The Last Airbender Review
The Last Airbender ReviewStarring: Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Year: 2010
He strikes again! On this episode of M. Night Shyamalan bullshit, he takes on the amazing cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender! Will he ruin the show, or make the next Lord of the Rings? Well… you know what I’m not even going to joke about that. Anyway, as a kid, I was more or less a fan of the Avatar animated cartoon. But like a lot of the other really good cartoons I watched as a kid, I stopped watching, and never found out what happened. Then I saw the Last Airbender, and to be honest I didn’t hate it. It was a big eh, that didn’t really have much. Then I watched the series, and you can check my reviews to see my opinion on it. I even reviewed the first season this is based off of, so check that out. BASED. That’s the key word. So now I’ve seen clips of the movie, and I expected to go back hating it. And I just watched it, and… yeah. Okay, for those who don’t know the story, it follows a kid named Aang. (They can’t even get his name right in this movie. And no, you’re not cool for using the Japanese name of a American cartoon character) Aang lives in a world where there are four elements, and people can use the elements as fighting essentially. But he’s the Avatar (and yes, Avatar the movie is a dick for copying this show) and can bend all four elements, and must keep balance using his powers. And each time he dies he comes back as somebody else, and now he’s Aang. And Aang has been gone for a hundred years, so naturally the fire nation has taken control of the other nations. So Aang has to learn the three elements he doesn’t know, and through three movies overcome the fire nation. And just saying, the show is amazing. And if somebody who knew the story well, and knew how to make a good movie, this could have been the next Lord of the Rings, I honestly believe the transition could have been that good. The show although marketed to kids, I feel is much for more adults and teenagers, and from what I’ve seen, that’s most of its fan base. So you could have a great movie for kids, and a really amazing movie for adults. But no! Of course M. Night Shyamalan was the one who thought of this idea first, and made it a movie. So pretty much every good thing I can think of about the first season of the cartoon, literally I think it’s all missing. And if that wasn’t enough, the usual terrible Shyamalan writing and dialogue is present, and characters that I would consider amazing are being reduced to being Jasper from Twilight, and some kid who’s never been in a movie before in his life. I’ll take the three main characters from the show for example. First Sokka (who isn’t called by his correct name) is the comedic relief, and also leader character. He is the one who takes the responsibility, and is really funny, and who the audience relates to as the person who can’t bend, and is surrounded by all this crap. He’s Jasper from Twilight, never made me laugh, and seems pissed off half the time. Katara, a strong female role who really stood up for herself, and you don’t see bad ass chicks that often. She’s replaced by a little girl who being called a strong inspiring female role would be a laughable comment. Aang, the funny free spirited kid who does what he can to keep protection, and eventually becomes the ultimate chosen one character. He’s reduced to awkward little kid who looks scared and intimated half the time. Every seen that shows character development and how cool these characters are is absent, and it really shows. Not all are bad, even if they don’t look the part. Slumdog Millionaire got Zuko, and although he did a really good job, and the script didn’t really seem to get his character, I mostly didn’t want him to be Zuko ‘cause it murdered his career. I’ll admit some like a character named Iroh was good all around, and even though not like him, captured the character pretty well considering. And as far as story goes, I would say it just gets the meat of the first season. But then again, it really harms the story by its awkward pacing and jumping all over the place, and not explaining things with good execution to people who didn’t understand the series. The opening intro to Avatar pretty much explained everything you need to know, but they can’t recreate that opening even though it would help a lot, and wouldn’t cost much at all. And this movie is over really quickly, it was like nobody thought transporting an epic to the big screen would take time. Also, Shyamalan thought he was so clever for making so many racial differences in the show. But fuck, you already had that! You had a show where the heroes were a Buddhist Monk, and two Eskimos! So they’re white, that’s so genius man! And making the Chinese inspired people Indian, that makes sense! And there are a bunch of reasons to not like this how that have nothing to do with it making the old cartoon look like shit. The script, bad. The acting, bad. The pacing, bad. The shitty converted 3D everyone saw in theaters, bad. (I saw it in theaters, it’s bad 3D) And it’s over, and makes hardly an real impact. Anything people would like about it would be the cool idea, which gives Shyamalan no credit! Before I said he was a better story teller than an writer, but now I know he’s a better idealist. He can get good ideas on paper, but that’s about it. Just hand these movies to people like you did with Devil, and they’ll turn out better for everyone. And this franchise deserves more, it really does. It’s amazing, and really could have been the next Lord of the Rings, but you know, under different circumstances. But no, it gets this. If you don’t like this movie, just watch the show, that’s what the fans are doing. And if you watched the movie, don’t let it stop you from watching the cartoon, it’s definitely an amazing show, and only about sixty episodes long, so easily makes your time. Just because Shyamalan can’t get characters and how they’re suppose to be represented, and how to just make a good film lately, that doesn’t make the source material not amazing. But just avoid this movie, and hopefully down the line somebody will try again, and gives this franchise the attention it deserves.
The Last Airbender gets a 1/5
Spoilers: This is only for those who’ve watched the movie AND the cartoon, so avoid this unless you’ve watched them both, and this is definitely one show you don’t want ruined. Anyway, at one part in this movie, Oong, (because apparently he isn’t Aang) says he left home because the Avatar can’t have a family just because it’s like tradition or something… so you know that part where Aang totally has a family... what was Shyamalan going to do about that? No, why was that in this? He left because they were trying to abduct him to Nazi Avatar training away from his friends his family, that’s a good ass reason to run away, and gave him the guilt he clearly shows, just as Zuko also shows guilt for what he’s doing, because he is a good guy, whereas in this he’s mostly just a dick. And why doesn’t Sokka do anything cool? Remember that scene where he stood as a fucking ship was about to hit him? And he stood his ground, and then tried fighting Zuko afterwards, whereas in this he just stands there awkwardly. And Aang constantly just goes from weakling to bad ass, whereas in the show he is the destructive force, he’s just gentle, and would get captured if it meant it would help people. And for instance and episode like the Blue Spirit was in this, and it got the meat of the episode. But that satisfying conclusion at the end, which made the whole episode what it was, that’s gone, and it’s just another fight scene that tells more about the Zuko we already knew. I mean, this movie isn’t complete shit while your watching it, but the second it’s over your like… "Well, that’s not good at all.”
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The Last Airbender gets THE BADGE OF SHIT!
