Avatar: The Last Airbender Movie
We went as a family to see this movie today. I was excited – it was our first 3D movie, plus we have been waiting for this movie to come out for awhile. When I found out who was directing and producing the movie, my heart sunk but I still had hopes that I’d like some things in the film. (WHY did they pick that guy to do this movie?! What were they thinking?)
Anyway the 3D previews before the movie were awesome. Like, everything in the entire previews was in 3D. Very cool technology and I understand why we’re moving that direction. However, the 3D effects in The Last Airbender were so minimal, I felt cheated. Only a few effects were really noticeable – those zoom-ins of the fire-nation ships. That’s about it. Everything else was so slight in the 3D technology the effect was inconsequential. That was disappointing.
I’m an optimist and try to see the good in everything. There was good in this movie:
* I liked the boy they picked for Aang, even though I thought he should have been Asian. I also liked Katara…I think they did a good job of picking her. The guy they picked for Sokka was ok, but not great.
* I liked the landscape shots – the air temples, the water villages and ic, the detailing of interiors.
* General Iroh – not a good fit – they should have picked an elderly, stocky Chinese man. However, the actor did a good job of making you accept him and like him, even though he wasn’t a good fit for the role.
* The Princess Yue part was done well enough. I liked that.
The things I didn’t like:
* Where was the humor? Aang was too serious. Where’s his playfulness? All this playfulness balanced the seriousness of the situation in the series. The movie missed this.
* OK I agree that Aang and Iroh were not pronounced correctly in the animation. Why did you try to force the “correct” pronunciation now? That makes it really confusing for everyone that doesn’t know how these names are pronounced. A good director wouldn’t have forced the change on that.
* I feel that the director wanted to get his South East Asian Indian brothers in some film. I felt this also was pushed on us. Zuko is East Asian, man. So was the entire fire nation. None of these folks “fit”…not even Zuko.
* Monk Gyotsu was black?! Come on…
* They changed how things developed – i.e. how they found Aang wasn’t done correctly. How Commander Zhao was killed – not correct. Aang never became the water beast controlling the water (which subsequently killed Zhao). Not in movie.
* They referenced Katara and Sokka’s mom were taken by the fire nation. What happened to her being killed? It’s not like the whole movie would have to be re-arranged to tell that. Don’t change the story!
* The fire nation ransacked the library? What were they thinking…Ugh. A whole storyline slashed to pieces.
There were more things I didn’t like about this movie than I did like. I can see how everyone hated it – especially the fans. However, the things I did like made it enough so that I was happy to go see the movie. That being said, can we scrap that movie and start all over again, with a new director, producer, and only keep a few of these actors? Movie producers really need to stop making movies that alienate fans. My family won’t want to see the second and third movies (even if they get far enough to make them). We’ll go back to our animated show. Thanks anyway.