Wow. So it took me over three months, but I finally finished The Last Airbender. Last night I decided to just grit my teeth and do it, so I found a version, let it buffer, and watched..
So here we go.
This movie pains me to no end. Even putting aside the television series, as a stand-alone movie it's just not very good. The acting is so stale, and even when the actors could have been good, the script fails them. You can tell that M Night was trying to make every line meaningful and dramatic and provocative, and each one falls short. And then when they try to insert some lightheartedness, it just feels out of place. (Good thing they only do this maybe twice in the whole film.)
There is barely any emotional range in this movie. Not only did they take out every character's sense of humor, but they also seemed to drain the story of any happiness whatsoever. Sokka, formerly comic relief, is dark and serious and smiles maybe once in the entire film. Iroh, fat and happy, has been perverted in appearance so that he looks more like a nightmare villain - at least to the Western world (see Jafar) - and doesn't laugh once. Shyamalan claims that this was to ground the movie, to set a more serious tone: "I took away a little bit of the slapsticky stuff that was there for the little little kids, the fart jokes and things like that. We weeded that stuff away and the other stuff came out. ...That really did wonderful things for the whole theme of the movie." (*) I submit that it takes away any semblance of personality the film could have had; a story about the possibilities of life ought to have some life in it. Even movies with serious tones can have happy characters. It makes the harsh bits more clear.
Here are my thoughts on the 'racebending' controversy. Yes, it did look very awkward when Sokka, Katara, and their Gran-gran were the only white people in the Southern water tribe. Yes, it was very strange to see no East Asian main characters in a world predominantly based around East Asian culture. (But Olivia, you say, you like Firefly, and there are no Chinese main characters in that, even though the world is partially derived from Chinese culture! to which I reply How did you know I like Firefly? Anyways, cultures are always being influenced by one another without necessarily having to mix people into equal parts. Look at weeaboos (sorry, that was unnecessary). But more importantly, those responsible for Firefly openly acknowledge that there are no Chinese characters included in the show, whereas M Night gets indignant at the very suggestion that his film could possibly be racist! After all, there are black people in it! How could they be upset? And yes, he actually said that.) I think that if Shyamalan had actually cast like he said he would (by talent rather than by race), it wouldn't matter to me so much. Maybe the performances ought to be at least partially blamed on the writing, but frankly, they probably still could have worked with it. He said he "did not want to make The Last Airbender without Nicola Peltz" (*), but in my opinion, he should have; she seemed like she was reciting rather than acting. And Jackson Rathbone? Whoever thought he would be a good idea? Shaun Toub and maybe Dev Patel, as Iroh and Zuko respectively, could have been good. I may not be pleased with the way their characters were written, especially Iroh's, but at least they did what they could with what they were given.
The effects? They were okay, I suppose. Bending looked good. (Although the movements associated with bending, not so much. If it required that much flailing, wars would be more effective without it.) Momo and Appa looked ridiculous. Like big puppets. I was a little pissed off that the big DEFEAT THE FIRE NATION TROOPS at the end was..Aang raising a big wall of water. I'm sorry, but the big blue ocean-monster from the show was so much cooler. And it made more sense. In the show, he lost control of his emotions when Admiral Zhao killed the moon spirit, and went into the Avatar state, forming around him a giant glowing body of water that ripped its way through the Fire Nation's forces and ships. It allowed for better character development as well: Zhao was grabbed by the water monster; Zuko tried to save him, but Zhao, with his pride, decided to drown rather than be rescued by the boy he tried to destroy. Isn't that a lot better than Zuko running away from Zhao and then Zhao being killed by four random waterbenders? (Answer: Yes.) I wish they had worked that in. What, were they too lazy to give the characters more depth? Maybe they were just too lazy to make the water monster.
Basically, my opinion on this movie:
Final assessment: Dear god just don't watch it if you have the option not to. It literally gave me headaches. (Well, I have a cold right now, so that probably contributed, but seriously I definitely considered just stopping more than once.) It will offend your sensibilities.
Next I think I'll do some movies I enjoyed for a change.
Olivia
PS. One beautiful gem I have decided to share with you. At one early point in the movie, Katara and Sokka find Appa, the sky bison, in the air. Katara's insight: "He's floating!" Floating..just..no. Balloons float in the air. Animals? They fly.
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