Movie Review: The Last Airbender

I don't even wanna talk about it.

Edit: Fine I'll review it....though no one reads this anyway.

I've been posting lately about how I am still unaware of what direction I want to take my blog. Whether it be a compilation of serious posts, a variety of comedic anecdotes, or continue along the video game/movie reviews. However, I feel that if I review this movie that most of you readers would feel I've gone off into a "rant blog" verbally exclaiming my distaste for the world and the society for which I live in. Even though that is not the case, I warn you now it's going to sound as if this movie made me jaded/depressed/hate society. Which, as it turns out, it moderately did. Though my hatred isn't directed toward society as much as it is toward M. Night Shamalamadingdong. (I'll have a few choice words later for him in the post)

This "movie" is the live-action adaptation of a highly acclaimed television series that aired on Nickelodeon a few years back. I'll be honest here, I was a fan of the show. It had developing characters, comedy, a divulging storyline (even though it went off on random tangents at times), and an intriguing yet nostalgic art style. The Last Airbender only focuses on the first book of the series since if they tried to cram all three seasons into one movie it would turn out even worse (if that's possible). Aang (apparently Shyamalan wants to pronounce it Ah-ng), an airbending nomad, befriends two water-tribe villagers and the adventure begins. In a world where the elements are "bendable" or manipulated by humans, only Aang as the Avatar is capable of utilizing all four. In the first installment of the series, Aang realizes that he must learn the remaining three elements if he is to end a war 100 years in the making. And thus the story begins.....

So where did Shyamalan go wrong? First off, he screwed up when he took the job. Seriously when's the last time Shamalamadingdong's produced a half-decent movie? I thought The Village was adequate and the "twist" at the end was different but that came out six years ago and I was only 13 so of course I would think it was interesting. Lady in the Water and The Happening were complete flops as well, so why hand over a series with an enormous fan base to a vividly failing director? His kids. He recently discussed that while his children were watching the show as it aired on TV, he also became hooked on its individuality and style. As a fan of the series, he was able to coax Paramount studios to allow him to direct the adaptation. I myself would just like to know one thing: what did his kids say after seeing this atrocity of a movie? The twist of this movie? It sucked....big time. Though it seems as if he used that twist in his previous movies as well....maybe he's running out of twists.

So here's what I felt he did wrong throughout the movie:

1. Pronunciation. Seriously that part ticked me off. If you're going to make a live adaptation of a cartoon, at least get the character names right. Especially the main character. Who the freak is Ah-ng? And Ee-row? Don't even get me started on Soh-kah. That's just a slap in the face to fans of the show.

2. Plot holes. I know that the ten hours of season 1 had to be condensed down to fit into a movie timeslot, but the lack of important scenes facilitated Shyamalan's failure. Throughout the movie, the trio of Sohkah, Ahng, and Katara only met a minor character by the name of Haru (who is supposed to be a man but rather appeared to be a small asian woman). They didn't even run into Suki or Jet, both of whom play major.....and I mean major roles in the following two seasons. I can understand why they didn't meet Bumi, Ahng's ancient earthbending friend since he was in the show for comedic relief, however, skipping over two main characters in order to include a sub-character like Haru is just plain stupid.

3. Lack of humor. That's what the show was all about! Comedy! Iroh and Sokka were hilarious and sarcastic, and Aang was a happy, spirited avatar. In the movie, everything was serious. Comedic relief was scarce and bland, and all the characters felt as though they were just reciting a middle school play of the show. The deep, emotional personalities from the characters in the cartoon were nowhere to be found in the film adaptation.

4. Acting. Like I said, it seemed as though I was watching a horrible middle school version of the show. Most all of the actors were terrible at their jobs with their poor acting skills. I know that the main cast was supposed to be pre-teen to teen aged children, but other movies have been successful with such a cast. i.e. Harry potter, the Goonies, etc. As far as the issue of race goes, sure the characters in the cartoon appeared Chinese while the characters in the movie were Indian/Caucasian, but I was at least able to get past that.....moderately.

5. Bending. I will give them this, the CGI was extremely well done in some scenes. The flow of water and the ferociousness of fire appeared almost realistic. However, if Shyamalan actually watched the show instead of reading a Cliffnotes for it, he would have noticed that the characters don't dance around for five seconds before any bending actually occurs. If it happened once or twice I wouldn't call him out on this, but every time a character manipulated an element, they had to do a fancy dance as if they were forced to please the Water God before being able to move anything. In that time I just imagined someone staring at the character while they perform yoga or tai chi or whatever, pausing to laugh inside their head, then throw a throwing knife ending the movie. Seriously, I know that the ancient art of Chinese fighting is sacred and all, but I don't think that leaving yourself vulnerable for that long is a good idea. Besides, it just looked silly. Just saying. On another note, when did firebenders require a source of fire for their attacks? I'm pretty sure they could just create it at will......way to stick with the show Shyamalan.

Now comes the only positive statements that I can possibly make about this movie. Near the beginning while Katara and Sohka were talking to their grandmother about Ahng, she mentioned her friend Hama who was taken away by the fire nation. Any fan of the show should know that the group actually meets the character of Hama in the final season of the series. She turns out to be a blood-bender which is creepy, but awesome since she can make a person her human puppet by manipulating the blood in their veins. And I've already stated that the CGI was pretty good in some parts.

Other than those two adequate positive outlooks, the movie was just plain bad. I knew it was going to be horrible before I watched it, however I just wanted to see how much Shyamalan butchered an excellent series. To me, it was worse than I had initially thought. And that's saying something since I had read that it had gotten an 8/100 on rotten tomatoes the day before I saw it.

Overall, if you haven't seen this movie yet, don't. Please don't encourage Shamalamadingdong to direct the next two (if they even make another movie). If anything, and I don't condone this, it's probably on the internet somewhere. Just watch the first five minutes, see how bad it is, then never mention it again. This is the first time in recent memory I literally almost went to the ticketbox and asked to get my money back it was that bad. This is a horrible rendition of the TV cartoon and I'm now almost offended to consider myself a fan of the show. Just stay away from this one at all costs. Now that I've finished ranting, I'm going to go apologize to my friends for having them come with me to see this "movie."

Nice job Shyamalan. A 0.5/5. And those are just pity points.