“The Last Airbender”

02 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment

by Jonathan Thompson in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

I feel that this movie is a very appropriate beginning to my blogging endeavors. I will admit, though, that two weeks ago I knew nothing about the “Avatar: The Last Bender” world at all. Because I knew the movie was coming out — and because the entire series was streamable on Netflix — I decided to watch the show in preparation for the movie.

And before I get to the movie, I must address the show briefly. I was entirely surprised when I began watching the show. I really had no idea what to expect from the show; it being a kids’ show, I suppose I automatically had some kind of bias, but it soon disappeared. I don’t want to get too much into the show, but I will say that while there definitely were kid-y elements (teachable moments, morals, young characters, etc), the characters were all extremely interesting, the plots entertaining, and the world fascinating. What really struck me most was that the writers excelled in character development. I’m all about character development, and I was blown away by the attention to detail and sensitivity to let the audience experience their deep motivations and understand their struggles.

When I finished the TV show, I was beyond excited to watch the movie. There was so much potential in taking a somewhat unknown world and bringing it to the masses, and with today’s technology, all the fantastical bending could be seen for real!

Sadly, the movie did not even come close to reaching its potential. That being said, I don’t believe it was the disaster that so many reviewers claimed it to be.

Let’s start with the special effects. Many have criticized the special effects to be lame and ridiculous. I didn’t watch the movie in 3-D, which I’ve heard hindered instead of enhanced, but I felt that the special effects were fine. Everybody’s bending looks very much like it does in the animated show, everything from the water tendrils to the rising sheets of rock from the ground. I was actually pleased with how all the bending looked, especially Aang’s airbending. It didn’t look pushed, which it definitely could have been. I’d even go as far as saying that some of the bending looked graceful — which is definitely the goal.

While I feel good about the special effects, the writing was pretty terrible. I can understand where the trouble comes from, though. There is the challenge of taking a season of a TV show and compacting it into the time-span of a movie, but the writers did not come through at all. Before I saw the movie, I heard many complaints about too much talking, and there was too much talk. I don’t understand why the writers didn’t step back and take a lesson from the TV show. They were able to develop backstories, explain situations, etc all through action and the visual. This movie tried to talk itself into understanding, but it instead talked itself into boredom. I remember fidgeting a lot, which I don’t tend to do in a movie.

Too much talking might be alright if all the conversation was witty and intelligent, but it unfortunately wasn’t. I’d say that “The Last Airbender” suffers from “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” syndrome. Natalie Portman is a great actress, but even she sounded dumb with the script given to her. I’m sure the actors in “The Last Airbender” are capable individuals, but the script was pretty crappy. There was hardly any witty banter or intelligent expression. It was very juvenile — ironic since much of the kids show was exceptionally intelligent.

Next is the plot. The storyline was quite shaky. The story felt like it was just wandering along with no destination in sight. The scenes seemed to have no connection from the previous and to the next. It pretty much was a stumbling story, falling into the next scene without reason or will. That being said, the plot also felt rushed. They were trying to fit so much information into one compact movie by explaining this and introducing that and hurrying on to this place and that place — creating no cohesive path to follow. Not to mention that their rushing totally skipped out from any character development whatsoever. Seriously, if you’re going to release the first part of a trilogy, you need to start making these characters like-able, interesting, and relate-able so that an audience will want to stick with them in future installments. The TV show was masterful in that aspect. You learned to love and feel for the characters, but in the movie, they’re just as hollow at the end as they were in the beginning. I felt that Zuko was the character closest to being developed. They showed a small scene of his past, when he gets banished from the Fire Nation; it wasn’t much, but it was something. I feel that they really needed to delve into these backstories more to 1) help express the devastation of the war and 2) make these characters more than talking dummies.

I won’t get into the characters on screen compared to the characters in the show, mostly because many viewers who watch the movie will have never seen the show or won’t ever see it. However, no matter how different characters in a movie are from their original format, these characters have to be unique and memorable. Aang might be memorable — just by being a young, bald kid with really intricate tattoos. But the rest of the characters in this movie are just banal at best. That being said, I felt that Jackson Rathbone’s Sokka came somewhat close to being a memorable character. He even channeled some of Sokka’s cartoon version when Katara froze him in ice, reacting a little over the top, just like he does in the cartoon. Though, the funny and dorky Sokka was mostly absent from the movie. Once he meets Princess Yue, though, his flirting brings out his sweet and cute self. I did get a little chill watching the young couple interacting. Unfortunately, these little moments were little needles in oceans of hay.

Now comes the part that I really had a beef with: the racebending. I really respect the work that racebending.com is doing. They’re trying to bring about awareness of casting practices in Hollywood. Race has been an enormous issue with this movie. I must say that I wasn’t too concerned with it at the beginning. But after watching the TV show, and then watching the movie, it just felt wrong. It feels wrong to have a show that is based on Asian and Inuit cultures, that gives kids some Asian role models, be manipulated. What I can’t understand is how they’ll keep all the Chinese writing in the movie, keep the martial arts and meditation practices associated with bending, keep the Asian names and clothes, write Asian-sounding music for the soundtrack, and then just change the looks of all the people. It doesn’t gel at all. Watching the movie just felt so weird. It felt so wrong.

Dante Basco, the voice behind the original Prince Zuko, commented about the racial issues in his blog: http://dantebasco.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/the-last-airbender-to-boycott-or-not/. He talked about how there are barely any Asian roles in Hollywood in general, and then Asian American actors can’t even get roles that are Asian roles. This just isn’t right, in my opinion. How can movie makers create a movie strongly based in a particular culture, and then blatantly disregard it? And why is it OK, seemingly, to cast white actors in ethnic rolcs, but not the other way around? While I’m unhappy that the casting turned out this why, I am glad that it’s raising this issue up so strongly. I hope to follow up with some news about racebending’s work. It’s definitely important, because the racial mix-matching took away from the movie (which didn’t need anything extra to take away from it).

All in all, this movie wasn’t a disaster. It’s disappointingly far from what it could have been, but I will take the optimistic stance and say that the next two movies of the trilogy — if they get made — can be made better. The casting can’t really be changed, so we’re stuck with that, but if the writing takes some strides forward, the next two movies could be way better. “Book Two: Earth” was an amazing season, drenched in character development. The writers have so much to work with; it’s all in their hands.

Let me know what yall think! Thanks for reading!!

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