My review of "The Last Airbender" movie
I just got back from seeing the movie "The Last Airbender," although to me it's still "Avatar." Screw you, James Cameron, you title-stealing blue-boobie-obsessed spooty head. :p
I was a bit apprehensive after hearing a lot of bad reviews from both the critics and some of my friends, but overall I did enjoy it.
It wasn't perfect, but anyone who expected it to be a faithful, word-for-word recreation of the animated show was delusional. It doesn't work that way. Books, film, animation, shadow puppetry...they're all different media and what works in one will not necessarily work in another.
Generally speaking I thought the movie was fairly true to the original as far as plot elements went. Characterization was spotty, and the general tone was much more grim and serious. The humor and whimsy of the series were mostly absent, which is a real pity.
Part of why we were able to take the fantastic elements of the show seriously was because of that levity. So much of the show was playful in tone that when things got serious it had a bigger impact.
Thus even if the film version covered the same basic storyline, the "feel" or attitude was different. Different isn't necessarily bad, I suppose, but I missed the goofiness.
My biggest problem with the movie was how they changed pronunciations of several names. Sokka is supposed to be Sock-ah, not Soak-ah. Zuko's uncle is Eye-Row, not Eee-Row (sounds like Pooh's donkey friend, heh...) They often started the word Avatar with a long "Ah" sound that was kind of weird. But worst of all, they changed the pronunciation of the FREAKING MAIN CHARACTER'S NAME! It's Aang, rhymes with gang, fang, rang, bang, dang, tang, clang, and sang. The movie has it "Ah-ng", like gong, bong, tong, and WRONG.
Why? What possible reason would they have to change the pronunciation of these names? They're no more or less appealing, pronounceable, or familiar this way. All it does is grate on the ears of every fan of the original show, and confuses newcomers to the fandom. It comes across as the movie makers either not knowing the difference, or not caring. I'm not sure which is worse.
It was really, really cool to see the different bending moves in live action form. The fluid grace of the water benders, the vivid jabs of the fire benders, the stomping moves of the earth benders, and the swirling elegance of the air benders were truly beautiful to watch.
The special effects were lovely, also. All the ice effects probably seemed more realistic to me because the theater was freaking cold.
The Northern Water Tribe city was gorgeous. I loved the scenery, all the tiers of the city and the fountains...very pretty.
The Fire Nation's navy was impressive and I liked the effect of the ash "snow" preceding their arrival.
The costumes were great, especially the Water Tribes'. Some of the Fire Nation's outfits were quite different from the animated ones, but they were still cool.
Sadly, some of the acting was really bad. Zuko was the big exception, which isn't a shocker since Dev Patel is an award-winning actor. I loved the bit near the end where Aang is still unconscious/in the Spirit realm and Zuko's rambling about his dysfunctional family. "Daddy likes my sister more than me, and I miss my Mommy!" That is just SO Zuko. I love it. Poor Aang must have woken up thinking, "Huh, how did I end up in a psychiatrist's office?"
I also liked how he sort of apologized to Katara in a roundabout way after knocking her out by the koi pond, saying "I can't go back home unless I have the Avatar." (I'm sure the Zutara shippers were squeeing over that part, how he laid her back gently and looked sorry for having to hurt her.)
The dinner scene with Zhao and his troops was great, too. It was awesome how Zuko barely kept his temper by whispering "Someday my father will take me back, and you will bow to me then" to Zhao and then walked out. I think Iroh was proud of him for not making a big scene. A pity we didn't get to see his Agni Kai with Zhao, though. (Or however the hell they pronounced it in the film...it sure wasn't the same as in the series.)
So Zuko's acting was quite good. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the cast.
Katara was cringe-worthy much of the time, which is a shame because she's one of my favorite characters. She's a bold, brave, outspoken young lady who also has strong nurturing instincts, making her prone to "mama bear" syndrome when someone threatens the ones she cares about. In the movie she just seemed bland and fretful. She did get an awesome scene facing off against Zuko at the sacred koi pond, and it was pretty cool how she rescued Aang from him shortly after by freezing him in ice, so maybe toward the end she was more like herself.
Sokka was hit or miss. I mean, he wasn't bad at acting like a serious, responsible young man, it's just that, well, that's not who Sokka is! Sokka is a goofball, the comic relief, the everyman in the middle of all the larger-than-life figures. He can buckle down and get things done when the stuff hits the fan, and he's brave and dedicated in his own way, but he generally hides that behind a hyper, silly exuberance. Movie Sokka just had his serious buisness face on through the entire movie. The only exceptions were when Appa knocked him over with his tail, and when Katara accidentally froze him in an ice cocoon, but both incidents were over so quickly it didn't make much impact.
Aang also never got to show off his childlike exuberance, and his acting was pretty lackluster. His martial arts moves were impressive, though.
Zhao was actually pretty fun, although he looked so drastically different from his animated self that it was hard to remember who he was supposed to be.
[Side note: LOL @ Zhao's apparent ability to teleport across the world. One minute he's on a ship in the middle of the ocean, the next he's taking a stroll with Ozai discussing recent developments, then he's back out in the field again. I get a mental picture of him zipping around like Speedy Gonzalez.]
Iroh was good, although again he lacked much of the levity of his animated counterpart. (I did like the scene where he was trying to convince Zuko to find himself a girl and settle down, hehee...)
Yueh was gorgeous! Her acting was generally unimpressive, but she was beautiful.
Ozai was...well, not himself. At all. Setting aside the fact that we're not supposed to actually see him in the first "book," he's very different in the film. The animated Ozai is tall, regal, commanding, powerful, well-muscled, sinister, and condescending. The movie Ozai is average height, a little on the pudgy side, and seemed more "mildly annoyed" at Zuko than raving "you're dead to me, you worthless weakling!" Animated Ozai scorched half his son's face off and considered it a light punishment, then sent him on a wild goose chase for a nearly-mythological figure who hadn't been seen in a century--a banishment in effect if not in name. Ozai is a magnificent bastard: cruel, focused, self-centered, confident, ambitious, greedy, domineering, and utterly uncaring who gets hurt along the way to what he wants. In the movie I got the feeling he was genuinely (if only slightly) concerned about Zuko's whereabouts and well-being at times, even if he wasn't willing to call him back home and forgive him. I just didn't sense "evil overlord" from him at all.
Momo was pretty much a non-entity. He was there, but he didn't really do anything--which isn't that much different from the original show, and I prefer it that way. Cute animal sidekicks have their place, but the show is definitely better without them. Momo acts like a normal little animal, which is fine.
Appa was cool. Not always super-realistic, but neat-looking. (Not that a flying bison/manatee creature the size of a bus is realistic, but you know what I mean.) ;)
Despite her very limited screentime, I definitely got the "sadistic crazy bitch" vibe from Azula, which is good. XD
As for the racial issues...I know it's a hot button issue and maybe I just don't get it, being as white as they come, but I didn't let it affect my enjoyment of the film.
However, it really did seem odd to have Katara and Sokka be so white. I know, I know, fictional ethnicity is fictional, and it doesn't have any impact on the plot, but it just seemed...off. Even more WTF-worthy was the fact that some of the Southern Water Tribe people did look Inuit/Asian/Native American. Bwuh?
Aang's whiteness didn't bother me much since (to me, anyway) his animated self is racially ambiguous. He looks vaguely Asian, vaguely white, but not clearly one or the other. His attire and the air bender culture are clearly Buddhist-inspired, but physically he's just...a bald kid.
I didn't mind the Indian ethnicity being used for the Fire Nation, per se, especially since it was mostly consistent (despite Iroh's weird accent). It's just that the actors really didn't look like their characters. Ozai, Iroh, and Zhao really don't resemble the animated originals. I guess they don't have to, but the other characters looked quite close to their drawn selves, so why weren't the fire benders?
Zuko had more of his season three hairdo, with no topknot, but I was pleased to see that they did give him a burn scar on his face. I thought I had read somewhere that they weren't going to include that, which just seemed wrong since it's such a hugely symbolic part of his character. As it turns out, they did give him a scar, just a smaller and less noticeable one than in the animated show.
Overall, I did enjoy the film despite the flaws. I didn't take it very seriously, and just enjoyed it for what it was. If anything it just reinforced my love for the original series, which is awesome.
I was a bit apprehensive after hearing a lot of bad reviews from both the critics and some of my friends, but overall I did enjoy it.
It wasn't perfect, but anyone who expected it to be a faithful, word-for-word recreation of the animated show was delusional. It doesn't work that way. Books, film, animation, shadow puppetry...they're all different media and what works in one will not necessarily work in another.
Generally speaking I thought the movie was fairly true to the original as far as plot elements went. Characterization was spotty, and the general tone was much more grim and serious. The humor and whimsy of the series were mostly absent, which is a real pity.
Part of why we were able to take the fantastic elements of the show seriously was because of that levity. So much of the show was playful in tone that when things got serious it had a bigger impact.
Thus even if the film version covered the same basic storyline, the "feel" or attitude was different. Different isn't necessarily bad, I suppose, but I missed the goofiness.
My biggest problem with the movie was how they changed pronunciations of several names. Sokka is supposed to be Sock-ah, not Soak-ah. Zuko's uncle is Eye-Row, not Eee-Row (sounds like Pooh's donkey friend, heh...) They often started the word Avatar with a long "Ah" sound that was kind of weird. But worst of all, they changed the pronunciation of the FREAKING MAIN CHARACTER'S NAME! It's Aang, rhymes with gang, fang, rang, bang, dang, tang, clang, and sang. The movie has it "Ah-ng", like gong, bong, tong, and WRONG.
Why? What possible reason would they have to change the pronunciation of these names? They're no more or less appealing, pronounceable, or familiar this way. All it does is grate on the ears of every fan of the original show, and confuses newcomers to the fandom. It comes across as the movie makers either not knowing the difference, or not caring. I'm not sure which is worse.
It was really, really cool to see the different bending moves in live action form. The fluid grace of the water benders, the vivid jabs of the fire benders, the stomping moves of the earth benders, and the swirling elegance of the air benders were truly beautiful to watch.
The special effects were lovely, also. All the ice effects probably seemed more realistic to me because the theater was freaking cold.
The Northern Water Tribe city was gorgeous. I loved the scenery, all the tiers of the city and the fountains...very pretty.
The Fire Nation's navy was impressive and I liked the effect of the ash "snow" preceding their arrival.
The costumes were great, especially the Water Tribes'. Some of the Fire Nation's outfits were quite different from the animated ones, but they were still cool.
Sadly, some of the acting was really bad. Zuko was the big exception, which isn't a shocker since Dev Patel is an award-winning actor. I loved the bit near the end where Aang is still unconscious/in the Spirit realm and Zuko's rambling about his dysfunctional family. "Daddy likes my sister more than me, and I miss my Mommy!" That is just SO Zuko. I love it. Poor Aang must have woken up thinking, "Huh, how did I end up in a psychiatrist's office?"
I also liked how he sort of apologized to Katara in a roundabout way after knocking her out by the koi pond, saying "I can't go back home unless I have the Avatar." (I'm sure the Zutara shippers were squeeing over that part, how he laid her back gently and looked sorry for having to hurt her.)
The dinner scene with Zhao and his troops was great, too. It was awesome how Zuko barely kept his temper by whispering "Someday my father will take me back, and you will bow to me then" to Zhao and then walked out. I think Iroh was proud of him for not making a big scene. A pity we didn't get to see his Agni Kai with Zhao, though. (Or however the hell they pronounced it in the film...it sure wasn't the same as in the series.)
So Zuko's acting was quite good. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the cast.
Katara was cringe-worthy much of the time, which is a shame because she's one of my favorite characters. She's a bold, brave, outspoken young lady who also has strong nurturing instincts, making her prone to "mama bear" syndrome when someone threatens the ones she cares about. In the movie she just seemed bland and fretful. She did get an awesome scene facing off against Zuko at the sacred koi pond, and it was pretty cool how she rescued Aang from him shortly after by freezing him in ice, so maybe toward the end she was more like herself.
Sokka was hit or miss. I mean, he wasn't bad at acting like a serious, responsible young man, it's just that, well, that's not who Sokka is! Sokka is a goofball, the comic relief, the everyman in the middle of all the larger-than-life figures. He can buckle down and get things done when the stuff hits the fan, and he's brave and dedicated in his own way, but he generally hides that behind a hyper, silly exuberance. Movie Sokka just had his serious buisness face on through the entire movie. The only exceptions were when Appa knocked him over with his tail, and when Katara accidentally froze him in an ice cocoon, but both incidents were over so quickly it didn't make much impact.
Aang also never got to show off his childlike exuberance, and his acting was pretty lackluster. His martial arts moves were impressive, though.
Zhao was actually pretty fun, although he looked so drastically different from his animated self that it was hard to remember who he was supposed to be.
[Side note: LOL @ Zhao's apparent ability to teleport across the world. One minute he's on a ship in the middle of the ocean, the next he's taking a stroll with Ozai discussing recent developments, then he's back out in the field again. I get a mental picture of him zipping around like Speedy Gonzalez.]
Iroh was good, although again he lacked much of the levity of his animated counterpart. (I did like the scene where he was trying to convince Zuko to find himself a girl and settle down, hehee...)
Yueh was gorgeous! Her acting was generally unimpressive, but she was beautiful.
Ozai was...well, not himself. At all. Setting aside the fact that we're not supposed to actually see him in the first "book," he's very different in the film. The animated Ozai is tall, regal, commanding, powerful, well-muscled, sinister, and condescending. The movie Ozai is average height, a little on the pudgy side, and seemed more "mildly annoyed" at Zuko than raving "you're dead to me, you worthless weakling!" Animated Ozai scorched half his son's face off and considered it a light punishment, then sent him on a wild goose chase for a nearly-mythological figure who hadn't been seen in a century--a banishment in effect if not in name. Ozai is a magnificent bastard: cruel, focused, self-centered, confident, ambitious, greedy, domineering, and utterly uncaring who gets hurt along the way to what he wants. In the movie I got the feeling he was genuinely (if only slightly) concerned about Zuko's whereabouts and well-being at times, even if he wasn't willing to call him back home and forgive him. I just didn't sense "evil overlord" from him at all.
Momo was pretty much a non-entity. He was there, but he didn't really do anything--which isn't that much different from the original show, and I prefer it that way. Cute animal sidekicks have their place, but the show is definitely better without them. Momo acts like a normal little animal, which is fine.
Appa was cool. Not always super-realistic, but neat-looking. (Not that a flying bison/manatee creature the size of a bus is realistic, but you know what I mean.) ;)
Despite her very limited screentime, I definitely got the "sadistic crazy bitch" vibe from Azula, which is good. XD
As for the racial issues...I know it's a hot button issue and maybe I just don't get it, being as white as they come, but I didn't let it affect my enjoyment of the film.
However, it really did seem odd to have Katara and Sokka be so white. I know, I know, fictional ethnicity is fictional, and it doesn't have any impact on the plot, but it just seemed...off. Even more WTF-worthy was the fact that some of the Southern Water Tribe people did look Inuit/Asian/Native American. Bwuh?
Aang's whiteness didn't bother me much since (to me, anyway) his animated self is racially ambiguous. He looks vaguely Asian, vaguely white, but not clearly one or the other. His attire and the air bender culture are clearly Buddhist-inspired, but physically he's just...a bald kid.
I didn't mind the Indian ethnicity being used for the Fire Nation, per se, especially since it was mostly consistent (despite Iroh's weird accent). It's just that the actors really didn't look like their characters. Ozai, Iroh, and Zhao really don't resemble the animated originals. I guess they don't have to, but the other characters looked quite close to their drawn selves, so why weren't the fire benders?
Zuko had more of his season three hairdo, with no topknot, but I was pleased to see that they did give him a burn scar on his face. I thought I had read somewhere that they weren't going to include that, which just seemed wrong since it's such a hugely symbolic part of his character. As it turns out, they did give him a scar, just a smaller and less noticeable one than in the animated show.
Overall, I did enjoy the film despite the flaws. I didn't take it very seriously, and just enjoyed it for what it was. If anything it just reinforced my love for the original series, which is awesome.