The Last Airbender review
One of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I actually want my money back, it was that horrible. For further commentary, see behind the cut. There be spoiling....
So as I've said, this is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I've been watching all the hype buzz around the internet since the live action movie was first discussed. I've seen all the bitching going on since the beginning. I've been hoping that it wasn't going to be so bad...that there would have been some redeeming factor.
Unfortunately, there was nothing to redeem this movie.
The only thing moderately decent was the effects. But the story sucked and missed it's mark horribly.
The actors were shoddy. There wasn't enough enthusiasm or care about their characters. Zuko was not angry enough nor did he carry on enough about his honor and capturing the Avatar (he might have been angrier had he had his PONYTAIL! fuckers...). And Zuko's scar did not mar his face enough. Iroh gave an ok performance, but was not forceful enough when he was supposed to be. His performance is entirely way too overshadowed by Mako's original voice-acting. Zhao was not enough of an asshole. He seemed like a fucking pussy in my opinion. He did not seem to counter Zuko enough and did not cause nearly the conflict he did in the cartoon. The lack of his signature mutton-chops was disappointing as well. Sokka was not funny enough. He was not active enough. He was as much of a bump on a log as Katara was. Katara also seemed to lack the emotion she had in the cartoon. There was no Suki, Bumi, Roku, Bato, Chief Arnook/Pakku (they had one or the other in the movie and that was confusing), or pirates.
Oh, and the mispronunciation of names...I wanted to be the rude person in the theater always talking cuz I wanted to yell and scream at the screen every single time they said a name wrong.
So much was missed from Book 1. Granted, not everything would be able to make it in there. And there was a bit that logically could have been afforded to get cut out. However, they cut too much out and placed an improperly balanced focus on the parts that made it into the movie. They didn't put enough of the good stuff in and the parts they did put in they modified too much to make it almost unrecognizable. From the beginning, Katara's swing with the boomerang on the glacial globe was weak. Zuko's arrival to the Southern Water Tribe to first capture Aang was not delivered correctly or even with much emotion behind it. There was no emphasis on finding the Avatar. The scenes at the Eastern Air Temple were wrong and they made up things that happened at the Northern Air Temple that were supposed to happen at the Eastern Air Temple. Oh and when they find Momo? Where was Sokka's witty commentary about "dinner"? For that matter, he didn't comment much at all. The Kyoshi Island scene was half-assed and mixed up with "Imprisoned"....oh and not only was there a lack of Kyoshi Warriors (much less Suki and a cross-dressing Sokka) but no Haru.....They couldn't even mix things up correctly to make it believable. No trip to Omashu, no Winter Solstice revelations, an improper introduction to the Waterbending Scroll and a lack of pirates. There was no interaction between Katara and Zuko over her necklace. Jet, the Great Divide, The Fortuneteller were afforded to be left out, thankfully. The Blue Spirit was not done too poorly, thankfully, but there was nothing about the Storm (and the parts they mentioned that coincided with the Storm episode were weakly delivered). Again, nothing about Bato and nothing about the Deserter episode. THAT one was pivotal for Aang's fear for learning firebending and Katara's realization that she could use water to heal.
On to the finale.... There was no distinction between that one master waterbender that seemed like he was Master Pakku....or he could have been Chief Arnook because of his caring about Yue. Or they made up a completely different character because they couldn't do it right. There was no fight over Katara learning waterbending or talk about healing at all. There was no showdown of Katara vs Master Pakku and then the major revelation that her Gran Gran was originally Northern Water Tribe. Zuko's ship did not get blown up by the pirates. Zhao gave a weak delivery about the plan to destroy the moon spirit...AND WHY WAS A SHITTY VERSION OF OZAI IN THIS SEASON??! Not to mention how many times Zhao visited Ozai....there was not enough time for all of that to have elapsed the way they were trying to make it elapse. Zuko did not kidnap Aang out into the blizzard wasteland. The fight between Zuko and Katara was also weak. Aang did not get as angry as he should have with the death of the moon spirit. He didn't even channel the ocean spirit correctly. And what was with the ending when Aang was bending the ocean but didn't completely kick the Fire Navy fleet's ass? He just lets the huge ass wave weakly fall back down? Much less the ocean spirit was supposed to have wrecked havoc with the Avatar's help prior to Yue giving her life back to the moon spirit.
The martial arts portrayed were not horrible, but the bending along with the forms did not flow as well as they could have. There was too much movement and preparatory action prior to the effect on the element. It seemed like a lot of wasted motion.
I swear there was more for me to complain about but I'm already trying to push this horrible failure out of my head. Overall, I give this a big huge F for a fucking failure. If M.Night directs the other movies like he's slated to do so right now, I'm not wasting any more money on the movies. I'm not even going to buy this on DVD.
So as I've said, this is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I've been watching all the hype buzz around the internet since the live action movie was first discussed. I've seen all the bitching going on since the beginning. I've been hoping that it wasn't going to be so bad...that there would have been some redeeming factor.
Unfortunately, there was nothing to redeem this movie.
The only thing moderately decent was the effects. But the story sucked and missed it's mark horribly.
The actors were shoddy. There wasn't enough enthusiasm or care about their characters. Zuko was not angry enough nor did he carry on enough about his honor and capturing the Avatar (he might have been angrier had he had his PONYTAIL! fuckers...). And Zuko's scar did not mar his face enough. Iroh gave an ok performance, but was not forceful enough when he was supposed to be. His performance is entirely way too overshadowed by Mako's original voice-acting. Zhao was not enough of an asshole. He seemed like a fucking pussy in my opinion. He did not seem to counter Zuko enough and did not cause nearly the conflict he did in the cartoon. The lack of his signature mutton-chops was disappointing as well. Sokka was not funny enough. He was not active enough. He was as much of a bump on a log as Katara was. Katara also seemed to lack the emotion she had in the cartoon. There was no Suki, Bumi, Roku, Bato, Chief Arnook/Pakku (they had one or the other in the movie and that was confusing), or pirates.
Oh, and the mispronunciation of names...I wanted to be the rude person in the theater always talking cuz I wanted to yell and scream at the screen every single time they said a name wrong.
So much was missed from Book 1. Granted, not everything would be able to make it in there. And there was a bit that logically could have been afforded to get cut out. However, they cut too much out and placed an improperly balanced focus on the parts that made it into the movie. They didn't put enough of the good stuff in and the parts they did put in they modified too much to make it almost unrecognizable. From the beginning, Katara's swing with the boomerang on the glacial globe was weak. Zuko's arrival to the Southern Water Tribe to first capture Aang was not delivered correctly or even with much emotion behind it. There was no emphasis on finding the Avatar. The scenes at the Eastern Air Temple were wrong and they made up things that happened at the Northern Air Temple that were supposed to happen at the Eastern Air Temple. Oh and when they find Momo? Where was Sokka's witty commentary about "dinner"? For that matter, he didn't comment much at all. The Kyoshi Island scene was half-assed and mixed up with "Imprisoned"....oh and not only was there a lack of Kyoshi Warriors (much less Suki and a cross-dressing Sokka) but no Haru.....They couldn't even mix things up correctly to make it believable. No trip to Omashu, no Winter Solstice revelations, an improper introduction to the Waterbending Scroll and a lack of pirates. There was no interaction between Katara and Zuko over her necklace. Jet, the Great Divide, The Fortuneteller were afforded to be left out, thankfully. The Blue Spirit was not done too poorly, thankfully, but there was nothing about the Storm (and the parts they mentioned that coincided with the Storm episode were weakly delivered). Again, nothing about Bato and nothing about the Deserter episode. THAT one was pivotal for Aang's fear for learning firebending and Katara's realization that she could use water to heal.
On to the finale.... There was no distinction between that one master waterbender that seemed like he was Master Pakku....or he could have been Chief Arnook because of his caring about Yue. Or they made up a completely different character because they couldn't do it right. There was no fight over Katara learning waterbending or talk about healing at all. There was no showdown of Katara vs Master Pakku and then the major revelation that her Gran Gran was originally Northern Water Tribe. Zuko's ship did not get blown up by the pirates. Zhao gave a weak delivery about the plan to destroy the moon spirit...AND WHY WAS A SHITTY VERSION OF OZAI IN THIS SEASON??! Not to mention how many times Zhao visited Ozai....there was not enough time for all of that to have elapsed the way they were trying to make it elapse. Zuko did not kidnap Aang out into the blizzard wasteland. The fight between Zuko and Katara was also weak. Aang did not get as angry as he should have with the death of the moon spirit. He didn't even channel the ocean spirit correctly. And what was with the ending when Aang was bending the ocean but didn't completely kick the Fire Navy fleet's ass? He just lets the huge ass wave weakly fall back down? Much less the ocean spirit was supposed to have wrecked havoc with the Avatar's help prior to Yue giving her life back to the moon spirit.
The martial arts portrayed were not horrible, but the bending along with the forms did not flow as well as they could have. There was too much movement and preparatory action prior to the effect on the element. It seemed like a lot of wasted motion.
I swear there was more for me to complain about but I'm already trying to push this horrible failure out of my head. Overall, I give this a big huge F for a fucking failure. If M.Night directs the other movies like he's slated to do so right now, I'm not wasting any more money on the movies. I'm not even going to buy this on DVD.