Escape to the Movies: The Last Airbender

[JaredXE]

I got dragged to watching the midnight release, even knowing that it was going to be bad. WOW, it was worse than I thought.

M. Night, please stop making movies. Unbreakable was good...Sixth Sense was decent(though I figured it out waaaaaaay to early in the movie for it to be a surprise). Everything else you have touched....just sucks.

The script for TLA was atrocious(Shymalan's name is the only one credited for it) with such wonderful lines as, "We need to show them that we believe just as strongly in our beliefs as they believe in theirs!". The editing was too damn choppy, with them hopping from town/country to elsewheres and conversations that came off as just bits of a larger whole.

He also fucked with the source material for some completely irrelevant choices. Why can't the Fire-Benders generate their own fire? That's the point of them, and why an army of them is so unfair. Or when capturing a group of Earthbenders, instead of enclosing them in metal so they can't escape, the Fire Nation locks them in a quarry and hopes, what? That they will use the honor system and not leave?

And finally, my question is this: "Why did M. Night change the pronounciations of names to make them authentically asian for authentically asian characters when he didn't cast authentic asians!"

 

[Charisma]

I emphatically disagree with everything Bob says, and that's pretty rare. Even just taken on its own merits the movie is awful, in every way, every minute. Seriously, I was desperately searching for some redeeming quality, but not even the action was good. Nothing was even decent.

One thing that particularly ruined it for me was how out of sync the bending and martial arts were - these big elaborate dances to perform the simplest tasks of bending, and it just doesn't flow as it should. Even if I'd never seen the cartoon this would have been tough to swallow.

And yeah, all the mispronunciation kind of distracted me as well. Why did Shyamalan change the pronunciation?

For that matter, why did he make the Fire Nation comprised of East Indians other than self-insertion? I know how in the cartoon the world is multi-racial, but the actual races are pretty ambiguous. The only races I could see were how the Water Tribes were vaguely Inuit, while many of the Fire Nation characters were very White and various other supporting characters were clearly meant to look Far Eastern.

My conclusion is that part of what attracted Shyamalan to the material was the multi-race concept, so he took that and without really understanding it, jammed in some very unambiguous racial themes that never actually existed. This alone wouldn't really bother me, and might actually have ended up being an improvement, but the fact that the most pronounced change was to the Fire Nation makes it look very, very much like shameless self-insertion, and in my opinion that seriously harms the director's credibility by setting an important precedent for everything else: Everything is just this guy's weak interpretation of the cartoon, this guy who may not fully understand what he's trying to recreate. It's pretty clear he doesn't know the material very well, because he utterly failed at many of the most important of elements, elements like humor, like relationship building, and most significantly the sense of innocent, whimsical, fun-loving children threatened by a ruthless adult-dominated conquering force. He's got the conquering force, but what he doesn't have are the fun-loving children, because these kids are stiff, wooden, and victimized by the greater problem of just having the wrong mood throughout the whole thing.

So anyway, obviously I'm a big fan of the source material, and as such I'm pretty offended by this garbage movie adaptation, similar to how offended Bob was by the Transformers movies. But even if I didn't already love the cartoon I wouldn't have thought very much of the movie. I see some people at least praising the action sequences, but I thought they were just as awkward and nonsensical as the rest of it.

It all kind of makes sense when you realize who made it. Shyamalan, who never uses CGI, who's never had to choreograph a fight scene in his life. Shyamalan, who's typically best when he's building suspense, slowly building a set of complex and interesting adult characters, peppering serious sequences with some dry, tongue-in-cheek humor.

Like Bob said about Bay and Transformers, I honestly think Shyamalan was just wrong for the material.

 

[Archemetis]

At the moment we are looking at the first of what will likely end up a franchise.
There's three chapters to the series, so there's likely to be three films.
(With a possible fourth about finding Zuko's mother).


Let's all rewind back to some super hero films, I'm not sure about anyone else here, but the first spider-man film bored me to tears until spidey actually started doing things.
It was for the majority a lot of watching Peter Parker do silly things...
That wasn't really what I went to see, but it was the 'origin movie'.

The one that most people make so that they don't have to deal with explaining it again in the next film.

Now look at what MovieBob said about Last Airbender.
There's apparently exposition flowing out of every character's mouth most times they speak.
And I'd honestly expect nothing more from a film that's essentially getting things started.
The (proper)Avatar world has an expertly crafted back-story and the characters that fill that world are all exciting and have their own origins, goals and personal quirks and I suppose it's important that they're shown to us now rather than confusing us with it through all the potential films.

And besides, I remember the first series of the cartoon, I'm pretty certain they were constantly explaining things in that too... Sure they had parts that seemed like filler and they had funny and emotionally engaging moments too, but they were still trying to introduce us to this world they'd created and they obviously did it better in the series, but to the series' advantage it wasn't 90 minutes long.

I'll be glad that it was even faithfully recreated, more popular cartoons (Dragonball Evolution) didn't even get that...

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I'm not going to see it because I was never that interested in AtLA anyway (I honestly thought it was a parody until talk of this movie started cropping up), but I do take an issue with one thing in this review.

Harry Potter got better with the third movie.

I speak as a biased non-critic who loved the books and for whom the third book remains my favourite of all the Harry Potter books, which is why the third movie disappointed so much. It came close, which is more than I can say for 4, which was incomprehensible to anyone who didn't already known the plot, and 5, which I consider to be in at least my top 25 worst movies I've ever seen, and by 6 I think they were just winging it with no idea what the tone or feel of the movie was supposed to be.

But enough ragging on the rest of the series, the third movie featured Emma Watson's stunning decline into ear-rendingly annoying for me, the practical removal of Ron Weasley as more than 'the other one' to Harry and Hermiones' dream team the movie makers clearly wanted (who knew the directors would be Harmonists?), a plot which left out most of the really key details (they never actually connect Prongs and James Potter with a single word of spoken dialogue, never mention that Wormtail and Pettigrew are the same person, don't tell you who the Goddamn Marauder's were, etc), and was trying very hard to make that jump to 'teenager's film' when the books were stil essentially children's books. (They remain in my opinion books for children, but without the demaning label of 'children's books.') Basically I think the third movie, while not the worst of them, failed the hardest out of all the Harry Potter series, and basically cemented the sloope in place for the rest of the franchise to fall down.

Wow, that's a lot of pissing about HP3 in a comment in a review about Avatar, but like I said, I have very little interest in the Last Airbender either as a cartoon or movie, but that last point Bob made rankled me a lot.

Great review otherwise.

 

[MystikMtnManaT]

he is being far too kind to this movie. it was an utter waste of time and money. please save yourself the trouble and do not see it. i am not trying to be overly cynical, i honestly hoped and tried to find reasons that i could enjoy the movie and was given nothing.

just go watch the show again, its the only way (other than possibly in book form) that it can be told correctly.

 

[rekabdarb]

HEEEEEEEEEEEY that opening explanation.. has happened to me. Nightwatch AND daywatch films... =(

 

[starwarsgeek]

For fans of the cartoon:

Spoiler

Aang, Sokka, and Iroh's names are pronounced the "Asian way" instead of how they were in the cartoon, along with "Avatar" and "Agni Ki"

Roku is no longer Aang's spirit advisor. He was written out in favor of his pet dragon.

The Kyoshi Warriors, Bato, King Bumi, the northern water tribe's training policies, and Jeong Jeong are all cut from the movie, so we lose a sizable chunk of Sokka, Katara, and Aang's character development:
Sokka never learns from the Kyoshi Warriors that men aren't the only warriors, and his ego isn't beaten into the ground by his future girlfriend (not that he had that ego to begin with in the Live Action version...). Aang doesn't get his lesson in looking for alternate ways to solve problems, and doesn't let his natural abilities and ambition get the best of him, leading to him hurting Katara, leading to him feeling guilty and swearing off firebending. His selfish side is never shown with hiding the map to Katara and Sokka's father. Katara doesn't have to prove her ability to Pakku (nor is her necklace even mentioned once...just part of the costume, so Pakku loses his backstory)
As for plot, there was no mention of Pai Sho, so we didn't get Iroh's foreshadowing of The Order of the White Lotus, so if there is a second movie, that's gonna come out of nowhere (if it doesn't get cut >_>). Without introducing Jet and Jeong Jeong, we lose the one episode antagonist from the Earth Kingdom and the good guy from the Fire Nation (one could argue Iroh already fills this role, but he doesn't really do anything except be the laid back old man who gets mad when a spirit gets killed...he doesn't betray the Fire Nation to protect it like in the cartoon either...just gets pissed). So the movie loses the expanded world where it shows both sides in the war have good people, and both sides have corrupt people. Also, without Jet, Ba Sing Se will lose the suprisingly emotional subplot of Jet's redemption...and, if there's a sequel, the finale will suffer for this. (not to mention, without Kyoshis, Azula will need a different plan, and without Katara's healing, it will have to end differently)

Without Bumi, we miss Aang's advice to always look for a third option, which comes into play everytime he meets the nutball...This serves as some foreshadowing about how he wants to handle fighting the Fire Lord

What "filler" (a word that doesn't ~really~ apply to Avatar, since the episodes that didn't further the story usually had some new detail come in, or some character development) did make it in was rushed and lost all point. Shyamalan covers "The Warriors of Kyoshi," "Imprisoned," "The Waterbending Scroll," and Aang's portion of "The Storm" inside of five minutes. The Northern Air Temple is only included just to be there...it's really "The Blue Spirit," with nigh a Mechanist in sight. So, we lose out on the "they were planning it all along" when they hint at using his technology to build war airships and it doesn't come into play until halfway through the last season.

As far what did make it in...it lost all meaning and was repeatedly crammed down the audiences' throats. Zhou has to mention "The Great Library" a dozen times...instead the one, throwaway line from the series that the fans would probably forget about until the library comes up in the second season. They explain the order that Aang must learn the elements, instead of leaving it for the audience to figure out. Ozai is shown suddenly and randomly, without two seasons of buildup before we even see his face.

The characterization is completely off:
Katara seems more like an underplayed version of the "Ember Island Players" Katara from season 3
Sokka has an actual serious personality...he never cracks a joke and is rarely the victim of one.
Aang...is completely emotionless, instead of the happy adventurer from the show.
Iroh is only remotely like himself when they are in a small village and he mentions to Zuko "there are a lot of pretty girls here".
Zuko's personality, like Katara, is just a toned down version of his in-universe parody.
Zhou...isn't even recognizable. He reminded of the type of wimpy kid that hangs out with the bully in an elementary school show/movie/book....except he somehow commands an entire navy.
Ozai is your typical angry king...nothing menacing or powerful about him. He's just...angry.
Azula...can't really tell how the personality works, since she had one line...but she looks younger than Aang. It'd be quite an accomplishment if she was the least bit threatening.
Appa didn't do anything notable...he was just there in the background. Along with Momo (who I don't think was even named...)

The humor was almost non-existant (Sokka gets accidentally frozen once, and a guard is chasing down a small child that replaces Haru...the guard claiming "The child was earthbending pebbles at us from behind a tree. ...it hurt =[" )

The backstory makes no sense once Shyamalan messes with it...most firebenders can only bend existing fire, except when Sozin's comet gives them the ability to "Ignite their chi". So...how have these guys survived the century of picking a fight with the entire planet? They also stuck the earthbenders in a random quary...on the dirt...by a rocky cliff...without a single firebender who can create his own flame and only like 4 torches in the area...while the prisoners outnumbered the guards. Why did these guys need the gaang to rescue them?

The children actors feel flat...especially Katara, who looks, feels, and sounds like she's reading off a teleprompter. While the older actors aren't ~bad~, the writting for the characters is inconsistent with the cartoon versions. Forget what moviebob said...pass this up.

Also...Shyamalan needs to answer a question. If he remade Star Wars, would he replace Obi-Wan with a dog?

Edit: Corrected a couple of mistakes

 

[RedPandaMan]

I'm biased as hell with regards to this movie, as I loved the series. I saw it yesterday, and was disappointed. The costumes and all the other technical bits were good, but the overall theme, plot, action and acting was bad.

I think it had two major problems; one was that they chose to do a 400+ minute part in 90 minutes, instead of going the Lord of the Rings route and making a 2 and half hour movie. The other problem was that it wasn't fluid. In the show bending was quick and could cause dramatic effects, while in the movie it's ten minutes of dancing to create a raindrop. The story also just jumps around.

For fans of the cartoon:

Spoiler

Aang, Sokka, and Iroh's names are mispronounced, along with the word "Avatar".

Roku is no longer Aang's spirit advisor. He was written out in favor of his pet dragon.

The Kyoshi Warriors, Bato, King Bumi, the northern water tribe's "sexist" (for lack of a better word) culture, and Jeong Jeong are all cut from the movie, so we lose a sizable chunk of Sokka, Katara, and Aang character development:
Sokka never learns from the Kyoshi Warriors that men aren't the only warriors, and his ego isn't beaten into the ground by his future girlfriend (not that he had that ego to begin with)

As for plot, there was no mention of Pai Sho, so we didn't get Iroh's foreshadowing of The Order of the White Lotus, so if there is a second movie, that's gonna come out of nowhere (if it doesn't get cut >_>). Without introducing Jet and Jeong Jeong, we lose the one episode antagonist from the Earth Kingdom and the good guy from the Fire Nation (one could argue Iroh already fills this role, but he doesn't really do anything except be the laid back old man who gets mad when a spirit gets killed...he doesn't betray the Fire Nation to protect it like in the cartoon either...just gets pissed). So the movie loses the expanded world where it shows both sides in the war have good people, and both sides have corrupt people. Also, without Jet, Ba Sing Se will lose the suprisingly emotional subplot of Jet's redemption...and, if there's a sequel, the finale will suffer for this.

Without Bumi, we miss Aang's advice to always look for a third option, which comes into play everytime he meets the nutball...which serves as some foreshadowing about how he wants to handle fighting the FireLord. Without Jeong Jeong, Aang never accidentally injures Katara, and she never stumbles upon her healing abilities. Of course, we all know how big of a role the healing power plays in Book 2.

What "filler" (a word that doesn't ~really~ apply to Avatar, since the episodes that didn't further the story usually had some new detail come in, or some character development) did make it in was rushed and lost all point. Shyamalan covers "The Warriors of Kyoshi," "Imprisoned," "The Waterbending Scroll," and Aang's portion of "The Storm" inside of five minutes. The Northern Air Temple is only included just to be there...it's really "The Blue Spirit," with nigh a Mechanist in sight. So, we lose out on the "they were planning it all along" when they hint at using his technology to build war airships and it doesn't come into play until halfway through the last season.

As far what did make it in...it lost all meaning and was repeatedly crammed down the audiences' throats. Zhou has to mention "The Great Library" a dozen times...instead the one, forgetable line from the series that the fans would probably forget about until the library comes up in the second season. Ozai is shown suddenly and randomly, without two seasons of buildup before we see his face. Shyamalan thought he'd throw "Chi" in, although it was never mentioned in the show.

The characterization is completely off:
Katara seems more like an underplayed version of the "Ember Island Players" version
Sokka has an actual serious personality...he never cracks a joke and is rarely the victim of one.
Aang...is completely emotionless, instead of the happy adventurer from the show.
Iroh is only remotely like himself when they are in a small village and he mentions to Zuko "there are a lot of pretty girls here".
Zuko's personality, like Katara, is just a toned down version of his in-universe parody.
Zhou...isn't even recognizable. He reminded of the type of wimpy kid that hangs out with the bully in an elementary school show/movie/book....except he somehow commands an entire navy.
Ozai is your typical angry king...nothing menacing or powerful about him. He's just...angry.
Azula...can't really tell how the personality works, since she had one line...but she looks younger than Aang.
Appa didn't do anything notable...he was just there in the background. Along with Momo (who I don't think was even named...)

The humor was almost non-existant (Sokka gets accidentally frozen once, and a guard is chasing down a small child that replaces Haru...the guard claiming "The child was earthbending pebbles at us from behind a tree. ...it hurt " )

The backstory makes no sense once Shyamalan messes with it...most firebenders can only bend existing fire, except when Sozin's comet gives them the ability to "Ignite their chi". So...how have these guys survived the century of picking a fight with the entire planet? They also stuck the earthbenders in a random quary...on the dirt...by a rock cliff...without a single firebender who can create his own flame. Why did these guys need the gaang to rescue them?

The children actors feel flat...especially Katara, who looks, feels, and sounds like she's reading off a teleprompter. While the older actors aren't ~bad~, the writting for the characters are inconsistent with the cartoon versions. Forget what moviebob said...pass this up.

This guy explains it better.

 

[A-Heart-Of-Gold]

Can I just say that The Last Airbender and Eclipse hyave one thing in common!

A common actor Jackson Rathbone!

He plays Sokka in Airbender and Jasper Hale in Eclipse!

and Jackson Rathbone is a very good actor and scince he has got more screen time in Eclipse and Last Airbender has turned out pretty good I expect more good things by Jackson! And I hope so too!

 

[The Partisan]

Shyamalan falling flat on his face?

WHAT A TWEEST!!!

 

[Red Rum]

I might see it once it comes out on DVD. Though once they come out with the sequel, I may see THAT in theaters.

 

[patch5129]

Just one problem there Moviebob, the third Harry Potter movie sucked and the movie series went downhill from there.
The forth movie had the omission of key characters in plots and the complete bastardization of the final task
The fifth movie was slow and oh so DULL
The sixth movie was the closest to being true to source material since the first two, but still wasnt anything to write home about.

 

[Beliyal]

For fans of the cartoon:

Spoiler

Aang, Sokka, and Iroh's names are mispronounced, along with the word "Avatar".

Roku is no longer Aang's spirit advisor. He was written out in favor of his pet dragon.

The Kyoshi Warriors, Bato, King Bumi, the northern water tribe's "sexist" (for lack of a better word) culture, and Jeong Jeong are all cut from the movie, so we lose a sizable chunk of Sokka, Katara, and Aang character development:
Sokka never learns from the Kyoshi Warriors that men aren't the only warriors, and his ego isn't beaten into the ground by his future girlfriend (not that he had that ego to begin with)

As for plot, there was no mention of Pai Sho, so we didn't get Iroh's foreshadowing of The Order of the White Lotus, so if there is a second movie, that's gonna come out of nowhere (if it doesn't get cut >_>). Without introducing Jet and Jeong Jeong, we lose the one episode antagonist from the Earth Kingdom and the good guy from the Fire Nation (one could argue Iroh already fills this role, but he doesn't really do anything except be the laid back old man who gets mad when a spirit gets killed...he doesn't betray the Fire Nation to protect it like in the cartoon either...just gets pissed). So the movie loses the expanded world where it shows both sides in the war have good people, and both sides have corrupt people. Also, without Jet, Ba Sing Se will lose the suprisingly emotional subplot of Jet's redemption...and, if there's a sequel, the finale will suffer for this.

Without Bumi, we miss Aang's advice to always look for a third option, which comes into play everytime he meets the nutball...which serves as some foreshadowing about how he wants to handle fighting the FireLord. Without Jeong Jeong, Aang never accidentally injures Katara, and she never stumbles upon her healing abilities. Of course, we all know how big of a role the healing power plays in Book 2.

What "filler" (a word that doesn't ~really~ apply to Avatar, since the episodes that didn't further the story usually had some new detail come in, or some character development) did make it in was rushed and lost all point. Shyamalan covers "The Warriors of Kyoshi," "Imprisoned," "The Waterbending Scroll," and Aang's portion of "The Storm" inside of five minutes. The Northern Air Temple is only included just to be there...it's really "The Blue Spirit," with nigh a Mechanist in sight. So, we lose out on the "they were planning it all along" when they hint at using his technology to build war airships and it doesn't come into play until halfway through the last season.

As far what did make it in...it lost all meaning and was repeatedly crammed down the audiences' throats. Zhou has to mention "The Great Library" a dozen times...instead the one, forgetable line from the series that the fans would probably forget about until the library comes up in the second season. Ozai is shown suddenly and randomly, without two seasons of buildup before we see his face. Shyamalan thought he'd throw "Chi" in, although it was never mentioned in the show.

The characterization is completely off:
Katara seems more like an underplayed version of the "Ember Island Players" version
Sokka has an actual serious personality...he never cracks a joke and is rarely the victim of one.
Aang...is completely emotionless, instead of the happy adventurer from the show.
Iroh is only remotely like himself when they are in a small village and he mentions to Zuko "there are a lot of pretty girls here".
Zuko's personality, like Katara, is just a toned down version of his in-universe parody.
Zhou...isn't even recognizable. He reminded of the type of wimpy kid that hangs out with the bully in an elementary school show/movie/book....except he somehow commands an entire navy.
Ozai is your typical angry king...nothing menacing or powerful about him. He's just...angry.
Azula...can't really tell how the personality works, since she had one line...but she looks younger than Aang.
Appa didn't do anything notable...he was just there in the background. Along with Momo (who I don't think was even named...)

The humor was almost non-existant (Sokka gets accidentally frozen once, and a guard is chasing down a small child that replaces Haru...the guard claiming "The child was earthbending pebbles at us from behind a tree. ...it hurt " )

The backstory makes no sense once Shyamalan messes with it...most firebenders can only bend existing fire, except when Sozin's comet gives them the ability to "Ignite their chi". So...how have these guys survived the century of picking a fight with the entire planet? They also stuck the earthbenders in a random quary...on the dirt...by a rock cliff...without a single firebender who can create his own flame. Why did these guys need the gaang to rescue them?

The children actors feel flat...especially Katara, who looks, feels, and sounds like she's reading off a teleprompter. While the older actors aren't ~bad~, the writting for the characters are inconsistent with the cartoon versions. Forget what moviebob said...pass this up.

That is ... quite disappointing :/ I really am a fan of the cartoon and I was expecting this movie eagerly, despite all that controversy about the casting, but this is disappointing. Dunno, I will see the movie eventually when it comes to my country, but only because we have cheap tickets. I've heard different reviews by now, so I'll try to watch it without being biased, but if all this what you wrote is completely true, I'll be a really really sad panda.

 

[Skeleton Jelly]

Oh my my. FINALLY A MOVIE REVIEWER THAT ISN'T A BUTTHURT FANBOY. Thank you Bob, I like you so much more now.

I'd tell you to watch it. And if you're a fan of the series, expect to be disappointed at some things. The acting was a bit odd at some points, but it's really only with the younger cast, and their skills should develope over time. And they got the characters looks a bit wrong (skin color I mean), but it's easy to get over, since they still seem to have the same personality.


Hopefully the budget will be higher for the next film, so they can add much more and give the characters some personalty. I'd give it a 3 or a 2.5 out of 5. I was a bit disappointed because I was a fan of the series, but I understand why they had to do the things they did to the movie (instead of whine and call it a bad movie like all the other fanboys and girls).

 

[mike1921]

I don't plan to watch this, and never did, so it's not really that much of a hit to me, but reading the comments it seems Toph wasn't ruined.

....Hopefully they don't get the funding make a second movie

 

[ProfessorLayton]

PLEASE PRONOUNCE CHARACTERS' NAMES CORRECTLY. Seriously, they pronounced Aang as "Awng", Sokka as "Sooka", Iroh as "Eerow" and the word Avatar as "Awvatar".

That's exactly what I was thinking. I swear, it's like they had heard about the Last Airbender show and saw the characters' names on paper but never actually watched the show.

Speaking of which, Bob, are you a fan of the show? Because it sounded like you had watched the show, but I'm not completely sure.

 

[Riven Armor]

The Last Airbender

This week MovieBob reviews M. Night Shyamalan's vision of the popular Nickelodeon franchise, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Also don't miss MovieBob's review of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1839-The-Twilight-Saga-Eclipse] from earlier in the week.

For more from MovieBob, check out Intermission [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/7779-The-Problem-With-Twilight].

Be sure to join Escape to the Movies Facebook Fan Page here [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Escape-to-the-Movies/374853431247].

Watch Video

Well, despite being a fan of the cartoon, I'm glad the movie failed. Any casting director that so blatantly racebends deserves a sunk picture.

Avatar set back the status of Asian American performers a good number of years.

 

[mikeydangerous]

Sixth Sense was okay, but the so-called "twist" ending was ruined for me the second the kid said, "I see dead people." Unbreakable was good, but too long. Signs was downright retarded ("Hey, let's go invade a planet that's covered in 75% of that thing that kills us!") And, I gave up on M. Night after that. Nothing interested me enough to give his other movies a shot (Mark Whalberg gets chased by wind?)

That said, I assumed from the second I heard he was going to direct Avatar (and fuck that other movie for stealing the title) that it was the worst idea ever. Couple that with bad casting, and the inherent difficulties Bob points out of compressing such a rich story, I had absolutely no faith that this movie would work.

Unfortunately, I've invested too much time and love into the brilliant animated series, so I'll have to watch this movie eventually. But, I think I'll wait till it hits Netflix before I let M. Night tarnish one of my favorite stories.

 

[Nomanslander]

You know, considering the reactions of the fans, all I have to say is this.

Now you millennials understand why us X-gens were so butt hurt over the SW prequels...=P

 

[JonnieWest]

For fans of the cartoon:

Spoiler

Aang, Sokka, and Iroh's names are mispronounced, along with the word "Avatar".

Roku is no longer Aang's spirit advisor. He was written out in favor of his pet dragon.

The Kyoshi Warriors, Bato, King Bumi, the northern water tribe's "sexist" (for lack of a better word) culture, and Jeong Jeong are all cut from the movie, so we lose a sizable chunk of Sokka, Katara, and Aang character development:
Sokka never learns from the Kyoshi Warriors that men aren't the only warriors, and his ego isn't beaten into the ground by his future girlfriend (not that he had that ego to begin with)

As for plot, there was no mention of Pai Sho, so we didn't get Iroh's foreshadowing of The Order of the White Lotus, so if there is a second movie, that's gonna come out of nowhere (if it doesn't get cut >_>). Without introducing Jet and Jeong Jeong, we lose the one episode antagonist from the Earth Kingdom and the good guy from the Fire Nation (one could argue Iroh already fills this role, but he doesn't really do anything except be the laid back old man who gets mad when a spirit gets killed...he doesn't betray the Fire Nation to protect it like in the cartoon either...just gets pissed). So the movie loses the expanded world where it shows both sides in the war have good people, and both sides have corrupt people. Also, without Jet, Ba Sing Se will lose the suprisingly emotional subplot of Jet's redemption...and, if there's a sequel, the finale will suffer for this.

Without Bumi, we miss Aang's advice to always look for a third option, which comes into play everytime he meets the nutball...which serves as some foreshadowing about how he wants to handle fighting the FireLord. Without Jeong Jeong, Aang never accidentally injures Katara, and she never stumbles upon her healing abilities. Of course, we all know how big of a role the healing power plays in Book 2.

What "filler" (a word that doesn't ~really~ apply to Avatar, since the episodes that didn't further the story usually had some new detail come in, or some character development) did make it in was rushed and lost all point. Shyamalan covers "The Warriors of Kyoshi," "Imprisoned," "The Waterbending Scroll," and Aang's portion of "The Storm" inside of five minutes. The Northern Air Temple is only included just to be there...it's really "The Blue Spirit," with nigh a Mechanist in sight. So, we lose out on the "they were planning it all along" when they hint at using his technology to build war airships and it doesn't come into play until halfway through the last season.

As far what did make it in...it lost all meaning and was repeatedly crammed down the audiences' throats. Zhou has to mention "The Great Library" a dozen times...instead the one, forgetable line from the series that the fans would probably forget about until the library comes up in the second season. Ozai is shown suddenly and randomly, without two seasons of buildup before we see his face. Shyamalan thought he'd throw "Chi" in, although it was never mentioned in the show.

The characterization is completely off:
Katara seems more like an underplayed version of the "Ember Island Players" version
Sokka has an actual serious personality...he never cracks a joke and is rarely the victim of one.
Aang...is completely emotionless, instead of the happy adventurer from the show.
Iroh is only remotely like himself when they are in a small village and he mentions to Zuko "there are a lot of pretty girls here".
Zuko's personality, like Katara, is just a toned down version of his in-universe parody.
Zhou...isn't even recognizable. He reminded of the type of wimpy kid that hangs out with the bully in an elementary school show/movie/book....except he somehow commands an entire navy.
Ozai is your typical angry king...nothing menacing or powerful about him. He's just...angry.
Azula...can't really tell how the personality works, since she had one line...but she looks younger than Aang.
Appa didn't do anything notable...he was just there in the background. Along with Momo (who I don't think was even named...)

The humor was almost non-existant (Sokka gets accidentally frozen once, and a guard is chasing down a small child that replaces Haru...the guard claiming "The child was earthbending pebbles at us from behind a tree. ...it hurt " )

The backstory makes no sense once Shyamalan messes with it...most firebenders can only bend existing fire, except when Sozin's comet gives them the ability to "Ignite their chi". So...how have these guys survived the century of picking a fight with the entire planet? They also stuck the earthbenders in a random quary...on the dirt...by a rock cliff...without a single firebender who can create his own flame. Why did these guys need the gaang to rescue them?

The children actors feel flat...especially Katara, who looks, feels, and sounds like she's reading off a teleprompter. While the older actors aren't ~bad~, the writting for the characters are inconsistent with the cartoon versions. Forget what moviebob said...pass this up.

Not having seen the animated series, parts of this post were an interesting read and some of it seems completely irrelevant.

I suspect MovieBob, much like myself, didn't see much if any of the last airbender animated series and thus reviews the movie on its own merits. As opposed to all the fans of the series reviewing it as something that should have been a straight movie adaptation of the series it seems.

The movie itself is alright. I don't feel like I wasted my time or money having gone to see it when it released at my local movie theatre Thursday. But that's not to say it wasn't without it's problems. Even without having seen the series I can tell that the movie is rushed. There really is too much narrative explaining things throughout the movie and it makes the entire movie feel worse for it.

But even worse than the pacing is the overall writing. The movie is written very badly and the entire movie ends up feeling slightly disjointed and shuffled because of it. I suspect that the casting team and the writing team had no communication with each other because they sorta worked towards different goals. A lot of people brought up the white actors playing Asian-based characters as something they hated, but really I don't see that as a problem because I could care less what the actors look like as long as their characters are written well. But even to me it seems sorta strange when you have these white actors use clearly Asian pronunciations of names, places, and titles. I then read that the pronunciations were "wrong" and laughed because apparently the original series had Asian characters with more English-sounding names. But then the same people that rage over white actors playing Asian character also rage over those white actors using more Asian-sounding pronunciations that match their setting? It would have been nicer (and probably helped the movie's flow) had they used either the white actors with the English-sounding names or Asian actors with the Asian-sounding names. But either way the fans of the series would have raged, now the fans just get to double rage.

I didn't really find the actors to be the dismal actors that so many people say they were. These actors were just more victims of bad writing (and directing most likely). You can't really add life to a character when they are written/directed (/forced) to be a downtrodden hero or a misunderstood guardian or whatever. Though I did get a stroke whenever that the girl who played that northern water princess spoke a line for some reason, but she only has like 3 throughout the entire film so it was bearable (probably has to do with her introduction, more on that later). I've read that Aang's character was "completely wrong" as well, but honestly I think the way he acted for most of the movie felt more fitting to how the character was shown in the movie. I'm pretty sure most people would be an upbeat, wise-cracking, bundle of joy if they awoke one day to find that everyone they knew and loved was dead because they weren't there to save them. I suspect if there is a sequel, then his demeanor will change more towards what people expected though (and it gives us hope for character development in the future! *gasp*).

Another issue with the writing was that it gave a weird sense that things were out of order. Like when the team reaches the northern water tribe the princess is introduced as someone the older brothers became close friends with, but then they go out of the way to show them becoming close friends. Why waste time telling us something you are then going to just show us anyways? It's like the writers tried explaining the effect of something and then showing the cause. Like when Aang tries to get the earthbenders to rebel against their captors by talking about what they are going to do when they rebel and after they succeed in rebelling and then introduces himself and solely starts a rebellion (which they then just end up running away from? Really? Did I miss something? Seems mean to attack a bunch of occupation soldiers and then leave the inhabitants to their fates.)

Besides the bad writing though, the movie wasn't bad. The plot was alright, if strangely revealed. The CG was pretty good and I liked the action scenes for the most part. The actors were acceptable given the roles they were forced to play and the lines they were forced to say. And I saw the movie in 3D and it was either amazing 3D or terrible 3D, I still can't decide. The movie doesn't go out of it's way to throw things at the screen like some other 3D movies (looking at you Alice) and I didn't really notice that the movie was in 3D except for a few of the landscape scenes. But those few scenes where you could tell it was 3D were great, you really could tell the depth of the objects on the screen and it added a good feeling of immersion to the world.

As someone who hasn't seen the series or someone judging the movie on its own, it's probably worth going to see (not much else this week unless you like Twilight). If you're just going to see it as a fan who wants to see a straight adaptation of the source series, don't bother going and you won't be disappointed.