Aphrael (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silverthunder) wrote2010-07-03 12:54 pm
silverthunder) wrote2010-07-03 12:54 pm
Entry tags:
Last Airbender movie review - sorta
So I saw the Last Airbender movie last night.
...
Yeah. It sucked just as much as everyone said it did. Possibly more. I can't get over the level of suckage of this movie. If I wasn't already a fan of the series, I still would've thought the movie was bad. As a fan of the series, though, it's worse than bad - it's hideous.
I don't even have words for just HOW bad this movie was.
Let's start with the stuff that non-fans can identify with. The acting. Oh god, was the acting terrible. The only performances I didn't cring at were Zuko and Iroh. Katara and Sokka were the worst. Actually, Sokka was the worst. The guy playing him was HORRIBLE.
The dialogue. WHO WROTE THIS? Oh, right - M. Knight wrote it himself, didn't he? That explains a few things. It was awkward at best, and downright slap-a-hand-to-your-face at worst. It felt stilted and out of place the majority of the time.
The plot. Poorly paced, poorly constructed, tied together with unnecessary exposition. If I wrote a story like this, I would be ASHAMED of myself. It also gave really imprecise notions of how much time had passed between scenes. I couldn't follow very well. Every now and then we'd get a 'hey, it's been two weeks now' or something, but otherwise, yeah.
Okay... fan complaints.
I'm going to start with Katara, because it'll lead me into the god-awful genderfail of this movie. I honestly think that M. Knight set out to take any hint of Katara possibly being capable of anything and remove it. She literally did nothing useful, aside from busting Aang out of the iceburg at the beginning. The fight with Pakku was gone, the scene where she inspires the earthbenders was gone (actually, they kind of gave it to Aang), and the only time she really fought with waterbending at all was against Zuko. For about thirty seconds before he handed her ass to her. There was no 'Katara wins while the moon is high, then Zuko surprises and knocks her out when the sun comes up - following which Katara comes after him at night and kicks his ass in two hits'. THAT MIGHT HAVE HINTED THAT KATARA IS USEFUL OR SOMETHING.
I want to direct everyone to this Katara AMV and ask if anyone still feels that the useless twit they had in the movie was anything like her series counterpart.
Adding to the genderfail is the fact that Suki and the Kyoshi warriors were cut (at the last minute, from what I understand, since there is at least one trailer that has them in it). Suki being the leader of a group of competent female fighters MIGHT have helped this a little. It still wouldn't have saved the movie, though. Nothing could save this movie.
Sokka... I think they tried to make him a little bit like how he was in the original, which just made everything worse. His relationship with Yue didn't have the endearing quality of the original (maybe that's because they skipped over the part where they'd just met and completely cut out the fact that she was already engaged). I didn't care much, because I hated Sokka in this movie. He was just irritating; probably the worst character.
Sokka is my favorite in the original, so... yeah.
Zuko... was all right. He wasn't angry enough, and all the endearing awkwardness was gone. But he fared better than, say, Sokka or Katara. Iroh wasn't everyone's favorite quirky tea-drinking crafty old man, either. Then there was the fact that Ozai actually seemed to care about Zuko (what) and instead of sending Azula after them at the end, told her to go capture the Avatar. Ozai in general was pretty lame. And the Zuko vs Zhao at the end was retarded. They didn't even fight, and of course there was no Koizilla to drag Zhao into the ocean.
Bleh.
Aang wan't Aang, in the same way that Katara wasn't Katara and Sokka wasn't Sokka (incorrect pronounciations aside). He wasn't as annoying as the two of them, but he wasn't really that likeable, either. And they screwed up all the Avatar stuff, making it seem more holy and godlike and less like Aang is a regular kid who just happens to be able to bend all four elements and travel to the Spirit World.
Don't even get me started on the Spirit World. And what was up with that dragon? It wasn't even explained! What the fuck was it? There was no Avatar Roku in the movie, either. And - what - Avatars can't have families? Where did Zuko's mom come from if Avatars can't have families? Or was that going to be cut, too? Isn't that kind of a major plotpoint in the third season?
Ugh.
The scene where Aang uses the Avatar State (not explained AT ALL, by the way) to lift a big wave up around the Northern Water Tribe and DO NOTHING WITH IT until the Fire Nation gets bored and sails away. What.
I'm done. There's more fail to this movie, but this is enough. If you're not already convinced of what a steaming pile of shit this was compared to the series, email me. I'm sure I can think of more reasons.
I hope to god the next two movies aren't made. I don't even want to contemplate what they might do to Toph, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee.
...
Yeah. It sucked just as much as everyone said it did. Possibly more. I can't get over the level of suckage of this movie. If I wasn't already a fan of the series, I still would've thought the movie was bad. As a fan of the series, though, it's worse than bad - it's hideous.
I don't even have words for just HOW bad this movie was.
Let's start with the stuff that non-fans can identify with. The acting. Oh god, was the acting terrible. The only performances I didn't cring at were Zuko and Iroh. Katara and Sokka were the worst. Actually, Sokka was the worst. The guy playing him was HORRIBLE.
The dialogue. WHO WROTE THIS? Oh, right - M. Knight wrote it himself, didn't he? That explains a few things. It was awkward at best, and downright slap-a-hand-to-your-face at worst. It felt stilted and out of place the majority of the time.
The plot. Poorly paced, poorly constructed, tied together with unnecessary exposition. If I wrote a story like this, I would be ASHAMED of myself. It also gave really imprecise notions of how much time had passed between scenes. I couldn't follow very well. Every now and then we'd get a 'hey, it's been two weeks now' or something, but otherwise, yeah.
Okay... fan complaints.
I'm going to start with Katara, because it'll lead me into the god-awful genderfail of this movie. I honestly think that M. Knight set out to take any hint of Katara possibly being capable of anything and remove it. She literally did nothing useful, aside from busting Aang out of the iceburg at the beginning. The fight with Pakku was gone, the scene where she inspires the earthbenders was gone (actually, they kind of gave it to Aang), and the only time she really fought with waterbending at all was against Zuko. For about thirty seconds before he handed her ass to her. There was no 'Katara wins while the moon is high, then Zuko surprises and knocks her out when the sun comes up - following which Katara comes after him at night and kicks his ass in two hits'. THAT MIGHT HAVE HINTED THAT KATARA IS USEFUL OR SOMETHING.
I want to direct everyone to this Katara AMV and ask if anyone still feels that the useless twit they had in the movie was anything like her series counterpart.
Adding to the genderfail is the fact that Suki and the Kyoshi warriors were cut (at the last minute, from what I understand, since there is at least one trailer that has them in it). Suki being the leader of a group of competent female fighters MIGHT have helped this a little. It still wouldn't have saved the movie, though. Nothing could save this movie.
Sokka... I think they tried to make him a little bit like how he was in the original, which just made everything worse. His relationship with Yue didn't have the endearing quality of the original (maybe that's because they skipped over the part where they'd just met and completely cut out the fact that she was already engaged). I didn't care much, because I hated Sokka in this movie. He was just irritating; probably the worst character.
Sokka is my favorite in the original, so... yeah.
Zuko... was all right. He wasn't angry enough, and all the endearing awkwardness was gone. But he fared better than, say, Sokka or Katara. Iroh wasn't everyone's favorite quirky tea-drinking crafty old man, either. Then there was the fact that Ozai actually seemed to care about Zuko (what) and instead of sending Azula after them at the end, told her to go capture the Avatar. Ozai in general was pretty lame. And the Zuko vs Zhao at the end was retarded. They didn't even fight, and of course there was no Koizilla to drag Zhao into the ocean.
Bleh.
Aang wan't Aang, in the same way that Katara wasn't Katara and Sokka wasn't Sokka (incorrect pronounciations aside). He wasn't as annoying as the two of them, but he wasn't really that likeable, either. And they screwed up all the Avatar stuff, making it seem more holy and godlike and less like Aang is a regular kid who just happens to be able to bend all four elements and travel to the Spirit World.
Don't even get me started on the Spirit World. And what was up with that dragon? It wasn't even explained! What the fuck was it? There was no Avatar Roku in the movie, either. And - what - Avatars can't have families? Where did Zuko's mom come from if Avatars can't have families? Or was that going to be cut, too? Isn't that kind of a major plotpoint in the third season?
Ugh.
The scene where Aang uses the Avatar State (not explained AT ALL, by the way) to lift a big wave up around the Northern Water Tribe and DO NOTHING WITH IT until the Fire Nation gets bored and sails away. What.
I'm done. There's more fail to this movie, but this is enough. If you're not already convinced of what a steaming pile of shit this was compared to the series, email me. I'm sure I can think of more reasons.
I hope to god the next two movies aren't made. I don't even want to contemplate what they might do to Toph, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee.
no subject
I honestly cant bring myself to write one of these. Just....yeah. M. Night needs to learn the "Show us, dont tell us"
also, I feel like a lot of the fail in this movie was about control. M. Night trying to make changes for the sake of making changes. Like..the Blue Spirit part, where Zuko is K.O.'d and there's this chance for Noaang to deliver the "We could have been friends" speech, and...he ditches it. WHY?! There are so many moments like that where they pass up an EXTREMELY POWERFULL MOMENT to do...nothing! And it's not even nothing in a king Bumi way where it gets awesome later, just...nothing!
*foams*******
no subject
no subject
no subject
Yeah, I got the sense that M. Night was hopeing to make this more into HIS movie and less into 'the movie based on that series'. There was a lot of pompous arrogance poured into this script but no talent to back it.
The man is a fucking moron.
no subject
Also, it didn't show Aang doing any air-bending training during the flash backs to the Air Temple. They only showed passive schooling. So did he learn all those martial arts out of nowhere?
In the cartoon, Katara and Sokka went with Aang so he could take them to the North Pole in order for Katara to receive advanced training. But in the movie it was "You must go with him. I have no idea why but you just have too." -_-;;;
I also liked how Iroh told Yue that she must sacrifice your life for the moon sprit. Didn't she make that decision on her own in the cartoon?
And what was with the point of even bothering to animate Momo if he was there just to fly around in the background for only two scenes?!
no subject
None of the characters were anything like themselves, although if I had to pick the one who was handled the best, I'd say Zuko. He lacked the endearing awkwardness of series-Zuko, but at least he wasn't devoid of ALL of his defining characteristics, the way the others were.
Honestly, even if I didn't know what the original characters were like, I still wouldn't have been able to form a connection with their movie counterparts. They were all just so... blah. Completely undeveloped.
Iroh telling Yue to sacrifice herself is another irritating change. I watched that episode yesterday, and he never even suggested it - and I wouldn't expect him to! She came up with the idea and followed through all on her own.