My boy Farnsworth says it best:
That is what this movie makes me feel. Don't get me wrong, it does some things okay, maybe even well, but overall it's just, man, I don't even know. I don't even know how to describe this. In fact, I don't think I can describe this by talking about this film alone. I need to compare it to the animated series upon which it was based. Avatar: The Last Airbender is an example of the classic chosen one story given new life. Based heavily on Japanese animation, the series drew from various eastern cultures to create a rich, vital and living world full of diverse characters so alive that I sometimes have to remind myself that they are not. Children and adults alike can become utterly engrossed in this world, and this story, which is so noteworthy that even comparably bad episodes are still worthwhile because you just enjoy going along for the ride with these people.
Their triumphs are you triumphs, and their tragedies are your tragedies, and when they achieve victory over their enemies, you can't help but want to cheer. It is perfectly plotted and delightfully character driven. It is, and please understand that this is the highest praise that I can offer a show, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer of animated shows. In fact, in terms of plotting, it might even surpass the legendary show, because let's face it, the first season of Buffy is kind of a clunker.
Anyway, the series was a massive triumph. It was fun, and funny, but also a legitimately successful action drama with political undertones, and a positive message capable of influencing modern youths for the better. Nickelodeon network, which produced and aired the series, realized what they had immediately. They still air the series often even today, years after it and its successful spin-off, The Legend of Korra have both ended. So, of course, when self-proclaimed fan of the series, M. Night Shyamalan, came forward with an idea for a three-movie adaptation of the series, they jumped on it.
I want to say, right now, that I went into this movie with the highest of high hopes. For months I eagerly scrutinized every image, every press announcement, and every scrap related to the filming and production of the movie, and everything that I saw looked okay. It was clearly a variation of the world that I'd come to love throughout my journey with the series, but it was recognizable, and with proper handling, it had potential. What really helped me to set my anxiety aside were the initial images of the characters using bending. For those not in the know, bending is the magic of this world. There are four main types, one for each country in this world, three of which have some distinct sub-types, and each one based on a martial arts style. Bending not only allowed the show to successfully create a fantasy atmosphere, but to get around having Kung Fu in a kids show, as the characters rarely actually make contact with each other. That it was images of bending that put me at ease is ironic, as it is the bending in the movie that I think I hate the most.
Moving on to the movie itself now, I'm struggling to decide where exactly to begin. I want to save special effects for later on, as I usually do, which leaves the characters, the direction, the acting, and the story to talk about. And I really don't want to. I really don't want to talk about these things. Not even because they are especially bad compared to other movies, or even just other Shyamalan movies, but just because they are so boring. I can't believe that this movie was made based on a source material with so much life, because there is no life in this movie. Everything is slow and sluggish with these wide, sweeping shots that slow the movie down. The actors are wooden. M. Night Shyamalan, I can make Marky Mark terrible by my mere presence wooden. The "story" as such is basically just a constant barrage of exposition as lively as a wikipedia article. Literally, the progression of scenes is establishing shot, wooden emotional dialogue, exposition. Rinse and repeat, and toss in an occasional action sequence. The bright colors of the series are all grayed out, giving everything a bleak, hopeless atmosphere. Similarly, all of the joking and humor is gone completely. You end up sitting there waiting desperately for action scenes to come about just to break up the monotony.
Which brings us to the effects. Because seriously, we live in an era where we can create pretty much anything with digital effects. I mentioned this is my Fant4stick review, that poor effects in a blockbuster movie these days are inexcusable. And what is really icing on the cake is that some of the effects are really nice. The main character, Aang's, creature companion Appa actually looks really cool. I love the design. The bending itself, that being the movements of elemental forces throughout a battle scene, sometimes looks cool, but then there are scenes where there are these strange inconsistencies. In the series, even an unskilled bender can make the elements move with a gesture, and a group can, in some cases, literally move mountains. In this movie, though, this is sometimes the case, but more often than not an entire group of benders working together might have the strength to move one rock with something like a dozen complex movements. And where something like Fire Bending looks good, the rocks being lifted and tossed by Earth Benders often look like they are floating above the screen, completely disconnected from film itself. It is something that you have to see to believe, simultaneously not bad, and awful.
However, as I said, some things work. There are two enemies in this arch of the story, Fire Nation General Zhao, and outcast Fire Nation Price, destined to turn hero, Zuko (Sorry, spoilers). In order to return home and undo his banishment, Zuko must capture Aang himself, before Zhao can. So when Zhao does capture Aang, Zuko breaks him out so that Zuko can capture him again at a later date. The sequence where the two mortal enemies must fight back to back through a field full of hostile soldiers, and a subsequent scene where Aang laments that he and Zuko would have been friends if things were different, are actually pleasantly surprising. Actually, Zuko himself, played by Dev Patel, is really enjoyable as a character. Patel manages to capture Zuko's anger, motivations, and mannerisms, and display them even through the haze cast upon the film by Shyamalan's direction. I really think that if someone else had been the driving force behind this movie, it could have been good.
The truth, though, is that it isn't. It is bad, in a way that is profoundly disappointing to everyone who loves the subject material. This is like if Harry Potter had been adapted into an entirely serious series of films without any whimsy and where magic was only used sparingly and had few visible affects, where the characters literally just told each other what was happening around them. This movie is one of the worst reviewed films of the last decade, not just because it is so bad, but because it threatened to ruin a truly wonderful franchise. There were people out there who had this as their first taste of this world, and that is a taste that is hard to wash away. The series itself is beautiful and perfect, and it didn't need this. I give this movie a 0 out of 10 on my rating scale. It should never have been made, and it should never, ever, get a sequel.
As for the Avatar: the Last Airbender series itself, there are few series out there, written or animated or otherwise, that I recommend higher. Maybe I'll do a review of it at some point, but doing so would require a new format, so we'll see. Either way, I think you can probably glean how I feel about it by now. Watch it, and pretend that this movie was never made.
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