So I just saw the last airbender (the movie that is)

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What. The. ****?!?


(what follows is a rant. Hopefully this is a subject more of you are interested in than comics.)


First some general complaints:
1. Why was this movie only 103 minutes long? I mean, it's good that I didn't have to suffer through more of it, but it just seems stupid that, when the main problem with the movie (something which was known before filming even started) is having to compress all the plot of a season into a single movie runtime, to make that runtime even shorter than the average movie. This movie desperately needed some extra runtime, even if it was only seventeen minutes (making the movie two hours long). We could actually have been shown the romance between Sokka and Yue starting, and Katara battling Pakku (character moments which they both very sorely needed).
2. Related to the above; why was one of the episodes that made it to the finale "imprisoned"? With the exception of "the great divide", which was retconned out, "the fortune-teller" and "the waterbending scroll", it was the least important episode in the first season. "The warriors of Kyoshi" could have started the same plot element, and introduce both a better look into avatar regeneration and a character (Suki) that influences the plot a lot more than Haru ever does. "the King of Omashu" would have established Bumi and the first member of the white lotus society, which influences the plot far more than Haru ever did. "Jet" could have started the same plot element, and introduce a character vital to the second season. "Bato of the water tribe" would give character development to both Katara and Sokka and introduce the viewers to the remnants of the southern water warriors, which are more crucial to the plot than Haru ever was. "the deserter" would have worked perfectly with Shyamalan's interpretation of the duties of the avatar, showcase a main villain and introduce a character with more influence that Haru ever had (Jeong Jeong). "The northern air temple" could have started the same plot element, reveal the source behind the fire nation machines (which were made a far greater deal of in the movie), introduce a character with the same influence as Haru and provide for a kick-*** fight scene. "Imprisoned" was absolutely the dumbest episode to incorporate in the movie. At least "the fortuneteller" would have given some character development and "the great divide" would (again) have showcased the morality Shyamalan wants to give to the avatar. Now, "imprisoned" just broke the flow of the movie and contained some of the dumbest scenes in the movie.
3. The actors. Dear god, the ****ing actors. When the actors you bring into a flick look nothing like the characters they are portraying, you'd at least expect them to be halfway decent. I, a random dutch guy, actually know people who look more like the characters from the show and are better actors. Plus, they are probably cheaper. And, when talking about the characters, it's mandatory to discuss the race thing. I don't mind Aang being played by a white kid instead of an asian. His culture might be asian in the show, but that does not mean he is. I do however have a real problem with Zuko, Katara and Sokka. Zuko, in the show, has a very obvious light skin and Katara and Sokka a dark skin. Changing this fact, I even could have forgiven, were it not for two things: 1. Their actors suck. 2. Sokka and Katara look nothing like any other water tribe (either southern or northern) members, who are played by what appears to be inuit.
4. The pronunciation. How in the hell can you claim that the official pronounciation of the names from the show is incorrect and then hire someone to reinterpret them and claim the new pronounciation is now authentic asian? First of all; ASIAN IS NOT A ****ING LANGUAGE. YOU ARE FROM ASIA, HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW THIS?!? Second of all: How can the pronounciation be incorrect if they came up with the characters? Third of all: The names were actually written in mandarin in the episode "tales of ba sing-sei". mandarin is a phonetic language. Your pronounciation does not match the mandarin. The show's pronounciation (with the exception of Aang) does. And if you find pronunciation so important, why does everyone have their own way of saying avatar?


Now for more specific stuff.
1. Shyamalan's interpretation of bending. Instead of being an extension of the body, he likens it to pumping up an airgun. When the director changes something from "a martial technique that is an extension of the body and flows with it's movements" to "dancing to pump up a chi airgun", you fire him.
2. Shyamalan changing the morality of the avatar to better fit his own beliefs in non-violence.
3. Appa's face. Oh dear god that thing freaked me out.
4. the changes to firebending. While, from a certain standpoint, it does make sense that the firebenders need a source of fire, it gives them a very exploitable weakness. Which would be fine, if anyone ever actually thought of DOUSING THE ****ING FLAMES! WHY DOES NO ONE DOUSE THE ****ING FLAMES? HOW COULD THE FIRE NATION CONQUER THE WORLD WITH SUCH AN OBVIOUS WEAKNESS?
5. What is with the ****ing narration? Yes, I get that you have plot stuff to fill, but some of the narration tells stuff we are actually seeing. Stop it!
6. Zuko's scar. It's not more realistic. It doesn't even look like a burn scar-, but more like a punch-scar or a knife to the area around the eye scar. I agree that the scar from the cartoon might have been a bit too much, but this is just going way too far in the other direction.
7. Leaving out koizilla in favor of a more spiritual ending. Dude, the series is building up to that. Why change this season ending if the final season already ends how you want it to be?
8. Say, Shyamalan? You remember that Zuko is the grandchild of Roku? That the last water avatar died trying to safe his wife? That the avatar is neccesary because he is human and lives like a human? What's with this not being able to marry crap?


wait.



waitwaitwait.


Aang not able to marry. All episodes that showed the attraction between katara and aang cut. Zutara remains prominent. Shyamalan is a zutara shipper!

 

I kind hope his kids were old enough to not like it,and brutally honest enough to tell their father so.

 

It wasn't really appropriate for children anyway, what with the gruesome on-screen drowning of Zhao.

 

Watching this movie is like watching the the original getting raped for 103 minutes anyway.

Couldn't agree more with this rant. Just one thing: how the hell can the avatar look like even more of a weak ***** then he already did in the series? Seriously. And the tattoos, they fail.

 

What in the movie based on?
Edit: Also, can a non-fan who doesn't know about raping the original enjoy it?

 

no. He can not. It's an awful movie even if it didn't rape canon. The actors are horrible. The characters have no development, and most of the actual plot is narrated instead of shown.

The movie is based on the avatar: the last airbender (or avatar: the legend of aang in countries where bender is slang for gay) cartoon. The cartoon is awesome.

 

tl;dr

 

watch the cartoon, stay away from the live action movie

 

Does the cartoon consist of a finite and reasonable amount of episodes(anything below 100 is reasonable) or is it an ongoing story?

 

off the top of my head, there are 64 episodes (counting the finale as 4 eps) and the story is finished. A sequel is planned for next year, so you'll have time to catch up. The first season is good, but the second and third season is where the absolute awesomeness is at (you need to watch the eps in order though)

 

Aw, cool! I'm off to download it for summertime! Ty drie <3

 

Didn't see the movie, but since I do work at a movie theater I was able to see the fighting at the end. It didn't impress me so I never saw the whole thing.

The cartoon series however, is really good. The first season is more character building based than the other 2 seasons, but it is still really enjoyable. Seasons 2 and 3 is when the action picks up and shows just how bad the situation for the protagonists really is.

My only major complaint for the show is that the Fire Nation army seems to have been trained at the Imperial Storm Trooper Marksmanship Academy.

 

A tv tropes link, curse you.

Edit: so many tabs....

 

I just started watching the animated series and man it's quite awesome!

As for the TV tropes link: Never open these unless you're sure you have a few hours to waste, lol!

 

Another realization regarding the "justification" that the cartoon had 21 episodes to develop it's plot, while the movie only had 100 minutes, which is equivalent to 5 episodes; this can easily be done.

First, basically the plot of the boy in the iceberg. Aang is discovered, Zuko is introduced, Katara and Sokka decide to travel to north-pole.
*travel montage, showing the fire nation armies attacking several locations from the cartoon. It's changed that the fire nation is now far too numerous for the gaang to handle. Aang's face becomes more and more horrified by this, until he decides that he has no time to learn waterbending, he must do his duty as the avatar.*
What comes next is basically the hybrid lovechild of "the northern air temple" and "Avatar Roku". Aang wants to fulfill his duty as the avatar, and to find out how he should do that, he goes to the closest temple of the avatar, which is the fire temple. This part of the story plays out the same way as "avatar roku", except that it is the first appearance of Zhao, and Momo. Aang learns that he has no time to "waste" on saving villages, because he has to learn all elements before the comet.
The story comes to a climax at the north pole, in basically the same way as the climax of season 1.

You have the entire main plot of season 1, in a nice three-part build-up. "boy finds that he is the only hope for the world", "boy discovers the true extent of both his powers and the threat he faces", "boy has to use all the knowledge he gained and take the first step towards saving the world". You could copy 90% of the cartoon's dialogue, and still have a story that makes sense and does not feel rushed.
As for Aang's and Zuko's backstories. Both of these stories can actually be told very briefly. Aang's backstory can be told in a very brief panic sepia flashback when Aang is first introduced, when either Katara or Sokka asks how the hell he got in an iceberg. Aang has the flashback, interlaced with a look of shock on his face, but quickly recovers and simply says "I got caught in a storm", katara and sokka look at each other briefly and Sokka shrugs the oddity off. As for Zuko's backstory, he flashes back to it when his ship is blown up when near the north pole.

Now my idea might be terrible (not a clue, not a professional writer), but at least it fits in the movie's runtime and has a more traditional movie build-up.

 

You know, this is why Christopher Tolkien refused to sell the Lord of the Rings film rights if there wouldn't be a separate 3 hour+ movie for each book. (the original plan was a single 3 hour movie)

 

Okay, I sinned. I wanted another small dose of Avatar when the last episode in the animated series ended and thought "oh well, I'll just download the movie, how crap can it be?"
Aw, man, it can be THAT crap and a little bit more. Why did I decide to question drie's post? After bleeding my eyes out for ~10min I closed the player and deleted the movie. I'm also considering getting a potent anti-virus to disinfect the media player files that got associated with playing it.

Right after that I punished myself by downloading sucker punch... Am I turning into a masochist or something?

 

Go go go download the Dragon Ball movie now!

 

Thanks, Stirlitz.

I trust ijffdrie on these things anyway, but now I'm not even going to get the movie for the sake of collecting it.

 

I just decided that that trailer made my eyes bleed enough.



Also, I might be one of the few people who liked sucker-punch. It had awesome scenes, the music was great and the twist at the end actually made a lot of sense.

Spoiler

look at the beginning of the movie again. One of the gas pipes start leaking. Later a shot was fired into this gascloud. The character died then, the rest of the movie is her dealing with the way she died. I think the other girls were supposed to be aspects of herself (note that the surviving character, who manages to move on, also lost her sister, but managed to live with it. AKA: the part of her that could actually deal with the death of her sister managed to move on. At every point in "the real world" after the opening, we get hints that it isn't real either, just look at all the anachronistic stuff.

Your mileage may vary very strongly on this movie though. With the three people I went to this movie, 1 girl loved it to death, 1 girl thought it was cool and 1 guy hated it.