The Last Airbender is a painfully bad movie, and not because it so poorly adapts the show but for that and so many other reasons. When I consider digging a tunnel under my seat to get into the Eclipse theater next store that's a bad sign. And yes I am a fan of the show. But before I tear every other bullshit part of this movie I want to make a case about the 3D which is very big on the ads and posters. These are fucking lies: I asked my seatmate if he remembered any 3D effects and me and him could only think of the opening title. So Mr Shyamalan you have exploited people who like the third dimension into coming and seeing your shitty ass movie. Nice job for someone who once made The Sixth Sense.
Oh wait Shyamalan made Unbreakable which commentated on the idea of superhero. Okay so Last Airbender is a lampooning of modern day fantasy movies: little personality in the characters, CGI clusterfuck and bad romance storylines. Oh wait by doing so he's destroyed possibly one of the best children's animated shows ever produced by an American studio (okay fine in the 2000's). So fuck him he ruined that.
Okay first off let's talk about how he botched this adaption before going on about plot, acting and effects. First off bad fucking casting: not racist casting although let me say that it's probably not a good idea if your trying to side step that by making each nation, one race only, Firebenders are all Indian, Earthbenders are all Asian etc. Next problem being it tries to adapt 10 hours of episodes (the first season) into a 90 minute movie. I don't know how you could make a movie out of the series, which means you shouldn't most of the time. Lastly is the biggest nail in the coffin: no humor. This movie isn't funny. The show was very humor based, it was used to get on Nicktoons, and B if it wasn't the drama would overset everything and make bending seem stupid. No one's funny personality's come over: Aang, Sokka, Momo, Appa, Iroh are all not funny. That means the story has no hook and it becomes boring fantasy.
Story wise as I said the plot tries to be one season and fails at this, but it goes deeper than that. The story blazes through the episodes making each deep episode two minute sconds so it has none of the depth. The worst is the Blue Spirit which lasted several episodes in the show but the character is introduced, revealed and forgotten about in the span of 5 minutes. Now rushing through all these episodes mean the skip the exposition to explain this world's history, philosophy, etc. which forces the script to basically be filled with exposition and nothing else. No humor, no character development, no interest. This obviosuly means are once deep characters become without personality, But it also affects major story points. Katara narrates the movie at points and in this movie the relationship between Sokka and Yue is introduced at the same time we meet Yue so basically: "We went to the northern water kingdom, Sokka and Yue met, now their madly in love". This takes all emotion out of her eventual demise.
Acting wise; FAIL. Aang was cast by one kid who got the role and he's never acted before in his life! Nice job and no he's no hidden gem he's shit. Sokka and Katara's actors hold none of the personality so we don't care for them. Zuko is done okay, but he yells all the god damn time and his ambuguity is lost. But for me the worst is Iroh. The actor they cast is horrible: wrong race, not funny, no light heartedness. They fucked his character up badly. Everyone else follows very closely to the shit pole.
Effects, besides the 3D which I have already mentioned doesn't work here because it nevers affects it's environment so fire doesn't burn and water doesn't soak. It's just window dressing as is the bad still backgrounds for depth effects. Some large buildings like the air temple are done well as are the ships of the Fire Nation. Fighting is boring for elemental control because they never get creative and the fighting is based around non affecting effects. There is a bit where Aang fights soldiers in the siege where he gets really creative that's probably the best part but that lasts a total of two minutes. Still the effects don't work because it isn't animation anymore. This is what's truly wrong: it should have stayed animated. Would Spirited Away really be as good in live action? No it would suck. Same with Avatar The Last Airbender.
So Mr Shyamalan you fail once again in terms of just about everything and while you will of course make a sequel that will probably be shit please try harder next time. But if you fuck up Toph then I will personally come and kill you. She's the only one left safe from your soulless hands. You fucked up Azula in one scene for shit's sake.
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