In the golden age of the kingdom called Hollywood, there was harmony between the four elements: writing, acting, editing and directing. When, in the dying days of the millennium, a phantom menace named George Lucas threw the kingdom out of balance, a young image bender named M. Night Shyamalan fought back with his sixth sense. The elders hailed him as the chosen one — but he was a charlatan. Shyamalan's latest creation, "The Last Airbender," is a toxic potion that will put children to sleep and kill his career.

Based on an Asian-ish cartoon series called "Avatar: The Last Airbender," the movie has been criticized for racially inappropriate casting, but that's the least of its problems. The acting is laughable, the effects are phony, the editing is addled and the dialogue is disastrous.

Steeped in pseudo-Buddhist blarney, this confusing flick is yet another fantasy about a boy who is forced to save the world from a power-mad adversary. The title character is Aang (Noah Ringer), the last person on earth who can direct the energy of the wind. He also may be the prophesied "avatar" who can harmonize air with the competing elements of fire, earth and water.

Apparently that's a big deal, which is why two warriors from the fire kingdom (Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire" and Aasif Mandvi of, um, "The Daily Show") are racing to capture him.

Aang is a young and reluctant messiah who still needs training to bend the other elements. So he treks to the ice kingdom with a water bender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone).

Evidently, "The Last Airbender" was intended to be the first of a four-part franchise. But you'd have to have water on the brain to bet on it. Ringer, a 12-year-old Texan who trained in tae kwon do, has no charisma, and his martial-arts skills are wasted in slo-mo action sequences set in digitized landscapes. Even the post-production 3-D is punchless.

Instead of his usual twist ending, M. Night Shyamalan has twisted "The Last Airbender" into a noose.