Posted on: Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
Posted in: Movie Reviews
Comments: 774
The Last Airbender Movie Review
Short Version: The Last Airbender is torture. M. Night takes the excellent animated series – removes the humor and life from it and only adds a few cool CGI effects. Acting? What acting? Dialogue? I’ve read Fan Fiction written by 9-yr old’s stronger than this. WORST movie of 2010, and arguably the WORST movie in the last Decade and I’m easy on movies, unlike games.
Angry Joe Reviews the WORST Film of 2010 and possibly of the Last Decade. How can M.Night have failed so spectacularly and in nearly every way? Find out in this Extra Angry Review!
What you’ll Like:
• The CGI Bender attacks were cool for a little while. That’s it.
What you’ll Hate:
• Everything Else.
• Seriously.
• This thing is a Joke. And not the good kinda joke that you can watch for shits & giggles, like Batman & Robin or Battlefield Earth. This has no merit.
Final Verdict:
1/10
DESTROY ALL COPIES ON SITE!
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774 thoughts on “The Last Airbender Movie Review”
Hey Joe,
People above me have already said what a great cartoon Avatar is, and I agree with them. I’ve watched the entire series twice, and I am well beyond the target age.
One of the reasons I love it so much is because of the voice acting. Since nobody has mentioned that yet (not that I saw, anyway), I thought I’d focus on it. Plenty of talented actors — famous people here, too, not just small-time — have lent their voices to the series. The big names mostly do one-shots, but still, credit where credit is due. Here’s a list of some of the notable voice actors:
Mako (Uncle Iroh): Yeah, you know, the guy who the Nostalgia Critic made into a saint on his show due to fan outcry. Iroh is one of my favorite characters on the show, and that’s in no small part because Mako is great at making you feel the emotion you should be feeling (especially in the “Tales of Ba Sing Se” episode, holy crap). Mako died in the second season, but you don’t have to deal with his replacement for very long (that’s not a judgment on the replacement’s ability — just saying I prefer the original)
Mark Hamill (Fire Lord Ozai): Damn right, it’s Luke Skywalker! Do I even have to say any more? Doing the voice of the Joker on “Batman: TAS” speaks for itself.
Dante Basco (Zuko): In case you don’t know the name, that’s Rufio from “Hook”. RUFI-OOOOOOOOOOOOH! But seriously, he did a great job as Zuko.
Jason Isaacs (General Zhao, aka FishPuncher): Well, crap. This guy has been in all kinds of movies, so it’s hard to pick. He was the main baddie in “The Patriot”. Bastard killed Mel Gibson’s son, man. He played Captain Hook in that newer Peter Pan movie, too. Also, he’s one of the baddies in the Harry Potter movies. He has serious villain cred. On a side note, killing the fish was a lot more dramatic in the cartoon.
Phil LaMarr (Earth King): So, now the show has MadTV and Futurama (Hermes Conrad) cred going for it.
John DiMaggio (he played an actor portraying Toph in a play within the show. Yeah, I know, big part!): Just in case one bit of Futurama wasn’t good enough, you also get Bender!
George Takei (known simply as the Warden): Mr. Sulu. MR. SULU.
Mick Foley (The Boulder): That’s right, wrestling fans, the hardcore legend himself. Cactus Jack. Dude Love. Mankind. And yes, he plays the Boulder exactly like The Rock.
I mean, I could go on and on, but I really don’t know how many people here would recognize some of the names I’d be tossing around. Besides, I’m hungry, and I want Cheerios. Suffice to say, the cartoon has some major acting talent to aid in its awesomeness, including video game voiceover artists.
Sorry my in-depth review kind of stopped at Mako and just became a list of names and notable roles. I don’t have a lot of time for this at the moment.
Joe, when you finaly watch enough of the air bender cartoon to form an opinion, or the whole thing which ever comes first, I recommend you make a video expressing your feelings on it, or make an actual review of the show. If you leave your prejudgement at the door and enjoy at times some kiddy humor then you won’t be disapointed.
the twitter were the guy said it was 3 episodes is full of shit, that was at least 10-15 20 min episodes they stuck into a blender then decided to filter anything remotely good out of it.
the ridiculous exaggeration with the martial arts part of bending is what killed this movie completly for me… doing nearly 10 moves then starting to bend a element… in the cartoon its like 1-2 MAYBE 3 if they are going to do a powerful move and at least the fighting was amazingly done for a child oriented cartoon.
Dont worry, Joe, I didnt plan to see it. I’m not interested in the show or the movie.
Just so you know, though, they have all the episodes on Netflix streaming for the show. I dont know if its good or bad, I never watched it. It didnt appeal to me, but I hear its good so at least you can redeem the franchise if you cared to by seeing it I suppose.
Anyway, I only go and see movies that I can tell will be good or have interest in. I knew about the show but never had any interest in it so while the trailer was bad ass I knew I wasnt interested in seeing the movie. It is kind of a shame though. I assumed that since M. Night was making it he would do justice to it. I am sad that I was wrong.
Hmm… sorry I may have to watch the rifftrax of it when that inevitably happens (i’ll rent the movie for it if that makes you feel any better) =P
for one thing, the cartoon has I think four chapters if I remember correctly and somewhere to 30 episodes each maybe I’m wrong I’m just going off by memory. But In the Cartoon, he has to learn how to bend the other elements like Water, Earth and Fire and each chapter has him trying to learn to master these elements and become the bad ass Avatar to fight off the emperor of the Fire nation, which that fight was BAD ASS BTW and the Fire comet doesn’t increase there power SLIGHTLY, it increases there power TEN FOLD! GOD DAMN I HATE THIS MOVIE!
I can understand why this movie may have aggravated you, even though I didn’t see it, but let me assure you that this, in no way, represents the cartoon in any shape, way or form.
The TV series, three seasons, each 20 episodes, is a greatly written and animated show full with a great, distinctive characters, amazing and innovative action sequences, humor and an engaging storyline that in no point feels rushed or contrived. As Alexandus pointed out above, this show also had some deeper, underlying themes. Zuko’s path of redemption, honor and choosing between doing what is right and what is easy. Aang’s path of obligation, duty and shouldering a responsibility he is not quite ready for, Katara’s journey of protecting Aang and her family and develop the waterbending skills she never could really control and Sokko’s trial of finally becoming a warrior.
The group meets many people and all are rather original characters and the dialog is great and succeeds at what it tries to do. if it is humor it is funny, if it is an argument, it is intense and so on.
So, before you truly judge the show based on a sh*tty movie, you should take a shot an watch the first few episodes. Maybe this will get you into the mood and psyche you up for some real Avatar, the best animated cartoon ever put on Television. Hell, it has Mark Hamill as Fire Lord Ozai, how can it possibly be bad?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdDng5Wml0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVhRH78Zj7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d3AAclL3xk
Seriously, this girl makes such great trailers, if I ever did a movie, or a movie on Avatar specially, I would get her for the trailers.
Just watch some episodes Joe, how would you feel if someone made an extremely sh*tty movie for something you loved and people would judge it on that, saying that the original source material would be as bad.
The Joeguard is ready to set you straight
Defending: The series takes up multiple hours of character development, story development and lots and lots of side stories that CANNOT be covered by a 2 hour movie. Trust us and your friends, watch the cartoon, you will not regret it.
In defense of Appa, the flying Bison, there are indeed points in the cartoon where they alter their course that he won’t be seen. Believe me Joe, give the cartoon a chance. It is not the cartoon’s fault, it is Shyamalan’s.
I’m just lucky that today (July 4, 2010) is my best friend’s birthday and we are celebrating by seeing Toy Story 3 and not this crap.
I am not seeing this movie for not having a martial arts director and instead having the director of The Sixth Sense
I had never seen one second of the cartoon before I saw this movie. I didn’t think it was THAT bad. Really, a 1 out of 10? I thought it had more redeeming qualities then Transformers 2. I know thats not saying much, but still, I thought it was ok.
Ok… this movie was terrible… i was bored with it in the first five minutes. They kept mispronouncing everyone’s names most notably Aang the avatar. Joe, please don’t hold this against the series… the series was a truly great series even if the style of the animation is a little cutesy but you ignore that after awhile. Plus, there are scenes when Aang goes into the avatar state (when his eyes and tattoos glow) where he gets infinitely more powerful that look pretty cool. They explain everything in the series deeply and interestingly, the combat is actually truly epic, the villians are extremely deep characters with conflicts like for example Zuko the banished prince needs to capture the avatar and bring him back to the fire nation to earn his fathers approval and redeem his honor but his father cares nothing for Zuko which leads to an intense internal dilemma especially since his uncle is a deeply spiritual and almost monk like man with deep insight, all this perfectly spaced out with truly funny humor. The series is a bit time consuming to watch but it is the first american animation i have ever cared for. I usually go for more of the anime series like Tokko or Neon Genesis Evangelion or even Ghost in a Shell but Avatar is on the same level as those in my opinion. There is great humor, good fight scenes, and truly deep and meaningful characters with unique personalities and behaviors… and this movie just ruined it all =/
Hmm? You need to pay more for a 3d movie in USA?? In germany and Brazil the price is the same for standard and 3d films… Both have the same ticket…
Joe, Im a big fan of your show and I understand your rage
I suggest you to see the cartoon, is not awesome, IS SIMPLY AMAZING, how they use the colors, how amazing are the animation to make the element bending
The last Episode of Avatar was divided on 4 episodes of 20 minutes, and was the most epic minutes that you see in all the series, that should be the movie. Also, I know that you will love the advanced attacks that the fire benders make in the series: “The Thunder Bending”
Keep making you series Joe, is really fun to watch
and see Avatar the Cartoon
Great review Joe! Im a fan of the cartoon and I was reallyyyy excited to see this movie. But now I think Ill take your advice.I dont want to just be another commenter who says the cartoon is awesome (which it is). I think it would be cool if you could review the first season of the cartoon. And if you like it (I really think you would) you could review the other two. Just a thought.
sigh. joe, if it will be any consolidation, i have watched the cartoon, and it is WAY better than the movie. alot of other angry army guys have said it, the cartoon is awesome. i know this movie was going to suck, when they changed the early relese date to the other Avata. i am not joking, that’s what they did! when i knew this would be bad, that they had to release another movie and say “well when we were talking about avatar, me meant this one, not that one” and they changed the arrow on Aangs’s head from a solid blue, to something like a guy gets after a bad night of partying. and the alamo draft house 3-d glasses thing? you should complain to the management. that is NOT supposed to happen, they are supposed to clean them off BEFORE you get them! go back there and if they do it again, demand a refund, and threaten to call them out on it! i am pretty sure there is a rule about that. and about the sequel, just watch the cartoon, that will explain it. the cartoon is very good. the animation style does not change, just it gets more edgy, as it gets into the final season. all in all, as for the film, BURN THE EVIL WITH HOLY WATER, AND RETURN IT FROM THE BURNING PIT FROM WHENCE IT CAME!
drain10, yes! you got it right! they should have done just that!
any one who watches this review, then go sees this movie should have there angry army membership revoked, banned, kicked out, what ever you call it, your out. don’t come back.
Are we allowed to download the movie illegally?
Trust me Joe when you watch the cartoon you will want to stab M. Night Shaymalan for ruining such a good series. P.S. the other version you were talking about is just a side series of shorts
Joe im not gonna go see it. im not wasting money to see some shit. I’m still gonna go buy dragonball movie because i love the cartoon and wanna see how hard they messed that up.
Well the cartoon is good. But after all it depend on your taste.
But i guarantee you that you gonna love the cartoon WAY BETTER than this pile of crap.
I loved the cartoon. It’s kinda cute at first but it actually gets kickass! There is not only emotion but great fighting and choreography! Interesting characters, not only the main characters but also others they meet on their way. In the cartoon the avatar has to learn to master the other elements first. He is already a master of airbending but has no idea of the other elements. He has to grow up, too. The cartoon gets a little more serious with every chapter without loosing it’s charm.
tl;dr
Give it a shot. Even if the first few episodes seem like a kids only series. Some of the themes are very mature and the characters (again) are very well done. There’s a lot to like. Seriously.
I’ll make you a promise, Joe. I will not see this crappy movie in theaters or even rent it.
The cartoon is actually decent. Its often funny and drawn as cutesy as you see that one cartoon.
The whole basis… the fire meteor was suppose to power-up the fire nation alot, not just a little. Imagine a whole army of fire wielding people who just got Their power increased. They hinted the nation would be stronger then the avatar if he doesn’t master all the elements. I only watched the show a little though so I could be wrong.
Oh and you need to watch the abridged version which is funnier then the cartoon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zltbcBlDtPg
Its a shame they screwed up on the Movie. I was looking forward to it. Now, I’m not going to touch it with a ten foot pole. They could have done better, There are ways to make a cartoon into a really good movie. Its a shame the movie industry can’t manage it.
you can take it perfectly fine, I am just gonna Download it…
it seems that every time we have a child actor…. they always, not fuck up, just not doing it good…
Hey Joe, I’ve watched the shoe a few times since my brother (20) and sister (16) love watching it. The show is aimed at kids with fledgling teen viewer base ambitions. It has good jokes but aside from that, in my eyes it isn’t that good. I enjoy watching more adult animes so something like this really doesn’t interest me. Though the storyline for this show in my eyes is really generic and boring. Four Nations, based off elements, wow. Awesome.
The combat is average or just below average, it varies from time to time though if you watch proper animes and then look at Avatar you’ll be terribly bored. Though I don’t mind, its aimed at kids and not at me (22).
So when they announced the movie and showed the trailer I knew, fucking instantly, this shit was gonna be fail. How can they turn, a child-targeted American-styled anime into a good film. The anime itself had a semi-interesting plot with semi-interesting and safe-to-play fighting scenes were hardly anybody ever came to harm. The movie was bound to be shit and I told that to everybody and nobody listened.
Always with the same argument, “NO, the ‘cartoon’ is good, TRUST MEH?!?” Though that’s the thing, it’s not that good and I think that is where the problem of the hype for this movie came from. 8% on Rotten Tomatoes ftw.
That realy sad to hear. I wanted to watch this because Im a fan of the series, but if its comparable to DBE, then I simply refuse to.
Thank you so much for the review Joe. I’m going to do a Twitter & follow you there from now on, I thought the Trailer was “epic” but now I clearly see it…I’m not going to see it at the cinema I’m not even going to bother downloading it.
It’s just like the remake of “The Karate kid” with Will Smith’s son it’s a piece of garbage, oh and I would love to see you make a review of “RoboGeisha 2009″ you can find a trailer of it at YouTube. I’m pretty sure it’s even worse than Airbender. Thanks again, Rob
Thanks for the review, Joe. I’ll be sure to avoid the movie.
As many others have pointed out, the cartoon is actually really good. I like it a lot and I’ve pretty much outgrown cartoons ages ago. But it’s funny, has good characters and a good story. I really recommend taking that person who offered to donate you all the episodes up on their offer. It’s probably one of the best cartoons I’ve ever seen and it boggles my mind how they could manage to mess that up when turning it into a movie.
Like, seriously. How can you get that wrong? You already have well developed and fun characters and a cool way of fighting that looks like the love child of asian martial arts and magic. How do you mess that up?
Angry Joe,
The Animated series is probably the best, most well written, best voice acted, children’s tv series i have seen, well, ever it has great action and is about 30 billion times better then the cow shit movie, so my advice is buy the DVD for the animated series as that would be a better use of your money. oh and the plot makes a lot more sence and the comet make the firebenders about 5000 times more powerful then they currently our without exaggeration.
Okay Joe, so you hated the movie, fair enough, but why bash the series because of that? That’s like saying the Batman comics suck because Batman & Robin was a terrible movie.
With that being said, you really should watch the series. If you want interesting and funny characters, awesome martial arts, and a great story, then it’s right up your alley.
A word of warning though: the show was initially intended as purely a kids show, so the early parts might seem a bit goofy. But after the first few episodes, it really starts getting good.
joe … the cartoon is a journey.. at first the avatar is just a genius air bender , he has tu mature and find masters that will teach him the other elements
what is cool is that most of the masters are in their domain… way way more powerful than him
also at some point he learns with zuko a difrent kind of fire bendig … not made out of hate like the regular one
it’s also a journey for saka to become a real serious warior
and again one for zuko to finaly come to understand that his father is an evil bastard and on witch side of the line he should be
what is also cool is that there are some epic side caracters, like the king of the eath kingdom and a female warior black ops from a small island
Okay, I haven’t seen the movie yet, though I still plan to see it.
But you wanted to hear something about the cartoon: In my opinion “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is pretty much the best cartoon ever and I watch a lot of cartoons. It takes about 3-5 episodes to get really going in the first season but after that it’s just brilliant. The fights are awesome, it’s really funny, it looks great but most importantly, it’s all about the characters. The best thing about this show is how the characters evolve over the course of the 3 seasons.
Seriously, watch it. It’s fantastic.
Hello, Joe.
This basically confirms what I suspected. Thanks for doing your thing. I excellently love your work, and I am so glad you are doing well in your business.
Don’t be discouraged! There will be good FX movies again one day.
Well, the cartoon was better, its plot is good, and Aang is not that powerful at the very beginning, so the fire nation is an actual threat. However I actually never saw the movie because at first glance I knew this movie was going to suck. Though I couldnt watch the entire cartoon series either because I was lazy, that and the content is kinda too kid-friendly, though it had its moments. Do I reccomend you watching this series? Sure, its a long journey, but I’d say its worth it, all I can say is that the content is kinda mellow ’cause its meant for kids, but its been a while so I may have missed something. I really dont want to see this movie, I kinda wanted to see it in case they did a half assed job at doing any kind of justice to the series, but since you said it sucked I will not pay any money to watch it,
why? ‘Cause your the Joe, and the Joe said “Hell No!”.
http://www.canmag.com/nw/15921-last-airbender-review
This clown actually tried to compare Airbender with STAR WARS!!!! and LOTR!!!! How is he paid to review movies? I hope Shamalamdingdong paid him a dump truck of money for the positive review. I should see if he has shilled for the production copy before.
I love nearly every part of this review except the moment at 10:45 when you nearly foamed at the mouth in an effort to downplay claims of discriminatory casting raised by huge fans of the show WITH THE CHARACTER-TO-ACTOR CHART BEHIND YOU CREATED BY SAID FANS!
You said you never watched a single episode of the series. But if you did, it would be clear to you that the main characters in the series are of East Asian (Aang, Zuko) and Inuit (Katara, Sokka) ethnicity. The producers of this film clearly didn’t care for that dynamic. The casting call for the four leads prioritized Caucasian actors over actors of color. Naturally, all 4 leads were handed to white actor because they sought them out from the get-go.
Originally, Jesse McCartney was penned in to Dev Patel’s eventual role. Making all four leads Caucasian in an Asian version of Middle Earth. Jesse dropped out after “scheduling conflicts”/fan outrage and Dev was cast in his place, perpetrating the “white heroes vs. brown villains” stereotypical trope Hollywood loves to put in its pictures.
Pardon me.
I take back the the first paragraph of this reply. It’s clear to me now after playing it back several times that you didn’t intend it as such. The phrase “I don’t fucking buy it” really pressed my rage trigger. Sorry.
The rest of my comment still stands as a document of events, though!
Shyalaman is the best example of a modern day Icarus. The 6th Sense was awesome, as was Unbreakable. Signs was good, and everything following was crap…
The Avatar television series never really captivated me… the whole thing was too cliched for me, and although I have seen season 1 in its entirety, I had already moved on to better things when season 2 kicked off…
America does not produce very much good animated media for more mature audiences; not to say that it has not produced anything good at all… almost anything Pixar has ever done can be generally classified as animated and it is almost always good.
A lot of people accuse me of being a blind otaku at this point (I still hold Princess Mononoke as the pinnacle of animation, Japanese or otherwise), but the problem with American animation is it is typically aimed squarely at children, and considered too childish for adults. The problem with this movie is it follows the notion of animation and has a 8 to 14 year old target audience.
That part of your reply where you admit that you didn’t watch the second season pretty much invalidates the rest of your argument.
Oh, the episode you watched was a “cute” mini episode of the anime. Lol, the real cartoon is different, more like an anime.
But yeah, the cartoon itself is the fucking best shit in the world. It blows my mind how Shyamalan could fuck this up so bad. Like, seriously blown. The movie is crap. The cartoon is pretty badass though, for real. Its so different than what they showed in the movie.
Ah if it isen’t bad as Dragon Ball I’m not even interesting in check it out, I have watched Dragon Ball and that was a painful shit to watch. Incrible how americans knows how to make good japonese amazing art looks like pure shit, americans fail.
The fire thing works better in the show, because the firebenders can create their own fire.
And Aang can’t control the Avatar state in the show.
I said this movie couldn’t be as bad as Eragon. It was.
The fire thing works better in the show, because the firebenders can create their own fire.
And Aang can’t control the Avatar state in the show.
Holy crap, Joe! Please tell me you didn’t go to Alamo Drafthouse @ Lake Creek! If I was in the same theater as you and didn’t know it…
*Ahem* Anyway, as others have said, go watch the series. I have no trouble saying that this is one of THE best things on TV to come out in the past decade.
in the series, the firebenders can produce fire anywhere, no matter what, in the series Aang needed help to defeat the firebenders at the 1st season finale so he went into the avatar state and got help with the ocean spirit, in the series the comet makes the firebenders gain extreme power like 10x power, in the series THE CHARACTERS WERE ASIAN, in the series it was FUNNY and AWESOME, the series didn’t explain everything every 5 minutes, the series was full of action and aang was not all that powerful in the begging, the series made sense, what more can I say, a lot but Joe, GO WATCH THE SERIES, IF YOU HAVE COMCAST WATCH IT, if your friend has the DVD’s WATCH IT, just WATCH THE SERIES, FORGET THE MOVIE WATCH THE SERIES, it will make sense.
Well, ya know, the world of Avatar doesn’t have an Asia, so no, they were not Asian…
I will expand a little on what was said earlier about each of the bending styles being based on a separate form of martial art. Someone cut this together from special features on the DVDs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9cVlJOADb0&feature=related
What really scared me going into the movie was that M. Night stated that they wanted to base each bending style on its own unique form of martial art, telling me that he didnt do any research before making the movie.
just had to correct Alexandus, shamalan didn’t direct the shining, that was kubrick. They aren’t even the same league lol. But other than that, I agree with everything you said. The show was great but the movie is just a huge fail on so many levels. I hope it dies and gets a chance for a reboot in the years to come.
I wonder if a part of M. Night was pissed that he had lowered himself to making a movie based on somebody else’s work, so anything he didn’t phone in he just fucked it up like an amateur.
I promise you, the perfect antidote for the epic suckitude of this movie is the series. After 3 episodes, you’ll be all “M. Night who?” But feel free to skip “The Great Divide”. Not much happens in that one.
Actually yeah , the guy who plays… jasper from ummm.. twilight is supoused to be funny and in the series aang is funny and the cartoon was epic ,not that thing
Oh yea… and what is that crap that the firebenders need a fire near them in order to fire bend?(except for masters or whatnot) How the hell would they conquer anything, especially at the poles with water benders all around?
“We will take that village! Quick, light campfires! Oh crap, it’s raining…. retreat!!”
I know some may say it is their technology that makes them a threat but their steam powered ships and whatnot are supposed to be powered by their firebending. And part of their great threat and terror is that when they punch and kick freaken’ fire shoots out. Oh I knew this live action movie would turn my beloved series into epic fail.
What worries me is if he does make a second movie based on the second season. Because season two introduces my favorite character Toph. A blind earthbending girl who ‘sees’ by feeling the vibrations in the ground through her feet (kind of like echo location for bats except through the earth instead of the air) She is a funny, sarcastic little girl in the series and I know that would be ruined in the movie.
Worst of all, the funniest parts is that since she ‘sees’ so well in her unique way everyone always forgets she is blind which leads to many funny moments. And I know that would be cut from a movie for fear of offending the blind community. Which makes no sense because she isn’t the butt of the blind jokes. Everyone else (mostly Sokka) is the butt of the jokes for not being able to remember she’s blind.
I always thought that if they turned this into a movie it should have been a stand alone one similar to what anime action series are known to do. Have a specific event or threat that Team Avatar must take care of. It could have even taken place sometime within the series itself and just be an adventure not mentioned in the regular series (again like anime action series will do).
Retelling the first season was such a dumb idea. You aren’t going to win over new fans with this super condensed retelling of a whole season with very limited character development. And you will just piss off the current fans with the very same condensing and pathetic characters. M. Night Shyamalan said that he became interested in making this movie because his little girl was a huge fan to the point where she wanted to be Katara for her birthday. From watching this I must assume he was punishing her for something because other than some splashy effects there wasn’t any way this was going to please or appeal to the fans.
If anyone wants to see The Last Airbender this weekend go take that money and see Toy Story 3 again. In fact, M. Night should be forced to watch all the Pixar movies again before he makes any new ones just to learn how story and characters should be done. Because if they can take a third movie about talking toys and make a theater full of people laugh, cheer, and even tear up at the end (don’t you dare lie and say you didn’t) then they are doing something right.
I completely agree with you about the movie, the characters personality were non-existent, Shamalamadingdong doesn’t seem to understand how to direct a decent action sequence at all. I’m a big fan of the cartoon series though and this film was a huge disappointment, if you get the chance I’d like to hear what you think of the cartoon after you watched it.
Avatar The Last Airbender was an excellent show for a wide variety of ages, here’s why:
For the younger audiences, it had:
1. Regular humor
2. Animals (Including the infamous mooselion)
For others, it had:
1. Some deep underlying themes, such as honor and redemption. Zuko’s character, an anti-hero, was especially well done.
2. Equally deep underlying philosophies behind each nation and bending. For example, Zuko’s uncle devises a way to redirect Fire Nation lightning by applying Water Nation principles to the technique.
For everyone:
1. Elements warring with each other. Seriously, its hard to mess that up.
2. The battle animations were based off of actual martial arts, which lended authenticity to the bending so that it didn’t turn into “KAMEHAMEHA!!!” over and over again.
It sucks on an order of magnitude that they messed the movie up that bad. Let’s hope this is The Last Shamalan. Seriously, since the Shining, every movie has been worse than the last.
If he keeps this up, his next movie will be a remake of “House of the Dead”, in an attempt to out-suck Uwe Boll. Which is impossible!
*Agent Smith*: “Not impossible…inevitable…”
When Stanley Kubrick made The Shining, Shyalaman wasn’t even in High School.
Thanks for the name-drop.
The entire series is only $23 on Amazon. I got it from Netflix last summer in preparation of the movie and people telling me it was good, and it had me excited for the movie.
Rotten Tomatoes, with its 5% approval rating, you, and just about everyone else has warned me to avoid it, so I will.
Amazon, here I come!