The Last Airbender
From the perspective of someone who never saw the show. Of course it’s hard if you’re ever on the internet to go into the movie with an unbiased opinion. I did try not to read any reviews so I could be completely impartial. (But I did see some.)
I’m not a movie reviewer and this probably won’t be thorough or as well written as one.
Luckily our theater had a 2d viewing. I am so tired of 3-d just so they can up the price.
First the beginning was a little slow and weird. The dialogue seemed a little clunky. One character would say something and another would repeat it or just say something completely unnecessary.
Once the movie got going I enjoyed it a bit more. I heard some people voicing distaste for the “dances” for bending but I actually liked that. I thought the visuals were really nice, except in scenes where they panned a lot everything would go blurry to me. I’m not sure if that’s my eyesight or their fault. I liked the costumes, especially the hue of the Northern Water Tribe’s clothing. I just like blue.
Since you can’t mention the movie without bringing up the accusation of racism. (I don’t want to call anyone a racist. It’s a strong word it today’s culture.) I did find that, yes, for some reason all of the Southern Water Tribe but their family was of some Native appearance to be distracting. Then all of the Northern Water Tribe but the Princess looked European. If you change the race of leading characters, change the race of their group. That kind of inconsistency just makes it more apparent how out of place the actors seemed. The same thing with the Random grab-bag races of the air nomads. That reminds me of Star Trek’s lost colonies of people that only have 100 members but still managed to stay racially pure.
I liked the kid that played the Aang. It’s obvious the kid knew his martial arts. Sokka really didn’t leave any impression on me. I didn’t really like Zuko. I think his angry reactions seemed a little over the top. I don’t know if that’s how he was in the show. Katara seemed decently played, but I didn’t really find myself caring about her. Maybe just because she’s a girl and I don’t care much about many female characters.
Lyze would like to point out that the Water benders were pussies.
I’m basically the person these kinds of movies cater to. I like explosions and bright colors. Fancy computer tricks keep my attention. It wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen and it wasn’t the worst either. If they made another I’d probably see it too.
I definitely don’t think it deserves the low ratings it’s been getting if you’re looking at it unconnected to it’s source materials. Then again I can’t recall any movie based on a cartoon that was translated to live action and still kept closely to how it was in the show. Some things just do not translate well to live action. Like cyan tattoos for example.
I’m pretty much in agreement with KB. I enjoyed the movie, it wasn’t the best thing but it was pretty. The dialogue did seem very clunky in parts. Unlike KB, I liked Zuko’s angry reactions. CRRRrrraaAAAAaazzzZZZZYYYyy FFFfffaaAAACCCccceeeEE!!!
I got a great love for steampunk and other anachronistic technology so the Fire Nation’s ships I found amazing. For sure they didn’t scrimp on the visuals.
Despite all the protests, the ridiculous, ridiculous protests, about the choice of racial presentation, I really didn’t see what the problem was. Yes, there was the weird mish mash of ethnicity in the two water nation communities but it wasn’t really that glaring.
I’ve never seen the show so I don’t know how true to the character the actors were but I have to say I really liked Aang. He had his weird mood swings but it made sense in retrospect that he was in a lot of denial and repressed feelings and all that. He was charming though.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, avoid reading reviews. That’s just good advice in general. The most minor remarks leave lasting impressions on how you see a movie. With that being said, spoiler type things below. Please skip the rest of this comment if you haven’t seen the movie.
Ready?
Wtf water nation, wtf?!? You control water and there’s people attacking you ON BOATS and you fall like chumps? You’ve got the high ground, you’ve had time to prepare and you control the element which composes EVERYTHING IN SIGHT and they get through your wall in the first five minutes of the attack? ‘But fire melts ice!’ Yeah, and water puts out fire and boats freaking sink! Especially big metal ones. What Aang’s crowning moment of glory with the giant wave I can understand as being a special uber manifestation of his avatariness but you’ve got dozens and dozens of water benders and you guys couldn’t pull it together to start pulling boats down or if they’re just too big for that, fill them with water. Or start dropping giant ice boulders on the assualters. Or repair the holes in your walls. Or drop the attackers into the ice below their feet. Or do what you planned and extinguish the fires in town, including the ones the Fire Nation (rather astutely) lobbed in. I think Alucard from Hellsing says it best: “Stop Whining! All I did was cut off your stupid legs! Summon your demons! Transform yourself! Regenerate your legs! Stand up! Pick up your gun and attack me! Do something! The night is still so young, and the real fun is yet to start! Hurry, hurry, hurry, HURRY!!!”
You are fail boat Water Nation, a fail boat you are perfectly equipped to but incapable of sinking. You’re not always going to have a prepubescent bald kid to save your collective bacons.
I bet if you’d watch the show, you’d enjoy it. And then you’d understand why the fans are quite upset. The characters were indeed miscast (though the guy that played Aang had passion and fit the job) and the Bending was greatly, greatly watered down.
The Waterbenders DID fight back against the endless tide of fire nation ships. The issue was that there were so many, the water tribespeople were so exhausted just from the kata required to perform their bending that they’d just become overwhelmed. In the show, great masters were capable of tearing their steamtanks apart with water waves like cuts from samurai swords. Boats were torn at the hulls from sudden, unexpected icebergs. Entire Fire Navy ships were surrounded and blocked off by spontaneous icing.
Earthbenders? Your average, child earthbender in the show could move more earth than a group of them could in the movie. And with less body motion.
Firebenders? All of them could manifest fire without a source of ignition. Not just the high level ones. And they weren’t Indian, they were an island dwelling nation that set about conquering from their volcanically active country. They were Japanese/Korean/Chinese. parallels.
Shyamalan made too many “creative” changes.