Let's pretend for a moment that I am not a die-hard fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The Last Airbender is mediocre at best. The acting could have been better, the dialogue needed to be outright rewritten, the effects were pretty cool, but the narrative itself was too fast.
Putting my fan-cap back on, the movie is a piece of crap. I do not know how someone, especially someone who has supposedly done his research, could so utterly fuck up an adaptation. Right off the bat: 10 hours of animated show. Less than 2 hours of movie. You'd need three hours, at least, to tell the story. So instead, all you've get was "It's been [time] since [the last thing they did in the movie]" over, and over again.
Now, before I continue, I never expect an adaptation to follow the source material to the letter. That would just be a lazy re-do to appease the fans. People would still pay to see it, I'm sure. But The Last Airbender is Avatar: The Last AirbenderIn Name Only. And that goes double for the characters.
First up: Aang. In the show, he's goofy and lighthearted even though he's the last of his kind. Movie!Aang was like The Awakening!Aang, but all the time. Furthermore, the reason he gave for running away. Not "I was going to be separated from my mentor and father figure," but "They told me that the Avatar can never have a family." I now want to see the third movie to see how they deal with the one twist involving Roku's family.
Movie!Sokka, during the first few minutes of the movie, established himself as a douche and a moron. He looked like about to pimp-slap his sister for splashing him, and a few minutes later, got the bright idea to crach the ice that he was standing on. And he says a line that was close to his line in the first episode.
Movie!Katara Was hilarious. Nearly every line was delivered with such cheesiness that I didn;t know whether to Face Palm or laugh till I ruptured something.
Movie!Zuko was alright. Could have been better. Also, the scar was barely noticeable in [too] many of the shots.
Movie!Iroh was good. Needed to drink more tea though.
And the climax. No giant rampaging Godzilla Ocean Spirit Koi Fish. Big wave that does nothing. Zhao does nothing and is killed by random Water Tribe mooks.
So in short: If you like the show, you'll probably hate the movie with a burning passion.
A Prime Example of Adaptation Decay.
Let's pretend for a moment that I am not a die-hard fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The Last Airbender is mediocre at best. The acting could have been better, the dialogue needed to be outright rewritten, the effects were pretty cool, but the narrative itself was too fast.
Putting my fan-cap back on, the movie is a piece of crap. I do not know how someone, especially someone who has supposedly done his research, could so utterly fuck up an adaptation. Right off the bat: 10 hours of animated show. Less than 2 hours of movie. You'd need three hours, at least, to tell the story. So instead, all you've get was "It's been [time] since [the last thing they did in the movie]" over, and over again.
Now, before I continue, I never expect an adaptation to follow the source material to the letter. That would just be a lazy re-do to appease the fans. People would still pay to see it, I'm sure. But The Last Airbender is Avatar: The Last Airbender In Name Only. And that goes double for the characters.
First up: Aang. In the show, he's goofy and lighthearted even though he's the last of his kind. Movie!Aang was like The Awakening!Aang, but all the time. Furthermore, the reason he gave for running away. Not "I was going to be separated from my mentor and father figure," but "They told me that the Avatar can never have a family." I now want to see the third movie to see how they deal with the one twist involving Roku's family.
Movie!Sokka, during the first few minutes of the movie, established himself as a douche and a moron. He looked like about to pimp-slap his sister for splashing him, and a few minutes later, got the bright idea to crach the ice that he was standing on. And he says a line that was close to his line in the first episode.
Movie!Katara Was hilarious. Nearly every line was delivered with such cheesiness that I didn;t know whether to Face Palm or laugh till I ruptured something.
Movie!Zuko was alright. Could have been better. Also, the scar was barely noticeable in [too] many of the shots.
Movie!Iroh was good. Needed to drink more tea though.
And the climax. No giant rampaging Godzilla Ocean Spirit Koi Fish. Big wave that does nothing. Zhao does nothing and is killed by random Water Tribe mooks.
So in short: If you like the show, you'll probably hate the movie with a burning passion.