The Last Airbender
Spoilers for the movie, so don't read it if you don't want it ruined for you.
I saw the movie yesterday with a few friends with rather low expectations. Sadly the movie didn't really meet those. I admit that I am an Avatar fan and followed the show almost religiously when it was coming out, but I'll try to repress that part of me for now. I'll complain as a fan later.
Where to begin... I'll start off with its good points. The setting was well done as well as costumes. Really beautiful and some places were breath-taking. The kung-fu was also rather impressive (especially Noah Ringers'). I feel the forms of kung-fu are beautiful, and I'm rather glad that Shyamalan focused so much on those forms. The bending was a hit and a miss. Sometimes the bending flowed so perfectly with the Kung-fu that I thought that's exactly what bending would look like in real life (i.e. Aang's waterbending sequence in the battle against the firebenders when he took them out one by one). Sometimes though the forms and the CG bending didn't quite meld together well. The kung-fu forms to bend would sometimes drag on a little and there was little to no bending. It made me doubtful that people could really fight like that.
The script, I'm sorry to say, was dreadful. I'm not sure where to pinpoint the problem. Rushed? Unrealistic? Shallow? There's a lot of problems with that script. I understand that they might have had some problems trying to get an 18 episode series condensed into an hour and 30 minutes, but there was little to no focus, and though I had seen the series, I had gotten confused. Some details had been explained too late like the concept of reincarnation behind the Avatar. At other times, they pressed to explain some important things that just came at the wrong time, like when Yue explains the complications of her birth after Sokka told a joke. It was awkward and a little painful to watch. People don't often just spring a particularly painful part of their lives at random times. It was difficult to really feel anything for the characters because scenes that were important to their development were put in voice-over. I had no empathy for the relationship between Sokka and Yue because I had been told in a voice-over that the two were close and not necessarily shown. Unfortunately, the writer's tried to explain many things in voice-over which was a major flaw. Then there were problems with flow. Terrible problems with flow. The story was so jumpy and all over the place. The goal was unclear until half way into the movie. Some things were left unexplained. There's this strange jump in Zuko's location after he saves Aang. One moment he's with Aang in the forest, the next he's with his uncle. What happened in between? It's things like that that make me massage my temples in pain.
The acting was... Yeah. I'm honestly not willing to really comment. There were bright spots, but they were too few and far in between. The script lent a lot to the awkward acting. I'm not going to comment on casting because I'm sure we've all heard enough on that. In the end, I wasn't convinced. The only character I was remotely empathetic with was Zuko, but I wouldn't say he had amazing acting skills. Sometimes his outbursts were too sudden and too much. A little random. Iroh was a bright spot. He wasn't the jolly old man I would have liked him to be, but he was caring and did have that feel of wisdom beyond his years which I feel is the main vibe Iroh gives.
Okay from now on is the ramblings of a fan. I wouldn't even read the rest from here if you liked the movie because it's going to start getting nitpicky from here, and even I'm bothered by nitpicky people.
My biggest problem with the movie was the lack of humor. Absolutely NONE. I had heard from other reviews that Sokka provided a bit of comedy relief but even that was weak at best. I personally loved the series because it has a lot of light humor scenes that really speak out to your inner child. Not all of it is exaggerated. Friendly banter between Sokka and Katara. Sokka's obsession with good merchandise. Aang's random carefree antics. These things build up and make up so much of their characters, to kill the humor is to kill a part of their characters. The movie rather went for that serious vibe, but I cared so little for it.
I daresay that I felt many of characters were out-of-character.
Aang was supposed to be a cheerful carefree character who wanted nothing more than to just be normal. In the movie, Aang showed that side of himself in flashbacks, but he was rather angsty otherwise. The movie made up a reason that the Avatar couldn't have a family to excuse Aang for running away. It was a weak reason. The show's reason that he ran away because they were going to take him away from Monk Giatsu seemed so much deeper. It showed that Aang was still a child and that he still clung onto his attachments. It showed how deep his relationship was with Giatsu, and he really felt human because he feared losing such a deep connection. I felt the movie was trying to give Aang a less selfish for running away, but Aang is selfish. He's human. He's a child, and while the title of Avatar holds such deep omnipotent meaning, Aang has emotions and wants just like the next person. To take that away from him made me care less for him. Besides that, there was nothing to his character, Just a person who has to save the world. The reluctant hero, but they didn't even stress that very well. Aang is selfish, he's a show off, he's caring, he's a pacifist, he's a cheerful person. None of it. I absolutely saw none of it.
Katara was blase. In the show, she's a mother hen with a bit of a temper. She's quick with her words and an optimist. She's a person who believes there's a clear line between right and wrong, and many conflicts arise for her when she occasionally crosses that line. Motivation behind many of her actions were weak. Katara goes after Aang because he's "their responsibility." That's not in Katara's character. She would go after Aang because it was the right thing, because he was her friend. She wouldn't be choose such a heavy reason such as responsibility. I actually found her rather annoying because she really couldn't do anything. In the movie, she was a person who would declare things but couldn't back them up with her actions. She was so kickass in the show, but in the movie, she was rather pathetic. There is an odd focus on Katara that I feel is misplaced because she really is nothing special in the movie.
Sokka hardly shines in the movie, no terrible puns, not random rants. They only kept his paranoia. Sokka is a deeper person than just his jokes. He has his insecurities because he's easily the weakest person after Katara learns how to waterbend. He has the qualities of a leader, but they're still in development in the first season. Nope, none of that. I just saw an overprotective brother whose only line seemed to be "Don't trust him! He's fire nation." Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for making him worth absolutely nothing.
Zuko was okay. His scar should have been more pronounced, and they hardly mentioned the damn thing, even though it's such an integral part to Zuko's character. It's a reminder of his failure, a reminder of how terrible his family can be, a deformity that drives others away, that leaves him to his brooding and loneliness. Any of that? Nope. As one of my friends had put it, it looked like he got into a few fights with a cat. I suppose I should be thankful that he had a character, but I swear I can't even imagine how they could have messed up angsty.
There were few conflicts, like really. I had no empathy because most of the situations Aang was in, he tended to kick butt. There was no tough choice, no "pick your poison." Nothing really. Made me want to crack a few skulls, especially since they had so many opportunities. Let's take the Blue Spirit for example, the perfect opportunity to show an inner struggle within Zuko. If Zuko frees Aang, he's committing treason, a blow to his own country, but if he doesn't, he can never regain his honor and his father's favor. There should have been a quick scene about that but all we see is some guy in a blue mask kick butt. Oh the pain. Also there's like close to nothing about Aang and co visiting other places between that first Earth village they save and the northern water tribe. That was about the entire journey you just cut out. Good job!
Here let me get even more pickier! What's with the name pronunciation? Aang like Gong without the G. Authenticity my ass. It made my ears twitch, that's what it did. Completely unnecessary, only done to please the muse of the director.
I'm starting to get bitter and more sarcastic. From here on, it's just a list of things I didn't like.
They never explained the dragon in the spirit world was Avatar Roku's.
Commander Zhao was always provoking to the point where it really wasn't believable. It was done to give back story actually, but it was so poorly done and so unrealistic, I wanted to shoot myself.
Aang should not be having trouble with water. In fact, he gets it before Katara does, and Katara is the one who feels inadequate because of it. Lost that chance to develop Katara's character.
No King Bumi. No Kyoshi warriors. No Jet.
There's this one scene with earthbending when like 6 guys are doing complex kung-fu moves, and only this pitiful rock moves. It was laughable.
Zuko rarely interferes with their travels.
Firebending had to be used from an available source, so none of that wisdom about chi and breathing. There was also little fire-bending. As my friend put it, the water tribe could have easily won if they just put out the damn fires that were lighting the area.
I'm sure there's more, but I can't remember all of them. Ugh that's right. Just another complainer for the internet. Honestly though, I did try to separate from my fan-self as I watched the movie. I understand that there are the limits of a movie, that not all things can be included, that budget does not allow for such and such, that they had reasons for each decision and each move. However, at the very base there should have been a story that draws the audience in. There was, but it was so convoluted and muddled that it was lost on me as an audience. Even if I had never seen the show, the movie had such terrible flow and little to no conflict, that there was no way the $7 ticket was worth it.
So there you go, the end of that tirade. I'm sure no one even cares about my opinion, but getting it out like this makes me feel better. I pray that the second movie is better,
I saw the movie yesterday with a few friends with rather low expectations. Sadly the movie didn't really meet those. I admit that I am an Avatar fan and followed the show almost religiously when it was coming out, but I'll try to repress that part of me for now. I'll complain as a fan later.
Where to begin... I'll start off with its good points. The setting was well done as well as costumes. Really beautiful and some places were breath-taking. The kung-fu was also rather impressive (especially Noah Ringers'). I feel the forms of kung-fu are beautiful, and I'm rather glad that Shyamalan focused so much on those forms. The bending was a hit and a miss. Sometimes the bending flowed so perfectly with the Kung-fu that I thought that's exactly what bending would look like in real life (i.e. Aang's waterbending sequence in the battle against the firebenders when he took them out one by one). Sometimes though the forms and the CG bending didn't quite meld together well. The kung-fu forms to bend would sometimes drag on a little and there was little to no bending. It made me doubtful that people could really fight like that.
The script, I'm sorry to say, was dreadful. I'm not sure where to pinpoint the problem. Rushed? Unrealistic? Shallow? There's a lot of problems with that script. I understand that they might have had some problems trying to get an 18 episode series condensed into an hour and 30 minutes, but there was little to no focus, and though I had seen the series, I had gotten confused. Some details had been explained too late like the concept of reincarnation behind the Avatar. At other times, they pressed to explain some important things that just came at the wrong time, like when Yue explains the complications of her birth after Sokka told a joke. It was awkward and a little painful to watch. People don't often just spring a particularly painful part of their lives at random times. It was difficult to really feel anything for the characters because scenes that were important to their development were put in voice-over. I had no empathy for the relationship between Sokka and Yue because I had been told in a voice-over that the two were close and not necessarily shown. Unfortunately, the writer's tried to explain many things in voice-over which was a major flaw. Then there were problems with flow. Terrible problems with flow. The story was so jumpy and all over the place. The goal was unclear until half way into the movie. Some things were left unexplained. There's this strange jump in Zuko's location after he saves Aang. One moment he's with Aang in the forest, the next he's with his uncle. What happened in between? It's things like that that make me massage my temples in pain.
The acting was... Yeah. I'm honestly not willing to really comment. There were bright spots, but they were too few and far in between. The script lent a lot to the awkward acting. I'm not going to comment on casting because I'm sure we've all heard enough on that. In the end, I wasn't convinced. The only character I was remotely empathetic with was Zuko, but I wouldn't say he had amazing acting skills. Sometimes his outbursts were too sudden and too much. A little random. Iroh was a bright spot. He wasn't the jolly old man I would have liked him to be, but he was caring and did have that feel of wisdom beyond his years which I feel is the main vibe Iroh gives.
Okay from now on is the ramblings of a fan. I wouldn't even read the rest from here if you liked the movie because it's going to start getting nitpicky from here, and even I'm bothered by nitpicky people.
My biggest problem with the movie was the lack of humor. Absolutely NONE. I had heard from other reviews that Sokka provided a bit of comedy relief but even that was weak at best. I personally loved the series because it has a lot of light humor scenes that really speak out to your inner child. Not all of it is exaggerated. Friendly banter between Sokka and Katara. Sokka's obsession with good merchandise. Aang's random carefree antics. These things build up and make up so much of their characters, to kill the humor is to kill a part of their characters. The movie rather went for that serious vibe, but I cared so little for it.
I daresay that I felt many of characters were out-of-character.
Aang was supposed to be a cheerful carefree character who wanted nothing more than to just be normal. In the movie, Aang showed that side of himself in flashbacks, but he was rather angsty otherwise. The movie made up a reason that the Avatar couldn't have a family to excuse Aang for running away. It was a weak reason. The show's reason that he ran away because they were going to take him away from Monk Giatsu seemed so much deeper. It showed that Aang was still a child and that he still clung onto his attachments. It showed how deep his relationship was with Giatsu, and he really felt human because he feared losing such a deep connection. I felt the movie was trying to give Aang a less selfish for running away, but Aang is selfish. He's human. He's a child, and while the title of Avatar holds such deep omnipotent meaning, Aang has emotions and wants just like the next person. To take that away from him made me care less for him. Besides that, there was nothing to his character, Just a person who has to save the world. The reluctant hero, but they didn't even stress that very well. Aang is selfish, he's a show off, he's caring, he's a pacifist, he's a cheerful person. None of it. I absolutely saw none of it.
Katara was blase. In the show, she's a mother hen with a bit of a temper. She's quick with her words and an optimist. She's a person who believes there's a clear line between right and wrong, and many conflicts arise for her when she occasionally crosses that line. Motivation behind many of her actions were weak. Katara goes after Aang because he's "their responsibility." That's not in Katara's character. She would go after Aang because it was the right thing, because he was her friend. She wouldn't be choose such a heavy reason such as responsibility. I actually found her rather annoying because she really couldn't do anything. In the movie, she was a person who would declare things but couldn't back them up with her actions. She was so kickass in the show, but in the movie, she was rather pathetic. There is an odd focus on Katara that I feel is misplaced because she really is nothing special in the movie.
Sokka hardly shines in the movie, no terrible puns, not random rants. They only kept his paranoia. Sokka is a deeper person than just his jokes. He has his insecurities because he's easily the weakest person after Katara learns how to waterbend. He has the qualities of a leader, but they're still in development in the first season. Nope, none of that. I just saw an overprotective brother whose only line seemed to be "Don't trust him! He's fire nation." Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for making him worth absolutely nothing.
Zuko was okay. His scar should have been more pronounced, and they hardly mentioned the damn thing, even though it's such an integral part to Zuko's character. It's a reminder of his failure, a reminder of how terrible his family can be, a deformity that drives others away, that leaves him to his brooding and loneliness. Any of that? Nope. As one of my friends had put it, it looked like he got into a few fights with a cat. I suppose I should be thankful that he had a character, but I swear I can't even imagine how they could have messed up angsty.
There were few conflicts, like really. I had no empathy because most of the situations Aang was in, he tended to kick butt. There was no tough choice, no "pick your poison." Nothing really. Made me want to crack a few skulls, especially since they had so many opportunities. Let's take the Blue Spirit for example, the perfect opportunity to show an inner struggle within Zuko. If Zuko frees Aang, he's committing treason, a blow to his own country, but if he doesn't, he can never regain his honor and his father's favor. There should have been a quick scene about that but all we see is some guy in a blue mask kick butt. Oh the pain. Also there's like close to nothing about Aang and co visiting other places between that first Earth village they save and the northern water tribe. That was about the entire journey you just cut out. Good job!
Here let me get even more pickier! What's with the name pronunciation? Aang like Gong without the G. Authenticity my ass. It made my ears twitch, that's what it did. Completely unnecessary, only done to please the muse of the director.
I'm starting to get bitter and more sarcastic. From here on, it's just a list of things I didn't like.
They never explained the dragon in the spirit world was Avatar Roku's.
Commander Zhao was always provoking to the point where it really wasn't believable. It was done to give back story actually, but it was so poorly done and so unrealistic, I wanted to shoot myself.
Aang should not be having trouble with water. In fact, he gets it before Katara does, and Katara is the one who feels inadequate because of it. Lost that chance to develop Katara's character.
No King Bumi. No Kyoshi warriors. No Jet.
There's this one scene with earthbending when like 6 guys are doing complex kung-fu moves, and only this pitiful rock moves. It was laughable.
Zuko rarely interferes with their travels.
Firebending had to be used from an available source, so none of that wisdom about chi and breathing. There was also little fire-bending. As my friend put it, the water tribe could have easily won if they just put out the damn fires that were lighting the area.
I'm sure there's more, but I can't remember all of them. Ugh that's right. Just another complainer for the internet. Honestly though, I did try to separate from my fan-self as I watched the movie. I understand that there are the limits of a movie, that not all things can be included, that budget does not allow for such and such, that they had reasons for each decision and each move. However, at the very base there should have been a story that draws the audience in. There was, but it was so convoluted and muddled that it was lost on me as an audience. Even if I had never seen the show, the movie had such terrible flow and little to no conflict, that there was no way the $7 ticket was worth it.
So there you go, the end of that tirade. I'm sure no one even cares about my opinion, but getting it out like this makes me feel better. I pray that the second movie is better,