The Last Airbender | Review
Synopsis: Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara, a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka, to restore balance to their war-torn world.
*** [July 13, 2010] A week after viewing this film, I realized the film deserved a half-Kent, rather than one Kent out of four. I just think that one full Kent out of four was still more than it deserved.
Review: I’ve wanted to see ‘The Last Airbender’ for a long, long time. I knew I shouldn’t set my expectations high when I first learned that M. Night Shyamalan was to be the director; he hasn’t made a good movie in years! Then, a few months ago, the first trailer for the film was released. From the trailer, the film looked decent. It looked like it was going to be cheesy and stupid, but at least fun. However, after I’ve finally gotten the chance to actually see the film, I found out I was wrong. The movie wasn’t cheesy, nor was it any fun! ‘The Last Airbender’ was a stupid, disgraceful adaptation of the original, beloved TV series.
I hated how the majority of the main characters’ names were mispronounced. Perhaps the changed pronunciations were more correct, but the fact that the film is based on the show, the original pronunciations of the names should have been kept. Aang in the movie is “Aw-ng”. Sokka is “Soak-ah.” Iroh is “E-roh.” Also, Avatar is pronounced “Aw-vatar.” It’s annoying. At least Katara, Zuko, Princess Yue, and Admiral Zhao were kept with the same pronunciation.
I hated how Shyamalan chose mostly unknown actors to portray some of the main characters. I hated how Shyamalan chose a boy (Noah Ringer) who has no skills in acting whatsoever to portray Aang, the main character, just because the boy knew martial arts. Personally, I would’ve chose acting ability over martial arts ability. I hated how all of the acting were wooden and lifeless, aside from Dev Patel and Shaun Toub. Dev Patel is a really good actor, and did a good job in ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Shaun Toub was really good in ‘Crash’, too. I feel that the majority of the reason why the acting was so lifeless and wooden is because the dialogue and screenplay was lifeless and sucky. Much of the dialogue in ‘The Last Airbender’ are long-ass narrations – the television show did it much better and shorter. I hated how, many times, the long-ass narrations took the place of actually showing us what happens; we hear about what happens instead of actually getting to see on screen what happens.
I hated how the movie’s so dark, while the television series is beautiful and bright. I hated the choppy storyline. The film’s supposed to be a type of road-movie, but we go from city to city without any acknowledgement. We never know how many days have passed, or if it’s the same day or not. We go from place to place without ever getting the chance to settle down and actually care about the characters and the situations they’re in. The choppy pacing of the film never allows us to like anything or anyone in the movie.
I hated how the order that some dialogue and actions take place were out of order. Things should have been said before they were actually said, and things should have happened at another time, or vice-versa. For example, when Aang escapes from the grasps of Prince Zuko early on in the film, Aang takes out his glider. After Aang takes out his glider, Zuko tells him, “You have nowhere to run!” Then, Aang uses his glider to fly away. Logically, Zuko should have cornered Aang, tell him that he had nowhere to run, and then Aang would pull out his glider and fly away. It’s ridiculous! Some things in the film shouldn’t have even been said! For example, in the final act of the film, Aang is at the Northern Water Temple, and the Fire Nation currently do not know where he is. But then Admiral Zhao (Aasif Mandvi) suddenly tells the Fire Lord (Cliff Curtis) that they think Aang’s at the Northwern Water Temple. How the hell do they think and know that!? It’s unbelievable. I’m not even finished explaining yet! Right after saying that, Admiral Zhao then tells the Fire Lord that they should attack the Northern Water Temple because the scrolls they found earlier in the film revealed that the Moon and Ocean spirits were located at the Northern Water Temple, and the Fire Nation wants to kill the Moon and Ocean spirits. Now, if the film left just the whole ‘Moon-and-Ocean-Spirits’ part as the reason for attacking the Northern Water Temple, and just-so-happen to find Aang there as well, I would’ve believed’em. The first part about “Ooh, I have a strong feeling the Avatar’s at the Northern Water Temple” shouldn’t have been said at all!
I also really hated how all of the waterbending, airbending, earthbending, and firebending had excessively long movements, resulting in actually very little happening. In the television series, the elemental bendings followed the movements of the characters. In the film, each character does a series of long-ass hand gestures, and then a short burst of elemental bending occurs.
I honestly don’t care if the film doesn’t follow the television series completely. I understand that some things must be condensed and kept out. However, the film isn’t bad because it wasn’t truly faithful to the original source. It’s bad because the acting’s bad, the screenplay is bad, and almost everything else! I really would like M. Night Shyamalan to, for once, direct a movie that he hasn’t written. I know ‘The Last Airbender’ isn’t an original Shyamalan idea, but he did write the screenplay. For every one of his movies, ‘The Sixth Sense’ included, the dialogue isn’t really well-written. They’re either okay or just plain boring, cliche, or unbelievable. I believe Shyamalan’s a better director than screenwriter.
Now, what do I like about the film? The actress who portrays Katara, Nicola Peltz, actually sounds a lot like Katara from the animated series. Also, Princess Yue (Seychelle Gabriel) is really pretty in the film, and looks a lot like her animated counterpart.
I expected this film to be like ‘Dragonball: Evolution.’ I saw ‘Dragonball: Evolution’ with low expectations, and thus, I had a lot of fun watching it. The movie definitely wasn’t faithful to the original source, but the story and characters were fun. However, ‘The Last Airbender’ isn’t fun at all. All of the jokes, joy, and life in the animated series has been left out of the film adaptation. I want sequels to this film only to give Shyamalan a chance at redemption and perhaps have other people write the screenplays for the next ones. Or even better, have a better director reboot the film series. Great mythologies such as ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Dragonball’, or ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ deserve really good, faithful directors and screenwriters. The ‘Dragonball’ and ‘Last Airbender’ series need people like Peter Jackson to develop the stories and actually create faithful, and well-made live-action films to them.The mythology of ‘The Last Airbender’ is wonderful, and deserves a wonderful live-action adaptation to it.
