To summarize my feelings of the movie I give you a quote heard at the end of the showing
Yeah, f**k you too Shyamalan
The movie was
awful an opinion that is not only mine but nearly every major critic's and almost anyone who was a fan of the brilliant cartoon. So I give you a basic review based on two sections; a comparison of the movie to the cartoon and standalone review of the movie itself.
Compared to the ShowCons:
1. All the protagonists in the story were white; now it's really not that big of a deal but it's annoying for any long time fan. Also the antagonists were all Asian which made the movie somewhat better for me but created some controversy of racist leanings. Also Uncle Ihro is skinny, what's up with that?
2. Aside from the casts not fitting the characters the three main actors were
horrible maybe it was the boring script but honestly I wouldn't have cared if this Aang, or Katara, or Sokka died. They were all flat characters; in fact all the characters were flat (yes even in 3D) which is in sharp contrast to the show where Appa is a dynamic three dimensional character who we can relate to more than any character in the movie.
3. They pronounced the names wrong; Aang sounded like Oong (rhymes with gong), Sokka sounds like Sukka, and Ihro is pronounced Ehro (sounds like hero). They also call Aang the Ahvatar; if nothing else the mispronunciations led to running jokes in the theater.
4. Fire benders can't make their own fire; they need some sort of source.
5. The bending styles all resemble one another and none of them resemble anything close to what they were in the show.
6. The bending requires a lot more actions to cause a much simpler movement than in the show; in fact it takes five earth benders moving together to move a mid-sized rock.
7. The Fire Lord loves and cares for Zuko; well there goes half the plot.
8. Important sub-characters such as Suki and Jet are never explored which makes me wonder what could possibly be in the second movie (it's a trilogy).
9. Momo and Appa get, combined, around two minutes of screen time and the both look pretty bad. To be honest Momo may be my favorite character in the show and his non-appearance nearly ruined the movie for me on its own.
10. For some reason Aang decides that being the avatar means that crappy speeches and letting everyone live is more important than actually stopping the fire nation. So, remember the final battle from book one? It was awful; and there isn't a giant water beast just a big wave.
11. I could've cared less if they killed the moon spirit; when you can't even make the audience care if the moon dies you did something wrong.
12. Did I mention the character development was terrible? Aang's a whiny 10 year old who can't make a speech, Katara and Sokka are just boring, and you barely even catch a glimpse of the true Zuk0.
Pros:
1. Well at least Aang was still an airbender learning to bend water I suppose. The storyline is vaguely reminiscent of the TV show.
The Movie Standing Alone1. The characters were terrible actors; Noah Ringer (Aang) was boring, shallow, and couldn't preform a monologue to save his life. In fact excepting Ihro the entire cast was just awkward.
2. The action sequences were boring after the first 30 seconds and were repeated again and again throughout the movie.
3.The dialog was stiff and boring, it didn't intrigue me in the least.
4. Without coming into the movie knowing the entire plot (thanks to the show) I have no idea how I would have known what was going on. The narration didn't really help either it basically told you what was on the screen. Rodgert Ebert actually thought the movie was set in the future; thank you plot development.
5. There are around six benders in the entire movie and while benders are fairly rare there weren't a dying breed. In fact one reviewer, mistakingly, through Katara was the last water bender.
6. During the battle scenes Aang and the group just walk right through the middle as if nothing is happening; clearly the Fire nation doesn't want the Avatar.
7. There's a fat white guy playing one of the Northern Water Tribe solider; I laugh at you Shyamalan.
Pros:
1. Aang's arrow was pretty sweet looking and the sets were as well.
2. They tried at least; they failed but they did try.
Conclusion:It was bad, very bad. You can't put it in a positive light and die hard fans of the TV show will only be able to laugh as Aang continues to fail and fail again to live up to who he should be. At its best it will be a movie you rent during a party simply to laugh at it.
3/22
or
13.5 out of 100.
