Shyamalan and Paramount Pictures tried to cover the story arc of a full season of the Airbender cartoon in about ninety minutes of movie. With this cast and the special effects, it’s hard to fathom that they spent $150 million dollars making it. There’s an hour of missing movie out there somewhere, one that explains these characters and their story in full. I just know it.
What we do get are multiple occasions where instead of traveling with the characters, building their relationships and giving us something we can attach to, instead we’re just thrown into new scenes in completely different locales, with either a subtitle explaining to us where we are now, and/or narration saying a certain amount of time has passed and that stuff has happened. Then, before we experience much of anything with the characters we’re supposed to be attached to, in the new locale we’ve been thrown into, we’re quickly thrown into another poorly set up scene – which quickly takes us to yet another location/locale without any purpose or sense of direction.
The hardest part about accepting The Last Airbender for what it is (not), is that there are no redeeming qualities to it. From the trailers and other marketing, you’d expect at least the action sequences and special effects involved would provide some entertainment – and while there are some cool action bits, even that aspect of the film falls short.
During the few scenes involving hand-to-hand combat, in a movie heavily focused on martial arts styles (each corresponding to a different bending ability), most of the time the fight scenes didn’t come off as cool or enjoyable. And in scenes where they could have really showcased wildly entertaining bending fights, they instead opted to repeatedly show a lengthy martial arts dance routine, just to employ one basic bending assault – whereas in the cartoon series, there were many intense action scenes where each punch and kick from Prince Zuko would launch fireballs at his opponent.
There is one bright spot in the film: Fan-favorite character Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub) is the standout character of the movie, cool and lovable as he was in the cartoon. Uncle Iroh is Prince Zuko’s mentor and while being a calm and often comedic character, he is a powerful Firebender, good-natured in contrast to the ill-tempered young Zuko.
Unfortunately for moviegoers and fans of the cartoon, The Last Airbender does almost everything wrong and it certainly isn’t helped by the tacked-on 3D, which doesn’t add much to the film (at best) and saddles it with muted colors and flat depth (at worst). This is a movie unintentionally aimed strictly at children and the youngest segment of the cartoon’s fanbase. If your kids love flashy things and big animals, then they’ll probably like this – unless they start trying to understand the plot. In my opinion, you’d be better off taking them to see fireworks this weekend – it will probably be more entertaining.
In the end, I just hope this movie doesn’t hurt people’s interest in watching the amazing cartoon series which spawned it. That would truly be unforgivable.
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Our Rating:
1.5 out of 5
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if i had never seen the cartoon series i would say that the film was good but i did watch the cartoon series and was completly dissapointed.
i was really annoyed they missed the part where Aang has the face-off with Bumi, and the part where Avatar State Aang and the ocean spirit join together in a watery giant monster. Soka’s ‘wit’ is gone and he is waay too serious, same for aang who is meant to be young, fun and energetic but in the film he is boring and a bit pathetic. terrible casting and plot line but good speacial effects
There’s one good thing about the movie: I never saw the movie itself, but thanks it its trailers that I saw when going to other movies, I found out about the wonderful animated series and bought the DVD sets of it (I don’t have cable or satellite, so watching it on TV is out, and it’s better without the ads anyway). I never would have found out about it otherwise.
I just hope that others have done like me and checked out the original source, rather than just assuming that anything related to the movie must be junk!
I know I’m late to this discussion, but having just finished watching the original source material for this film, I can only say that the only things that adapting it for the big screen could do to improve the original would be the addition of the widescreen format (stories like this are what anamorphic widescreen formats were MADE for), and a higher frame rate. Heck, the animation in the last two episodes of the series was nearly at that level already.
A good screenwriter working with a director with a track record of wrangling large casts into meaningful ensembles (like Peter Jackson, or even Joss Whedon) could have helmed a still-animated film version of this property.
Shayamalan, a director already suffering from an apparent ego too big for his britches, was never the right choice for this kind of film, even based on his now long-past successes.
I hope sometime someone gets around to re-booting the series properly for film and noting just how much and little actually needs to change for it to be successful.
Until then, there’s still the original source material to watch.
I went to see this movie with my best friend Liya, and half way through the movie I started crying. Liya looked over to see what was wrong. “Asha? Are you okay?” she said, very concerned, “I didn’t think you’d get scared of this crap.” Obviously, I wasn’t scared. “Ick NO. I’m not scared,” I told her, “I think I just died inside.” Yep, it was THAT BAD. After the movie, I watched EVERY *REAL* AVATAR SHOW THREE TIMES. Just to get THAT out of my head. BAD BAD *BAD* MOVIE.
I’m typing this while watching the movie online. It’s so boring that I decided to read the reviews people giving this movie with the cheesy dialogues still playing as the background. Needless to say, the reviews turn out to be more entertaining than the movie itself, in my opinion.
I for one love the movie and people should realize that M. Night was NOT THE PROBLEM BUT THE STUDIO. Before the movie was out the studio force M. Night to cut almost 25 minutes of footage to convert the movie in 3D. The final cut loose alot of storytelling and made M. Night look like a fool in the eyes of all the fans of the show. This proves that the studio treat this movie as a typical “nick” movie instead of a Epic masterpiece. This is soooo sad and a great setback for the franchise and I believe that M. Night was scapegoated for the studio’s miscalculations.
So the sub-par acting, mispronunciation of character names, effects not matching up to the bending moves (just to name a few gripes with this movie) are all the result of the studio?
I am back for the people who dont know me. Just for awhile of course
I am here to say, again, that the director, M. NIght Shymalan, did not prounounce the names wrong. He only wanted to honor the asians by saying it in their way. WHy honor the asians, you ask? The original direcotrs of Avatar the Last Airbender loved to do these things that were related with China or Asia. Then they had the idea of making the cartoon series. Do you honostly think that M. Night would make the movie without their permission or their help? They both worked together to make the movie! The effects were good, not great but good. It got my cousins thinking it was real.
Any questions?
I am a big fan of the cartoon series. I hadn’t seen the movie and do not plan on it. i seriously don’t want my opinion on this epic story. Although it would be interesting to see the characters real life depiction, I looked up a few and it really seems as if the director cut the budget too much on making an accurate resemblance between the characters in the movie and the characters in the cartoon series. My opinion is that this is by far the most epic cartoon series ever. Also Nickelodeon should not have had the right to air it. the show is just too epic for that crappy of a TV network.
I watched this with three of my kids – 4, 6 and 8 years all. We are all fans of the animated series. All my kids asked me to stop the movie fifteen minutes into it. Too horrible they said, and asked me to quickly play our DVD collection of the animated series to ‘erase’ their memory of the bad movie.
I am not sure whose the target population for this movie, but certainly not kids. Most probably is the movie critic, as they unanimously and strongly agreed on its mediocrity.
You must be lying.I heard every kid that watched loved the movie.Or at least that’s the excuse people use to defend crappy movies.I honestly myself thought this movie was boring.
This movie is only prided on the few actual CGI effects it contains. The most CGI in my opinion is the bits of text they add in to tell you where the heck they are doing the scenes (mainly because if your familiar with the anime then you won’t know where in the world the story is going namely because of the amounts of scenes and adventures they skip out on. The Fire Nation were not all Hispanic looking, the Air Nation did not all look chinese and the whole Water Tribe did not look like Eskimos. The names of ther treasured characters are painfully butchered with bad pronnounciation. The cartoon was fast paced but this movie took the action slow. They preferred to use weapons as opposed to bending. For a majority of the movie that I watched I felt they were just taking it into their own hands. I came in late but I didn’t have to see the start to see how horrible the whole movie was. In my own words I am blessed I didn’t see the start of this horrible aductation. I hope they don’t make a sequel and this movie will just end itself before more fans begin to make such a ruckus about it, for it’s own sake.
- I’m 14,
& I felt like M. Night just sat on my face & took a crap.
I watched the animated series since the first day it cake out . So my dad uploaded Avatar :The Next Airbender on Netflix .
I saw the trailer & I’m like okay I’ll try .
I watched 5MINUTES of the movie & immediately got angry it was all wrong, I shut the dvd off & got on My PC to watch the animation. I tried to erase the disgusting disrespectful movie out my mind. Jesus why me?
Bell too u
I 22 years old and am one of the biggest fans of the Avatar tv series. And I can truly say that this move was hands down the the biggest disappointment i have ever seen in a movie. The was so much potential that this movie could have had it blows my mind that it was this bad.
First lets start with the characters:
according to the the tv series they should have cast a crew of which should have been fulled with the people from the oriental culture, that live and breath mixed martial arts. not just because they are grate at mixed martial arts; but because the movement that were seen int the tv series are so detailed and intricate that only pro’s in mix martial arts would be able to perform to the standards the viewers would have wanted to seen in like in the tv series.
Second the story line:
I do have to say at least M. Night Shyamalan, stayed with the correct story line. Although i do agree with some of the reviews; the story line was lacking a certain feeling or emotion. yes i know that the tv series gave us time to feel out all the pains, heart ache, joys, and victories that the main characters went through. but i believe that those emotions is what made the story of the main characters much more enjoyable to watch and this movie just didnt have that.
Third the mix martial arts:
hands down the mix martial were horrible.yes again i know this is just a movie and every fight scene is choreographed. BUT THEY COULD PRACTICED HARDER TO MAKE IT LOOK MORE REALISTIC. As a fan i was dying to see the detailed mix martial arts that the tv series had shown. What was shown in this fim was not at all what i thought it would be and it did not i repeat did not uphold tot he standard of the the tv series.
Fourth the effects of the movie:
This i can say was very good. and it was detailed. but what it lacked was the wow factor. yes they did do some very cool things but it didnt blow me away as i though it would have.
OVER ALL JUDGEMENT:
I feel this film did not hold up to what i was said to be and was not all that it could have been. I was very disappointed with this film and i hope that the next film (fingers crossed it would be a part 2); would be better thought out and performed then this film. I gave it 2 starts because it was some what entertaining.
frankly I couldn’t stand to look at this movie for more than 5 seconds and thats only because it was shown on television I didnt even bother going to the theater
This is movie is the worst movie i ever watched in my life. I sat through the whole thing and every minute i got so mad. First off they called everyones name wrong. Especially Aang! Everytime they called him “OONG” i felt like punching the screen. It was horrible, H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E.
It’s amazing how people are soooo ignorant about this movie. I myself am a fan of the series and have the entire dvd set. The movie that M. Night made was going to be unique in a sense but still retain the essence of the original. What is shock to me is that fans what to see the movie just like the series but they fail to realize that this is a MOVIE AND NOT A TV. SERIES. Most of the films that are based on a book, play, or comic book have changes in order to transport this property into a film. Now to say this movie is the worst of it’s kind is totally BOGUS and should examine his brain. M. Night got more than he bargain for in making this movie and he did not know that the series is still fresh in our minds and we expect him to capture everything from each season. Well not this time because this film is a “NICK” movie and the studio force M. Night to cut footage. The end result was a movie that is less than two hours and made M. Night look like a fool in all the eyes of the fans. For those who love the movie like myself are planning a campaing for make Paramount release the extended cut of the movie and restore M. Night’s reputation.
@Johnny, unfortunately you are wrong. The movie was sub par. The bending effects didn’t match up to the actor movements for one. The dialogue was broken, the acting was poor and the list goes on and on and on. Regarding M. Night’s reputation, he’s already done enough to damage it himself, and it’s not the studio’s fault.
I LOVED the animated series, the movie was just… So wrong… The animated series is the greatest cartoon of all time, but the movie is just plain crap… I’ll never forget the animated series
I know im late in saying this but man… I am one of the biggest fans of the animated series and when i watched this movie last year i felt like i had wasted my money. I wanted to tear my eyes out, take my brain and scrub out the last two hours of my life. Worst movie ever made. What were they thinking? Im so heart broken, i will never watch that wrectched movie ever again. I don’t care who did what bla bla bla, as soon as I heard the casting I hated it already. Argh come on someone remake the bloody thing!!!!!!!!!!!
Watching The Last Airbender is like staring at smeared crap across a brick wall for 1hr 40min.
Dear Johnny,
Defending M Night is like defending Hitler. Stop it.
When I heard about The Last Airbender being turned into a movie, my reaction was “ZOMG WTF SQUEEEEEEE!”
When I heard M Night was directing it, my reaction was “ZOMG WTF NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
When I watched the movie, my reaction was “You..have..to..be..kidding. Is this a farce? This is deadpan comedy, right? Who in the HELL is this “Aah-ng” person they keep talking about? AND WHO THE HELL IS “SOH-KHA”?!
M Night, you are the ONLY person in the history of the world capable of taking possibly the greatest thing to ever hit television and so handily and summarily desecrate it.
Last, IMPRISONING EARTH BENDERS IN A PRISON OF EARTH?! AND IT WORKS?!!! I’m done. Seriously. I think we need to go on one of those old-time crusades. Look out M. Night, we’re going Catholic on your sorry ass.
At least we now have The Legend of Korra to help us forget this waste of film ever existed.