The Last Airbender

[imelza0]

If you plan to see this movie, you most likely shouldn't read this post, if only because of slight spoilers.

The one thing that I can honestly say about this movie was that it was the biggest disappointment of my life. I had waited a long, long, time to see this, and even went to the premier, but it was basically a disaster.

First off, I'm a huge fan of the show, and the fact that the names are pronounced wrong in the movie is completely unacceptable. Yes, they pronounced them the way they would have been pronounced if the names were Japanese, but they aren't, so why bother, and risk making fans angry? Which is what happens.

Not only that, but easily half of the stuff in the trailers isn't in the actual movie, which is always a let down.

Basically, the choices that the people making this movie made when it comes to which important details to leave in, and which to leave out were made very poorly.

I am incredibly disappointed as a huge fan of the show, and I would recommend watching it online or renting it instead of spending ten bucks to go see it in a theater.

[Darkjak87]

This is very disappointing to me because I really wanted to see this movie, and I too am a big fan of the series. I for one find it incredibly ridiculous that firebenders require an outside source of fire in order to firebend. That is stupid and ridiculous because the series has made clear that they are not creating fire, but they are manipulating energy that expresses itself as fire from the body. If it wasn't for the fact that firebenders could do this, they would not be able to produce lightning. By establishing this, they've removed much of season 2, including what locks Aang's chakra at the end of the Second Season. They've really screwed up here, and I'm disappointed.

Everything that ruins a movie based on a series are stupid, arbitrary decisions such as this. The idea was to make Firebending equal with the other elements, but that is a completely pointless move because even though airbenders are reliant on the presence of air, air is everywhere and there is no way that anyone could remove that from the equation. And at the same time, Waterbenders can do things such as pull water directly from the air, from plants, or even from the soil, even if not near. Only Earthbenders are really at a disadvantage, but even so they would have to be defeated in battle through conventional means before they could be removed from their source of power. And I for one find it ridiculous that they think they know better than the people who actually made the series. Everything possible I'm sure the makers considered at one point or another, and by the time they finished the series I have full faith that it was as good as they thought it would be, and that means that other people couldn't make it better.

[imelza0]

I completely agree. And the whole movie seemed very set up. There were even points at which the actors stopped what the were doing to explain what was going on to each other. And the outside source of the fire is stupid, too, because that puts the supposedly hugely powerful fire nation at a disadvantage.

Also, the girl they chose to play Azula is all wrong. Her skin's too dark, her eyes are the wrong color, her hair is too long, and she doesn't look nearly evil enough. It's really just sad.

Basically, the consensus from people who haven't seen the show is that the movie doesn't make any sense, and that it was super super rushed. It made me sad that it has great potential to turn away possible new fans to the show.

Anyway, definitely one to wait for the DVD to rent.

[Darkjak87]

Well to be fair, I was skeptical from the start as to how they could really fit all of Season One into a one two hour movie. To be honest, the only way they can do it and still make a good movie would be to make it a 3 to 4 hour movie, which I personally would not object to at all. The movie has made the fire nation into something no better than the water tribe. It's completely impractical for a firebender to have to lug around a campfire wherever combat is. If this happened in the series, it would be as easy as dumping a pot of water on their troops and put out the fires. If it wasn't for the Fire Nation's technological supremacy then it would be completely unbelievable that they weren't defeated, or at the very least thrown out of the Earth Kingdom years before Aang even appeared. And how can they explain Fire Nation tanks? If they can't firebend without a source of fire inside the tank, then how could they possibly be effective?

[imelza0]

It wasn't even a 2 hour movie! It was more like a little over an hour and a half. The beginning 18 episodes of the show were ridiculously rushed, then easily half of the movie was spent on the last two episodes of the season.

Ans moreover, in the movie, only masters can make their own fire, and apparently Sozin's comet will give all of the firebenders the ability to make their own fire. What a dumb idea. Ugh.

[Darkjak87]

That is incredibly stupid because basically it's saying that all firebenders will be exactly as powerful as they are for the majority of the series. If they're doing these movies by the seasons, then I have no idea how they're going to include all of Season 3 in addition to the final battle, which ALONE is 2 hours long. Seriously, they've REALLY screwed this up here, and they've made everything backwards. It's like the crappy company that takes over development of an extremely popular game that the original company was done with, but the new company screwed it up horribly because they had no idea what the original designers wanted, and pretty much ruined the game's reputation as a result (kind of like TLF if you ask me).

Seems to me like the movie itself has absolutely no plot at all. They're assuming that every single person who would watch it is someone who has already watched the series, and therefore they could basically omit the entire plot. The bending scenes were nice and all, but 3D makes me sick, and that was pretty much the only redeeming factor out of the movie.

I can tell you I don't watch Avatar because of it's amazing bending abilities and the creativity through which they're used (I mean, seriously, firebenders using lightning? How awesome is that?), but because it's plot is very creative and immersible, and truly what a fantasy world should be like. They've not only created a unique blend of industrial era technology used with skillful bending, but also an entire system of flora and fauna that constantly has the viewer learning new and interesting things about the world. This takes place right up until the final parts of the series, and I was rarely bored.

The movie removes all of this by removing more than 2/3 of the plot, and modifying what's left for worse.

[imelza0]

You saw it then?

Yeah I watched the show because of the characters, they were very well developed for this kind of television show.

[Darkjak87]

The way they develop the characters in a gradual way as the changing situation causes it, was done in a way that was very believable, and so well executed that the users were never bored with a lack of new things to learn about the characters, but still not so fast that they still have stuff to reveal all the way to the last episode. Avatar's progression is definitely one of it's best points.

I watched it online yesterday. Bending scenes were nice, but the lack of plot was irritating.

[imelza0]

Yeah, and the complete lack of important characters like the Kyoshi warriors and Jet was super annoying.
WTF

[Darkjak87]

How depressing. The Kyoshi warriors and Jet both serve as vital supporting characters, and also love interests for both Sokka and Katara. Suki even saves Toph and Sokka's lives when they're leveling Ozai's airship fleet ffs.