Reviews Film / The Last Airbender

An Analogy to Explain My Disappointment

The ending of this film ruined any hope it could have had. We have Aang drawing up the giant wave and...holding it there. The Fire Nation ships back away, the wave drops, and Aang collapses.

One must wonder why the ships did not simply come back.

I instantly thought: What if Luke Skywalker hadn't blown up the Death Star, but just radioed them and said "hey, I'm sitting right where I can destroy this whole station, but I don't want to kill anyone, so if you promise to disarm your planet-wrecking gun, I'll back off."

Now, a competent villain like Tarkin or Vader would casually agree to his demands, wait for him to come out, and then kill him and let the station do as its WMD thing. Similarly, a competent Fire Nation commander would have checked, especially since they're now missing not only their admiral but also the Fire Lord's brother and should try and figure out what happened to them at least, and seen if maybe whoever raised the freaking huge wave exhausted themselves by holding a tidal wave still for a couple minutes, and if so, move back in. Even when the waterbenders could bend they weren't doing that good.

Essentially, Aang not being decisive and just scattering the fleet like the show is equivalent to Luke Skywalker not destroying the Death Star: The fleet still exists, still has all its weapons and any men who were still on the ships, and likely will be pushing for stronger attacks on the Northern tribe in the future. Aang only accomplished a delay of the inevitable instead of a massive show that things have changed and the tide is turning. For that alone, ignoring all the other issues (I couldn't even see Zuko's scar and spent half the movie thinking it was on the wrong side, the craptastic bending, etc) this scene ruined it above all else.