Airbending FAIL

[sakon76]

So, went and saw The Last Airbender (part 1) last night. It had some pretty visuals, which is about all that can be said for it. Because, sadly, the movie sucks. It hews too blow-by-blow closely to the (awesome) Nickelodeon cartoon it's based on, which means it takes the ~440-minute season one and squishes it into a ~103-minute movie. In doing so, it loses all sense of character (Iroh and Sokka were the only ones who seemed remotely like actual people), character development, world background, and personal arcs. It's filled with unnecessary close-ups that are actually painful to watch, and as a sin of sins, it tells not shows the storyline. How many years of English classes did we all have where our teachers pounded it into our heads not to do that? Flat dialogue and info dumps abound, starting with Katara voice-overing the scrolling text at the beginning. Because audiences, you know, can't read or anything. Things happen solely because the plot demands it, not arising from any natural sequential action or character motivation. Appa looks like a refugee from Where The Wild Things Are, and Momo isn't even given a name. If season 2 gets made into a film, I shudder to think what Toph will end up like.

So, if you liked the cartoon? Go watch it again and don't even bother seeing this movie unless you're bored and it's hit a $3 theater near you.

Comments

[shefytbast.livejournal.com]

I had dread and forboding about this project from the beginning, and pretty much all the reviews have been bearing that out. Too bad they didn't spend their money on an animated movie or a fourth season. Oh well. There's always the original to rewatch. *huggles her DVDs*

[taeriel.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I must agree with you. You were able to express my issues with the movie much more succinctly and clearly than I could, too.

I didn't hear about the reviews until about an hour before my mom and I were headed out to see it. I went ahead anyway, hoping they were wrong... *sigh* Well, my mom liked it. She loved the visuals and I think she liked the ideas behind the story. She hasn't seen the anime, though, so I wonder if not having a better example for comparison made a difference for her.