Reviews Film / The Last Airbender

Plot =/= story; the plot is the narrative structure the story is told through, and it was indeed "disjointed". Perhaps, by some ghost of a chance, it was better before it got cut down to 90 minutes, but that hardly excuses the simple fact of how it came out.

The casting wasn't very wise, but I will agree I don't think Shyamalan's being intentionally racist. But then, that might be because so many people get accused of racism these days over any little thing, that I've stopped taking most accusations seriously.

The show is disjointed cause it's a show, they are episodic and thus the "disjointed"-ness works. Movies are supposed to flow, and this movie did not flow. As for the acting, whoever they got for Ang (I'm not calling him Aang) sucked and really couldn't pull off his somewhat silly line, Zach Tyler Eisen is a good actor that can make those lines work. And the reason people don't like the ending is because they changed it from something that would've worked just find, Aang is supposed to be upset about the horrible destructive power of the Avatar State and feels terrible about destroying the fleet, they just removed a big part of Aang's arc, not like there's going to be a second movie.

The fact that lots of background characters are non-white really just makes the whiteness of the protagonists more obvious and problematic - why do all these Asians need to stand around helplessly until a bunch of white kids show up to save them? Furthermore, while one might excuse Aang's race on grounds that it's possible to read the cartoon character's facial features that way, casting white actors for Aang AND Katara and Sokka is pretty problematic.

I'm honestly pretty confused by what you mean about "a good job adapting the corny dialouge of the series into a movie format"...what dialogue from the series was anywhere NEAR as awful as "We have to show the Fire Nation that we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in their beliefs"?

You also cite the episode "Imprisoned," but there's the pretty crucial detail that on the show, the Earthbenders didn't rebel because they were trapped on a metal ship at sea, and Aang had to steal coal from the engine room to give them weapons. In the movie, the Earthbenders were locked in a dirt-floored prison camp, and sat there looking helpless until a twelve-year-old showed up to inform them that THE GROUND IS MADE OF EARTH.

My take on the movie:

Casting - Who cares? Were people made that Aang didn't look Asian in the cartoon too? Let's get beyond everyone calling everyone racist for crying out loud. Acting - decent dialog - meh. weak in places Momo - They didn't even tell you Momo's name! He looks good, but there should have been more of his shenanigans. Appa - decently done Pronunciation of characters' names - "Ong"? Who the crap is "Ong"?? That is not how his name is pronounced. And who is Sooka? You mean SOKKA?? (Sock-Ah) Fight scenes - ranging from fantastic to incredible Overall - if you liked the cartoon, martial arts, and/or awesome visuals, you should see it.*

• disclaimer - if you liked the cartoon so much that you know the name of every character that was ever in the cartoon and can name all the chapters, in order... you WILL find things to complain about.

The racism issue isn't that Aang himself was obviously Asian in the cartoon and Shyamalan changed that. It's that Shyamalan had the perfect opportunity to cast Asian people in the movie and he didn't. The Air Nomad civilization was practically Tibetan, same for the Water Tribes being Inuit, so the logical (and more aesthetic, IMO) choice would be to cast an Asian person for Aang and Inuit people for Sokka and Katara. But Shyamalan decides that he wants white people as the heroes for some unfathomable reason (it probably wasn't their acting ability, I'm guessing). They might have been able to get away with it for Aang, but there's no excuse for Sokka and Katara, they're obviously not white in the cartoon.

No but if people from the north pole in their world are white, (hich they were) then Katara, and Sokka had to be white or at last part because their grandmother was from the north pole.

Point of Order: If you have three Inuit grandparents and one European grandparent, odds are you are not going to look totally European.

Odds are, you can look like anything at all because genetics is a tricky subject.

"I liked this Movie"?

M Night, get out of this forum. Only you would be that sad to say that.

According to RT, statistically, someone has to like it.

The effects are NOT decent at all! The waterbending dripped but didn't shrink.

Also considering M. Night's slipping record at directing and his acquired Small Name Big Ego,it's entirely possible he hired those actors because he thought they were genuinely good for the roles given.

And truthfully I actually like the ending,it may have been unfaithful but it works great in its own right. But it was too little ,too late

Let\'s not forget the \"pebble dance\"