What could have been a great film was ruined!
What movie, at the least, has the main character's name mispronounced?! I mean, who does that? It's not like the pronunciation of "Aang" was a mystery before this movie. There is a 3-season TV show that has ALL the characters names pronounced and, somehow, Shyamalan wanted to change it to "Ung" instead of "Ang" (like "angry" without the -ry). It was unbelievable. The people sitting behind Chris and I kept going on and on and on about it.
Somehow he and I both ended up sitting next to and in front of talkers. It was unbelievably rude. The people behind us were youngin's (mid-teens) and though it was annoying because they talked through the WHOLE movie, some of their commentary was spot on regardless. The people next to us was a mother and young son (maybe 6?). Sometimes the mom would explain things to the son and sometimes the son would explain things to the mom. The ironic thing? Whenever the son started talking about something not-so-important, the mother would go "shhhh" and then start talking to him! It was unbelievable. Talk about hypocrisy. Anyway, that wasn't so enjoyable, but the movie theater was pretty darn packed. I think there were maybe 2 rows in the very front mostly empty, but the theater was basically full.
Anyway, other than the name thing, the acting was horrid. They're mostly unknown actors, but I blame Shyamalan for their acting job since he's the director (and producer and writer). Sokka was just...bizarre...He spoke really, really fast and it came off very awkward. I also didn't like how Sokka, the brother, came off being older than Katara. In the TV show, it's made clear that Katara is older than Sokka, but Sokka was given the duty (as the only older male when his father left for war) to protect the village. So he takes it seriously, but you know he's younger. This age difference and Sokka's "job" of protecting everyone creates a great sense of humor and heart through the series. That humor (and basically all humor) is lost in the movie. When there is attempt at humor, it's lame. The other acting was pretty much just as bad. It made it hard to get into a character when their acting is bad.
The movie also attempts to take an entire season (~8 hours) and shove it into less than 2 hours of film (more like between 1.5 to 1.75 hours). It doesn't work. They took a lot of the big plots from the whole season (or book as it's called) and put them into the movie and, surprisingly, what they kept they stuck to pretty well. They changed some things (one didn't quite make sense, but oh well), but they did a generally pretty good job. I appreciated that, but the rushed feeling left you hanging on your character development. Even for someone who has seen the TV show, I felt like it was rushed. It was hard keeping pace. I think the Harry Potter movies enable fans to be able to skip past the flaws/gaps in the movies pretty well, but this movie did NOT do that.
I think the thing I missed most was the charm of the TV series. The TV series is fun, exciting, heartfelt, and funny. This had nothing but excitement in it. The Uncle is a class act in the TV show and a steady force and mentor for Prince Zuko. He's semi-mentorish in the movie, but his humor is totally lost! The playfulness and youth of Aang is also lost. It's one thing that the TV show develops -- his realization that being the Avatar is important and he can't push off his training. In the movie, it's like he instantly knows it. So it has a serious tone from start to finish.
Anyway, with all of that, I'd still see the 2nd book (Book 2: Earth) if it was made. The bending (when you manipulate the elements to do what you want) was pretty darn cool. I do think the dance moves were a little too long before anything came of it, but that's a minor thing. I do wish there was more bending and less fighting. The fighting was cool too, but bending is not something you see all the time! The special effects were also okay. I had some issues with some of them (when I can tell it's on a green screen, that's a bad special effect), but it was mostly good.
With that...I think it's time to rewatch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix! Netflix has all 3 books on instant again. (The movie dropped "Avatar" in the title because of, well, Avatar coming out last year. They didn't want people to get confused. It's funny because I was confused until I figured out the difference and then they officially changed the name, which confused me again.) I do recommend the TV show. Not just for kids, but also for adults. In fact, I've heard more praise for the show from adults than from children. It's simple kids friendly/attraction animation, but the story/characters make it all worth it. Chris and I watched it on a whim on Netflix and really got into it and enjoyed it a lot. We didn't expect to like it so much (like everyone else I've heard/read about).
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