M. Night Did It! (Well, Mostly)

So, I just got back from seeing The Last Airbender, figured I'd put my thoughts out there while it was still fresh in my mind.

Now, something that I've found (for me personally) is that I almost never think the adaptations match up to the source material. This is true for this movie as well. The cartoon series is fricken' epic (seriously, if you haven't checked it out, do so, now), and I never expected this movie to be as good. And the movie isn't perfect, but I liked it, and so did my mom who went with me, and knew nothing about the show except that I was a fan.


I think they kept the story pretty similar to the show. For those who don't know, the world is divided into four nations (Water, Earth, Fire, and Air), each featuring people called benders who have the power to manipulate their native elements. The Avatar is the spirit of the earth incarnated in human form, who has the ability to bend all four elements and is tasked with keeping the nations in harmony. 100 years before this story begins, the Fire Nation decides that they are better than everyone else and declares war, using the power of a comet to destroy the Air Nomads, in an attempt to kill the recently reincarnated avatar. This current story tells the tale of that avatar, who escaped the genocide and is "the last airbender".

Story

Now, the first season was 20 episodes, at about 23 minutes apiece- so about 8 hours. The movie is an hour and 43 minutes. So clearly, a lot was cut, and if you are a fan of the show and not expecting that, then you are a fool. Episodes included in the movie in one form or another are:

SPOILER ALERT
- The Boy in the Iceberg
- The Avatar Returns
- The Southern Air Temple
- Imprisoned
- The Blue Spirit
- The Waterbending Master (sort of)
- The Siege of the North (part I and II) including the ending with Azula!

There was some oddness in the story. For one, when Aang goes into the Avatar State (which is never named or commented on, by the way), he also for some reason goes into the Spirit World as well. There is no Avatar Roku- he is replaced by a dragon that I thought was unneccesary. I would have preferred seeing an actor hired to be Roku. You might have heard that some of the name pronounciations were changed. It wasn't as annoying as I thought it would be, but it did bug me, and caused an unneeded distraction. The Imprisoned portion was handled really oddly- I think this was the one bit that really made no sense. The Fire Nation had invaded a town and toted away all the earthbenders. But they were being imprisoned ON LAND. They comment that they were useless against the Firebender's "machines", but I think this is bullshit. A stubborn earthbender, surrounded by his or her native element, would have kicked some major ass on the show- they wouldn't have just given up. However, this scene had some nice ass-kicking moments (literally, from Sokka), and one unintentionally hilarious scene, which I think you'll notice when watching. They also changed the plotline so that Aang has trouble with waterbending, and goes to the Northern Air Temple to meditate on it. (He does a lot of meditating v_v). This is when the Blue Spirit episode comes into play, and it is pretty close to epic, though bogged down a bit with what I felt was a little too much slow-motion. Eventually, the gaang makes it to the Northern Water Tribe, and Aang and Katara start training with Pakku (no sexism in this version), Sokka and Yue get closer, and then the Fire Nation attacks. The siege plays out fairly similar to the show, though there are some differences. There are some nice Zuko and Aang moments, especially. There was a detail added concerning Princess Yue that I wish had been added on the show. One more thing added that makes no damn sense is the reason they gave for Aang running away from the air nomads. The monks tell him that he can never have a normal life or have a family. Bullshit. Clearly, M. Night forgot about how Avatar Roku had a family (which was kind of important) on the show, about how the avatar before him was a mother, and that the avatar before her was planning a wedding. Maybe they're trying to add some angst to when they start adding in the Katara/Aang shipping? I don't know.
END SPOILER

The story was a little fast paced, but not difficult to understand for me (nor apparently, my mom). I wish the movie were longer, but I think they did the best they could with the time they had.

Acting
I was reading a lot of hate for the acting in reviews before I saw this, but honestly, I thought most everyone did a good job. The highlights were definitely Noah Ringer as Aang, Dev Patel as Zuko, and Shaun Toub as Iroh. The only two I thought gave not so good performances were the actress who played Katara's grandmother (and she was hardly there) and the guy who played Zhao, who was a little hammy. Fire Lord Ozai was also not particularly menacing to me. I'm missing the beard of awesome, seriously.

Effects
I thought the locations were beautiful. Momo and Appa looked wonderful, and for the length of the movie, I thought they got about the right amount of screentime. Lol, you can see Momo try to catch SPOILER either the moon or ocean spirit at the oasis END SPOILER. While I'm discussing the animals, there is totally a "Yip Yip" in there. This pleased me to no end. There was a really adorable scene with Appa and some Southern Water Tribe kids, too. The actual elements bending looked great to me- earthbending was probably the weakest, but you don't see much of it. However, the bendings and the movements didn't match- the characters all did a ton of forms before they could get the element to do anything. This got sort of annoying.

Music
Again, beautiful. I can't help missing the Track Team's score to the show, but James Newton Howard did a respectable job here.

One last thing that was a little disappointing was the lack of some real ass-kicking by our characters. There were a few fight scenes I really liked, but there were missed opportunities to show off how strong some of the characters (specifically, Iroh and Katara here) were. Also, the dialogue is easily the weakest part of the entire movie, though it was nowhere as cringeworthy as I expected.

So yeah. See this movie, so we can get some sequels. And to enjoy yourself, too, as long as you don't take it too seriously.

 

This annoys me because of the reasoning behind it. M. Night changed them to be pronounced with an asian accent, some garbage about how his first name was always mispronounced, blah blah, and basically said, the show was wrong. Well, I'm sorry, but no. When the creators pronounce the name to rhyme with the word "sang", then dammit, that's the way the name should be pronounced, end of story. People have said that in other countries, this is how the names are pronounced, but all of their words spoken in English would follow that same accent, you know? Just saying the names with the accent made them sound out of place. And did you hear how many different ways they said "Avatar"? Geez. But surprisingly, this wasn't a deal breaker for me. I accepted it and moved on. It helped that I was prepared and knew about the change ahead of time.

Yes, I agree. I can't quite understand why so many people online are calling it the worst movie ever made. It was decent, guys.

Heh, did anyone catch the reference to Hama (from The Puppetmaster?) Yes to bloodbending in Movie 3. XD

 

I agree that changing the pronunciations of the names was a poor decision made by the film, no matter if those were the correct asian pronunciations or not, but, and again, likely because I knew about the changes ahead of time, they really didn't bother me. And if you think about it, how often were any of these names actually said in the movie? Not often at all. When making the second movie (and yeah, I'm optimistic it'll happen), the filmmakers could easily go back and use the American pronunciations of the names, if only to stop the complaining about it.

I know this is your opinion, but I disagree anyway. XD To me, Iroh is not defined by his physical appearance. The essence of Iroh is his love for Zuko, the way he's always got Zuko's back, even when Zuko makes poor choices. And I thought Shaun Toub nailed that. In all of their scenes together, I could tell that Iroh cared a lot about Zuko, from the way he walked out on Zhao after Zhao humiliated Zuko at the lunch on his ship (and I approve of that addition, btw), from the way he worried about Zuko keeping warm while going off to hunt Aang during the siege of the north, and so on.

I'm not sure what you're complaining about when you say "been told he was a great commander and yeah, that kinda annoyed me."

I think if they had left in all of the funnier scenes that they had shot, Sokka would have seemed more Sokka-ish. I think M. Night got a little ahead of the story and made Sokka more like Badass Book 3 Sokka, rather than Goofy Book 1 Sokka. I would have liked more sarcasm and some humor, but I honestly don't think a lot of Sokka's comic relief would have translated well. On a related note, I was displeased, to put it mildly, when I heard Jackson Rathbone would be playing Sokka, but given the material, I thought he did a pretty good job. He just needs more Sokka-like dialogue.

The movie was an hour and 43 minutes long. How much time would there be to include sexism in the Northern Water Tribe? Master Pakku was resistant to teaching Aang only after Aang disobeyed him and taught Katara what he'd been learning during the day. While I would have liked to see the Pakku/Katara fight on screen, there just isn't enough time to cover every little thing. And the truth is, Pakku is really not that important.

I honestly think Paramount ordered the movie cut down at the last minute (possibly because that would make the 3D conversion take less time), and this didn't make the cut because it didn't advance the main plot. A shame, because I think it would have helped with character development, but again, short movie, not everything can make it in.

What was left out that you thought shouldn't have been? If we assume that the movie couldn't have been made any longer, any more additions would have made the movie seem even more rushed than it currently does. Personally, I would have liked to see the Imprisoned episode removed, and had The Storm added in its entirety. It was a better episode and provided a lot of character development on behalf of both the gaang and Zuko. It would have been a great opportunity to show, rather than tell, Aang and Zuko's backstories.

I think the problem with a lot of fans is that when they see an adaptation of a beloved franchise, they expect an exact rehash of that franchise (whether it be show, book, comic, etc). And that's impossible. And so, disappointment.

That is correct.

 

Yes, the dialogue was pretty cheesy, and there was a lot of exposition- the characters talking with each other to tell the viewers something we need to know, rather than their actions showing us. Easily the worst aspect of the movie, in my opinion. Though, I found the cheesiest lines more funny than annoying.

On the contrary, I thought the film did a nice job of capturing the essence of the first season. Fanboys are gonna hate because not everything could be fit in.

I've actually seen many others, by critics as well as regular movie goers, but they aren't as showcased. And of course, the haters get on to flame.

This sounds like I'm trying to make excuses for the film (and I'll freely admit it was nowhere near perfect), but I think a lot of the hate from the main critics is backlash against Shyamalan in general and people influenced by the boycotters pissed because they think the casting was racist. I see the race card played again and again in those reviews. The movie is not an epic, like Lord of the Rings, though it could have been, if done right, but in my opinion, (one of a diehard fan of the show, too), it is not at all deserving of the Rotten Tomatoes rating, or of criticism as severe as it received. If there were no cartoon show to compare the movie to, and there was another name listed as writer/director/producer, I think the movie would have a more average rating. But after Lady in the Water and The Happening, I think a lot of people were expecting TLA to suck hard, so that's what they saw.

I like seeing other opinions, but I don't let people make my opinions for me. If the movie would have been something you'd be interested in, but you were turned off by the critical reviews, I'd say go see it anyway (at a matinee, in 2D) if you had the cash to spare, and see for yourself.

I've also heard it's much more enjoyable the second viewing, though I've yet to have the chance to go back to see it again.

 

I somewhat agree with you here, but at the same time, I liked the wave. One, I think a CGI Koizilla would have looked cheesy and completely shitty, so there needed to be an alternative. Two, I thought it was keeping with Aang's pacifist nature, to make a big ass wave, but not hurt anyone with it. See Book 3 when Aang spazzes about killing Ozai. In the movie novelization, the wave actually does push ships back out to sea- I wish they would have shown that in the actual film, because I agree it was somewhat anti-climactic.

How much did you think would be in there? Granted, the movie should have been longer, but there's still no way to logically include everything every fan thinks should be in there. Some of the things that were cut, like the Jet episode, for instance, were actually suggestions of the creators of the show.

Really, I didn't care much for that, either. I can understand why they thought it was a good idea, but it takes away all of the Fire Nation's menace. It's hard to believe they've been winning the war for 100 years, when it is so easy for every other type of bender to eliminate a firebender's source (and eliminate his bending altogether). Not to mention the fail of Sozin's comet giving all firebenders the ability to create fire... making them as powerful as the average schmucks on the show? Wow, I'm scared.

He needs the beard. Seriously! But the hilarious bit was when Zuko took out that portrait of his family and it was taken exactly from the picture that hangs in his home on Ember Island on the show- despite the fact that none of the actors cast in those roles (minus Ursa, who I can't remember ever seeing) look like that at all.


I think my expectations were just lower for the movie, so I was able to enjoy it instead of nitpicking it to death. Recently, a lot of my favorite books have been turned into movies, and many of them (My Sister's Keeper, for one) completely rape the source material. Here, at least, I could tell Shyamalan was trying to be faithful, and I give him props for that. He just needs to hire a scriptwriter, or someone to look over the dialogue, next time and add another half hour or so of screentime so we have more time to fall in love with the characters.

 

Such as?

I wish they'd included the full opening to the show. All of those scenes, except the last shot from the show of Aang on his air scooter, had been shot, I'd seen them in the trailers. I don't understand why they would cut all that and replaced it with a lame ass text scroll, unless it was the reason I'm thinking, and they didn't want to convert those scenes into 3D. Which goes to show that if you're gonna make a movie 3D, film it from the beginning with a damn 3D camera and do it right, or don't bother.

 

^ They were cut from the final movie because, according to M. Night, they were taking over the whole movie. In an interview, he said something about how he thought people would get too caught up in their story, and then get annoyed when they disappeared and weren't there for the final act, or something like that. The Kyoshi Warriors followed the gaang unseen and protected them while they were in the Earth Kingdom, and they even fought some Fire Nation soldiers with Sokka and Katara while Aang was captured by Zhao. But that was all removed, except one odd scene where Sokka thinks they are being followed.

But they are supposed to be introduced and utilized in Movie 2.

 

What an idiotic thing to say. If they make it, no one will force you to watch it. So why be so dramatic about it? It's just a movie.

 

They've made $101.8 million so far in the US, on a $150 million budget, so I think they are doing ok. Not to mention that the remaining two movies will be much cheaper to make, because the world has already been created, so it should be easier for those to make a profit. I think we'll see the sequels.

I agree with all of your points.

1) This really backfired, in a way I think everyone at Paramount should have seen coming. If everyone spoke with an accent like Shaun Toub did in the movie, it'd be a non-issue, because him saying Ee-roh sounded totally natural to me. But Katara, with her American accent, saying one random name with an Asian accent, just sounded completely awkward.

2) Agreed, but I think they need to be careful on what kind of funny. Stick to the sarcasm, not so much the silliness. I'm hoping the addition of smartass Toph will help bring back the funny, too.

3) Especially if Movie 2 will be darker, I think we need to see a light-hearted Aang.

4) Yes! I wonder if there's some prerequisite that every movie of this sort needs a dragon, because this one served no purpose. Surely, from a budget point of view, it would have been cheaper to hire a man to play Roku, than it would be to have ILM create a dragon, then pay an actor to do the voice? And it would have made the fans happier. Or, if they were set on having some creature, why not Koh the Facestealer?

5) I hesitate to pick fault with any of the acting, because I think most of the acting fail is because of a poor script and the wrong direction. There were some scenes when I thought Sokka was turning into Jasper from Twilight, but luckily, they were either not as common as I was expecting, or I just wasn't paying attention. The performance I hated the most was Zhao's, and luckily he won't be returning.

I'll add another point- cut back on the spiritual shit- the references to four day meditations, the talk about the spirits, blah blah blah, and focus more on the bending. We need more bending!

Yay for people posting in here. Need to get my thoughts out somewhere, lol.

 

Maybe then, what I should say is that I didn't like the way they referenced the spiritual shit. Every single line about meditating, from Aang's quip about monks doing it for four days straight, to his request to find "a spiritual place to meditate" made me scowl. It's a little hard to explain- to me, the most important function of the avatar is that he is the one who is charged with keeping the world in harmony, not his being a bridge to the spirit world. There was a reliance on spirits in the movie that I didn't like- yeah, Aang sometimes seeks their advice (though usually he wants the advice of past avatars, not random spirits), but it seemed like anytime Movie!Aang was confused, he needed to speak with that damn dragon spirit, like it was a god. And I never got the sense that all of the spirits in the spirit world were godly, or that they all wanted to guide humans, and that was what I was getting out of the movie.

And I'm sure you're right, and we'll see more of that. Eh, I'll deal with it.