The Last Commander

The Last Airbender is a 2010 American fantasy action-adventure film based on the first season of the animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2008). Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the film stars an ensemble cast featuring Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi, and Cliff Curtis. The plot follows Aang, a young Avatar who must master all four elements of air, water, earth, and fire to bring balance to the world while stopping the Fire Nation from conquering the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom. Development for the film began in January 2007, with casting and pre-production taking place in 2008. Principal photography began in March 2009 and ended in September, with two weeks' shooting in Greenland, and the rest of the film being shot in various locations in Pennsylvania, United States. Post-production began in August and took several months due to the extensive visual effects. The name Avatar was dropped from the title to avoid confusion with James Cameron's 2009 film, Avatar. The Last Airbender premiered at the Alice Tully Hall in New York City on June 30, 2010, and was theatrically released in the United States the following day by Paramount Pictures. The film was universally panned by critics, audiences, and fans of the animated series alike upon release, who criticized Shyamalan's direction and screenplay, the acting performances, editing, visual effects, action sequences, use of voice-over, unfaithfulness to the source material, and use of 3D, though some did praise Lesnie's cinematography and Howard's musical score. It is often considered one of the worst films of all time, and has been publicly disavowed by fans and the creators of the original series. Despite the film making a profit at the box office, grossing $319.7 million worldwide against a $150 million budget, it was still considered a box-office disappointment. The film's scathing critical reception and disappointing box-office results caused the studio to cancel a planned trilogy of films. A live-action television series adaptation of the original animated series produced by Netflix would premiere fourteen years later to an improved reception.