneath the ice. It’s quickly discoveredAang is an Airbender, a psychic warrior blessed with a talent for telekinesis;Katara, for her part, is a Waterbender, who can manipulate liquids with hermind.

Although the two of them could probably team up for oneheckuva magic show, they are instead forced into battle against the sinisterlegions of the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation foot-soldiers dress like Shogunwarriors and travel around in ships that look like they’ve been in dry-docksince World War I. They are, naturally, Firebenders, capable of shooting flamesat their enemies or surrounding their prey with flaming rings. Sounds like agreat skill to have, although the Firebenders don’t seem particularly adept atusing their powers. Besides, if there’s a Waterbender anywhere nearby, well,the Firebenders run out of firepower pretty quickly.

Aang, Katara and Sokka embark on a round-the-world tour todrum up support for their anti-Fire Nation crusade, finally setting up camp ina snowy pseudo-Shangri-La ruled by a sympathetic – and way foxy — teenageprincess (Seychelle Gabriel) who could pass as Jessica Alba’s kid sister.

This is all unhappy news for Prince Zuko (Dev Patel of“Slumdog Millionaire”), the disgraced and temporarily banished son of Fire LordOzai (Cliff Curtis). Zuko wants to win back his father’s favor by capturing andenslaving Aang before the adolescent Airbender can master waterbending,earthbending and firebending and truly take his place as the all-powerfulAvatar.

“Airbender” might please the Saturday matinee crowd, andthere’s something to be said for any youth-oriented film that takes time outfrom its fights and frights to extol the virtues of meditation, the wonders ofyin and yang and the importance of the grieving process. Those messages areeasier to take than Shyamalan’s script, which manages to seem half-baked atsome points and overcooked at others. There’s certainly no harmonic balance tobe found in the dialogue, which frequently flips back and forth betweenlightheartedness (“Hey, guys! Where are you at?”) and heavy-handedness.

Perhaps legions of followers of the original show will turn“Airbender” into a box office success. But don’t be surprised if Aang andcompany soon find themselves exiled to the Nation of Failed Franchises,alongside the casts of “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant,” “Eragon” and“Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

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