Is The Last Airbender the Last Hurrah for M. Night Shyamalan?
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, The Last Airbender, is being thoroughly savaged by critics, receiving some of the director’s worst reviews yet. Adapted from a popular animated series, it remains to be seen whether or not the show’s young fans will agree with the critical consensus. With some devotees already expressing angst over casting choices, the film’s potential success (and Shyamalan’s future) seems to be on shaky ground. The current reaction from critics is familiar territory for Shyamalan. A quick look at Rotten Tomatoes reveals a remarkably consistent slide in the director’s ratings from film to film. If The Sixth Sense, with its 85 percent Tomatometer rating, marks the high-point of Shyamalan’s career, then Airbender, at 9 percent, represents the bottom of a ditch the director seems to have dug deeper with every new release. While poor reviews don’t always translate to poor box office performance (just ask Jerry Bruckheimer), the success of Shyamalan’s films have so far mat
