The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender is a beautiful (looking) film from director M. Night Shyamlan. The film is based on the adored show which garnered success with both critics and audiences. The show won Emmys, Genesis Awards, a Peabody, Animation awards, and had millions of viewers per week during its three seasons. This show was a big deal. Odds are you know someone who likes it.
The film takes place in a world where human beings have the ability to manipulate fire, water, air, and earth. Normally, benders can only manipulate one element. However, this film follows Aang, played by Noah Ringer, a young boy who is the last reincarnation of the Avatar who can “bend” all elements. The Avatar is a being who reincarnates every time he dies. Little Aang runs from his responsibilities and is mistakenly frozen in ice for a hundred years. He is awoken in the ice by Katara, and Sokka, who align with him to save the world.
I kept on trying to envision a way not to give The Last Airbender a bad rating, but I just have to. It was bad. I’ve read you’re not supposed to call artistic works bad if they’re not evil, but to instead use the word “poor”. This film came off as evil to me. People took issue with Chloë Moretz cursing and killing in Kickass, saying that it was completely depraved. Her character seems obviously satirical, ironic, and funny to me, especially considering it was for teenagers/adults and was R rated.
Airbender is for kids and there was something big missing from the movie that the cartoon was all about: Fun. Changing Aang’s character is wrong, wrong, wrong. Sure, Chloe saying cunt is a little naughty, but what does it say to children when a hero of theirs is changed from a joking clown, to an Emo dickhead? Aang is more like Donnie Darko in Shyamalan’s version. It was like seeing Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes, doing heroin. Aang’s original character, from the Peabody Award-winning show, is a fun-loving kid.
There are hints of the original character here. Mostly in a climatic scene with Prince Zuko played by Dev Patel. Aang runs up behind Zuko, humorously moving with him to avoid being seen. That’s straight Aang. He also quips “we could be friends” as he’s walking away. The line is dismally delivered, but we get the point.
Aang, the real character, is more interested in screwing around and playing with his friends than saving the world. That was the core of the god damn show. I haven’t read anyone taking issue with that! Who cares about the plot? I don’t. Of course it is going to be confusing, but they just missed every mark with Aang. If they’d nailed him and mucked up everything else, at least it would have the lovable Aang.
Aside from Aang, I take issue with a lot in this movie. So instead of writing a book, I’ll quickly list them:
- The the universe the characters inhabit doesn’t look “used”:
- George Lucas and Peter Jackson harped on their crews to make their film’s costumes, props, sets, etc, look used, as if people has inhabited them. Not popped out of a special effects house or costume shop. Everyone in Airbender looks too clean as if they were staging a high school play.
- The film doesn’t have Anime influenced look
- May or may not have been a good thing. The look is so specific, to try emulate it might have been unwatchable.
- The original characters are Inuit and Asian. Not white
- That is fine if you want to change the race of a character. I don’t think it is racist, I know it is racist, as well as being stupid and distracting. However, I don’t care because I understand that Hollywood has to aim for an audience and the reality is most Americans are white. Casting white leads was likely the only way to secure a hundred million dollar plus budget. But I take issue with it because it is DISTRACTING! When everyone in a village is Inuit and the characters are white, it is laughable. I could get into why the Fire nation is mostly Indian, but I’m not sure if that is in the cartoon. I haven’t seen it in a while.
- The leads are really poor
- I don’t mean poor like Jake Lloyd as Skywalker poor. I mean godawful. Unwatchable. Nicola Peltz, as Katara is okay…kinda. But Noah Ringer as Aang and Jackson Rathbone as Sokka were just unwatchable and likely to no fault of their own. They were just miscast. I imagine Shyamlan was enthralled by Noah’s martial arts abilities, which are cool, but he just mumbles through his lines. They sound rehearsed and stilted. Even the jokes are bad. Rathbone just had no chance. Sokka’s great character was relegated to nothing.
- All dialogue is exposition.
- Characters talk to the audience basically. It it weird, uncomfortable, distracting, and none of the great characters can take shape. Take the meeting between Sokka and Princess Yue. Katara just tells the audience they like each other. There is no meet-cute moment, no flirting, no fun. Stupid.
- Appa isn’t a character, he’s a prop.
- Appa is to Aang as Chewie is to Han Solo. He is big, lazy, and has a really funny personality. What the fuck happened?
For all my criticisms, the movie does look kind of cool. The special effects are pretty cool and they nailed the look of Appa. I didn’t see it in 3-D so I can’t comment on that, all I can say is M. Night Shyamalan is not a great director or actor. I dislike many, if not all, of his films. I was willing to live with the fact that he made mediocre films that were generally well-respected. Now he has raped a beloved franchise. What will he do next?
Release Date: July 2010
Collin says: F
You’ll say: D
