THE LAST AIRBENDER PG, 103 mins). Starring Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Cliff Curtis, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi *** %movie(12721)

M Night Shyamalan is an odd choice to direct a special effects-laden adventure based on the popular Nickelodeon animated TV series, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

After all, this is the film-maker who allowed us all to see dead people in The Sixth Sense, created a modern-day superhero in Unbreakable and allowed an enraged Mother Nature to slaughter most of mankind in The Happening.

The Last Airbender is a very different beast: a big-budget journey of discovery, punctuated by sprawling battle sequences on a similarly grand scale to The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, that relies heavily on spectacle rather than substance or Shyamalan’s famed narrative twists.

The writer-director juggles the myriad technical elements but he is occasionally let down by unconvincing digital effects that look more like a cartoon than live action.

Moreover, some of the performances are more wooden that the gargantuan sets, creating repeated moments of unintentional hilarity.

Orphaned siblings Sokka (Rathbone) and Katara (Peltz) discover a young boy called Aang (Ringer) frozen in the ice near their village.

The boy is covered in strange tattoos and the siblings surmise that Aang must be the Avatar, destined to manipulate the four elements (air, water, earth, fire).

No sooner have the children arrived back at their village than outcast Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) from the Fire Nation and his soldiers capture Aang and hold him hostage aboard their ship.

Thankfully, the prisoner escapes and begins the journey back to his temple, accompanied by Sokka and Katara.

Meanwhile, Zuko’s father Fire Lord Ozai (Curtis) entreats trusted Commander Zhao (Mandvi) to find Aang and prevent the boy from achieving his destiny.

The Last Airbender screens in 3D in selected cinemas, but the increasingly-popular format was an afterthought, so don’t bother paying the additional ticket prices for the honour of wearing the uncomfortable plastic spectacles.

A caption card at the beginning reads, Book One: Water, and it quickly becomes clear that this is the first film in a potential series. It’s hard to see subsequent chapters ever making it to the big screen.

Ringer is a likeable hero, struggling to comprehend with his preordained path, and Patel wrings as much pathos as possible from his underwritten role as the exiled prodigal son.

“[Aang] will begin to win hearts because it’s in hearts that all wars are won,” proclaims one sage.

Regrettably, in the battle for our hearts and minds, Shyamalan comes up short.