ATLA: Yes, it bent me, all right
I haven't written up a movie review in quite some time, mostly because of laziness, but I can't really hold back on this one, because M. Night Shyamalan has officially failed me. I like pretty much all of his movies, I really do, with the weakest on my list being "The Lady in the Water," but still. I have always found his take on things interesting, especially the way he plays off genre expectations and delivers visually interesting films.
I also am a very big Avatar: the Last Airbender fan. I like the visuals of it; the universe-building in the series is fresh and solid. The characterization is appealing and satisfying--we have characters that grow and change, and that are entertaining and interesting. It's got the best of both worlds: it is both character-driven AND has a compelling overall story arc.
In Book I you have Sokka, whose main reasons for existence (as he puts it) are "meat and sarcasm." He is a young Inuit-type character who greatly misses his war-absent father, is trying to fill his shoes and become a man, but who really is still a teenager and acts it. He is protective of his family and his people, standing up to an entire ship full of Fire nation soldiers alone at one point. However, VERY IMPORTANTLY, he is also a complete goofball.
Aang, a whimsical, fun-loving, joyful character who tends to run from problems instead of facing them.
Katara, who in any other series would probably slip into "beautiful heroine" mode but for the fact that the show takes a sideways postmodernish approach to this role by revealing the ways it is constructed. She has the often unwavering and imperfect idealism of youth, and is the heart of the group of friends, although her sense of righteousness often borders on the unbearably annoying and essentially she tries to be everyone's mom-big-sister figure, whether they like it or not.
Appa the flying Bison is protective, adorable, funny--the kind of animal we all basically want as a pet. Momo the flying lemur is Appa's odd-couple buddy and comic relief.
The movie? Decided not to go along with any of this important characterization, apparently. Race-fail aside, M. Night delivers us a dour, humorless Sokka who stumbles through the movie like a well-meaning clod. Mischievous, quick-witted TV Sokka is replaced by a character who looks like a corn-fed Iowa high school quarterback dropped into the Arctic circle. Maybe Jackson Rathbone was too caught up in the personality-less Twilight character he plays to actually play a different character in TLA, but there were TWO funny lines for Sokka in the movie, and he delivered them both like eulogies.
Instead of the premise that the group were fleeing from place to place to escape Prince Zuko in their own little TLOTR-type Fellowship, M. Night paints them as revolutionaries who are starting small uprisings all over the world. Yes, you have to change plot things sometimes to translate a series or book to a movie, but this seemed unnecessary and added to the horrible Serious-as-the-Grave!Sokka characterization. He is a goofball kid trying to do right by his people, not Che Guevara, M. Night.
Sokka's normally antagonistic-but-loving-and-loyal relationship with Katara is lost as well. Instead, he acts loyal like a German Shepherd or like a weirdly brotherly Edward Cullen. Thus the great brother-sister chemistry in the TV series becomes a kind of one-sided protection thing.
Katara's actress was just...wooden. She apparently attended the Kristen Stewart School of Acting and passed with high marks. As such, she is a great counterpart to Rathbone's woodenness.
This horrible characterization of and acting by Sokka and Katara sets the rest of the movie up to fail hard. Sokka's humor is so important in balancing off the relative seriousness of Aang's mission--to defeat Firelord Ozai and restore harmony and balance to the world by mastering all four elements in martial arts-style "bending"--that without it, and without any meaningful interactions between the three friends, the charm is gone. Katara's role as the inspirational one is often taken by Aang, who is supposed to be the high-spirited joyous 13 year old kid, not the "Takes Things Too Seriously" speech-giver that Katara is. Really, she receives very little attention in this plot at all. Aang at times borders on bad-fanfiction-OOC-emo. Makeup even gave him dark circles under his eyes, which was certainly not a very good choice for a character who is supposed to be bouncy and sprightly. Add to this the fact that Noah Ringer delivers lines like a third grader in a grammar school play and you just start feeling sad and wishing for Fun!Aang to come in and start making jokes.
I can't even say anything about the visuals of this movie. They were Hallmark Hall of Fame TV-movie quality at best, giving the impression that this was done in a hurry. I can't remember enough about the score to actually tell you anything about it. It must have been bland, too. The bending special effects looked out of sync with the martial arts half the time. The sets looked fake. Appa and Momo were CG and were not really characters in the movie as they were in the TV series, in which they supplied a great deal of charm and liveliness to the ATLA universe.
So while the TV series's plot bounces along and deep friendships are built, the movie gives us clunky exposition, George Lucas-New Star Wars Movies-style explication, juvenile special effects, and Grand Canyon-pack-mule paced plot.
The ONLY bright spots in this borefest were Dev Patel as Zuko and Shaun Toub as Uncle Iroh. Iroh is one of my favorite characters in the series anyway, and while he was more understated in the movie, the character came through. He's the enemy, but he has honor and sees the big picture. He would have been even better had the rest of the cast done anything in the way of supporting him. His chemistry with Zuko satisfied me. Zuko himself does some fantastic smouldering and I truly felt for him. You get the sense of pent-up frustration and hurt in his character. Patel did an excellent job of bringing across the exiled prince trying to win back his honor. I perked up whenever these two were onscreen, since they brought life to it.
Scene-wise, the winners were the rescue of Aang from Genera Zhao by the Blue Spirit (Zuko in disguise) and Airbending flashbacks featuring Damon Gupton as Monk Gyatso. Everything else felt forced and uncomfortable to watch.
So the verdict is, do not go to the theater to see this movie. Wait for DVD if you are a fan of the series and have a strong stomach. It might make you appreciate the TV series more. Or, just watch The Ember Island Players and appreciate the fact that the characters would have been facepalming right next to you in the theater if such things were possible.
I also am a very big Avatar: the Last Airbender fan. I like the visuals of it; the universe-building in the series is fresh and solid. The characterization is appealing and satisfying--we have characters that grow and change, and that are entertaining and interesting. It's got the best of both worlds: it is both character-driven AND has a compelling overall story arc.
In Book I you have Sokka, whose main reasons for existence (as he puts it) are "meat and sarcasm." He is a young Inuit-type character who greatly misses his war-absent father, is trying to fill his shoes and become a man, but who really is still a teenager and acts it. He is protective of his family and his people, standing up to an entire ship full of Fire nation soldiers alone at one point. However, VERY IMPORTANTLY, he is also a complete goofball.
Aang, a whimsical, fun-loving, joyful character who tends to run from problems instead of facing them.
Katara, who in any other series would probably slip into "beautiful heroine" mode but for the fact that the show takes a sideways postmodernish approach to this role by revealing the ways it is constructed. She has the often unwavering and imperfect idealism of youth, and is the heart of the group of friends, although her sense of righteousness often borders on the unbearably annoying and essentially she tries to be everyone's mom-big-sister figure, whether they like it or not.
Appa the flying Bison is protective, adorable, funny--the kind of animal we all basically want as a pet. Momo the flying lemur is Appa's odd-couple buddy and comic relief.
The movie? Decided not to go along with any of this important characterization, apparently. Race-fail aside, M. Night delivers us a dour, humorless Sokka who stumbles through the movie like a well-meaning clod. Mischievous, quick-witted TV Sokka is replaced by a character who looks like a corn-fed Iowa high school quarterback dropped into the Arctic circle. Maybe Jackson Rathbone was too caught up in the personality-less Twilight character he plays to actually play a different character in TLA, but there were TWO funny lines for Sokka in the movie, and he delivered them both like eulogies.
Instead of the premise that the group were fleeing from place to place to escape Prince Zuko in their own little TLOTR-type Fellowship, M. Night paints them as revolutionaries who are starting small uprisings all over the world. Yes, you have to change plot things sometimes to translate a series or book to a movie, but this seemed unnecessary and added to the horrible Serious-as-the-Grave!Sokka characterization. He is a goofball kid trying to do right by his people, not Che Guevara, M. Night.
Sokka's normally antagonistic-but-loving-and-loyal relationship with Katara is lost as well. Instead, he acts loyal like a German Shepherd or like a weirdly brotherly Edward Cullen. Thus the great brother-sister chemistry in the TV series becomes a kind of one-sided protection thing.
Katara's actress was just...wooden. She apparently attended the Kristen Stewart School of Acting and passed with high marks. As such, she is a great counterpart to Rathbone's woodenness.
This horrible characterization of and acting by Sokka and Katara sets the rest of the movie up to fail hard. Sokka's humor is so important in balancing off the relative seriousness of Aang's mission--to defeat Firelord Ozai and restore harmony and balance to the world by mastering all four elements in martial arts-style "bending"--that without it, and without any meaningful interactions between the three friends, the charm is gone. Katara's role as the inspirational one is often taken by Aang, who is supposed to be the high-spirited joyous 13 year old kid, not the "Takes Things Too Seriously" speech-giver that Katara is. Really, she receives very little attention in this plot at all. Aang at times borders on bad-fanfiction-OOC-emo. Makeup even gave him dark circles under his eyes, which was certainly not a very good choice for a character who is supposed to be bouncy and sprightly. Add to this the fact that Noah Ringer delivers lines like a third grader in a grammar school play and you just start feeling sad and wishing for Fun!Aang to come in and start making jokes.
I can't even say anything about the visuals of this movie. They were Hallmark Hall of Fame TV-movie quality at best, giving the impression that this was done in a hurry. I can't remember enough about the score to actually tell you anything about it. It must have been bland, too. The bending special effects looked out of sync with the martial arts half the time. The sets looked fake. Appa and Momo were CG and were not really characters in the movie as they were in the TV series, in which they supplied a great deal of charm and liveliness to the ATLA universe.
So while the TV series's plot bounces along and deep friendships are built, the movie gives us clunky exposition, George Lucas-New Star Wars Movies-style explication, juvenile special effects, and Grand Canyon-pack-mule paced plot.
The ONLY bright spots in this borefest were Dev Patel as Zuko and Shaun Toub as Uncle Iroh. Iroh is one of my favorite characters in the series anyway, and while he was more understated in the movie, the character came through. He's the enemy, but he has honor and sees the big picture. He would have been even better had the rest of the cast done anything in the way of supporting him. His chemistry with Zuko satisfied me. Zuko himself does some fantastic smouldering and I truly felt for him. You get the sense of pent-up frustration and hurt in his character. Patel did an excellent job of bringing across the exiled prince trying to win back his honor. I perked up whenever these two were onscreen, since they brought life to it.
Scene-wise, the winners were the rescue of Aang from Genera Zhao by the Blue Spirit (Zuko in disguise) and Airbending flashbacks featuring Damon Gupton as Monk Gyatso. Everything else felt forced and uncomfortable to watch.
So the verdict is, do not go to the theater to see this movie. Wait for DVD if you are a fan of the series and have a strong stomach. It might make you appreciate the TV series more. Or, just watch The Ember Island Players and appreciate the fact that the characters would have been facepalming right next to you in the theater if such things were possible.