History YMMV / TheLastAirbender

* CompleteMonster: [[AmbitionIsEvil Commander Zhao]] is an ambitious Fire Nation militant who seeks the [[FinalSolution utter annihilation]] of the Northern Water Tribe. After failing in his plan to imprison the young Avatar, Aang, for the rest of his life, Zhao uses knowledge gleamed from the Great Library to scheme an affront against the Spirit World itself. Zhao goes behind Fire Lord Ozai's back and tries to assassinate Zuko to eliminate him as a rival, before invading the Northern Water Tribe with intent to kill the entire population. To further his goals, Zhao ruthlessly murders the Moon Spirit--lethally wounding Princess Yue in the process--and is uncaring to the broader effects of destruction that such an outrage against the spirits would cause, so long as it weakens the Water Tribe enough for his genocide to be carried out.

* NeverLiveItDown:
** The way Yue's hair is styled in the back. People have infamously nicknamed it the "penis hairdo".
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpgbZcHk_A Earthbending sequence]] has been the victim of many EpicFail and FightSceneFailure jokes[[note]]For comparison's sake: in the show, a single Earthbender can take out a Tank; six Earthbenders would be enough to level a small city[[/note]].
** The mispronunciation of the characters' names; for example, Aang being pronounced as "Ong", and Sokka is pronounced "Soh-ka". The fandom went to town with this and it quickly became symbolic of the film's faults.
** Katara is known for two not so great things. The first is the [[AdaptationalWimp terrible effort]] she put up against Zuko in the FinalBattle. The second is how ridiculous it is that despite all the time she was with Aang beforehand, it took all the way until the group had traveled to the Southern Air Temple for her to ''finally'' ask Aang what his name is.

* OffendingTheCreatorsOwn: Some people criticized the film because the good guys are played mostly by light-skinned actors, but the villainous Fire Nation is given a RaceLift from a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Japan to being played by a wide variety of darker-skinned actors, including Indians and Polynesians. Director Creator/MNightShyamalan is Indian and even gave himself a CreatorCameo as a Fire Nation {{mook}}.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Shyamalan claimed the reason every character's name was pronounced differently in the film was because he wanted to honor the "original" Asian pronunciation... except most of the character names in ''Avatar'' were ''made up'' by the creators, and thus the show versions ''are'' the original pronunciations.

* UnfortunateImplications:
** [[http://io9.com/5111680/avatar-casting-makes-fans-see-white Many fans of the show]] saw the decision to cast only white performers in the leads as a RaceLift to exclude Asian actors from the roles. The casting call was for "Caucasian or any other ethnicity", which suggested a preference for white actors, and it also [[InterchangeableAsianCultures suggested that people of Korean descent wear a kimono]].
** ''Website/TheAgonyBooth'' [[http://www.agonybooth.com/movies/The_Last_Airbender_2010.aspx called out]] an apparent sexist tone in the film, pointing out that a number of important moments female characters had in the animated series (Katara's speech to the imprisoned Earthbenders, Yue realizing she can [[spoiler:sacrifice herself to restore Waterbending]]) were given to male characters instead.

** Probably the ultimate example is the [[FanNickname Pebble]] [[MemeticMutation Dance]]: As the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpgbZcHk_A Earthbender prisoners stage their revolt]], six Earthbenders move in precise choreography, stomping the earth and releasing a [[ScreamingWarrior mighty battle cry]] … and a tiny rock barely bigger than a football floats by very, ''very'' slowly. A ''seventh'' Earthbender then launches it at a guard. The dancing Earthbenders were actually responsible for making a previous earth wall to block a fire blast, but the scene was so poorly shot it looks like they're taking all this effort to bend a single small rock. And to make amtter even worse, because the whole scene is shot with a single camera, [[TheOner with no jump cuts]], the audience can see a large number of [[MookChivalry mooks standing in the background, not doing anything and waiting for their turn to join the fight while their friends are getting knocked senseless.]]

** Probably the ultimate example is the [[FanNickname Pebble]] [[MemeticMutation Dance]]: As the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpgbZcHk_A Earthbender prisoners stage their revolt]], six Earthbenders move in precise choreography, stomping the earth and releasing a [[ScreamingWarrior mighty battle cry]] … and a tiny rock barely bigger than a football floats by very, ''very'' slowly. A ''seventh'' Earthbender then launches it at a guard. The dancing Earthbenders were actually responsible for making a previous earth wall to block a fire blast, but the scene was so poorly shot it looks like they're taking all this effort to bend a single small rock. Because the whole scene is shot with a single camera, [[TheOner with no jump cuts]], the audience can see a large number of [[MookChivalry mooks standing in the background, not doing anything while their friends are getting knocked senseless.]]

*** Paramount didn’t want to wait a year to let the show wrap up before they started filming, so there was a fair amount of writing in the dark. Shyamalan's original script, that was thrown out, is reported to more or less have stuck plot by plot to the show. The ghostwriter of the final script accidentally backed them into a huge corner plot-wise for the rest of the series. Specifically, Aang running away because he was told the Avatar couldn’t have kids; Zuko’s whole character arc depends on him being the direct descendant of Avatar Roku, Aang's immediate predecessor as the Avatar.

*** Shyamalan didn’t actually want to cast white actors to play Katara and Sokka. Katara’s actress was cast because Paramount owed her father a favor. Other actors in the Northern Water Tribe were thus cast to match her appearance.

** At the beginning, Katara splashes an off-screen Sokka with water, but he is completely dry when he appears.

* IdiotPlot: Firebenders having to firebend from a source causes this; due to either not thinking it through in the production stages, or just running out of budget, no Firebender carries around so much as a box of matches to start fires with, meaning they only ever firebend when a fire just happens to be nearby. Likewise, since Firebenders are idiots who don't know what a lighter is, the other nations are ''also'' idiots who never think to put out any nearby fires -- such as the many lanterns in the Southern Water Tribe -- because then the Firebenders wouldn't have anything to bend, and we wouldn't get any bending fight scenes.

** Before the movie had even come out, early test screening reviews mentioned a scene that has turned the phrase "punching the fish" [[https://www.deviantart.com/booter-freak/art/PUNCH-A-FISH-IN-THE-FACE-156209091 into a meme]].[[note]]He actually stabs it with a knife.[[/note]]

* DorkAge: For Shyamalan, this movie was easily the lowest point of his career, having received universally bad reviews from professional critics and all corners of the Internet, along with earning a huge backlash for its unfaithful, soulless approach to its source material. It followed up on the critical failure of ''Film/TheHappening'' and for many (at the time) signaled the end of Shyamalan's dominance in Hollywood. However, after the similar critical failure of ''Film/AfterEarth'', Shyamalan was able to [[CareerResurrection make a comeback]] with ''Film/TheVisit'' and ''Film/{{Split}}''.

* FanonDiscontinuity: The fandom likes to pretend this film never happened.

** A common trend on sites like Website/{{Reddit}} is to [[FanonDiscontinuity pretend the film was never made]] (e.g. "I would’ve liked to see that movie. Too bad it was canceled"). A snowclone of this is to post the statement "There is no movie in Ba Sing Se. The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai,"[[labelnote:Explanation]]A reference to the phrase "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" from the show, a meme in its own right[[/labelnote]] (or some variation upon it) whenever the film is mentioned.

** The CGI animals.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In the movie, Gran Gran Kanna said "Once, a long time ago, the Spirit World kept balance over us." In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', that pretty much meant the Spirits invaded the human world, [[HostileTerraforming spiritformed everything]], and forced the remnants of humanity onto the backs of Lion Turtles. Or put another way, "Then, everything changed when the Spirit World attacked."

* UncannyValley: Appa's face, in both the movie and the [[TheMerch tie-in toys]]. Samples [[http://screenrant.com/the-last-airbender-toys-kofi-44634/ here]].

** A common trend on sites like Website/{{Reddit}} is to pretend the film was never made (e.g. "I would’ve liked to see that movie. Too bad it was canceled"). A snowclone of this is to post the statement "There is no movie in the franchise. The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai," (or some variation upon it) whenever the film is mentioned.

* EightDeadlyWords: One of the most fundamental criticisms of the film, beyond whatever liberties it took with the source material, is that it is generally seen as uninteresting and unengaging.

* FoeYay:
** The ending of the Oasis fight was significantly more… Zutara-ish.
** Not to mention some of Zuko's interactions with Aang.

** Before the movie had even come out, early test screening reviews mentioned a scene that has turned the phrase "punching the fish" [[http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/063/7/3/PUNCH_A_FISH_IN_THE_FACE_by_Booter_Freak.png into a meme]].[[note]]He actually stabs it with a knife.[[/note]]

** Casting all the heroes as white and only having the villain as a person of color was particularly bad, especially since Zuko was ''not'' dark-skinned in the source material.

** Casting all the heroes as white and only having the villain as a pOC was particularly bad, especially since Zuko was ''not'' dark-skinned in the source material.

* FanPreferredCouple: The Zuko/Katara pairing was a popular ship for the fandom during the original series, and was also true for the movie. However, many of those who had only seen the movie gravitated towards Zuko/Katara because of their fight at the North Pole and the lack of any Katara/Aang teasing (as Aang is unable to have any romantic attachments).

** The Firebending is pretty much nothing but poorly composed live-action fire elements with CG that even the film version of ''Film/{{Spawn}}'' would reject.

** Francis Guinan as Pakku was noted by several reviewers to be the one actor to escape the film with his dignity intact, having put real effort and emotion into his scant screen time in stark contrast to everyone else.

* OlderThanTheyThink: A lot of people criticized the film for introducing the idea that Avatars cannot have romantic or familial relationships. However, a major plot point in the second season finale of the cartoon is that Aang's romantic attachment to Katara prevented him from entering the Avatar State, which implies that Avatars cannot operate properly if they are in romantic relationships. It's just that the show later ignored this concept with the reveal of Zuko's maternal lineage coming from Aang's predecessor as Avatar; Roku, and turned the whole thing into an AbortedArc, while the film ran with it.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Say what you want about its lack of faithfulness to the original show's lovely musical style, but Music/JamesNewtonHoward created an incredibly beautiful soundtrack that tries its hardest to elevate the film.

** Seychelle Gabriel (Movie Yue) voicing Asami in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', a character first intended as a simple RomanticFalseLead but was changed to become much more prominent when she became popular with the fans. [[spoiler:The hilarity doesn't reach its peak until the ''end'' of the show, though, where Asami ended up becoming the titular Korra's final ''love interest''. Complete with the fact that Seychelle originally auditioned for the role of Katara, Aang's love interest.]]

*** Paramount didn’t want to wait a year to let the show wrap up before they started filming, so there was a fair amount of writing in the dark. Shyamalan's original script, that was thrown out, is reported to more or less have stuck plot by plot to the show. The ghostwriter of the final script accidentally backed them into a huge corner plot-wise for the rest of the series. Specifically, Aang running away because he was told the Avatar couldn’t have kids; Zuko’s whole character arc depends on him being the direct descendant of an Avatar.

* OlderThanTheyThink: A lot of people criticized the film for introducing the idea that Avatars cannot have romantic or familial relationships. However, a major plot point in the second season finale of the cartoon is that Aang's romantic attachment to Katara prevented him from entering the Avatar State, which implies that Avatars cannot operate properly if they are in romantic relationships. It's just that the show later ignored this concept and turned the whole thing into an AbortedArc, while the film ran with it.

** The actors are often criticized for mispronouncing the characters' names, with this being ascribed to them not being familiar with the source material (Creator/NicolaPeltz was in fact a long-time fan of the cartoon). This decision ''was'' made by Shaymalan, who felt that the original pronunciation was wrong, and that he was being true to the Asian roots of the names.