For A Movie Called Water... (also Twilight)
Entry posted by Bundalings
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... The Last Airbender Part One certainly didn't flow.
Like, at all.
It was really just a missed opportunity. It proved that a good Airbender movie could be made... it just wasn't. Which made the movie really frustrating. I'd give it 4/10.
Let's start with the things I liked:
1) Of course, the source material is awesome. It shone through the ###### sometimes.
2) Most of the casting was good. Sokka was the only one, and maybe Pakku, that I thought... "What is this nonsense?"
3) The nod to Hama at the beginning was cool, I wonder if they'll feature her in part three.
4) The first shot, being exactly like the intro to the show, was cool.
5) I loved a lot of the designs. The locations (for the most part) the costumes, art style etc.
6) Speaking of art style, even though it seemed a bit... cheap... at times, I actually kind of liked it that way. It seemed almost like a painting rather than a movie at times.
7) A lot of the fights were very cool.
8) Yue, Zuko and Iroh all did as good as they possibly could with Shyamalan directing. That is, I didn't facepalm very often when they were talking, unlike the other characters.
Now for the bad stuff...
1) There were only two times I thought "Oh, that's Sokka!" Once, towards the beginning, when Appa smashed him with his tail and he said "It's trying to eat me!" or something along those lines, another time when they were fighting with the Earthbenders and he said something along the lines of "A little help here!" or something. The rest of the time he was an entirely dead and emotionless character that I didn't feel any connection to at all. This is the only character I would get a new actor for in the sequels.
2) Katara never got angry. Therefore, she wasn't Katara. Seriously, it's like they completely drained the character from... everyone. Despite this, I think the actress could make a good Katara with better writing and directing.
3) Aang laughed, like, once? Once again, not the actor's fault. I think he could make a good Aang.
4) They changed all the pronunciations. That wouldn't really bother me, but they were trying to make the names sound more "correct", which really made it jarring because most everyone talked with Californian accents. lolwut
5) WHERE THE HECK WAS SUKI? I MEAN SERIOUSLY.
6) I missed Ko, the Face Stealer, but I understand they had to cut back on the characters. Also, a nod at cabbages would have been nice.
7) WHERE WAS SUKI?
8) Appa and Momo looked pretty bad and were set pieces instead of characters. Pretty sure they never even named Momo. Completely worthless character in the movie, great character in the show. Appa was a car for Aang, which is very sad since he is quite... compelling... in the show. XD
9) So much explanatory dialogue, most of it completely worthless. The movie assumed everyone watching was a complete cool dude and couldn't piece anything together. The worst was the narration... which often was just redundant. For instance, at the very beginning Katara narrates, which works in the intro to the show but just felt clumsy here. She's like, "My mother was taken captive in a Fire Nation raid and we never saw her again." And then a bit later, in a much more natural and fluid way, she says in a conversation with Sokka, "They've taken Aang away, just like they took away mother!" Totally redundant.
It would have been much better if they just cut most of the narration and just let you SEE and EXPERIENCE the movie, rather than just straight up telling you the plot. There were so many perfect opportunities to SEE what was going on, and then they just told you and moved on.
Another example is towards the beginning, during a traveling montage, Katara narrates (again DX) and says "Aang told us that he ran away and crashed in the ocean and froze himself and stuff" and then later, towards the end, Aang remembers (and you see) that he ran away. You just see him run away though. They could have shown him crash in the water and freeze himself. Then it would have been good. But instead...
10) WHERE WAS SUKI? She's kind of a main character, you know. I mean seriously.
11) Why was the Fire Nation throwing bombs into the city even after it was swarming with their own troops? lolfriendly fire
12) Firebender not being able to create fire really slowed down a lot of the action.
13) WHERE WAS SUKI? I was so frustrated with this I screamed it out as the credits rolled, eliciting some laughs from fans of the series seated nearby.
14) What did they do to Zhao's character? They totally flipped him on his head. In the show he is overconfident and power hungry, in the movie he is unsure and kind of timid. What?
15) Shyamalan managed to make the Fire Lord completely unimposing by making him walk around serenely in his Theed-inspired grounds, and sit in a well-lit hall with no GIANT FLAMING WALL OF FIRE AND SHADOW in front of him. The mystery of the Fire Lord was one of the most intriguing parts of the show.
16) Zuko's conversation with that kid, talking about how he got his scar, was one of the most baffling scenes in the history of cinema. Couldn't he have just had a bad dream about it instead of trading stale lines with some little kid? what the heck
17) Earthbenders trapped in a concentration camp made of DIRT was completely baffling as well. Also, Aangs speech to them was weird and totally cheesy, not in a good way.
18) No mention of the comet until the end and lack of explanation on the Avatar State were confusing. Why is this kid glowing? ... They say.
I could just go on and on...
"But tell me," says Shyamalan, "dear Bunda, how could I have made this movie awesome?"
To be perfectly honest, this movie was frustrating. It got very close to being awesome at times, but it was just off.
To fix it:
Get a new Sokka.
Hire the head writer from the series to write the next movie and fire Shyamalan as the head writer.
Get a new director.
You can let Shyamalan produce, if you want.
Get those kids some acting lessons. They have potential, they just didn't quite live up to it.
Aang be more fun, Katara and Zuko be more angry, Sokka be more silly (I'm fine that they wizened him up some, but he can be responsible without being totally stale), and Iroh needs to like tea more. He only mentioned it once. Him getting a pedicure was a nice touch, though.
Introduce Roku?
Make Kyoshi look less like a man.
Make the Spirit World more than a path in a forest and a cave.
Give Momo and Appa personality.
Pai Sho? Very important. I guess they won't be doing The Order of the White Lotus, then.
A cameo from the Bounty Hunter would have been nice.
Suki.
Make the movie 45 minutes longer so you can add more goodies like Suki and the Bounty Hunter. It wasn't that long.
No narration. Except at the beginning.
FFFFFFFFFFFSSSSSSSSSSS I also watched Twilight last night for lols. Super boring. Bella and Edward were completely baffling and it seemed like the only reason they loved each other was because Edward thought Bella looked delicious and he is rabidly curious to find out why he can't read her mind. Doesn't seem to really lover her, though. Bella just likes Edward because he watches her while she sleeps, puked when he first saw her, and looks like a diamond in the sun. Also apparently he's supposed to be the hottest thing ever. ???
The only scene that was slightly entertaining was the baseball game, and that ended really quickly, and yeah... some of the side characters seemed interesting, but it never paid attention to them, because Bella and Edward were too busy staring at each other and gushing about how much they inexplicably "loved" each other.
No chemistry at all, which is kind of weird because they apparently live together IRL or something?
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