In brief: A weak plot, pretty special effects, and a villain who steals the show? This can only be Avatar.
I expected to like this movie. I wanted to like this movie. I'm a fan of the cartoon, and the first trailer was promising. Then the negative reviews started pouring in... but, at the urging of a friend who was set on seeing it for himself, I saw it anyway. And I'm sorry to say they (the reviewers) were right. There's a lot I could talk about with more room, most bad, some good, and plenty interesting, but let's start with the points from the top.
First, the actors. Aang's not bad. I seem to be in the minority in liking Jackson Rathbone's Sokka, race notwithstanding. Katara... I'm not sure if it was the actress or her extraordinarily strange lines — if Shyamalan was going for "epic", he's doing it wrong — but she wasn't good. I will say this: The actors playing the Fire Nation characters, Iroh, Ozai, Zhao, and especially Dev Patel's Zuko, were uniformly great. (Sadly, though Patel's gravitas almost makes up for it, Zhao does not punch a fish in the face.)
The special effects are... well, they're fabulous. They managed to snare my attention for a few seconds at a time and make me wish they were part of a better movie. Just don't expect any great bending battles. You weren't looking forward to those, were you?
But at its base: This was not a good adaptation. I believe it could have been done right, and there are moments where it almost works, or feels like it could have worked — the first thirty seconds, for example. I started to hope. But when text started scrolling from the bottom of a blank screen with a shaky voice-over explaining the story so far, the manic grin left my face and I realized that this was not the man for the job.
In brief again: Lousy exposition, jarring transitions, and a near-total lack of the show's spirit and humor. Moments that should have been powerful fall flat — I'm not much for laughing at failed drama, but in the "life energy" scene, I was tempted. Someone behind me just couldn't resist and I can't blame them. It does get a bit better near the end, as it reaches "Siege of the North" territory, but it has a long way to go. The Last Airbender might make good MST3k material, but it doesn't cut it as a good movie.
He has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone.
In brief: A weak plot, pretty special effects, and a villain who steals the show? This can only be Avatar.
I expected to like this movie. I wanted to like this movie. I'm a fan of the cartoon, and the first trailer was promising. Then the negative reviews started pouring in... but, at the urging of a friend who was set on seeing it for himself, I saw it anyway. And I'm sorry to say they (the reviewers) were right. There's a lot I could talk about with more room, most bad, some good, and plenty interesting, but let's start with the points from the top.
First, the actors. Aang's not bad. I seem to be in the minority in liking Jackson Rathbone's Sokka, race notwithstanding. Katara... I'm not sure if it was the actress or her extraordinarily strange lines — if Shyamalan was going for "epic", he's doing it wrong — but she wasn't good. I will say this: The actors playing the Fire Nation characters, Iroh, Ozai, Zhao, and especially Dev Patel's Zuko, were uniformly great. (Sadly, though Patel's gravitas almost makes up for it, Zhao does not punch a fish in the face.)
The special effects are... well, they're fabulous. They managed to snare my attention for a few seconds at a time and make me wish they were part of a better movie. Just don't expect any great bending battles. You weren't looking forward to those, were you?
But at its base: This was not a good adaptation. I believe it could have been done right, and there are moments where it almost works, or feels like it could have worked — the first thirty seconds, for example. I started to hope. But when text started scrolling from the bottom of a blank screen with a shaky voice-over explaining the story so far, the manic grin left my face and I realized that this was not the man for the job.
In brief again: Lousy exposition, jarring transitions, and a near-total lack of the show's spirit and humor. Moments that should have been powerful fall flat — I'm not much for laughing at failed drama, but in the "life energy" scene, I was tempted. Someone behind me just couldn't resist and I can't blame them. It does get a bit better near the end, as it reaches "Siege of the North" territory, but it has a long way to go. The Last Airbender might make good MST3k material, but it doesn't cut it as a good movie.