Film: The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender is a Chinese high-kick, quasi-martial arts fantasy film with almost no Chinese in it even though many of the characters have Mandarin names. The stars are of often indeterminate European stock - or Indian.

The film, by Indian Director M. Night Shyamalan is fine fun - if you've not seen any of the spectacular Chinese films of the same vein. Forget Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - that was heavily watered down for western tastes. Airbender is watered down for - actually, it's hard to tell whose taste it is for.

The plot is thin: certain persons have the magical ability to "bend" - as in manipulate - the four elements: fire, earth, water and air. A gang of baddies (the Fire Nation) has been systematically wiping out the groups to which the other "benders" belong.

Seemingly, despite the number of English actors, no one thought to tell the director that a "bender" has a very specific - and insulting - meaning in English and to call someone a "bender" in modern Britain with its political correctness gone mad might result in prosecution.

Equally bizarre is the use of the term "Avatar" for all the most powerful benders.

The film is a horrible hotchpotch of styles (the beginning is a straight lift from every modern version of the Narnia stories.

To describe most of the acting as "wooden" would be an insult to trees. The lead actor - a child called Noah Ringer - has some martial arts moves, but he's hopelessly lacking in fluidity. The lead adult male, Jackson Rathbone - where he plays one of the Cullen clan - is probably delighted that his part in this film is so forgettable. The lead female is Nicola Peltz of which Wikipedia says "her most notable role to date is Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender." Not a great recommendation, one must say.

Honestly, if you value the planet, don't waste its resources on electricity to run this film in cinemas for a moment longer than is necessary.