The Last Airbender: Who is this Ung guy?
I've been trying to write a review for this movie for the past two hours, but I just can't. There are way too many things that left me disappointed and angry. Here a some good things:
The cinematography was amazing. The air temples are breathtaking. The backdrop for Aang's memories as a child in the temple are something from a dream. The fire nation was an incredible mix of lush jungle and ancient sub-Asian continent-style buildings. The northern water tribe city was immense, imposing, but also delicate. I think my jaw dropped a couple times at how rich and beautiful and alive the world appeared.
The fight scenes were pretty neat. There really weren't any seams between the benders and their elements. I was a little put-off at the lack of distinct fighting styles between the nations. Every nation looked to have their bending based in Tai Chi, and even then, the posing was so long and drawn out. 20 seconds of posing yielded a floating bubble of water. I missed the kung fu-style kicks and punches that are the Fire nation's trademark. I can't remember seeing a single earth bender do the stomp-rock moves vertically-kick-rock moves horizontally thing.
Uncle Iroh was, for the most part, a caring uncle. He mentioned tea once.
That's about all the redeeming qualities that I remember.
Aang was pronounced "Uhng". Avatar was pronouced "Uhvuhtar". Iroh became "ee-roh". Sokka became "soe-ka". Agni-ki became "angi-kay". Justin later told me that the first time Aang's name was said in the movie, my head and the heads of 15ish other people in the audience sort-of jerked to the side. It's because we were all thinking, "Wait, what did they just say?" In interviews, Shyamalan stated this was because 85% of movie-goers would not have seen the show, and he wanted it to be legit and pronounced the way Asians would pronouce the names. Well damn, let's just toss all the source material out!
Oh wait, he basically did.
When Aang & Co. land in the Earth kingdom, they land in the middle of a dense forest. You don't ever see a coastline. They go from forest, where they are captured by Fire nation soldiers, to a forest internment camp/holding area for earth benders. Aang then riles up the earth benders and they start the first of many little revolts against the Fire nation's occupation of outlying Earth kingdom villages. I leaned over to Justin at this point and said, "Uh... I don't remember this in the series." Turns out that they were actually on Kyoshi Island... I think? Or maybe this was supposed to be the part with Haru and the floating metal prison ship? I don't know. Shyamalan apparently filmed a bunch of scenes with the Kyoshi warriors, but they were cut. To summarize, I spent the time between the going to the southern air temple and reaching the northern water tribe thinking, "What the f*ck is going on?"
They get to the Northern air temple, Aang is led into a Fire Nation trap by some earth kingdom guy. I kept thinking this guy would be that mechanist guy with all the flying wheelchair things, but no, he's just an angry Earth kingdom guy. LUCKILY Aang escapes with the Blue Spirit's help (wooo something from the cartoon, finally!) and then some other random cinematic scenes of Tai Chi by a river, some other shit happens and they finally get to the Northern water tribe.
No Bumi or Omashu, no June the tracker, no Jeong-Jeong, no Jet and his rebel fighters, no Avatar Roku chats, no crazy mad panda spirit. Katara's ability to heal is never shown.
They get to the northern water tribe, Yue stands around nodding, Pakku talks (but his name is never said), and both Aang AND KATARA IMMEDIATELY START TRAINING (What the...). For maybe 30 seconds. Yue and Sokka wander around on the ramparts, talking about Sokka's grandmother asking lots of questions about why Yue's hair is white. So she tells Sokka about when she was born, and blahblah THE FIRE NATION ATTACKS.
Oh, I left some stuff out. Throughout the movie, there are four-ish scenes with Zhao, back in the Fire Nation capital, talking to FIRE LORD OZAI, WTF IS HE DOING HERE WHY CAN I SEE HIS FACE?! Another review commented on this, too: how the hell is Zhao getting back and forth across the world to conference with Ozai every morning? Plus, Ozai's throne room is so DULL. Just a little throne on a little pedestal. No giant hanging Fire Nation banners or big flames or anything. Ozai is supposed to be this truly sinister, evil, somewhat insane dude. Never showing his face was one of those cliffhangers for two entire SEASONS. Gah!
Also, where is Zuko's pony tail?!
Anyway, shit happens, Aang goes to the spirit world and meets... not Koh the Facestealer. No, he meets some dragon. I guessed that it might be Roku's dragon, but seeing how Shyamalan has butchered things already, it's probably the dragon from Reign of Fire. Yeah, you thought he wouldn't be able to slip a twist in there; take that, naysayers!
Zhao stabs (stabs? wtf, he stabs? wait a sec...) the moon spirit. Uncle Iroh shoots fire out of his sleeves and the Fire Nation guys run out of the oasis, which in the movie is a cave, but whatever, I'm past caring at this point. Iroh then tells Yue to give up her life to save the moon spirit, Yue goes swimming and dies. Sokka has his fifth line of the movie, yet still batting 0 for 5 in the comedic relief department. Aang starts fighting, wanders up onto he ramparts, goes into the avatar state and makes a giant ocean wave HOVER over the Fire Nation ships until they leave. Yes, I wrote "hover." Then everyone bows to Aang and we get to see Ozai tell Azula (who does look kind of crazy, so props there for great acting during her 5 seconds of screen time) to fuck around with Aang for 3 years, just until Sozin's comet arrives.
No giant, neon-blue avatar state water monster, smacking shit out of the way. Zhao and Zuko do fight, but I think Zhao drowned or something. Or maybe they froze him up. Or fuck, he probably climbed in his X-wing fighter and flew back to The Daily Show set. I was busy waiting for neon blue avatar water monster to show up, so I wasn't paying too much attention.
The dialogue was shit. The delivery was shit (though with that dialogue, you'd need Christopher Lee and Anthony Hopkins giving the best performance of their lives in order to make it mildly salvagable). Sokka and Katara were in desperate need of a tan, or a spray tan, or I don't know, a coffee bath. Momo's name wasn't uttered once. The relationship between Aang and Appa wasn't even hinted.
Hmm, what else? What else?
Except for a couple scenes from Aang's childhood memories near the very end of the film, Aang doesn't crack a smile. Katara is more worried and pouty than Bella Fucking Swan. Sokka provides no comedic relief at all. It was just a big pile of shit.
I had hoped people unfamiliar with the story would see the film and then want to watch the TV series. This film killed that hope.
That said, I hope they make another one. I really do. I hope they get a real writer, a new director that has worked with source-to-screen adaptations, and cast ethnically-appropriate actors in the added roles.
And for goodness sake, stop calling him Ung.
The cinematography was amazing. The air temples are breathtaking. The backdrop for Aang's memories as a child in the temple are something from a dream. The fire nation was an incredible mix of lush jungle and ancient sub-Asian continent-style buildings. The northern water tribe city was immense, imposing, but also delicate. I think my jaw dropped a couple times at how rich and beautiful and alive the world appeared.
The fight scenes were pretty neat. There really weren't any seams between the benders and their elements. I was a little put-off at the lack of distinct fighting styles between the nations. Every nation looked to have their bending based in Tai Chi, and even then, the posing was so long and drawn out. 20 seconds of posing yielded a floating bubble of water. I missed the kung fu-style kicks and punches that are the Fire nation's trademark. I can't remember seeing a single earth bender do the stomp-rock moves vertically-kick-rock moves horizontally thing.
Uncle Iroh was, for the most part, a caring uncle. He mentioned tea once.
That's about all the redeeming qualities that I remember.
Aang was pronounced "Uhng". Avatar was pronouced "Uhvuhtar". Iroh became "ee-roh". Sokka became "soe-ka". Agni-ki became "angi-kay". Justin later told me that the first time Aang's name was said in the movie, my head and the heads of 15ish other people in the audience sort-of jerked to the side. It's because we were all thinking, "Wait, what did they just say?" In interviews, Shyamalan stated this was because 85% of movie-goers would not have seen the show, and he wanted it to be legit and pronounced the way Asians would pronouce the names. Well damn, let's just toss all the source material out!
Oh wait, he basically did.
When Aang & Co. land in the Earth kingdom, they land in the middle of a dense forest. You don't ever see a coastline. They go from forest, where they are captured by Fire nation soldiers, to a forest internment camp/holding area for earth benders. Aang then riles up the earth benders and they start the first of many little revolts against the Fire nation's occupation of outlying Earth kingdom villages. I leaned over to Justin at this point and said, "Uh... I don't remember this in the series." Turns out that they were actually on Kyoshi Island... I think? Or maybe this was supposed to be the part with Haru and the floating metal prison ship? I don't know. Shyamalan apparently filmed a bunch of scenes with the Kyoshi warriors, but they were cut. To summarize, I spent the time between the going to the southern air temple and reaching the northern water tribe thinking, "What the f*ck is going on?"
They get to the Northern air temple, Aang is led into a Fire Nation trap by some earth kingdom guy. I kept thinking this guy would be that mechanist guy with all the flying wheelchair things, but no, he's just an angry Earth kingdom guy. LUCKILY Aang escapes with the Blue Spirit's help (wooo something from the cartoon, finally!) and then some other random cinematic scenes of Tai Chi by a river, some other shit happens and they finally get to the Northern water tribe.
No Bumi or Omashu, no June the tracker, no Jeong-Jeong, no Jet and his rebel fighters, no Avatar Roku chats, no crazy mad panda spirit. Katara's ability to heal is never shown.
They get to the northern water tribe, Yue stands around nodding, Pakku talks (but his name is never said), and both Aang AND KATARA IMMEDIATELY START TRAINING (What the...). For maybe 30 seconds. Yue and Sokka wander around on the ramparts, talking about Sokka's grandmother asking lots of questions about why Yue's hair is white. So she tells Sokka about when she was born, and blahblah THE FIRE NATION ATTACKS.
Oh, I left some stuff out. Throughout the movie, there are four-ish scenes with Zhao, back in the Fire Nation capital, talking to FIRE LORD OZAI, WTF IS HE DOING HERE WHY CAN I SEE HIS FACE?! Another review commented on this, too: how the hell is Zhao getting back and forth across the world to conference with Ozai every morning? Plus, Ozai's throne room is so DULL. Just a little throne on a little pedestal. No giant hanging Fire Nation banners or big flames or anything. Ozai is supposed to be this truly sinister, evil, somewhat insane dude. Never showing his face was one of those cliffhangers for two entire SEASONS. Gah!
Also, where is Zuko's pony tail?!
Anyway, shit happens, Aang goes to the spirit world and meets... not Koh the Facestealer. No, he meets some dragon. I guessed that it might be Roku's dragon, but seeing how Shyamalan has butchered things already, it's probably the dragon from Reign of Fire. Yeah, you thought he wouldn't be able to slip a twist in there; take that, naysayers!
Zhao stabs (stabs? wtf, he stabs? wait a sec...) the moon spirit. Uncle Iroh shoots fire out of his sleeves and the Fire Nation guys run out of the oasis, which in the movie is a cave, but whatever, I'm past caring at this point. Iroh then tells Yue to give up her life to save the moon spirit, Yue goes swimming and dies. Sokka has his fifth line of the movie, yet still batting 0 for 5 in the comedic relief department. Aang starts fighting, wanders up onto he ramparts, goes into the avatar state and makes a giant ocean wave HOVER over the Fire Nation ships until they leave. Yes, I wrote "hover." Then everyone bows to Aang and we get to see Ozai tell Azula (who does look kind of crazy, so props there for great acting during her 5 seconds of screen time) to fuck around with Aang for 3 years, just until Sozin's comet arrives.
No giant, neon-blue avatar state water monster, smacking shit out of the way. Zhao and Zuko do fight, but I think Zhao drowned or something. Or maybe they froze him up. Or fuck, he probably climbed in his X-wing fighter and flew back to The Daily Show set. I was busy waiting for neon blue avatar water monster to show up, so I wasn't paying too much attention.
The dialogue was shit. The delivery was shit (though with that dialogue, you'd need Christopher Lee and Anthony Hopkins giving the best performance of their lives in order to make it mildly salvagable). Sokka and Katara were in desperate need of a tan, or a spray tan, or I don't know, a coffee bath. Momo's name wasn't uttered once. The relationship between Aang and Appa wasn't even hinted.
Hmm, what else? What else?
Except for a couple scenes from Aang's childhood memories near the very end of the film, Aang doesn't crack a smile. Katara is more worried and pouty than Bella Fucking Swan. Sokka provides no comedic relief at all. It was just a big pile of shit.
I had hoped people unfamiliar with the story would see the film and then want to watch the TV series. This film killed that hope.
That said, I hope they make another one. I really do. I hope they get a real writer, a new director that has worked with source-to-screen adaptations, and cast ethnically-appropriate actors in the added roles.
And for goodness sake, stop calling him Ung.