81
« on: July 09, 2010, 06:57:23 AM »
*Please note that the mention of the word "Avatar" is directing it to either the TV show's title, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or the word in the movie. It is not directing it to James Cameron's Avatar, and if it did, I would specifically mention it. kthnx
THE LAST AIRBENDER
Well, I got back from seeing The Last Airbender in 3D in India. Today is the first day it opens in India, 8 days after the US release. But wow, was it crowded. Here we're suppose to book our tickets online and choose our seats online. Almost every seat was taken, but we got lucky with seats on the second story two rows infront of the ledge. Well, here is my review of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender.
PLOT
This movie acts as the first book out of three named Water. Night tried to fit the whole season one into a one hour thirty minute movie. Yep, a hour and a half. Night had so much more time to focus on the details of the story, but he became a friend and only kept it short. Bad mistake. This movie only focuses on 5 episodes of season 1 of the TV series: The Boy in the iceberg, The Avatar returns, The Blue Spirit, and The Seige of the Nothern Watertribe Parts 1 and 2. That's it. Night made this movie choppy and kept jumping to place to place without any meaning. The Kyoshi Warriors episode wasn't even there along with Suki. She has a very important role in the future, and not including her was a big mistake. Night didn't properly introduce any of the characters. Appa and Momo were just there. Infact, they didn't even say Momo's name. One thing I did like was that Fire could only be bendable from a source, rather than just coming out of your hands like in the TV series. But apparently you can master firebending and produce fire without a source, just like Iroh.
tl;dr
-Didn't properly introduce characters
-Short and choppy
ACTING
First off, they pronounced all their names wrong. "Aang" was pronounced "Ah-ng". "Sokka" was pronounced "S-oh-kka". "Iroh (eye-row)" was pronounced "Eee-row". That really pissed me off. I should be happy though that they got all the other names correct.
Anyways
-Aang, Played by Noah Ringer
He did an OK job, seeing this is his first movie. He showed much of Aang's personality as well as compassion for his fellow people. He also did some badass airbending. His clothing matched the clothing in the TV show, as well as his smile colon dash parenthesis.
tl;dr
-Showed Aang's personality thoroughly
-Though sometimes, didn't show Aang's personality, but rather without any emotion
7/10
-Katara, Played by Nicola Peltz
She was meh. She did show Katara's love in her very motherly way. But some parts were bad, as in she just looked like she was just reading lines with no emotion. Her hair loopies weren't in the front like in the show, but instead looped to the back of her head. Her blue clothing also matched the TV show.
tl;dr
-Showed Katara's love and motherlyness
-Lines weren't too great, blame it on Shyamalan :troll:
6/10
-Prince Zuko, Played by Dev Patel
Dev, as well as Shaun, did fantastic job of acting. He showed Zuko's eager to bring back his father's forgiveness as well as his anger towards everyone. Someone also shouted out "Latika!" in the theatre I was in. props to whoever gets it. His scar on his left eye wasn't very visible. He didn't have his pony tail like in the show, but had his red fire nation clothing.
tl;dr
-Showed Zuko's anger
-The emotion Dev put for Zuko was great
10/10
-Uncle and General Iroh, Played by Shaun Toub
Awesome. Plain out awesome. Shaun showed his love to Zuko, his calmness and very unique sense of words were also there. Though he didn't have his fatness and love for tea.
tl;dr
-Showed Iroh's wisdom
-No fat though made me :(
9/10
-Sokka, Played by Jackson Rathbone
Jackson didn't really show Sokka's personality: wasn't funny, nor was he clumsy. His love for Yue was kind of there, but only for about five minutes. After that, Shyamalan ruined it by not showing them flirting. I did however, like how he still has his pony tail, and his boomerang.
tl;dr
-Wasn't funny, like how Sokka is meant to be
6/10
-Commander Zhao, Played by Aasif Mandvi
I was actually surprised by how well Aasif acted as Zhao. He showed how much he wanted to 1) Get the Avatar, and 2) Get the Avatar before Zuko. He showed how loyal he was to Ozai. But sadly, didn't have his wicked sideburns like in the TV series.
tl;dr
-Showed his wanting to get rid of Zuko, just like in the TV series.
7/10
-Fire Lord Ozai, Played by Cliff Curtis
Indians
Indians everywhere
He actually did a pretty good job. At first seeing him in the trailers made me think how he was going to pull of this hot headed, muscular bodied Fire Lord. But in the end, he did it. But, like many other flaws, he didn't have his awesome beard.
tl;dr
-Indian trololo
8/10
-Princess Yue, Played by Seychelle Gabriel
Not much to say about her seeing Shyamalan didn't portray her love to her nation.
Her acting was good though. I could see her emotion through the little lines she had. I was a little mad though that she didn't have white eyebrows. asdf
7/10
-Azula, Played by Summer Bishil
Wadsaf holy stuff she came out of no where. I just hope she better be good in the next to films
-Fire Nation Soldier, Played by Shyalaman
Cameo performance
-Night just sucks
0/10
SCORE
This deserves it's own section because it's so goood. The score is done by James Newton Howard, the same person that did the Dark Night. Each of the nations has it's own score to it. If you get a chance to see this movie, please for some time listen to the music. It's just so gooood
RATING
I was hoping the rating would be set to PG-13, but it was downgraded to just PG. I didn't really think that was necessary because people who didn't watch the TV series wouldn't get the movie which will lead into my next argument.
FAMILY
I saw this movie with my dad, my grandpa, and my 22 year old cousin. I'm pretty sure none of them knew what was happening, but being an Avatar cigarette, I knew exactly what was happening. Seeing this with someone that hasn't seen the TV series might not get the movie at all.
CGI
Excellent. The fire actually looked real, from other movies I've seen. The water looked very realistic, from the freezing of Zuko, to the practicing of Aang and Master Pakku, the water flowed correctly and wasn't a mess. There wasn't much earthbending, but the little time it had, it looked very good. And finally, the air looked somewhat OK. But the bending, with 3D, actually looked very very awesome. This was a correct way to use 3D and push it to it's fullest.
Final Scoring of The Last Airbender
Storyline-
-Choppy
-Only focused on 5 episodes
-Didn't include Kyoshi Warriors
-5/10
Effects-
-Scenery looked amazing
-Bending looked amazing
-9/10
Acting-
-Horrible
-Dev and Shaun stole the movie by their brilliant acting
-6/10
Score-
-Very nicely done
-Howard is a master at making music
-10/10
The Last Airbender: 7.5/10
Show Posts
