TLA Review.
So, I saw The Last Airbender tonight. (Unexpected, as we thought we were going to see it Sunday night.)
Okay, I'm probably one of like three people in the entire country that's going to say this, but..
I liked it.
It was not the best movie I've ever seen, nor was it really that true to the entire first season of Book 1: Water. But then again, Shyamalan condensed twenty half-hour episodes (10 hours total) into something just under two hours. And while several things were cut that I wish hadn't been, overall I understood the need to cut to the important showdown at the Northern Water Tribe.
First, the not-so-hot.
- Exposition. There was really too much of it, and it made the transitions from scenes a little too choppy. I think it could have been cleaned up and streamlined a little better in that regard; not only that, but the narration felt rushed.
- Some of the dialogue was very stunted.
- There was definitely some consequences to the miscasting. I felt Sokka was too wooden, and Katara too punchy. (She literally just goes up and punches some Fire Nation guy at one point, and John and I burst out laughing.) I'm not sure how much of it was the dialogue they were given, but at least by the end of the movie I found both of them slightly less annoying.
- Sooo many things cut out: the Kyoshi warriors - who might be in the DVD version - and Jet, to name a couple. I'm actually wondering if we might get introduced to Suki in book 2, but I'm not holding my breath.
- While Sokka and Katara's different ethnicity from the rest of the Southern Water Tribe was explained by the fact that the Northern Tribe (whom Kanna originated from) was all white, it still nevertheless was weird to see all caucasians in the NWT, and no Inuits. I thought their outfits were kind of goofy and for some reason made me think of 16th century England. :/
But, there were also so many things that really touched me about this movie.
Firstly, the musical score (James Newton Howard) was incredible. It was so well done, I'm actually listening to it right now, still. It's an epic score, befitting an epic series.
Aang (or "Ong", although I found that as the movie went on, the different pronunciation bugged me less and less) was very different in the movie than he was in the series. This is a more serious Aang, and while he does have his lighthearted moments early on, once he finds out what the Fire Nation has done, and discovers the loss of his people (and Gyatso...every time he had a flashback of Gyatso, and the other Air Nomad monks and children, I wanted to cry), he's suddenly very srs bsns. Which is ...honestly? what we'd expect from someone, even if he's a kid, who now realizes he's faced with the task of saving the world. It's a heavy burden, and this Book 1 Aang is actually more like Season 3 Aang from the original series.
The thing is, I actually like the change.
There were so many instances in the animated series where I just couldn't...take Aang seriously, because he was behaving like a 12 year old kid. (And also shirking his duties and not taking this Avatar thing seriously enough.) One can argue the show was aimed at kids, and therefore they related to Aang; but the thing I like about movie!Aang is that he seems to grow up a little bit, already in this first book.
And someone who reviewed the movie was complaining about the fact that movie!Aang has problems with his waterbending initially, when in the series he picks it up faster than Katara. This too is explained in the movie, by the dragon-spirit's point that he's angry at the Fire Nation for what they've done to his people, and he must learn to let go of his hatred. So in that respect, it's still in tune with the show; already we're seeing flashes of Guru Pahtik's wisdom in book 1.
Then there's the dragon-spirit that he talks to. (Roku's substitute, since Aang doesn't communicate with the previous Avatars in this universe.) And I find the things the dragon portended to him to be quite interesting; one, that Aang couldn't hurt anyone, being the Avatar, and two, that as the Avatar Aang isn't allowed a family. A subconscious part of me wonders if this is the way that Shyamalan will take it to the end - that instead of the Fortuneteller not being able to see romance in his future (and believe me, there is no evidence in the movie of Aang/Katara, whatsoever - they're unusually emotionally distanced from one another, here), we have the dragon pushing that envelope. It'll of course be interesting to see if Aang really is allowed no romantic attachment to Katara, and how that'll play out in the next two movies.
Noah Ringer was a very interesting choice for casting as Aang, but I have to say...I think he was great. His voice is actually very light, still - there were certain trailers that made it sound like he was going through puberty or that his voice was cracking. There was none of that in the movie. His martial art postures were very elegant and graceful. For a first-time actor as the main character in a film, I think he did a great job.
The best played characters, though, by far, were two: Yue - who was such a one-trick pony in the animated series, with her measly two episodes of appearance, but she shines brilliantly in the movie. Her sacrifice scene was beautiful. And she was so human about it - when Sokka begs her not to step into the pool, she turns to him with this look of pain and abject anguish in her eyes, and confides to him how frightened she is, and they're both sobbing by this point. It moved me to tears. It's heartbreaking. But of course she does it, and the way her energy is re-transformed into the Moon spirit again is poignant and perfect, in my opinion.
The other best character was Iroh. And oh god, if Iroh hadn't been so awesome, I don't know if I would have enjoyed it so much. The way he and Devko played off one another, as well as how he interacted with the rest of the cast, was a treat to see. He had just the right dose of humility and wisdom. Interestingly Iroh doesn't wait until Ba Sing Se to make the suggestion that Zuko settle down with a pretty girl; this opens the door for Zuko (cloaked in a hood, to disguise his scar) to ask a passing random young Fire Nation boy if he knows about the Prince of the Fire Nation, the Firelord's son, and why he was banished, prompting the youth to retell the humiliating tale, and reminding Iroh that Zuko has no interest in girls at this point in his one-track crusade.
And then there's the Zutara scene. It's brief, as is Zuko and Katara's Oasis fight (but it had to be, for time constraints, I believe). But it's there, and it's very tender. He picks Katara up after he's knocked her out against the tree, and adjusts her before smoothing her hair out of her face. It's easy to say this was just fanservice, but it made me start to wonder a bit about Shyamalan's intentions with pairings, if there will even be any. Aang and Katara's interactions were more of the "he's our responsibility, we have to look out for him" variety, and the moment Devko and Katara meet in the Oasis cave (where he interrupts her musings with that slight sneer that he had in Siege of the North - always nice to hear, even if it wasn't "aren't you a big girl, now" :p), he makes it a point to ask her name. ....hmmm.
I'm very glad I didn't listen to the negative reviews of this movie. I went into it expecting something wildly different from the series I'd grown to love. And it was that, and then some. I'm actually, if you can believe it, looking forward to the sequel.
Edit: Sample of the soundtrack:
Okay, I'm probably one of like three people in the entire country that's going to say this, but..
I liked it.
It was not the best movie I've ever seen, nor was it really that true to the entire first season of Book 1: Water. But then again, Shyamalan condensed twenty half-hour episodes (10 hours total) into something just under two hours. And while several things were cut that I wish hadn't been, overall I understood the need to cut to the important showdown at the Northern Water Tribe.
First, the not-so-hot.
- Exposition. There was really too much of it, and it made the transitions from scenes a little too choppy. I think it could have been cleaned up and streamlined a little better in that regard; not only that, but the narration felt rushed.
- Some of the dialogue was very stunted.
- There was definitely some consequences to the miscasting. I felt Sokka was too wooden, and Katara too punchy. (She literally just goes up and punches some Fire Nation guy at one point, and John and I burst out laughing.) I'm not sure how much of it was the dialogue they were given, but at least by the end of the movie I found both of them slightly less annoying.
- Sooo many things cut out: the Kyoshi warriors - who might be in the DVD version - and Jet, to name a couple. I'm actually wondering if we might get introduced to Suki in book 2, but I'm not holding my breath.
- While Sokka and Katara's different ethnicity from the rest of the Southern Water Tribe was explained by the fact that the Northern Tribe (whom Kanna originated from) was all white, it still nevertheless was weird to see all caucasians in the NWT, and no Inuits. I thought their outfits were kind of goofy and for some reason made me think of 16th century England. :/
But, there were also so many things that really touched me about this movie.
Firstly, the musical score (James Newton Howard) was incredible. It was so well done, I'm actually listening to it right now, still. It's an epic score, befitting an epic series.
Aang (or "Ong", although I found that as the movie went on, the different pronunciation bugged me less and less) was very different in the movie than he was in the series. This is a more serious Aang, and while he does have his lighthearted moments early on, once he finds out what the Fire Nation has done, and discovers the loss of his people (and Gyatso...every time he had a flashback of Gyatso, and the other Air Nomad monks and children, I wanted to cry), he's suddenly very srs bsns. Which is ...honestly? what we'd expect from someone, even if he's a kid, who now realizes he's faced with the task of saving the world. It's a heavy burden, and this Book 1 Aang is actually more like Season 3 Aang from the original series.
The thing is, I actually like the change.
There were so many instances in the animated series where I just couldn't...take Aang seriously, because he was behaving like a 12 year old kid. (And also shirking his duties and not taking this Avatar thing seriously enough.) One can argue the show was aimed at kids, and therefore they related to Aang; but the thing I like about movie!Aang is that he seems to grow up a little bit, already in this first book.
And someone who reviewed the movie was complaining about the fact that movie!Aang has problems with his waterbending initially, when in the series he picks it up faster than Katara. This too is explained in the movie, by the dragon-spirit's point that he's angry at the Fire Nation for what they've done to his people, and he must learn to let go of his hatred. So in that respect, it's still in tune with the show; already we're seeing flashes of Guru Pahtik's wisdom in book 1.
Then there's the dragon-spirit that he talks to. (Roku's substitute, since Aang doesn't communicate with the previous Avatars in this universe.) And I find the things the dragon portended to him to be quite interesting; one, that Aang couldn't hurt anyone, being the Avatar, and two, that as the Avatar Aang isn't allowed a family. A subconscious part of me wonders if this is the way that Shyamalan will take it to the end - that instead of the Fortuneteller not being able to see romance in his future (and believe me, there is no evidence in the movie of Aang/Katara, whatsoever - they're unusually emotionally distanced from one another, here), we have the dragon pushing that envelope. It'll of course be interesting to see if Aang really is allowed no romantic attachment to Katara, and how that'll play out in the next two movies.
Noah Ringer was a very interesting choice for casting as Aang, but I have to say...I think he was great. His voice is actually very light, still - there were certain trailers that made it sound like he was going through puberty or that his voice was cracking. There was none of that in the movie. His martial art postures were very elegant and graceful. For a first-time actor as the main character in a film, I think he did a great job.
The best played characters, though, by far, were two: Yue - who was such a one-trick pony in the animated series, with her measly two episodes of appearance, but she shines brilliantly in the movie. Her sacrifice scene was beautiful. And she was so human about it - when Sokka begs her not to step into the pool, she turns to him with this look of pain and abject anguish in her eyes, and confides to him how frightened she is, and they're both sobbing by this point. It moved me to tears. It's heartbreaking. But of course she does it, and the way her energy is re-transformed into the Moon spirit again is poignant and perfect, in my opinion.
The other best character was Iroh. And oh god, if Iroh hadn't been so awesome, I don't know if I would have enjoyed it so much. The way he and Devko played off one another, as well as how he interacted with the rest of the cast, was a treat to see. He had just the right dose of humility and wisdom. Interestingly Iroh doesn't wait until Ba Sing Se to make the suggestion that Zuko settle down with a pretty girl; this opens the door for Zuko (cloaked in a hood, to disguise his scar) to ask a passing random young Fire Nation boy if he knows about the Prince of the Fire Nation, the Firelord's son, and why he was banished, prompting the youth to retell the humiliating tale, and reminding Iroh that Zuko has no interest in girls at this point in his one-track crusade.
And then there's the Zutara scene. It's brief, as is Zuko and Katara's Oasis fight (but it had to be, for time constraints, I believe). But it's there, and it's very tender. He picks Katara up after he's knocked her out against the tree, and adjusts her before smoothing her hair out of her face. It's easy to say this was just fanservice, but it made me start to wonder a bit about Shyamalan's intentions with pairings, if there will even be any. Aang and Katara's interactions were more of the "he's our responsibility, we have to look out for him" variety, and the moment Devko and Katara meet in the Oasis cave (where he interrupts her musings with that slight sneer that he had in Siege of the North - always nice to hear, even if it wasn't "aren't you a big girl, now" :p), he makes it a point to ask her name. ....hmmm.
I'm very glad I didn't listen to the negative reviews of this movie. I went into it expecting something wildly different from the series I'd grown to love. And it was that, and then some. I'm actually, if you can believe it, looking forward to the sequel.
Edit: Sample of the soundtrack:
Click to view