Thursday, July 1, 2010
Movies 22 things M. Night Shyamalan gets wrong in The Last Airbender
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 11:04 AM
- And why does Appa look like he's from 'Where The Wild Things Are?'
1. First, The Last Airbender arrives in 3D (no doubt inspired by that other Avatar movie), having received one of those post-production “up-conversions,” so the 3-D effects are practically non-existent. If you must see it (and really, you shouldn’t), save a couple of bucks and buy a 2-D ticket. At least the image and scenery won't be as dim and blurry.
2. The prologue visually introduces the concept of four nations with telekinetic “benders” with control of the four elements. It comes straight from the show’s opening credits, but with live actors, however, it bears an unfortunate resemblance to the awkward, silhouetted intro of Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings from 1978.
3. Fans of the show will be highly distracted by the different pronunciation of the names. Young world savior Aang (Noah Ringer), the title character, is pronounced to rhyme with “gong,” not “bang.” The Southern Water Tribe’s teenage Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) is “Soak-a.” Uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub), a friendly exception to the Fire Nation’s warmongering ways, sounds like “hero,” and so on.
4. The various nations resemble medieval China, Japan, Tibetan monks and Inuit tribes, and critics and bloggers have slammed Shyamalan for casting Caucasian actors in many major roles. There’s enough ambiguity with the source (created and voiced by Americans influenced by anime) to throw the roles' racial authenticity into question, but in the film, it’s jarring to see Caucasians in non-Caucasian contexts. Sokka and his sister Katara’s grandmother looks like a white sitcom granny in an Eskimo suit.
5. The TV show balances its mysticism and action scenes with breezy comic relief, with Sokka's teenage sarcasm proving genuinely funny. In the film, jokes are practically nonexistent here, even though they’d go along way to make the magical realm more "relatable," like the humor in the first Star Wars movies.
6. Similarly, the film’s Aang mentions that he likes games, but we see practically no evidence of such a humanizing detail. In the show, the first thing Aang asks Katara (Nicola Peltz) when he awakens from his 100-year hibernation is “Will you go penguin-sledding with me?” In the show, his fondness for play emphasizes his youth and the pressures of being the "avatar," who's kind of like the Dalai Lama with X-Men powers.
7. Aang has two fuzzy animal familiars, the flying sky bison Appa and the chittering lemur-bat Momo. In the film they do practically nothing except, in Appa’s case, provide transportation. More opportunties to charm the audience go wasted.
8. The film's episodic, stop-start plotting, stilted narrated by Katara, makes you feel like you're seeing a much longer film haphardly compressed to an hour and a half. (It spans the show's first 20 episode season.)
9. Shaun Toub proves to be one of the best (or at least, the less visible uncomfortable) of the film's actors — but he's thin. On the show, the Uncle Iroh character's plumpness conveys his love or worldly pleasures, in contrast to his tortured Fire Nation nephew, Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), who obsesses over catching Aang. To paraphrase the “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” cartoon, “No one likes a skinny Iroh."
10. In the film, the Fire Nation outlaws "bending" in captured territories. It's actually one of Shyamalan's best additions to the story (although on the show, bending is too much a part of everyday society to be forbidden). Unfortunately, when Aang delivers a speech to rally captive Earth benders against the Fire Nation, Ringer proves to be an uninspiring revolutionary figurehead.
11. Like in the show, Aang can enter spirit world and commune with supernatural beings, including a dragon. The film's convoluted and encumbered with exposition already - the spiritual dream-scenes merely complicate things further. And look terrible.
12. In contrast with the show, firebenders generally can't create fire, but only manipulate it, like that kid from X2: X-Men United. That's consistent with the other benders - Earth benders don't create rocks — but adds almot nothing, especially since the fiery effects have few apparent consequences.
13. Most of the bending effects - flying rocks, water-whips, etc. - look pretty fakey, and the film never conveys the idea that different forms of martial arts correspond to different types of bending. The tai chi style moves seem more worthy of an Olympics opening ceremony
14. Shyamalan envisions the Avatar as a non-violent figure of peace, which fits its similarities to the Dalai Lama. On show, though, Aang kicked all kinds of ass — it's hard to see how a pacifist Aang makes sense.
15. When the third act begins, we see the heroes arrive at the Northern water tribe and present themselves to the royal court. Katara’s narration explains, “We arrived at the Northern Water Tribe. We presented ourselves at the royal court.” Yeah, we’ve got eyes, you know.
16. When Zuko kidnaps Aang, he mentions that his sister, a firebending prodigy, is the favorite of their father, the Firelord. In the show, Zuko says, “Father says that she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born.” It’s a better line than anything in the film, but Shyamalan doesnt' include it.
17. Evil General Zhao (played by "The Daily Show’s" Aasif Mandvi — I thought of him as “Senior Fire Nation Correspondent”) plans to conquer the Northern Water Tribe by killing the moon spirit, which lives in the vulnerable form as a fish. One character makes a sacrifice to save the moon spirit, but we don't get a chance to develop any attachment to save the role. And while all this is from the show, a better film than this would make us care about a dead fish at the end.
18. When Fire Nation attacks the Northern Water Tribe, Aang asks “Is there a spiritual place where I can meditate?” Wait, they’ve been at the North Pole for weeks, and he’s only asking this NOW?
19. The leader of Northern Water Tribe rallies his water-bending troops in the face of Fire Nation attack by going “Ooooooo!” It’s like Apu from “The Simpsons” hitting a high note.
20. Shyamalan gives Aang a through-line of his difficulty of mourning for his fellow airbenders which imposes a touchy-feely, pop psychology theme of getting in touch with your feelings. Really, doesn't the kid have enough on his plate?
21. The audience never see the Firelord’s face in first two seasons, giving the role mystique and menace. Cliff Curtis has such a bland, uncharismatic presence in the role, we wonder "He can't be the real Firelord. Maybe he's standing in front of the real Firelord."
22. In the last scene, the Firelord foretells of Shozin's Comet, which will fill the skies in three years and boost the firebending powers of the entire fire nation. The comet's a major plot point on the show, but is forecast for less than a year from the first season, giving it much more urgency. Three years would be closer to the time-table for a prospective film sequel, though.
THE LAST AIRBENDER. 1 star. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Stars Noah Ringer, Dev Patel. Rated PG. Opens Thu., July 1. At area theaters.
Comments (27)
Showing 1-27 of 27
I agree with this. 100 percent. Not to mention the fact that they included ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from the first season. It was "Opening scene" to "Earth kingdom montage" to "Finale". List of things from season one NOT in The Last Airbender: PENGUINS, kyoshi warriors, Omashu, King Boomie, Avatar Roku, the pirates, Jet, The Fortunteller, Bato, June, Jeong Jeong, Teo and the mechanist, the northern water tribe not teaching women, Katara’s outbursts, Habai, the ocean spirt/aang combo, jhao’s sideburns, etc. etc. etc.
EVERYTHING IS MISSING.
like
dislike
In fairness, a feature film could only use a fraction of the content of a 20-episode show. It's odd to me that none of the scenes from last year's neat teaser of 'Airbender' (which seemed to replicate the exciting 'Winter Solstice' episode with the blockade running scene) are included in the final cut:
http://www.youtubevideos1.com/the-last-air…
Also, the shaggy black hair doesn't make the 'Blue Spirit' mask look any better.
"There’s enough ambiguity with the source (created and voiced by Americans influenced by anime) to throw the roles' racial authenticity into question"
No. Very, very no. Don't even try to perpetrate this privileged tripe. Take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBda7b9tRdk
M. Night Shyamalan, you idiot. You had a great start to a child franchise and making a lot of money and you blew it. All you had to do is interpret the characters in the film. Even if everything else failed in the film, the characters were at least true and people would be entertained. Man what an idiot. Another Golden Compass and Eragon movie down the drain. Seriously, I did not expect to see every episode portrayed, but at least consider your audience and go with the major episodes. Do not make another movie for a 2 to 3 years.
I have Seen every episode more then once and when I herd that they are making a movie based of the series I thought It might be be interesting but when I saw some previews of the movie It was terrible because the story line is wrong the plot was wrong the main cast and people are wrong in fact Aang has a blue arrow all over his body but they put his black arrow with some designs and Zuko has a scare mark on his face in the movie he doesn't have one. THIS MOVIE SHOULD BE BURNED AND NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN......
I agree with this review 100%. And for those that say 'well there's just to much in 20 episodes to fit into an hour and a half' why not do what Lord of the Rings did and make each movie 3 hours long? I mean if 3 hours is what it takes to make these movies even remotely watchable and to fit every important detail in, then do it! If The Last Airbender had been as good in theater's as it is on television then I would have gladly sat in my seat for 3 hours with a grin on my face.
I agree witb andrew3210 the movie should have been longer atleast to grow characters. Some stuff obviously had to be cut but still important and continous charaters shouldnt have been like avatar roku instead of a talking dragon, and kyoshi warriors. Oh and why doesnt Aang learn about sozins comet?. this movie should have been done by someone who HADNT watched the movie so it would be realistic.
i truly think that a few regular none critics liked this movie because of CGI and special effects fights. Ive seen movies where there based off another soucre but this is the first movie in a while maybe ever based off a tv series. A-team doesnt count cus there is no continous storyline with there episodes. And when the next movie comes out, which it will, i hope that the leads will get better acting, more relaxed with their roles, and not focusing specifically on episodes but on continous storylines. they shouldnt solely focus on a whole martial arts form for bending one or two moves. So 70% of the season should be in the next movie. Out of 5 i would give this movie a 3. p.s. i will buy it cus i still have hopes for the series
My friend just told me that Shyamalan didn't even watch the show to study the source material. Uhhh...why wouldn't he, even just to get the characters' names right?
Also, the idea of the only Asian actors being the "bad guys" while the other, pretty-obviously-Asian "good guys" are portrayed by white actors is just racefail--there are much better, much better-written explanations of why by big fans of the show out there on the internets.
As for cramming stuff into a movie, indeed one can lengthen it to help explain things better. True, the Harry Potter movies often have a lot of stuff cut (Order of the Phoenix needed to be longer and Half-Blood Prince did some stuff weird) but they try to stay faithful--see also how Deathly Hallows will be split like Kill Bill. It's not impossible, Shyamalan!
Apparently at one point the movie had a 00% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a 08% now. Wow.
I agree with all the stuff mentioned previously... If you're out there and you were a fan just like me... Let me tell you that Shymalan has done it again!!! Just like lady in the water, M. Night failed miserably... The whole time I was in the theater I thought I was being pranked, but I woke up to reality and smelled the failure.... Sorry people who loved the animated series and paid to see the horrible live action movie.... I feel for all of you who made that mistake.... I just want to say that I feel bad for the co-creators and hope that they can live this defeat down... =( I'm still in love with the animated series though.... =)
I left the theatre longing for the animated series. The series is brilliant and yet this movie turns and runs the oposite direstion a complete night and day difference. I love the show possibly more than any other piece of film in the world. However this movie was not the show it took a basic idea and spoiled it! I am ashemed of this movie i longed for the show i loved and the characters i loved to shine through but allas i was sorely disappointed. All i want now it to sit down relax turn on the real Airbender TV series and forget i ever saw the movie. All airbender fans unite and leave this sad representation behind. :(
PS. I miss Sokka a lot i wish he had made an appearance in the movie instead of Soaka the humorless personalityless fake. As well I miss Aang Katara, Zuko, Uncle (a lot) and the rest of the gang they were not in the movie. I now must go find them in the show the only safe place for all true Airbender fans.
Wow this movie was a dissapointment!!!!! I went in hpoing for so much and now i am so upset at the fact that so much was wrong or missing that i could write a book! i wont for the sake of time say much more but i am sad ladies and gentelmen that M. Night Shyamalan has ruined our series... my series... my characters that felt so close to me in this show... he ruined the happiness and joy of airbender and i am SO MAD!!! there is so much potential for the best movies of all time but not anymore not at all all we have is our show a brilliant and wonderful show. Also i want to add that the script for this movie was terrible!!! it took the series and made everything worse. why change what doesnt need it why fix what isnt broken i ask. M. Night Shyamalan you have dissapointed many of us fans and i hape it gets back to you what a messed up job you did. well it feels good to get that off my chest although i fel like i could write all night long and into tommorow. I agree with this article and so much more. Rest in peace The Last Airbender. and long live Avatar: The Last Airbender for all time
M. Night Shyamalan you have failed us all. You cannot any further call yourself an Airbender fan. None of us would have murdered this movie as you have. We are ashamed you should be as well. Anyone... including yourself and your daughters who have seen the show should be ashamed of your movie. Directed Produced Written and destroyed by M. Night Shyamalan
although, it should be pointed out that on point "18", or what should really be 17, as the numbering was done incorrectly there... that in the show, aang didn't know where to go either, although i don't believe that it was stated so obviously.
After reading this review and all of these comments, I'd have to be a complete fool to blow $35 at the box office for this. I'll catch it at the Redbox though!
Did the original creators of the animated series have much of a say in the movie? On the special features they chatted with MNS and seemed to be on the same page. What happened? I'd be fuming if I were them. They must have trusted this wack-o. Big mistake.
You are very right. And how many times did Zhao say "the great library." One of my problems was that Zhao and Ozai looked very similar. Their faces were too round. Lastly, Zhao's voice was way too high. How can he strike fear into the hearts of people like Zhao is meant to if he sounds like he just sucked in some helium?
You are very right. And how many times did Zhao say "the great library." One of my problems was that Zhao and Ozai looked very similar. Their faces were too round. Lastly, Zhao's voice was way too high. How can he strike fear into the hearts of people like Zhao is meant to if he sounds like he just sucked in some helium?
Plus, they didn't include the Kyoshi Warriors.
MAN I DID NOT LIKE THAT MOVIE ONE BIT IT WAS JUST SO DISAPOINTING IMA JUST STICK TO THE SHOW AT LEAST IN THE SHOW THEY DONT HAVE TO DANCE BEFORE THEY DO ANY KINDA BENDING
Okay, so I hated this crap of a film as much as just about everyone else.
However, Mr. Curt Holman, if you are going to write an article picking apart what Shyamalan got wrong, at least get YOUR facts right: it's SOZIN'S comet - not SHOZIN. Thank you.
Otherwise, spot-on.
Thank you for this article Mr. Holman. I googled "M. Night messed up The Last Airbender" and was pleased to find your article as a hit. I wholeheartedly agree with your article. Although the hours of material from the cartoon needed to be condensed for a feature film, I couldn't understand several changes that M. Night made in his adaptation that were not for the better.
May I add to your list:
A) Why did Uncle Iroh present Ang with a silly test to determine if he was the avatar? This was unnecessary because if Ang, in an emotional state, bended water in his getaway from Prince Zuko’s ship (as in the cartoon) it would be immediately evident that Ang was the avatar as only the avatar can bend more than one element.
B) Following the energy of the avatar’s release, when the Fire Nation arrives at the Southern Water tribe (which was much more impressive in the cartoon), Prince Zuko orders that the elderly be gathered up. In the movie, it is completely unclear why he would be doing this. When Ang offers to leave willingly, again Prince Zuko makes no immediate reaction to finding a boy. Why would M. Night not better convey that Prince Zuko was expecting to find the avatar a very old man who had been a coward in hiding for 100 years?
C) Why make Katara so inept in the movie? M. Night reduced her to a wide-eyed hopeful little girl but her character in the movie is so much more impressive. Although she had not mastered water-bending from the start, she was not as inept as M. Night represented. He removed scenes like Katara standing up to the Northern tribe water-bending master who refused to instruct women, and in the movie she could barely hold her own against Prince Zuko when she was protecting the meditating Ang. In the movie, she seems like a star-struck girl who has a crush on the avatar (the complete opposite of the cartoon). When Ang attempts his deep meditative state in the Northern Tribe explaining that he needs focus and concentration, she mindlessly starts prattling off about how Ang is the one true avatar she’s always known existed as if makes any sense for her to be doing this then (in the cartoon, a milder version of interruption is comically chided). Scenes like this in the movie made Katara seem more like a cheerleader then a strong contributor in her own right.
D) Why alter the reason why Ang ran away? M. Night offers that Ang was troubled that the avatar is not permitted to have a family, seemingly a wife or children, but it is odd that a child would be so bothered by this. In the cartoon, Ang is about to be separated from his father-figure monk who is the only family he has known, and this seems much more plausible as the reason why a young boy would panic and run away in the face of duty.
E) M. Night let us know from the very beginning that Ang ran away but in the cartoon this is a secret he struggles with which makes it more compelling when he reveals it to his friends.
F) Ang ran away before he was trained to be an avatar by the Air monks, and yet from the beginning of M. Night’s version he is aware that he can communicate with the spirit world. In the cartoon, this gift is later realized and also explains why he has not fully mastered it. In the movie, Ang is not mystified at all by what he encounters in the spirit world, as if he had crossed over several times before his 100 year-hibernation.
G) Moreover, why does M. Night’s version of the spirit world include simply one cryptic dragon?? Katara’s narration alludes to the existence of all sorts of fantastical and exotic creatures but we see no others – not any representation of the great spirit characters from the cartoon such as the giant panda, the wolf, the talking monkey, the face stealer – none of it!
H) Piggybacking off of #10 on your list, when Ang liberates the Earth village, wouldn’t it make more sense for the uprising to occur on a metal ship as in the cartoon where the villagers, aside from their broken spirits, for practical reasons could not revolt as they believed they had no access to earth until Ang airbended up the coal the ship was using for fuel? The fact that the Earth benders were rallied on soil in the movie and that Ang’s “revelation” that earth was all around them for bending seemed to contribute to the implausibility of the immediate revolution.
I) At the end of the movie, in the confrontation between the Northern Water tribe and the Fire Nation navy, we see Ang dramatically raise the ocean – but when the water comes crashing down we don’t see the boats being swept away for miles – we see them mildly displaced??
J) After the scene in the movie where Princess Yue gives up her life, it is barely addressed and everyone seems to get over it pretty quickly as they mindlessly gather around to bow down in allegiance to Ang as the avatar. It is weird to see Sokha, who had just been in tears over his lady, practically fist-pumping as he reunites with Ang. Moreover, the act of the people including Ang’s comrades Sohka and Katara bowing down to him is unusually subservient, akin to people following a king, and is not really representative of the relationship Ang has with his counterparts in the cartoon.
K) Why have Prince Zuko's musings with his Uncle Iroh be the means by which we learn about the Prince’s traumatic past and his scar. Weren’t they both there? Don’t they already know what happened? It makes much more sense for the story to be revealed as in the cartoon, when Uncle Iroh tells it to a Lieutenant on Prince Zuko’s ship after friction among the crew.
L) As was already mentioned on your list in #8, instead of good story-telling, the screenplay relies on plodding narration and captioning to move the story along – including in the prologue where a Star Wars-like narrative was offered. Why not use imagery there – you would think a movie could be far more illustrative than a cartoon’s opening sequence.
M) Why not have the Fire soldiers keep those cool white masks that made up their uniform in the cartoon?
Sadly, the title of this article should be "22 of the 100 things M. Night gets wrong in the Last Airbender."
Thanks again - it was good to read an article that echoed my thoughts about how the movie fell short.
i totally agree with anerism....
and i absolutely agree with the list you created however i wish there was more...
1. the narration seemed too much "tell" and not enough "show" if you want to do a whole background you could have started with the war that happened between the fire nation and then said that the "Earth, Air and Water" fought to protect (and showed them fighting as the way to introduce them). It would of been much more vivid and edgy.
2. where was the humor in this movie? sure there was one spot before they got caught by the fire soldiers, but that was it! sokka is suppose to be hilarious! appa and momo are also suppose to be comic relief, and where were they? i never actually saw momo's face in the movie!
3. Why was Aang so serious? he is suppose to be a 12 year old boy who lies that he is the avatar because he didn't want to be separated from his mentor! Aang is suppose to be relaxed and fun, and also suppose to kick major ass (that giant wave that did not do anything was ridculous, it should of been the spirit)
4. the movie was suppose to be a cat and mouse game between Prince Zuko and Aang, and they were always suppose to be so close, never stopping.
5. I am mad that the fire lord was shown throughout the movie. He is suppose to be superior to everybody yet they show him like an average joe. Gen. Zhao is suppose to be dark, stingy and mericless yet he had a newscasters voice and repeated himself nonstop ("don't kill him he will only reincarnate").. (i do like Aasif on daily show though)...and Prince Zuko's sister is suppose to be a complete angry bitch yet she looked like a doll (she is suppose to have a cynical smile, but yet it didn't even sting me.)
6. sokka, katara and katara's grandmother looked entirely out of place in the southern tribe. they should of at leasted tan them to make them fit in...geesh
7. i feel like they should of expanded more on the earth nation capture because it was like done in five minutes...i was highly dissapointed also because it should of been basically done like it was in the series
8. prince zuko is suppose to have an anger problem, not just have random outbursts of frustration! I really like Dev but he did not save that role.
9. why was the action movements take forever? i mean in the series if you wanted to produce fire, it was like BAM its there, or if you wanted to use water nonchalantly then BAM its in your hands, it seem that those action seens took long time to set up and was basically too much into the martial arts than it was on the reason of the bending...fluid movements or hard movements the action took too long...(Basically it took to long to bend anything..too much hand movement)
10. I wanna see katara fight more, in the series her fighting between the water trainer was my favorite part and even the little background story was cool also. I also wish that Princess Yue had more scenes with Sokka and not that flirty scenes but the "i can't love you scenes cause i'm married to someone else."
those are mostly my main concerns and i have many more...but yeah very very disappointed in the movie...
someone else either needs to take this over or can we just act like it never happened? because i don't want to see M. Night Shamalamading dong touching anything precious like Avatar: The Last Airbender again!
Too long to post here, but I'll counter a bit with:
"12 Things I Liked About the Crappy Airbender Movie:
http://mattmchugh.com/blog/2010-07/index.h…
- mattmchugh
I totally agree with the article. Wish they would re-make it correctly before moving on with the next installments. Also, (maybe I missed it) but I believe the Kyoshi Warriors were in Book 1 as well. Does anyone think MKS reads these things? IF so, does he care enough to get it right???
Honestly, this movie had me asleep in 5 minutes. I absolutely ADORE the animated series, and have written several fan fictions for it, but the movie sucked ass. I borrowed the DVD from a friend and popped it in my computer, and I was asleep in five minutes. Seriously, and where was all the adorable kataanginess??? And Zuzu's supposed to have a scar and anger issues!!! And when Aang goes to the Northern Air Temple it's just like 'we're gonna capture you now' and were Katara and Sokka even there? And Katara was just some fangirl who did NOTHING and Sokka was just some serious douche with a boomerang (that he didn't even adore!) !!! I hope M. Nighttime Creeper who DingDongDitches is ashamed. I really do. And where was all the Sukka and Yukka fluff from the series?!?!?! I ship Tokka, but honestly I'd take any fluff by the time I woke up at the Northern Air Temple scene. Seriously, I know it's supposed to be action-y (lol, that sounds like a Sokka word) but there was always fluff and pairings in the series!!! And nobody even cared when Yue was like 'Sure I'll be the Moon'!!! I actually cried at that point in the series, but in the movie it was like 'whatever'!!! And yeah, WTF is with the pronunciations for the names?!?!?! Soaksa, Ong, and Ero are NOT REAL CHARACTERS!!! Honestly I wish I had Mr. Nighttime Creeper who DingDongDitches on Facebook or MSN so I could tell him tho go fuck himself. Not even joking here. This movie is offensive in twenty-eight different ways. Yeah, I'm done ranting. Love this article though, it filled me in on what happened while I was sleeping through most of this crapload of a movie.
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