The Last Airbender

[JaddziaDax]

I went to see it last night, and well I really am kinda half and half on it.

While the butchering of the names was completely stupid, I think I had more issues with how specific characters were portrayed. Sokka was not hammy or funny. He was as bland as a Twilight "vampire" *cough*. Aang was not happy-go-lucky at all and pouted way too much for my taste. Katara was too soft and lacked any real stubbornness. Iroh wasn't Santa Claus enough... he was neither fat or jolly. Ozai wasn't nearly as menacing as he should have been.

I'd read all the complaints about the racial issues long before but I was willing to give the movie a chance anyway, seeing as the director claimed to be a fan of the show, and that is why he was making the film.

The one thing I think ruined the movie the most was the one thing I was worried about the most as well: the total lack of humor. There was slight humor right at the beginning but then nothing for the rest of the movie. While Avatar: The Last Airbender did have a lot of serious times in it, I really think that it was the humor that carried the show. This movie was too serious business.

However the costuming, fight scenes and the effects were very fun to watch, and seems to be the only value I got out of the film.

I'm curious to know the thoughts of people who saw this movie, who don't know the cartoon series. However I'd also like to read other people's reactions as well...

[CodeZTM]

I really thought a lot of what you said. It was wAY too serious for its own good, and the actors were completely unbelieveable as their cartoon counterparts. Really, Sokka is probably my favorite character, and I thought that they really butchered his personality. Aang was butchered far worse, however.

REally, when it came down to it, I knew that it could never be as good as the original series. One, because marketing directors want to reach out to non fans and have to have it a little more "adult/teenager afied" for those that thought of it as a cartoon. Two, because anime movies are NEVER as good as the original series [it's just a fact of life, but I will give honorable mention to the death note movie for being VERY close]. And three, because I have unreasonably high expectations of films. Films are on the bottom latter rung of what I consider "entertaining". Books, video games, music, anime/manga, ect, ect, Movies. And when movies try to take something from the top rungs and make it entertaining, it really just falls flat onits face for me, because movies aren't as immersive as other means of entertainment, especially when they mess with story arcs and characters.

It wasn't... Terrible. No, I can't say it was bad, because I can see an "attempt" to make it great. It was still entertaining as well, but as a hard-core fan, it was kind of like a slap in the face. A softer slap in the fact than say... Sparkly vampire pregnancy and pedophile werewolves, but still a slap in the face.

[Kireblue]

I don't think that I've ever been as disappointed in a film. There was just too many things that I just can't overlook. The whole "Earth Benders, there is dirt underneath you" scene was really hard to watch. Especially when Aang started to get on guard and held his hand out to keep back the fire nation guards. It would have made sense for him to do this......if the guards were actually within 20 feet of him or possibly surrounding him. And then, the earth benders could clearly beat the guards even without Aang's help. It looked like they outnumbered the guards at least 3-1. And some of them weren't even fire benders! It was a really big WTF moment for me when even Sokka started to beat the shit out of them.

And then, the script was so repetitive. It like the scriptwriter decided that he just wasn't going to use any pronouns at certain points of the movie. Oh and, Sokka's actor murdered so many lines. There were times when he didn't even pause between completely unrelated sentences.

Oh and the 3d text on the screen looked god awful. I'm not sure how I feel about the 3d crossfades though. At first, I was like "woah, was that a 3d crossfade?". But they never lasted ling enough for me to decide if I liked them or not.............yes.....I know I need help. I'm just slightly obsessed with crossfades.

If the sequel ever gets made, I'm confident that they would do a better job, but the one was such a let down.

[BasharOfTheAges]

From a conversation with a friend:

jms: so uh.
jms: I went to see last airbender opening night
jms: it... was not a pleasent experience
jms: like, it was really really really excruciatingly not good
jms: the last, say, half hour+ I was just waiting for it to hurry up and end.
jms: take the cartoon, compress the first season into 90 minutes or whatever, but during compression, extract every single element that made avatar awesome.
jms: then, change up pronounciations of some stuff, aang becomes ong, sokka becomes soh-ka, avatar becomes ahhhvatar etc.
jms: The, have a deaf blind guy do the casting for half the characters.
jms: eliminate emotion, character development and believability from the script
jms: and you'd still be left with a better film than what m night put out.
jms: generic epic quest #69234, this time with elemental powers
jms: so, I'd advise you to avoid it.
basharoftheages: i will follow this advice
basharoftheages: i had heard from some critic review on the news that it was pretty bad. that they took it and made it into a generic kiddy movie that lacks any appeal to adults and people with taste
jms: there was an 11 yearold with us, and even he thought it was bad.
jms: so yeah, super generic crap with fairly nonsensical plot

[aesling]

What Bashar's friend said fairly well sums it up. The writing for this movie was just horrible, at least half the people in it had no acting ability, and the fight scenes were unintentionally funny/ridiculous. Some shining examples of the dialogue include: "Then the Fire Nation came, with their machines...made of metal!" and "We must show them we believe our beliefs just as strongly as they believe theirs."

I cannot count the number of times I literally facepalmed during this movie.

[guy07]

I heard it was really rushed. Probably won't see it. Series was ok but I don't see the movie wowing me in any way.

[Elcalavero]

Watched the movie and it sucked.
End of Story.

[CodeZTM]

Really, some big video game critic needs to use this movie to write a review and use it and say "MOVIES CAN NEVER BE ART". STICK THAT IN YOUR CRAW EBERT!

[JaddziaDax]

Some shining examples of the dialogue include: "Then the Fire Nation came, with their machines...made of metal!" and "We must show them we believe our beliefs just as strongly as they believe theirs."

I was wondering if they could get more repetitive myself... I nearly facepalmed on the line about how "[Katara's] brother became friends with the princess right away" and they didn't show anything of the sort... Being someone who has seen the series I know how it happens, but it seems like such a bullshit line to save time.

One of my friends said that it would have been a bit better if it had been split into two movies. I know that there's tons of complaints about leaving out Jett and the Kyoshi Warriors.

[Ishbalan]

I was never a fan of the show and am not planning to see the movie, but this review is so awesome it has to be accurate.
http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamala ... e-a-comedy

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