: How? You just met him. You fished him out of the ice five minutes ago; you haven't even learned is name yet.
OK, ten seconds in and I'm already confused. Great storytelling, M. Night.
Wow, talk about missing the point. The intro scene is ripped straight from the TV show. Except that a narrator (one of the characters in the show) actually spoke each element aloud, thus emphasizing the whole four elements thing. It also took about half as long to get through.
Oh, and it was not immediately followed by a wall of text for exposition.
In order to tell us what we just saw, we get a blob of exposition, which is read aloud to us. Um, M. Night: if you're going to have someone read the text aloud, then you shouldn't be displaying text at all. If you're going to hit us with exposition, then show us all of the "peace and prosperity" that the narrator's talking about. It's a movie: show stuff.
Speaking of stuff, we learn that what we saw in the red background part was "bending", which people were respected for doing. There was also "the Avatar", who could bend all four elements. And he could communicate with the spirit world, with which he used to help keep "balance in the world." What does that even mean?
Hey, don't ask me; they never bother to clarify it in the show either.
In any case, this is yet another golden opportunity to actually show us interesting stuff, but we squander it in favor of scrolling text on a black background. Why not show us this spirit world, or the Avatar keeping balance or whatever? Did M. Night not watch Lord of the Rings?
Actually, I know that he didn't because he does everything in this adaptation opposite from what Peter Jackson did. And the actual show was smart enough to present the introductory exposition over shots of actual stuff happening. So not only did M. Night not learn from one of the most successful adaptations of all time (even though they have a 21-hour making-of that everyone who does anything creatively should be required to watch), he didn't even learn from the source material he's adapting either.
The narration finally ends, informing us that a hundred years ago, the Avatar vanished.
Cut to ice, floating on the ocean. We see a ball of water pulled out of the ocean; it's sloppily dripping all over the place, and we slowly pan over to see a girl, played by Nicola Peltz, in furs and such moving her hands, seemingly controlling it. It eventually falls off camera, and a guy with a ponytail (hey, I'll have you know that's a Warrior's Wolf Tail!), played by Jackson Rathbone, stands up; apparently, the water fell on him and he's not pleased. She starts profusely apologizing when he ominously approaches her.
But nothing really comes of that. Instead of hitting her, like his posture and movement suggests, he just grabs her hands. She says she did better that time, and that she thought of "mom". He dourly asks her to stop doing that around him, since he always gets wet.
The narrator returns; it's the girl. She exposites that they are in the Southern Water Tribe, which was one a great city. Their mother was killed and their father is out fighting. And due to scarce food, they often go out hunting, but her brother kinda sucks at it. We cut to him tracking a "tiger-seal" by its tracks. Whatever. It leads to an empty ice field, and her brother is confused.
He then starts spouting random technobabble on tracking animals. Of course, he doesn't think that a "tiger-seal" might have, you know, jumped into a hole in the ice or anything. The girl sees something glowing beneath the ice; when her brother sees it, he thinks the best course of action is to take out a boomerang and use it to shatter the ice. You know, the ice they're standing on.
This causes the ice to crack and they run for it. But instead of being dumped into arctic waters, a large sphere of ice rises up from the cracks. Inside, they see something that could look like a person. Her brother tells her to back away, and he starts to walk. But the girl, who's name we finally learn (five minutes in) is Katara, takes his boomerang and starts to whack it. Um, was she paying attention 10 seconds ago when her brother did the same thing and bad stuff happened?
Anyway, when she cracks it, the sphere collapses, emitting a spear of light into the air. We then cut to a random ship, also in view of the light beam, where a guy we only see from the back says "Uncle, look!" Well, enough of that scene.
We cut right back to Katara and her brother, looking at the ruins of the ice sphere. Inside they find a large, furry beast and a boy, played by Noah Ringer. They ask him some questions, but he's too tired to answer. The brother of the girl (because we haven't learned his name yet) walks to the beast and pokes it with his spear a bit. But when its tail lands on him, he proclaims that it's trying to eat him. With it's tail.
Oh God, M. Night ported the Komedy! from the show too. Wait, that's the level of humor found in the show? In first season? Pretty much. And people like this show? Hey, it got better.
Cut to a shot of the village they were going to take the boy to. We see some people pointing at... a special effect that they obviously could not afford. So instead, the audience is invited to imagine that the trio plus the hairy beast walked back to the village, since we hear the off-screen roars of the beast.
Cut to seeing the boy naked from the waist up in an igloo capped by a leather top. He has some tattoos on his back shaped like a cross. For some reason. The tattoos also go up to his forehead and down his arms. I have no idea why M. Night made the tattoos so much more elaborate than those in the show. It doesn't really mean anything, and it must have been that much harder to apply in the makeup room than just a solid color.
Katara enters and as he puts on his shirt, she asks how he got there. The boy says that he ran away, then explains that "we" were forced underwater, where he passed out. Um, what we? He's talking about his pet, the hairy animal that is rarely mentioned and we almost never see. Since it costs money to show him. The boy says that he should be getting back home now that they saved him.
Since something is actually about to happen, I would like to point out that this is an incredibly flat opening. We're seven minutes into the film, and it feels like nothing has really happened.
Oddly enough, this was something the show got right. This film actually makes me appreciate what I felt at the time was a fairly worthless sequence from the show: the scene where Katara and Sokka's canoe is destroyed. It's got action. It has stuff happening. There's suspense, even if it's short-lived. This movie? It starts off very dead. Even a 1 minute action sequence would have been something to get the audience going after the opening text scroll and infodumping.
Awkwardly cut to a metal ship that's crashing through the ice. This cut really feels disjointed, like the scene with the boy and Katara was supposed to be longer, but was trimmed down. Cut to Katara's brother, leading children through the village. He enters the igloo where the boy and Katara are and tells them that the "Fire Nation" is coming, with "their machines." He tells them to stay there until he says it's safe.
We see soldiers wearing black armor and furs running into the village. After Katara's brother says that it's not a coincidence that the Fire Nation came after freeing the boy, we cut to one of the soldiers removing his helmet. We cut from that back to Katara and her brother, were we get his name, eight minutes into the film: Soaka. That's Sokka. But it's pronounced like- I know what they pronounce it like. That's what the credits call him, and that's what his name is in the show, where it is pronounced correctly. OK, Sokka it is then.
The soldier removing his helmet, played by Dev Patel, turns his back to the village and softly announces that he is "Prince Zuko." OK, why are you talking to the people who already know that. You know, your soldiers? Talk to the villagers that you're trying to intimidate. Blocking at its finest.
Also, Prince Zuko seems to have some kind of topical eczema around his left eye. That's supposed to be a burn scar. Really? They kinda failed with that. I've seen serious burn scars, and they're not that neat. Sure, they got it into his hair a bit, but it's overall not very noticeable.
Anyway, Prince Zuko says that he is the son of "Firelord Ozai." Then he orders them to bring him their elderly.
Cut to Sokka and Katara's grandmother being dragged off. Katara starts to bend the ice near her, but Sokka warns her off. Yeah, like that would have stopped her in the series. Cut to one of the soldiers going into the boy's tent. The soldier starts to leave, but then notices the boy and pulls down his hood to reveal the tattoo on his forehead.
Cut to the boy being brought before Zuko. The boy is quite hostile with Zuko; when asked for his name, rather than taking the opportunity, ten minutes into the film, to give us his name, he just says that he doesn't have to tell them anything. Zuko is pissed and calls on his firebenders. He tells the boy that he's taking him to his ship, or he'll burn the place down. The boy agrees, asking Zuko not to hurt anyone, sounding very much like he's reading from cue cards just out of frame.
So they lead him away. When some of the villagers try to approach, one of the soldiers does a spin-kick at them, and a nearby fireplace flies over and around them, making them retreat. Our first look at firebending in the film proper.
We'll have words about this later.
Cut to Katara and Sokka, the latter of whom is trying to understand why they took the boy. Katara says that they should have fought, that the boy is their responsibility. About 7 minutes after rescuing him, and now he's your responsibility? She tries to explain to Sokka it by analogy to herself, since she's his responsibility. Sokka just points out that they couldn't catch up if they wanted. Then they hear some commotion outside, and they see the beast that they found with the boy floating in the air.
Katara calls it a "bison creature thing." Um, OK, was that term introduced in some scene that wasn't in the film? This movie doesn't flow from scene to scene so much as shudder and lurch across the screen. Also, this feels like a big cop-out to make the plot work. Oh, it's not; it's just an element from the show that was lazily and clunkily integrated. At least in the show, Appa's ability to fly was told to us, but he was just too tired or whatever to use it at the time. Here, it feels like an Ass Pull.
Even moreso because we haven't seen this bison creature since they pulled the boy out of the ice. That was 5 minutes ago. And even then, it wasn't exactly the most important thing going on. At least in the show, we got to spend time with him. He was always there, either hanging out in the background or something else, reminding us that he existed. The film just drops him and has him show up when it is absolutely necessary.
Cut to Zuko's ship. I have to say, the art team for the film did a great job translating Fire Nation ships to the movie. They put a lot of care and detail into their model work (whether it's CG or an actual scale model). They are clearly evocative of the design aesthetic of the series ships, but they did what a live-action movie is good at: adding lots of little details to bring a simplistic, stylized drawing to life. And I won't be saying that anyone did a "great job" at anything very often in this review.
Zuko walks into a room, followed by an older man played by Shaun Toub. The boy is in the room and he asks what they want. The older man says that he's going to perform a simple test. He also says that the boy will be free to go after the test, which will involve putting items in front of him. When the boy seems skeptical, the older man introduces himself and says that the boy has his word.
See, M. Night? You can have someone provide a name without seeming clunky or waiting twenty minutes. His name is Ero.
*facepalm*
OK, what now? It's Iroh. But- I KNOW! It's Iroh.
Here's a question. Zuko's ship is leaving. It has already left the village. So... where exactly where they planning to release the boy? This makes no sense. It's an adaptation-induced plot hole. In the show, this made sense, because Aang immediately revealed himself as the Avatar to Zuko, then allowed himself to be captured to avoid damage to the villagers. Here, since Aang was set to be released, it makes no sense for the ship to leave. But it has to leave in order for the next part of the story to work, which was adapted more or less faithfully from the show.
In short: bad writing.
Cut back to the Water Tribe. Katara and Sokka are talking to their grandmother. She exposites that she knew that Katara had a destiny ever since it was discovered that she was a waterbender. More exposition is delivered, saying that there hasn't been a waterbender since her friend Hama was taken away.
Name drop! Though why M. Night dropped this name is beyond me. Is he really, really planning, in his adaptation of the third part of this trilogy (which won't happen because this movie failed), to shut down all narrative momentum just so that he can do a side story about Katara meeting an escaped waterbender from her tribe? Or was this just an attempt at a Cue Cullen moment for the fans? Because if he's expecting us to think that he's honoring the source material, he's going to have to do a hell of a lot more than just drop a name.
The grandmother explains what her destiny is. She says that the boy's tattoos are airbending tattoos. And because of this, she thinks he is the Avatar.
Wait, what? That's a pretty hard conclusion to leap too. Um... M. Night forgot to have Katara mention in this scene that all of the Air Nomads were killed long ago, and since the Avatar hasn't been reborn, clearly the last airbender must be the Avatar. Really? Isn't that all critical information for making this logic work? Yes, but there's actually a point to this omission. Not a good one, but we'll get to that in a bit.
Then their grandmother starts talking about the spirit world. For some reason. She exposites about how spirits are supposed to guide them, and the Avatar is the only one who can talk to them. She then says that the Avatar frightens the Fire Nation because they don't want to live "by the spirits." She then says that the Avatar, being a master of all four elements, will "begin to change hearts. And it is in the heart that all wars are won."
Um, what? How does that make sense? Being able to bend four elements doesn't change people's hearts. Neither does being able to talk to spirits. Though the line is clunky in context, the sentiment is certainly appreciated. Because that is what the Avatar is going to be doing, more or less. This sets up part of the thematic structure of the film.
Granted, it doesn't end well. Or at all, really, as this theme seems to be abandoned half-way through the film. But it's something that's not entirely incompetent. Yep; that's how low the bar is set in this film.
We're in for a long haul.
Cut to Iroh, Zuko and the boy. Iroh puts a candle before the boy, and the flame seems to be drawn towards him. He pours some water on the table, which coalesces into a pool. A stone similarly placed starts to stand on its end.
Um, why? As we're going to find out, our boy Avatar doesn't know any other forms of bending than airbending. So, are stones always rolling around in his presence? Does water start pooling when he's around? What is causing this to happen?
Anyway, Zuko declares that the boy is his prisoner, and he calls him an airbender. The boy protests, saying that he was supposed to be released. Iroh explains that he was to be released if he failed the test the way everyone else did. Of course, that's not what Iroh promised, thus making him a double-dealing dick.
When Zuko tells him not to try to escape, the boy flips over the table, flips over both of them, then airbends himself out of the room and shuts the door. Neither of them make any attempt to try to stop him from doing any of this. They don't move, they don't even reach out to him. He just does it and they stand there and watch him.
And this is where live-action starts to hurt this kind of thing. In the cartoon, Aang could certainly have done what his doppleganger did here. But it would have taken him 1 second to do it, instead of the 5 it does here. Because everything is slowed down, that kind of escape just doesn't work. Or at least, not plausibly.
Poor is the adaptation that fails to understand what actually works in the medium being adapted into.
The boy walks down a hall and is confronted by three guards. But he wtfpwns them in a second with a single airbending move, since they're only armed with swords. He gets onto the deck, then hears his bison creature on a nearby ice ledge. When Zuko gets on deck, the boy does something to his staff that causes it to become a big kite. Sure why not. He then leaps off the deck and flies to the others.
The boy offers to take them back to his home, but they want to stay with him. So they head back to his home.
We get a cut to Zuko and Iroh. Zuko speaks the cryptic line, "For a moment, I had my honor back." Um, OK.
So let's take stock. We're about 17 minutes into this movie. Given that it has about a 90 minute running time (ignoring credits), that's roughly 1/5th of the film done. And how many action scenes have we had in this supposed action movie? None. The closest we got was the boy's escape, and that didn't have very much suspense. There was a bit of tension when the guards approached the boy, but then he wtfpwned them and ran off.
Most honest-to-God action movies will at least try to have some action in the early parts. This one fails utterly to do anything. And it's not just action; there's so much infodumping in this part of the movie that there's no time for character, suspense, drama, or anything at all. There is just the barest hint of a plot.
By comparison, two episodes of the series were condensed into this 17 minute piece. In those 45 minutes or so, we had a fight between Zuko and Sokka, Zuko and Aang, another between Zuko and Aang, Aang going into the Avatar State, a fight between some firebenders and Katara, and a thrilling escape. In this movie? Nothing.
Now in all fairness, the film can't be held to that standard; this 17 minutes is only 1/3rd as long. But there could at least be something and not nothing. A real fight between Zuko and Aang would have gone a long way to showing what firebending was like, as well as providing some action for this flat introduction to the movie.
On Racebending
One of the more talked about aspects of the movie among fans is something that has been given the moniker "racebending." Basically, fans of the show were upset that the writers seemed to completely ignore the race of the characters in the series when casting actors. It's interesting to note that racebending was probably the number 1 complaint going into the release of the film. But once people saw that it was a terrible film, the racebending thing kinda faded into the background. Who cares about race when there's gross character assassination going on?
Some of the complaints, I personally do not understand. When I look at Aang, the only reason I think "Asian" is because he's bald and wearing clothing evocative of various Asian monk traditions. When he was incognito in the Fire Nation, for example, he didn't look particularly Asian to me.
Though to be fair, the racebending issue was aimed more towards Sokka and Katara. The show as a whole tried to link bending cultures to some real-world ones. And the Water Tribes are based on the Inuits, so Sokka and Katara have noticeably darker skin than other characters.
One thing I've always found odd about this accusation is this. Look at this picture of Katara, from the series. Notice anything? Like, the blue eyes? Oh yeah, I'm sure there are plenty of Inuits with blue eyes. I find it interesting that the focus seems to be on the actors in this film being white, but nobody suggests that the filmmakers should have restricted themselves to the virtually non-existent population of blue-eyed Inuits. Seems like the show was doing a bit of racebending; of course, nobody complained then.
But nevermind that. In the film, Sokka, Katara, and their grandmother are literally the whitest people in their village (though to be fair, there is technically an explanation. Their grandmother is from the Northern Water Tribe, where everyone is white. Not that that would have actually been said in the movie, of course). I really don't know why they cast these darker skinned actors to play the extras when they didn't with the main characters. Just have a bunch of white Eskimos; if you're not going to get it right, at least be consistent. That's called "world building;" look it up. Oh, you don't have to; just ask the writers of the show. They know a thing or two about that.
Now there is an argument to be made defending racebending. It goes something like this:
And you know what? I buy that argument. I'm perfectly content with that. This is a reasonable argument for racebending... provisionally.
The argument itself is based on a obligate condition. The purpose of making the argument is to find the best child actors for the part. Therefore, the argument is only valid if the actors you find don't blow ass!
These do.
The casting in this film is just terrible. Now, before I start dragging people through the mud, it's important to be fair. If you're given tons of shitty dialog, you're not going to come out looking good. It's one of the reasons I give everyone who acted in the Star Wars Prequels a blanket pass on their acting. Even if they actually are terrible actors, you just can't say it based solely on those performances, given what they had to work with.
Dev Patel, playing Zuko, seems to be the one giving the best actual performance. You can see that there's something driving him. Granted, he's probably given the most stuff to actually work with. Nicola Peltz, playing Katara, fails to act consistently from scene to scene. And during far too many moments of tension, she scrunches her face up like she's going to cry. Jackson Rathbone's part in this film isn't consequential enough to really judge anything that happens.
But Noah Ringer, playing the as of yet unnamed Avatar, is the real problem. The writing really hurts him, but the actor definitely isn't helping. He doesn't act so much as lurch and belch in acting form. He speaks his dialog like he's reading off of a prompter or something; there's rarely even an attempt at a performance or character. Of course, since the film is focused squarely on him, it really drags the movie down.
Granted, so do many other things about it.
M. Night: I'm all for picking good actors of the wrong race over shitty actors of the right race. But if you're going to cast shitty actors anyway, at least have the shitty actors be the right race. They'll still suck, but at least they'll look the part.
Comments
" Although that may be Hollywood's fault and not Shamalan's, as you said his argument falls apart because THE MOVIE FALLS APART!
