Just when you thought M. Night couldn't sink any deeper, he grabs the license of a popular animé-influenced Nickelodeon-cartoon and turns it into a 80 minute long turd. I liked the cartoon for bringing character development, martial arts, and good story-telling back on TV. M. Night however, discards every one of those elements and creates a product that resembles the cartoon very shallow and tells the story in such a messy and incoherent way that it will leave people that never watched the cartoon mind-boggled.
The story follows that of the cartoon somewhat, in the sense that M. Night took the biggest plotpoints and threw it together. He forgets however that the story is not about the final destination, but about the road to get there (how is that for an epic fortune-cookie lesson?). This results in the characters being completely flat, and you never feel for any of the characters portrayed in this movie because it is simply too busy with running through all the cartoon's chapters.
Also a big complaint is the fact that M. Night changed a few things, the most obvious thing being the pronunciation of the character's names (i.e. 'Sokka' is pronounced 'Soaka' in this movie). M. Night said in reply that he wanted the pronunciation of the names to be true to Asian pronunciation. Avatar however, is a American cartoon, nót Asian, so just stick to the damn source-material and stop making excuses. Another change from the cartoon is the fact that only the higher-class fire- benders can conjure up fire. Not only is this ridiculous, but why did he change that? Was there not enough cash available for the special-effects otherwise? I also have to say, its kinda hard imagining the fire-nation being this powerful and fearful army lead by an evil dictator this way. Is it a requirement to always keep a lit candle nearby when you sign up for the fire-nation army?
The acting in this movie is completely dreadful. Especially the kid who plays Aang is so uninspired and dull, it looks like he's doing a try-out for a school-musical. The rest of the cast are equally forgettable and they don't resemble the characters from the cartoon very well. The last thing that makes this movie horrible are the fight-scenes. The fight-scenes were very memorable in the cartoon combining all sorts of elements from different kinds of martial arts. In this movie, the fight-scenes are almost reduced to slapstick.
Believe it or not, but I set out watching The Last Airbender with an open mind. I have read the negative reviews, but because I liked the cartoon, I wanted to give this movie a chance nevertheless. If there ever was such a thing as being able to un-watch a movie, this would be at the top of my list together with Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark. If you intend to watch this movie as a fan of the cartoon with a similar mindset like I had, then take it from me, trust the reviews and stay clear of this tripe. We just have to hope that M. Night doesn't get his hands on the sequel to the cartoon which is being developed these days.
The story follows that of the cartoon somewhat, in the sense that M. Night took the biggest plotpoints and threw it together. He forgets however that the story is not about the final destination, but about the road to get there (how is that for an epic fortune-cookie lesson?). This results in the characters being completely flat, and you never feel for any of the characters portrayed in this movie because it is simply too busy with running through all the cartoon's chapters.
Also a big complaint is the fact that M. Night changed a few things, the most obvious thing being the pronunciation of the character's names (i.e. 'Sokka' is pronounced 'Soaka' in this movie). M. Night said in reply that he wanted the pronunciation of the names to be true to Asian pronunciation. Avatar however, is a American cartoon, nót Asian, so just stick to the damn source-material and stop making excuses. Another change from the cartoon is the fact that only the higher-class fire- benders can conjure up fire. Not only is this ridiculous, but why did he change that? Was there not enough cash available for the special-effects otherwise? I also have to say, its kinda hard imagining the fire-nation being this powerful and fearful army lead by an evil dictator this way. Is it a requirement to always keep a lit candle nearby when you sign up for the fire-nation army?
The acting in this movie is completely dreadful. Especially the kid who plays Aang is so uninspired and dull, it looks like he's doing a try-out for a school-musical. The rest of the cast are equally forgettable and they don't resemble the characters from the cartoon very well. The last thing that makes this movie horrible are the fight-scenes. The fight-scenes were very memorable in the cartoon combining all sorts of elements from different kinds of martial arts. In this movie, the fight-scenes are almost reduced to slapstick.
Believe it or not, but I set out watching The Last Airbender with an open mind. I have read the negative reviews, but because I liked the cartoon, I wanted to give this movie a chance nevertheless. If there ever was such a thing as being able to un-watch a movie, this would be at the top of my list together with Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark. If you intend to watch this movie as a fan of the cartoon with a similar mindset like I had, then take it from me, trust the reviews and stay clear of this tripe. We just have to hope that M. Night doesn't get his hands on the sequel to the cartoon which is being developed these days.