First off, I was going in to this movie objectively. I wasn't going to moan about every inconsistency in the movie compared to an entire season's worth of material of the series because Adaptation Distillation is unavoidable. However, this cut straight to Adaptation Decay, because really, they just went from point A to point B. Many of the cuts will lead to major Plot Holes in the later movies.
Knowing it won't live up to the series, I figured it would still be an enjoyable movie at least, right? No, sorry.
Terrible acting, it says something when you prefer Aang's Dull Surprise to any other time he tries to actually act. Zuko and his sudden shouting every now and then went straight into Narm territory.
The fight scenes and special effects were a disappointment. The choreography was weak, the Earthbending Prison fight scene (which invokes several levels of Fridge Logic when you realize they're standing right on top of earth) was possibly the worst, when it took a whole group of people doing long drawn-out dance moves to move so much as a rock. The style they used didn't match up to the raw power associated with Earthbenders. It was synchronized twirling. Almost every fight scene was just smothered in slow-motion, which made them downright lethargic. The best fight, IMO, was in the storage room, though it also seemed the shortest.
Zhao got a bad case of Villain Decay, and was hard to see as any more of a threat than Zuko. Firelord Ozai lost his role of being The Faceless, which was what made him so terrifying the first season.
I will not complain about the changes in the names of the characters. It was unneeded and even confusing, but it was advised by a linguist.
Katara's Team Mom and Sokka's Plucky Comic Relief / Only Sane Man roles were downplayed so much, they're difficult to notice if you're not familiar with their characters in the series.
Loved the detail in the glider though, and Momo (those few moments he did appear) looked great as well.
Not even the effects were decent. Sorry, Sokka.
First off, I was going in to this movie objectively. I wasn't going to moan about every inconsistency in the movie compared to an entire season's worth of material of the series because Adaptation Distillation is unavoidable. However, this cut straight to Adaptation Decay, because really, they just went from point A to point B. Many of the cuts will lead to major Plot Holes in the later movies.
Knowing it won't live up to the series, I figured it would still be an enjoyable movie at least, right? No, sorry.
Terrible acting, it says something when you prefer Aang's Dull Surprise to any other time he tries to actually act. Zuko and his sudden shouting every now and then went straight into Narm territory.
The fight scenes and special effects were a disappointment. The choreography was weak, the Earthbending Prison fight scene (which invokes several levels of Fridge Logic when you realize they're standing right on top of earth) was possibly the worst, when it took a whole group of people doing long drawn-out dance moves to move so much as a rock. The style they used didn't match up to the raw power associated with Earthbenders. It was synchronized twirling. Almost every fight scene was just smothered in slow-motion, which made them downright lethargic. The best fight, IMO, was in the storage room, though it also seemed the shortest.
Zhao got a bad case of Villain Decay, and was hard to see as any more of a threat than Zuko. Firelord Ozai lost his role of being The Faceless, which was what made him so terrifying the first season.
I will not complain about the changes in the names of the characters. It was unneeded and even confusing, but it was advised by a linguist.
Katara's Team Mom and Sokka's Plucky Comic Relief / Only Sane Man roles were downplayed so much, they're difficult to notice if you're not familiar with their characters in the series.
Loved the detail in the glider though, and Momo (those few moments he did appear) looked great as well.
I'm not going to mention the Unfortunate Implications of the casting either.