The Last Airbender - Thoughts?

[Mechamaniac]

Finally got the chance to answer my own question over the weekend. It was HORRIBLE. Utterly horrible.

Here's my laundry list.

The Bad (A.K.A - Most of the Film)

• They pronounced the frakking characters NAMES wrong....seriously? Aang = Ong, Sokka = Sewka, Iroh = Eeroh, and my personal favorite was how they kept mis pronouncing the word avatar. Sometimes it was pronounced normally, other times, it was pronounced "ahhhhvatar".
  
• Aang, who throughout most of the TV series carried a 12 year old's joie de vivre despite what was going on around him came off as a moody EMO kid in the movie. So, to sum up, they mis-pronounced Aang's name and lobotomized his character.
  
• Sokka got robbed, he was little more than a set dressing.
  
• Appa was barely seen and when he was he was shown to be little more than transportation.
  
• The bending was crap. Despite all the nice looking effects in the trailers, the movie fails to carry off the bending well. First off, everyone in the movie seems to have to do a ton of complicated kata for 10-30 seconds until anything starts to happen. That reduces bending as a martial art to less than worthless since during that time any average guy could just run in and kick the crap out of the bender. Overall, you just didn't get the sense that the people were actually moving or interacting with the CGI elements being bent.
  
• The pacing sucked. This is a direct consequence of them trying to pack a year's worth of story into a two hour movie.
  

The Good (About 10 minutes worth of the film)

• Iroh was the one ray of light in the entire godawful shitty mess. His character was spot on despite them mis pronouncing his name.
  
• There is a scene where Aang and The Blue Spirit escape the Fire Nation which is holed up in an old Air Nomad temple. This scene was pretty good in that it at least showed some half decent bending and use of terrain and natural obstacles by Aang.
  
• The last scene, the attack on the Northern Water Tribe, was not bad.
  
• It's not doing very well so I don't think there will be any more bastardizations of this series coming our way.
  
• It makes me appreciate the series much more.
  

It's funny that the irony here is the blatantly racist casting. Everyone was all up in arms that they miscast just about everyone in this film, and don't get me wrong, I'm in total agreement. Speaking as a round-eye, the world of Avatar is deeply rooted and steeped in Asian culture. With VERY FEW noted exceptions, there aren't any white or even brown people in that world. The fact that they only managed to cast one "half" Asian actor in the whole shebang is beyond sad. However, I never would have thought that this would be the least of the sins this movie would have committed. Something tells me that if this movie had been a smaller budget product made by Ang Lee or John Woo it would have been much closer to the spirit of the original show and probably would have been tons better.

They had to know that they were facing a monumental task in bringing the world of Avatar - The Last Airbender to life. Elemental martial arts, animals that don't exist in nature as we know it. Not to mention the very spirit of the series itself. Maybe it's just me but given the fact that they knew they were going to have these problems to overcome you'd figure they would leave the easy stuff (like the character's names) alone but hey, I'm not a director so what do I know?

What does this equal up to? M. Knight Shamalamadingdong owes me $46.50. I'm coming for you motherfrakker.

[m0n5t3r]

The Bad (A.K.A - Most of the Film)

guess i'll just wait awhile and watch it for free...

It makes me appreciate the series much more.

not sure if this has been posted... but this might cheer you up - New Avatar The Last Airbender Spinoff series

Edited July 23, 2010 by m0n5t3r

[jenius]

I love me some terrible movies (it's my guilty pleasure). So, to make sure I thoroughly understand how terrible this movie is, I've started watching the series.

[peter]

Started to watch a cam version (pretty good version), got about 20 minutes into the movie and decided to turn it off. It was worth suing to get those 20 minutes of my life back, I would do it.

I can't give you a review on the whole thing, but the first 20 minutes were hysterically stupid and lame. Story, acting, EVERYTHING SUCKED.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

I've seen barely any of the series (yes i know it rules and want to get the whole on dvd/blueray) so with that being said maybe i might enjoy it?

I saw the trailer while waiting for Avatar sp to roll (awesome) and it looks wicked.

Ohh and it can't be as bad as the Dragonball f^ckup, i don't know how anyone who worked on that can sleep at night.

Edited September 1, 2010 by ruskiiVFaussie

[RD Blade]

It's better than Dragonball.

[BeyondTheGrave]

I've seen barely any of the series (yes i know it rules and want to get the whole on dvd/blueray) so with that being said maybe i might enjoy it?

I saw the trailer while waiting for Avatar sp to roll (awesome) and it looks wicked.

Ohh and it can't be as bad as the Dragonball f^ckup, i don't know how anyone who worked on that can sleep at night.

Don't watch it seriously.

[Protoculture]

Have watched the said movie. Not half bad for an epic fantasy culled from a Nickolodeon carton, but the acting sucks arse. But I can't stop the racial overtones ... Caucasians & smatterings of Inuits as Watertribes, Indians as Fire Nations, Chinese obviously Earth Kingdoms & the extinct Air Nomads - darnit, I can't put my finger on it ... Americans going Buddhist? - that's about right ...

[RD Blade]

Not half bad for an epic fantasy culled from a Nickolodeon carton, but the acting sucks arse.

You forgot to mention how excellent the cartoon is. Much as the acting sucked in the movie, the writing is the bigger crime against the audience.

[ruskiiVFaussie]

how could this happen? What did the original creators do when they handed the license over to be made into a movie, count money? Bet they feel s^it about now.

Edited September 2, 2010 by ruskiiVFaussie

[RD Blade]

I think the creators have been too busy working on the new Avatar series to micro-manage Shyamalan. While the overall premise remained intact, his dialogue and style of storytelling kept the movie from achieving greatness. I'm on the fence about him directing the sequels, but I'm totally against him writing them or having final say on the scripts.

[BeyondTheGrave]

But I can't stop the racial overtones ... Caucasians & smatterings of Inuits as Watertribes, Indians as Fire Nations, Chinese obviously Earth Kingdoms & the extinct Air Nomads - darnit, I can't put my finger on it ... Americans going Buddhist? - that's about right ...

I had no problem with that just mainly the bad acting, the various things the avatar isn't allowed to do / have and the narration.