Sorry for being absolutely late to the discussion, but I only recently got around to seeing the original show, The Legend of Korra, and Shamalamadingdong's horrific so-called movie. I reviewed this in full on another forum, so I'm just going to copy/paste my review here. My overall view of both shows is that they're the best Western animation I had seen since the days of the DC Animated series.
The Last Airbender - 6/10
Having recently finished watching and loving the crap out of the series this was based on, I decided to watch M. Night Shyamalan's take on it, mainly for the same train-wreck factor that I watched DragonBall Evolution. The story pretty much followed the first season's main plot line, though skipping over the Kyoshi Warriors, the pirates, Aang's poor first attempt at firebending, the chauvinistic views of both Sokka and the waterbending master of the Northern Water Tribe, and the fact that Zhao was promoted to general before his attack on the Northern Water Tribe. Two teens from the Southern Water Tribe discover the Avatar, a young boy named Aang frozen in the ice. Yada yada yada. If you've seen the show, you get the point. This movie...it did well in some places, but very poor in others.
Pros:
The actor playing Aang did a really, REALLY good job. And I liked how they portrayed his tattoo in this movie. Might have looked ridiculous otherwise.
The actor playing Iroh also did a really good job portraying the character, even if he looked nothing like him.
The effects were really good, especially on Appa and Momo, though both of those characters were very minimally used, despite being seen a lot in the show.
Cons:
Sokka was done terribly. The guy almost looked the part, despite being too white, but his performance, while GOOD, was not Sokka. I don't think I've seen this much joy ripped out of a character in a long time.
The mismatched casting. I mean, wow. All of the Fire Nation are INDIAN? Really Shyamalan? Did you even look at them in the show? They're very clearly meant to be Asian. This casting choice really affected Prince Zuko, who I think did an okay job despite looking more like fugitive Zuko than when he was still after the Avatar, but you couldn't see his scar, which made him hard to identify AS Zuko. And the Water Tribes are supposed to be Inuits, not white as white can be.
The bending. Oh. My. God. It sucked, plain and simple. The effects were good, but the actual bending was terrible. The earthbenders seemed completely ineffective, needing several people DANCING to move a single rock. Aang's airbending wasn't done very well considering that he had way too many flourishes for the actions he was pulling off. The firebending...they need fire? No. Watch the show. When Zuko fights someone, he punches, and a fireball shoots from his hand. One scene late in the movie, Iroh actually starts throwing fire out of nowhere and the Fire Nation soldiers he attacks yell "He's making fire out of nothing!" and I ended up yelling "No, he's FIREBENDING." The only bending that seemed right was the waterbending, and even that seemed a little off.
Speaking of bending, during the montage narration, Katara mentions that Aang is having trouble figuring out waterbending. That was a complete reversal considering that in the show, Aang picked it up SO well, he was making Katara jealous.
They also say that the Avatar isn't allowed to have a family or anything like that and that's why Aang left. No. No, no, no. This was never a case in the series. In fact, in the later seasons, we find out that the previous Avatar had a wife and children.
The climax at the end was done wrong. As I recall from the show, Aang temporarily joined with the ocean spirit, went into the Avatar State, beat the crap out of the Fire Nation fleet and took out General Zhao. Yeah...Zhao was taken out by some Water Tribe, Aang didn't join with the spirit, though he did go into the Avatar State and sent the fleet running. I guess two out of four might not be considered bad, but...yeah, it's bad.
The parts that were kinda good, but also kinda bad:
Katara. Wow, they were really close with her. Unlike Sokka who underwent a total personality change, Katara was really, REALLY close to how she was in the show. Her voice was even really good, so good that I thought the opening narration was being read by the voice actress from the show. But my God, would it have killed her to go to a beach or a tanning salon and at least try to LOOK the part! I know it's not her fault, but she just didn't look like Katara, she looked like a Katara cosplayer.
Appa and Momo. I mentioned them in the effects earlier, but they are also characters, and I'll go into that now. They weren't exactly main characters, but they did get some focus in the series, none of which happens here. Appa is only used for transportation and is rarely seen interacting with the group outside of that. He also seemed a bit small. Momo, who they animated perfectly, was barely seen at all. In fact, I started playing a little game called "Spot the lemur". Only a couple of times did the camera actually hold on him for more than a few seconds, and he rarely took his place on Aang's shoulder.
Yue. Wow. I mean wow. She looked the part more than almost anyone else in the entire movie, and for the most part, she acted the part as well. But the movie killed off both of her parents when at least her father was still alive in the series, though I can't remember about her mother. And the girl would not STOP SMILING. It's like the opposite of Kristen Stewart.
Sozin's Comet. They mention that it will be arriving in three years. In the series, it was arriving at the end of the summer. I know they were using a longer time table to plan out for the sequels, but still.
And finally, the names. I'm putting this in this category because it's primarily nitpicking. They changed a LOT of pronunciations of the names in this movie, enough so that it started getting on my nerves after a while. Come to find out, technically speaking, THE MOVIE got the pronunciations correct based on how the characters names are spelled in Chinese/Japanese/whatever Asian language it was. However. The show still did it one way, and I, as a fan, was a little off-put by the fact that they changed that.
The forgettable:
Was there music in this movie? I can't remember. Seems like there was, but I can't remember a single tune.
Conclusion:
Is this the worst movie I've ever seen? Not by a long shot. Is it as bad as Avatar fans make it out to be? OH YEAH. Is it the worst adaptation I've seen? Oh no, that would be a toss up between Super Mario Bros., DragonBall Evolution, and Eragon. Would I recommend it? I'm gonna stick with no, at least if you're a fan of the series. While it's not the worst bit of cinema, it loses so much of the heart of its source material that it comes across as really, really shallow. The characters are grim, there's little to no humor, and the screwing up of the casting really shows. The only reason it get's above a 5 is because, unlike DragonBall Evolution, The Last Airbender at least follows the story and, for the most part, the logic of the series it's adapting. And it had some pretty effects, even if the physical side(the silly martial arts) wasn't done well.
PS. I will also add that I will watch this, Super Mario Bros., and Eragon before I would watch DragonBall Evolution again.
Topic: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Read 978 times)
