Random thread.

The Last Airbender.

Why was it such a terrible movie? Like, there is no reason for a movie to be so goddamn bad.

I am going to talk about everything I remember from that pile of crap even though I saw it years ago in theatres and never laid eyes on it again.

First some personal history. I didn’t watch avatar the last Airbender when it was originally on tv. Then when the movie was announced my friend/coworker was all excited about it and I didn’t understand the hype. He suggested I watch it and I binged the whole thing on Netflix.

Obviously I was blown away and it easily became one of my favorite shows, if not my favorite of all time. The mythology, fight choreography, humor, character arcs, art style, everything... it was such a good show in every way. I was pumped for the movie.

So where to begin... how about the title.

The movie isn’t even called AVATAR! It was so close to the release date of James Cameron’s Avatar that they left the word out of the title and just called it The Last Airbender. The Avatar is the most important part of the story!!*

*im making this footnote here because this is where I’ll say: I wouldn’t make most of these criticisms if the movie was good. If it had been a quality film, most of this stuff could be let go

Next, pronunciation. So many movies don’t do their original source material justice but has there ever been a movie where the mispronounce character’s names?! Aang, Iroh, Sokka, and evening the word Avatar were said incorrectly. Absolutely unacceptable.

It’s like Shymalan never watched the show and just read a summary of it online or something.

Then the acting. It was just bad. How does Hollywood make a movie with bad actors? Who were these kids? The producer’s nieces and nephews? I have seen better middle school plays and I am being totally serious. The acting was abysmal.

Deeper into the acting, let’s talk about characters. Sokka the would-be leader/warrior who has good instincts but a lot to learn. Also, incredibly funny. His live action version was none of that. Just very dry.

Aang, the hyper 12 year old who is an immature kid but still somehow a mature monk who is in touch with his spiritual side. And who struggles with the pressure of being the avatar AND the last of his mind. Instead he was just boring.

Zuko, the brooding teenager who is struggling to find the one thing that can restore his honor and allow him to return home to his father and nation. The movie version showed none of that the characters were all flat. Not engaging at all.

The flat characters were an extension of the lack of heart the movie had. No humor, no color (literally and figuratively). It was so drab and lifeless. Totally the opposite of the show.

And casting was horrible. The water tribe was definitely inspired by indigenous cultures. The fire nation always seemed Japanese to me (correct me if I’m wrong) but Katara and Sokka were white? And Zuko was Indian? It just didn’t work*

And now *sigh* I’m going to talk about bending. I freaking love bending. I’ve watched ATLA and Korra so much and the way the creators of the show have developed these individual fighting styles for each element is genius. I don’t know the specifics but I know that each element’s

style is based on a particular martial art and that style directly correlates to how a bender utilizes their element. It is a huge part of the lore of the show. The movie crapped all over that. I don’t remember how they did air or water bending but the other two...

There’s a scene in the show where earth benders are taken by the fire nation and held captive on a metal rig so that they can’t escape. Makes sense. Team avatar has to do some quick thinking to free the earth benders. Fantastic scene.

The movie was right to emulate it but instead of holding the earth benders in a metal prison, they were being held like... on the mainland. On the ground! And team avatar didn’t think of a plan, they just gave a crappy speech and what did the earth benders do?

They finally rose up and fought the fire nation back, using the ridiculous amount of earth that they had around them but for some reason they could only throw like one pebble at a time. It was pathetic. Have you seen the show? Earth benders should be scary!

And fire bending. This one was the worst. For some reason they got in their head that fire benders can’t make their own fire. *table flip* that makes no flaming sense.

The point of fire bending is it’s explosive power. Fire benders are fierce and dangerous. Their style is direct. They are the only warriors who don’t seem to be “controlling” an element. It comes from within them.

I even remember Iroh teaching Zuko saying “fire bending comes from the breath”. It’s like a key tenet of the style.

When the movie made it so that fire benders couldn’t make their own fire, their fighting style changed to look like water bending and it was just wrong. Fire nation soldiers moving their hands in this flowing motion to manipulate fire. It was blasphemous.

And they led up to this stupid climax where Iroh got so mad that he made fire himself.

DUMB!

Not only was it lame in the movie itself but all of the fans have already seen fire benders do that so we weren’t impressed.

And that climax was so rushed. Do you remember when Commander Zhao captured the moon spirit? Then KILLED the moon spirit? Causing the water benders to lose their bending. Then Aang in his avatar state merged with the ocean spirit to make a giant spirit and destroyed the fire

Nation fleet and killed Commander Zhao? How epic was that?!

Yeah well instead the kid made a big tidal wave that didn’t do anything and the fire nation just ran away.

The end.

So I think I’m done. I would have a lot more to say if I had watched the movie recently but the terribleness from my first viewing is still etched in my brain. And I get that movies never do the original source material justice but damn, this movie was shit all around.

I would love to see someone try this again though. Avatar deserves a live action attempt. It’s too good not to make the story come alive in this way. And we need to meet Toph and Azula and Bumi and... come on people someone do it right!

End of thread.