Avatar: The Last Airbender
I just saw Avatar (we REFUSE to call it The Last Airbender as the title) and the bottom line is it sucked. But that IS to be expected, as they condensed a whole season of half hour episodes into more or less 2 hours. What really, really bugged me the entire movie was that they kept prounouncing things wrong. If anyone tries to talk about this to me, I will rage and rant. I blame it on the girl that plays Katara because she was the first one to say things wrong. But really, easy words that have already been said for over three years. Commonly misprounounced words and names: Avatar (aw-va-tar), Sokka (s-oh-kka), Aang (ah-ng), Iroh (ii-ro). Everytime they said one of these words I wanted to bash my head into something. If I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow I would be sitting with my uncle rewatching a few episodes to stop that horrid aftertaste burning in. my. mind.
So Katara didn't have the same Katara hairstyle, and I knew people were going to dislike her already because of that, so I vowed to myself that I would give her a chance. But as soon as she said 'Avatar' I hated her. And everytime she talked it looked like she was crying.
Anyways, the movie. It was like it was skimming the first season, with some changes. They didn't stop and linger in the villages, they were in the Southern Water Tribe for a full five minutes, most of the humor was gone. They didn't talk about the Kiyoshi Warriors, the cabbage merchant was no where to be seen, and that thing with Haru? Yeah, it sorta happens but it's different, and Aang is the one to give the emotional speech.
On to Sokka. Having seen the actor who's name I do not know two nights in a row, I kinda like him. He didn't do a horrible job, and I didn't keep seeing Jasper in Sokka. He still had the boomerang, but his humor and constant hunger not so much. He was still suspicious and protective.
Zuko. I like Zuko. He's my favorite, especially once he becomes a good guy in the last season. In the movie he wasn't quite so cruel. He had a lot of lost, lonely, sad looks, and it was obvious he was just a little boy (he looked younger here than in the show) who wanted to go home. The whole time I wanted to give him a big hug. Actually, I just want to find and read blatant self-insert/original character fic of him, because I don't like Zutara, and I don't really like him with Toph, and Suki is with Sokka and I want to huggle him.
There wasn't a lot in the Aang/Katara romance department. I didn't really see any longing looks, childish crush type behavior, nervousness. To be honest, even though I really don't ship Zutara, the movie is kinda making me want to read a few fics about it anyways. And I'm not really wanting slashy Zuko. Zuko Zuko Zuko. Can you tell who my favorite is?
Uncle Iroh was that father figure staying with Zuko, but he was far less carefree, and the only mention of tea seemed kind of thrown in there.
Ok, before I go, one last thing that annoyed me: all the bending was way more complicated than it should be. It took, like, 20 seconds of moving around to do one little thing. The fire bending was far more efficient, because there was a point where five earth benders were doing some synchronized moves, and I. SAW. NOTHING. Nothing came from it. UGH. I'm gonna go before I start back on the prounounciations.