Reviews Film / The Last Airbender

There's more I'd like to get into, but I'd rather NOT be here all night...

This movie is basically nothing more than a massive insult. It's an insult to the show's fans, who were used to intelligent writing(One of the lines has Ong saying, in regards to how he wound up in the iceberg, "We were forced under the water of the ocean"...Rifftrax had a ball with that line), great characters(As opposed to the well-developed characters of the show, we got bland, one-dimensional, expressionless mannequins who just take up space), and an entertaining dynamic(The Zuko/Aang dynamic had been well-established by the time The Blue Spirit twist came into play. In the movie, he'd captured or attempted to capture Ong a grand total of ONCE). It's an insult to women, who are basically portrayed as incompetent, submissive(instead of Yue coming up with the idea to give her life back to the Moon Spirit, it's Iroh. Wait, I'm sorry, "Eeroh"), and nothing more than walking bags of emotional breakdown(Nicola Peltz, who was acclaimed for her role in Righteous Kill, wears this constant expression like she's about to burst into tears at the slightest prodding). It's an insult to martial arts fans, who would've loved to see well-choreographed fights incorporating battles between warriors of opposing elements(what we instead got were eclectic messes involving one-shot, sweeping cranes that basically exposed the extras waiting in the background for their cue to run in and get their asses kicked). It's even an insult to Asians who enjoyed the cultural influences of various Asian civilizations upon the series, like the authentic Chinese calligraphy used as writing in the show. Instead, that same authentic Chinese calligraphy is reduced to childish scribbling(seen first in the opening of the movie, later when Katara puts up a poster of Ong apparently announcing his return, with a picture of Aang's likeness on it surrounded by vaguely Asian-looking...scribbles).

...I can't think of any fart jokes in Avatar...at all...There's some pee jokes in the first episode but those were before the show grew into its own, and a crap joke in season 3, but that's it...

The movie would have been better if they'd gotten cardboard cutouts of the cartoons and had the same person doing all the movements and voices. At least then it would have been funny, and the characters would have had more personality. Also, this movie had an extremely high budget. Where did it all go!? This movie had a higher budget than the Fellowship of the Ring!

^ Bingo. Angry Joe reviewed the movie without having watched the show, and then saw one of the omake - the freakin OMAKE - with zero context and said it was better than this crapstained monument to Shyamalan's ego. (Joe later watched the show and reportedly loved it.)

I dread to think how he would have butchered Toph's character. Probably made her all angsty about her blindness, just to twist the knife in further.

There weren't many fart jokes in Spongebob...

But Spongebob is still highly reliant on gutter humor and downright unfunny gross-out humor(Squidward's toenail, anyone?), whereas Avatar went out of its way to utilize higher-brow, intelligent humor in its episodes.

According to Korval's recent liveblog of the show, it really wasn't the masterpiece of writing and character everyone thinks it is. Aang being a happy-go-lucky kid, Katara being a badass Team Mom and Toph being...herself, really, were bad and almost every part of the story was filled to the brim with bad writing. There was no fart humor, but there was Komedy!, which is equally unfunny. Now, I don't believe any of this but it's something to consider.

I'm actually more lenient towards the bending effects in this movie, if not only because it's hard to do in live action what it is to do in animation.

-laughs- Hell, I would have rather WATCHED THE SHOW than watched this mess called a movie. This review forgot one terribly crass thing: it also insults people who HAVEN'T watched the show and just wanted to see a good film. Now I would have rather sat and watched the whole series on Youtube, just to see if it's better than that.

@Frankiefoster Are you referring to watching the film in parts on youtube or the original series?

I agree about the film,it feels like a bunch of youtube videos with effects so lame,you'd think it was a hack and ya' can't believe someone paid ta' see it. Just like the animated Lord Of The Rings,the beginning is so terribly choreographed I'd never watch it on DVD and only use youtube,and even then that's just so I can remember what Frodo was before Peter Jackson ruined him.

The series.

If you're talking about the original series,forget it,the resolution will not do it justice and you need a good size screen to capture the environments and bending.

However you probably won't find either on youtube anyway.

This review forgot one terribly crass thing: it also insults people who HAVEN'T watched the show and just wanted to see a good film.

Good point. As I said, there were numerous other things that I simply could not cover due to lack of space.

I'm actually more lenient towards the bending effects in this movie, if not only because it's hard to do in live action what it is to do in animation.

Even so, Shyamalan could've done better than the half-vague martial arts moves/half-crumping shit he wound up using in the movie. Hell, Sifu Kisu HIMSELF(the fight choreographer from the show) offer to aid Shyamalan, and Shyamalan turned him down cold turkey!

As for that idiot bashing on the show...

He reminds me of the numbnuts who personally gave Toy Story 3 a low rating just to avoid it getting a full 10/10 on Metacritic(or was it Rotten Tomatoes?), like the first two movies.

Ugh, fanboys.

Lets give M N,nihghit Sham-a-longa-dingdong a little credit here,at least he didn't adapt "The Great Divide" or "The Fortuneteller". And actually his vision of bending wasn't entirely off,it was in a way like a chi gun and more energy had to be built up for more harder moves (At least waterbending seemed that way in "The Waterbending Scroll"). Except said moves actually fit one fighting form and weren't generic,that was the real problem. The guy really should've just hired Aaron Ehasz or one of the writers of the show for the scenes. Or better yet slow down the pacing,I mean even bad dialogue can be salvaged if the characters do more things (Of course that could go to waste like Galbatorix or Anakin Skywalker

Whaddya' mean that's not his actual name? I just want it to fit the aesthetic of my made up language from third grade better. I mean if ANG and SOCKA need to be fit for something "more Asian" I have just as much right,don't I?Oh and I also call the right to be inconsistent about the whole M Neehut Shymalayan thing since he to couldn't even do that right (Ah-Vuh-Tar/Aw-Vuh-Tah I'm looking at you).

Sorry if this posts twice,editing anything right now is a nightmare

@Manwiththe Plan

So incredible amounts of critical and commercial acclaim, including the likes of Robert Ebert(y'know, professional film critics), are all completely invalidated by some dude on the internet?

Obviously the critics never watched the show themselves if they thought that abomination was decent. And make that two guys on the internet. As someone who has seen every episode of the show, the film was garbage with crappy fight scenes, bad characterization, and was simply a waste of money and time.

You obviously haven't read Manwiththe Plan's comment that Sick Brit Kid references. It was bashing the show based on a single internet-persona, so by adding yourself as the second it would mean that you think the show was garbage as well. Reading comprehension please, it never hurt anyone. :P