Avatar the Last Airbender review

A.N: Before you read this I just want to say that I won't be shooting out reviews every other day or so, I'll be doing them randomely every now and then. Maybe one or two a month, maybe every other month or so. You get the idea.

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 Of course it was this one….you …bloody sadists. I sort of regret putting that up on the options but it’s far too late, time to confront my fate.

Avatar The Last Airbender-the movie…I don’t really think I could ever say something about it that has not already been said before. The cartoon series is legendary, not just for the brilliant characters and fight scenes but for the brilliant everything really. The film tries very hard to capture the same level of success or at the very least reach for a level of success that’s as close as can be to it. If this close to the same level of quality as the show then it could have been one of the best films of all time….unfortunately it didn’t.

The level of hatred for this film is too high to measure, I’d rank it in the same level as Dragon ball Evolution, the worst part is that most of the hatred I feel has been earned. People feel like this film was an insult to the show and its fan base.

Now before I properly get into this review I want to say a few things:

Number the one : I have not gone and re-watched the entire film, I’m sorry but none of you are paying me well enough to submit myself through that level of torture. I’ll mostly be doing this review based off scenes of the film that I was able to get off YouTube.

Number the two: If anybody else is interested in watching reviews of this film then I’d recommend checking out ‘Channel Awesome’ and if you want a really, really detailed review then check out the 2 ½ hour review by ‘Hello Future Me’. I may use some words or sentences from their videos because I feel like they accurately sum up what I am trying to say.

Number the three: I am not a professional reviewer in any way or form, I don’t have a fancy degree or anything and I am just a bored bloke sitting in his room.

Now that that’s all out of the way I want to divide this review up into the following :

1) My experiences

2) What I’ve got from watching the movie clips.

3) Fight scenes

4) Characters

5) Positives

6) Exposition

7) Overall summary.

Let’s start with my experience, I don’t remember how young I was when I first watched this film but I was at the age where nearly everything was good for me and I liked nearly everything. Which should tell you a lot about the film since I didn’t like it even then. At the time I struggled to properly word what I was thinking when I watched it on TV(no, I’m not one of the unlucky bastards that spent money on it), but I had thought it was terribly boring and bland.

Since then I have watched the show properly (instead of just watching some bits of it) and the show had pretty much captured my heart. It was entertaining, it was eye-catching, it drew me in and I loved it. So when I had gone back and watched the film after I had watched the series, I just remembered being somewhere between confused and bored throughout the whole thing. I think it was about half an hour after watching it that my rage had been able to catch up to the rest of me.

Now I’d like to move onto what I’ve been able to gain from watching YouTube clips :

First of all the film starts with narration, narration is something that even the most basic writers can and will use. There are many different ways to use it as well, one way I really like was in Shrek 1 we start with Shrek reading a fairy tale book that told a fairy tale story, that was right before he ripped it apart and used it to wipe his ass. The narration provided some information before leading to that joke which basically let the audience know that the film was planning to take a shit on fairy tales in general.

Before we start with the narration we get to see the visual of benders showing off with their elements like in the show, it wasn’t as good as it could be but it was fine. The opening narration in this film is rather boring and in no way captured my interest, it was just there to give out information…much like the rest of this film. It would then cut to a screen where you would read it saying ‘Book one’ because clearly they expected to make sequels.

From there we would cut to Katara water bending, I won’t claim to be a visual expert but for me the waterbending looked somewhat interesting and I did like how bits of the water was dropping out to show that she hadn’t totally mastered the element yet. Though the quality does go much lower later on in the film. After that we learn more through narration before they meet the Avatar and the story continues.

Now the rest of this will be based off a few clips I’ve seen from the YouTube MovieclipsFilm channel, because like I said…I’m not getting paid enough to suffer through this torture.

In the ‘Avatar escapes scene’ we start with the Avatar (or at least the bald kid that claims to be him) trying to escape. In the original Aang literally has his hands tied behind his back and is being escorted to a room by a few low level fire benders, he’s able to overpower them before finding the room where his staff is kept. He ends up battling with Zuko who gives him a real challenge before he is eventually able to escape…or at least he thinks he does. He would jump off part of his ship and his staff would then turn into a glider but Zuko – stubborn boy that he is- refused to let him escape and actually jumped off that part of the ship and grabbed Aang in a very risky move that could have resulted in his death.

From there Aang’s flying bison Appa would arrive along with Katara and Sokka, but before they could get there Zuko ends up knocking Aang into the ocean. Aang’s avatar state activates and his able to defeat all of the firebenders in an impressive display of waterbending before he falls to the floor in exhaustion. That manages to not only brilliantly set up the Avatar state but also shows how impressive bending can be.

From there we see that Zuko hadn’t entirely been knocked off the ship and managed to hold onto the side, something which one again shows us his determination to catch Aang. Katara also manages to trap a few soldiers in ice using a move that she had tried and failed to use earlier by using the exact same mistake. She didn’t miraculously get it right, she knew she was doing it wrong for some reason and so did the same thing with the same results but simply aimed the results at her enemies.

Also Sokka is the one who knocks Zuko off, letting him have some payback for when Zuko beat him earlier. From there the team escape on Appa, but not before having to deal with one more attack from Zuko (this time with his Uncle Iroh) helping him.

The scene managed to show off how impressive each character was in various ways and helped hook the audience into this great show. In the film though…well….Aang just sort of starts off by locking Zuko and Iroh into a room. They’re both great firebenders and one of them is even bloody called ‘the dragon of the west’ yet they easily get defeated.

Zuko at the first two episodes had been at his weakest (not counting when he was a little child in flashbacks) yet he still made Aang work to properly escape, and Iroh wasn’t even there because we all know how strong he is and how he would easily have been able to catch Aang if he truly tried. But back to the movie:

From there Aang beats a few low level firebenders before simply gliding out, Zuko doesn’t even try and throw a fire blast at his retreating back.

From there we sort of just skim through events (I’ll get back to a few of them later), but basically the film just goes through plot point to plot point. When I was a young child I would write stuff in books that- much like this film – were bad copies of existing stuff and just went from one point to another point because the story needs to go on.

After Aang helps out a bunch of Earth kingdoms he eventually finds himself in the Northern Water tribe, where he starts learning waterbending, or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be…it just looks like really bad tai chi.

From there it pretty much follow the show but with leaving out lots of important stuff, such as Katara proving wrong her sexist teacher or Sokka’s growing relationship with the princess.

Now leaving stuff out is fine, understandable given the differences between lengths. But the problem with the film is it seems to expect the same results. An example being when Katara has to protect Aang, that’s a bad decision from the film point. The Katara in the show could impress and challenge (though not defeat) a water master without any proper training and would have since then been trained, she would have also done impressive waterbending techniques before. The film Katara hasn’t really done anything that hasn’t looked basic. Also when Zuko fights her she barely knows him because they haven’t had the history of the show characters.

Now I want to move on to the fight scenes, let’s start with the infamous Earth fight scene. In the show the Earth bending prisoners are kept on a metal ship where they couldn’t Earth bend. It made sense, that’s like taking Ironman’s armour away from him or destroying Harry Potter’s wand, it leaves them vulnerable or at least more so than before.

In the film however they’re just left in a random Earth kingdom with plenty of Earth around them, I am aware that changes need to be made but changes should at least make some level of sense. For example in the Spiderman trilogy Spiderman has organic webs instead of manmade ones, and it doesn’t matter if you like that or not, it makes at least a certain degree of sense because if he can have other spider powers from a spider bite then why not webs and it’s arguably easier to believe than a regular teenager making or buying the parts needed to create his own web shooters.

But leaving the Earth Kingdom there is essentially like catching Batman but not taking away his gadgets and utility belt, you’re just making it easier for him. Eventually the fight starts and it’s not that impressive, the fight scenes feel very slow, a recurring theme for all of the fights in this film. Seriously try and watch them at 2x speed after you watch them at normal speed.

Pacing is important in a fight, if the fights are fast then we’re trying to keep up and are paying attention so we don’t miss anything, if the fights are slow then we can just relax, there’s no tension. Look at the Spiderman vs Doc Ock train fight, that plenty of fast moments mixed in with slower ones so the tension would increase and decrease, keeping us paying attention. The first hallway fight in daredevil was not the fastest fight I have ever seen but it did have moments that were faster and some that were slower instead of just sticking to one, at one point Daredevil is slowly fighting because he was tired before he gets a burst of energy before his speed decreases again.

Even in Mr Glass - another M.Night film – the fighting is better paced, not perfect but when David fights the beast it’s like ten times faster and more intense.

In the film the fighting just feels so slow, bending is supposed to be quick and impactful. A water whip would throw you back, an Earth bender would shoot you into the air, an Airbender would blow you away and a great firebender could fry you with lightning so you had to stay on your toes.

I had studied Karate for a few years, I even became a black belt in it, so the fighting is especially painful for me. Some of the moves are just flashy showy off moves that I would do as a kid to impress adults, not something one would do in a real fight. The bending also seems to be disconnected from the actual actors. It seems like they have to do at least three to five movements to unlock the move before they’re actually allowed to do the move. That just wastes time and doesn’t improve anything at all, I feel like they could probably be able to run over and start punching their opponents before they can do.

Then we have the first Earthbending fight scene and the infamous six guy moving one rock, in the show even an average level Earth bender could lift a rock the size of Aang, three of them could throw a tank so it’s very bad that it takes this many people to move a rock that size.

If I had to sum up that scene it would be: Stupid followed by slow followed by more stupid and bad pacing.

The only other fight scene I’m going to discuss is the blue spirit fight scene where Zuko rescues Aang and they fight their way out. In the show version they work together and use great teamwork to escape and show how good Zuko could be on Team Avatar.

This suffers from the same speed problem as the other scene but it also suffers from another problem that they are both suffering from: actors waiting for their signal to move. With as many people in the scene as there were it was stupid for them to not all rush Aang and Zuko (with the exception of when Aang was trapped in the spinney thing).

If you watch the Punisher hallway fight in daredevil season 2 then you can see there is limited space for movement which is partly why they’re not all rushing him at once, but even then he still has to deal with multiple opponents at once.

The film could have simply fixed this by using more wide area bending or having less people to fight or simply having a better environment or using the current environment better or having the characters find a unique way to stop themselves from getting overwhelmed.

One other change that I do not like is the fact that firebenders in the film need existing fire, I understand why that was made a rule or at least I can guess a few reasons why. But it’s not a good change, the fire nation were made to seem like an unstoppable army that took over most of the world. Now in the show they could shoot fire from nearly every part of their body so that makes sense, but in the film they have to carry torches around with them. That’s not the same as in real life where people used to carry around heavy weapons, they did that because that was the best they had. If I had to choose between an old fashioned rifle or a high powered machine gun….you get the idea. A villain needs something to give them an edge and make them seem like a threat, the Riddler has his mind, Bane has his strength, the fire nation had fire bending, by weakening it you make them weaker and less of a threat.

And this links back to the fight scenes, they avoid bending whenever they can (most likely to save on budget), but a fight scene is not just what you see but what it implies. For example the hallway scene from Daredevil season 1 implies Daredevil is strong, fast, human and determined.

These fights seem to imply that the fire nation soldiers will mostly stick with spears and swords and other weapons when facing their opponents, which is really weird when they mostly fight people who can throw them backwards with a gesture.

Though those are far from the only problems in this scene, it’s easier to list them :

1) Pacing/speed

2) Actors waiting for their turns to move

3) Weird camera techniques

4) Characters don’t look like they’re struggling to survive.

5) Zuko’s swords aren’t actually doing what swords do, barely make contact and no blood is shown.

6) Bending is always avoided when possible which is understandable when talking about budget but not realism.

There are probably more but that’s just from off the top of my head.

Then we have the characters:

Zhao: I have to ignore my feelings on how he fired Spiderman from the pizza shop and judge him by how he is in the film. Well much like the TV show character he is cocky, arrogant and likes to think he is much better than he actually is. He does an okay job for the most part but there are a few glaring problems, firstly is how I’ve ended up mentally dubbing him as ‘exposition man’. He gives exposition in nearly every scene he is in, he’s just a big walking bag of exposition, if you don’t believe me then look at the scene in the film where he pretty much just tells Zuko’s entire story to an entire crew of fire nation soldiers and he just stretches it out.

Iroh : In the show he’s a great warrior and a great mentor, he’s like the shows Uncle Phil – the wise yet funny older man whom we all look up to and wish that he was related to us. He’s powerful yet kind, funny yet smart, makes mistakes but learns from them. He is the most important person in Zuko’s life yet in the film he barely talks to him and seems more like that nice guy from work who you would occasionally talk to. The actor isn’t what I imagined when I pictured a real life Iroh but he was fine for the roll, but he just wasn’t a good Iroh. I didn’t feel the wise and loving mentor, I feel just a guy who is just there and while I sometimes feel like he’s trying I don’t always feel like he’s properly invested in Zuko.

Zuko: Played by a good actor, he’s a fairly decent character in that we have actual motivation for what he does and we have a back story. He’s not anywhere near as good as the show Zuko who - despite what memes might say - is more than simply just ‘give me my honour’. Show Zuko would jump off a ship, fight nearly anyone and never give up even when it looks like all hope is lost. Film Zuko doesn’t try anywhere near as hard and I can’t remember him having much development.

Ozai: The firelord in the show was kept in shadows for the majority of it, he was built up as a big and imposing figure. My main image of him is him sitting in fire with his face covered in shadows, you can see power and you can practically feel evil. The one in the film….he just looks like a random guy, I’ve had shits that intimidated me more than him, my previous boss in a takeaway shop intimidated me more than him. Also one major flaw I can see is the fact that they revealed his face straight away which actually ruins a later scene where they only show him from behind. I feel like they should have either hidden him all of the movie or slowly built him up for a face reveal near the end.

Princess Yue: Honestly most of the time people only talk about her to make dick jokes about her hair. That must be awfully hard for her, and that was my one. She suffers from the same problem as Zhao and the other characters, she’s mostly just there for exposition. Even her dying words are exposition. In the show she was a beautiful princess who was forced to marry someone else but she loved Sokka despite that and eventually sacrificed her life in order to help others, we got to know her through her interactions with Sokka. But in the film I think she had…one interaction with him…I think…most of the stuff we got about their relationship was through narration.

Sokka : He’s boring. That would be a ‘Nuff said’ if this wasn’t supposed to be a long review. Now the one in the show is funny, he didn’t start out perfect and he grew as the show went on, not just as planner/tactician but also as a person. He learnt that it was wrong to be sexist, he learnt more about himself. The one in the show is so boringly serious, if a character like Batman was serious then that makes sense, he’s dark, if Batman is supposed to be funny then you change the tone and make him funny, it can work. Look at the BVS Batman and then look at the Adam West Batman, everything is about tone. The humour falls so flat that it’s practically a pancake, when Sokka got accidentally frozen I had a moment where I felt like the film WANTS me to laugh and it nearly came out but I paused and realised that there was nothing funny enough for me to laugh at (and not just because the bad CGI ruined it). This guy is far too serious, if it wasn’t for the ponytail and the boomerang then I would never have guessed that he was supposed to be our beloved boomerang guy.

Katara : The one in the show is a motherly and caring woman who will look after her friends and freeze her enemies. She’s powerful, she’s smart, she’s devoted. She wasn’t perfect but you knew that you wanted her on your side. The one in the show….boring at best…annoying at worst. I…I don’t know how to describe it, I didn’t see Katara’s passion nor did I see her development from an unsure and untrained kid to being able to easily beat boys that have trained most of their lives.

Aang: The boy who is supposedly the main character of the film yet all I can think about when I see him is ‘this kid is bald’ on repeat. I know you lot might be tired of hearing/seeing me say ‘on/in the show’ but there is a reason for that, it’s just better. The one in the show let us learn about him in his first meeting with the other two main characters and not because he told us about himself, we could see that he was childish, that he wanted to have fun, that he was kind. We then got to see him build relationships with people before he willingly gave himself up to protect them, he made us like him. The one in the film…well…he just sort of exists I suppose. It’s like we know that he’s the main character but we’re not entirely sure why. Look at Harry Potter, yes things happened to him but we got to know more about him, we wanted him to succeed because we were told and implied things that about him. If in the HP world the whole of Hogwarts was destroyed then our interest would primarily be on how it affects the characters. This Aang gave me nothing to make me care for him

Now I move onto the positives section, once again I’m just going to go and list them:

1) Aang’s tattoos are realistic and I rather like them.

2) Sometimes the visual effects are decent (not great but not total shit)

3) Zuko, Iroh and Zhao have good actors

4) Zhao isn’t totally bad and is actually one of the more decent characters.

Now for the second to last section, exposition….by Merlin, there was a lot of exposition in this film. A great/bad example would be Zhao saying ‘as you know’ repeatedly, that’s not a great thing to say. I’ll admit something right now, the only times I’m likely to write that in anything I do would be to add to the word count. There are some cases where it could be fine such as a character saying it while stalling for time, if a character is purposely saying it to annoy someone, etc.

Everyone from the grandmother to the main characters to even the princess in her dying moments devotes a large amount of time to exposition. I could say a lot about this but I’m just going to summarise my thoughts. They clearly couldn’t fit the whole show into this movie so they’ve made changes and cut out episodes and characters, fair enough. But in that case why are they trying to shove all of the shows info into the movie? Exposition is like chocolate, you shouldn’t have too much and you should only have it a limited amount of times unless you want to become ill.

Summary:

There were just far too many things that went wrong when making this film, and I haven’t even mentioned the way they say the names, how they’ve missed out on certain character, the quality of acting, the race issue that people keep bringing up and just the other thousands of problems. The few good parts are too small and far in-between to make up for it. This was a bad film in pretty much every way, and just a massive disappointment.

In case it wasn’t clear I really don’t like this film.

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A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked it, let me know what you think.