Me before the movie came out: "I hope they don't turn it into a brainless action movie." Me after the movie came out: "I wish this was at least a brainless action movie."
I’d rather have had Michael Bay direct it. A movie with Zuko making houses explode for no reason and Katara summoning huge tidal waves to wash whole armies away ten minutes after learning how to would have at least been fun to watch.
Yep. I remember thinking I shouldn't expect it to be as good as the show, but if it's even half as good, it'd still be a decent movie. But it was like... 2% good. The settings and costumes were okay. So I'll give it like a quarter of a star out of 10 for that. I was amazed they could so thoroughly ruin such good source material.
"But for some reason, Aang was having trouble with waterbending." That's not how I remember that happening Shyamalan. As I recall Aang didn't have any problems with waterbending at all. In fact, he was able to pick it up so quickly Katara needed to have an arc about how that made her feel weak.
@@julleebean "The Waterbending Scroll." Maybe Shymalon got it mixed up with "Bitter Work," because I DO remember Aang having trouble with earthbending.
“As you know, I raided the great library. The library I raided, the place where I conducted a raid which was a library that was great. The great library.”
Which is coincidentally the theoretical number of minutes that movie needed to be at least a so bad is good, but no, is just so bad is "Oh God, forgive us all. How we allow any of this to happen? We are not worthy!! Send a giant asteroid and end us all!!!" bad.
Turns out this movie is like a gish gallop, so many bad things strung together that to unpack what's really wrong you have to be selective AND it will still take longer to explain and correct than to spew the bad stuff ever did.
I was thinking sth similar. He manages a scathing, yet reasonable and founded criticism without completely shit-spraying everything about the filmmaker. Kinda nice to see these days, despite my own disdain for M. Night. I couldn't have been so thoroughly fair.
I was a teacher when this series had completed. I bought all the DVDs and showed them to my students during lunch. By the fourth episode ALL my students chose to eat with me and watch this series. It transformed my class. We discussed empathy, character development, character purpose, internal and external conflicts, etc. These discussions changed my students as well. They were kind and reflective. Also, this was the year every student passed every mandatory assessment. My principal asked me my secret but didn't believe my answer. To him it was just a cartoon.
Because CarToOnS aRe fOr KIDZ!!! But it was an incredible bonding experience. Also, cartoons are just an artstyle. The lessons and stories can be told in any medium, as the cartoon vs the movie shows.
@@Chadius I was 27 when I finished the series for the first time. I was skeptical at first. It looked like a kids show and in anime style which is not my thing. Well... I was wrong. Very wrong. And 27 isn't too old for that show. Hell, I showed it to my mom (57) and she recognized its value.
For some reason, it's really irritating me that the movie portrays Aang as struggling with water bending. Water bending came so naturally to Aang that it irritated Katara. This irritates me because it's another example of how he has no idea of Aang as a character.
Right? Aang having issues with being comfortable with earth and fire whereas understanding water made sense with his psyche yet the movie just threw the character in the garbage, as well as everything else.
Also, didn’t the series say that some elements share similarities to one another? I can’t remember the specifics of it, but I remember Iroh saying that he learned how to apply the flow of the Waterbening technique to Firebending. Really it made sense that Aang was able to get the hang of Waterbending so quickly. Air and Water are very free, flowing elements. They share a lot of similarities in that sense.
@@Cheetahgirl_Studios Air is the opposite of earth, fire the opposite of water. But it's mostly a mental thing, as I understood it. That's why Korra mastered fire without a problem but was struggling with air.
@@noni-lx1it Simmilar to real-world martial arts with different sub-schools, each element represents an approach to combat and how they interact. Water represents fluidity and momentum, as you dodge your opponent and observe them before retaliating. Earth revolves around endurance and strength, as you tank through their attacks until they get tired. Fire is about aggression and efficiency, as you create your own openings and try to end a fight as quickly as possible. Air is about redirection and counterattacks, as you move around your target and let them hurt themselves against their surroundings. Air is related to water as they both revolve around dodging, but one is active while the other is passive, meanwhile earth is about simply shrugging off attacks. Fire is the sole outlier in that it is the only form that encourages chasing down an opponent.
@@marctaco2624 not only that, but each bending style is based on a martial art: Tai Chi- Water Hung Gar- Earth Ba- Gua- Air Northern Shaolin- Fire. You can also see some aspects of Aikido when Suki explains how to use an opponent’s strength against them, and the same idea appears quite a few times when Aang fights against Zhao and Zuko
The one thing I like is how they made the Airbender tattoos more intricate. That would actually look very cool irl, unlike having solid blocks of blue tattoos on your head
I'd rather have the solid blue blocks. I've painted temporary Airbender tattoos on my forehead before, and the results of that looked better than the blue vines Aang has in the movie, at least in my opinion.
That actually would've been a really hilarious back and forth. "I'll burn their village to the ground!" "The village is made of snow and ice, Lord Zuko. It'll melt." "Th-then I'll melt it to the ground! Whatever!"
@@greylithwolf But then wouldn't the water just refreeze and couldn't they just make new igloos with that water? I don't think he will achieve his goal.
@@erikkesler1739 Exactly, it would have given us some much needed humor and developed the character. How these people make millions screenwriting in Hollywood when random people on the internet can do their job better.
It always takes longer to explain why something wrong is wrong than for that something to conclude. Doesn't matter if it politics, economics, an innapropriate joke, philosophy, games, books, tv, and movies.
Did Shyamalan just change it up so that the fire nation soldiers, instead of taking earthbenders to a full metal sea platform where they can't bend earth... They went with A FREAKING STONE QUARRY?
Apparently, one of the main reasons for the change of prison was budgetary. They blew most of the set budget filming the Northern and Southern Water Tribe scenes on-location in Greenland and had almost nothing left afterwards. It's the same reason that the Fire Nation throne room is very obviously an elementary school gymnasium.
@@matthewmuir8884 wait so they were shooting in Greenland, which has a majority Inuit population and they STILL cast white people. Why????? Why??????? They were so close yet so far!
To be fair this is also the same world where the firebenders-who have to have an already lit flame source-somehow took over the world despite how easy it would be to fight back
@@gloomygloomstalker3878 So what? Sure having to have a source is a disadvantage. So I guess Earth and mostly Air have the advantage there. Then again Id much rather be hit by Air or Water or even Earth than by Fire. So Fire has the advantage there imo. More importantly though look at the other half of the names. Water TRIBES, Air NOMADS... I mean those two are basically seemingly out right there. So its really between Earth and Fire. And army strength has a lot to do with simple numbers. Conquerers usually simply have the will. I mean how did Germany kick so much ass at the beginning of WW2 with seemingly everything and everyone against them? Theres an answer.
Honestly, the idea of Zhao being this jackass that CONSTANTLY brings up that one cool thing he did a decade ago is hilarious. "Hey, did you know I raided the Great Library-" "YES ZHAO, YOU'VE TOLD ME THIS SEVEN TIMES! TODAY!" Shame it was played straight.
I’m picturing Shyamalan showing up at the library and trying to offer the script for this movie as his addition to the collection, and Wan Shi Tong being like “Get the hell out.”
You are 100% correct in not blaming Noah Ringer. I watched a behind the scenes video, where he was fun, funny, and full of life. Shyamalan took what could've been an amazing actor, into a lifeless husk.
So many times a good actor is being destroyed by an incompetent and/or entitled director... Just look at the actor of Luke Skywalker... He is amazing and full of personality (Quite a funny guy too), yet he was forced to play a character that doesn't make any sense because the director wanted a more "edgy" and "serious" tone... Like... He freaking cried at the scene of the jedi academy burning... It was actual tears because that scene literally displayed what was happening: Burning the entire franchise down.
It's a shame. He can be a good Aang with the right direction. He was Aang behind the scene than he was in the movie. Why can't Shyamalan tell the kid to just be himself
For me, the term "cartoon" refers to a show that is *strictly* meant for kids; as in "no adult would find any personal enjoyment in". And there are some shows out there that fit that category, such as the _Ben 10_ reboot, _The Adventures of Fanboy & Chum-Chum,_ and some others that I can't think of right now. But then you have shows like _Avatar: The Last Airbender, Batman: The Animated Series, Young Justice,_ and _Voltron: Legendary Defender,_ where they were initially intended for a young audience but the quality of writing, the storytelling, and the characterization(s) just grabbed not only kids but also adults. I just refer to those types of shows as "animated TV shows". And even if you still like to refer those as "cartoons", that's fine; to each their own. But I hope you see the point I'm making here. And, of course, you have Anime, which EVERYONE knows can be for pretty much anyone. But, I agree that anyone who thinks just because something is animated being strictly for kids should not work in animation or make a film adaptation of said show.
Honestly I feel like the show was "darker" than the movie. The show depicted complex political corruption and shit. The movie attempted to be edgy and failed at it.
The biggest crime was that they didn't gave our fire bois their lushous long locks. Like, Ozai looked amazing in the series and here he is just a normal dude, totally unthreatening.
The thing that annoys me most is that Shyamalan didn't understand Zuko's backstory at all. Yes, he is told if he finds the avatar, he can return home, but it is AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK as far as Ozai knows. That's why he is tasked with it, because he thought he could NEVER fulfill it, and best of all, he gets to send Iroh with him, so they're both out of the picture. Xiao in the movie makes it sound like this is ACTUALLY his task, instead of mocking him that the effort is futile, because everybody thinks the Avatar cycle is broken. Iroh joins his nephew, because he feels that he needs him, but he also NEVER expected to find the Avatar.
@@misspinkrainbow5856 yes, it is spelled Zhao, but Xiao would be funnier, since Xiao in Chinese is a prefix for little. Such as Xiao-long meaning little dragon, or Xiao-Mei meaning little Mei (Mei is a name).
What are you talking about, Tim? There is no such film called "The Last Airbender." Did you forget to accept the Earth King's invitation to Lake Laogai again?
Shyamalan treats the martial art bending moves as if they were magic spells to conjure the elements, rather than the elements becoming an extension of the bender through bending. That's why it all looks so disconnected. It's pretty clear he never understood the source material.
@@jordanrobinson9064the initial purpose if cancelling is to call out morally reprehensible behaviors. Like child abuse and rape accusation shit. Saying those things and making a bad adaptation of a tv show are equal in immortality is insanely overdramatic if not straight up idiotic.
One of MANY things that pissed me off about this movie was how quickly they actually showed Ozai's face. In the OG series, they purposely kept hiding his face to build him up as a suspenseful intimidating character and only revealed his face once Zuko came back to the fire nation. They lost all suspense with Ozai as a character right away and made him dull.
And add that the whole point of his reveal was to show the audience that the most dangerous evil in the world is... just a man. A terrifying, apathetic, and narcissistic man, but he's just a normal human man. He's not some grotesque monster or evil spirit, simply just a man, and that's what makes him so terrifying
@@mugginsttp1396 They also made him a very pretty man, to add to the cognitive dissonance, to make our knowledge of him that much more off-putting. It was grotesque, in a way, and perfectly executed. Perfect example of how looks aren't everything.
That's an issue between live action and animation. A voice actor gets paid the same whether we see the animated character's face or not. The live action actor wants their face shown, so do the producers, they paid a lot for those actors; no one wants them hidden.
@@Clint52279 No, that's the issue of poor filmmaking. Things are intebtionally not shown for suspense all of the time in movies. This includes characters/ actors and there's nothing wrong with that. Usually actors don't mind either and even if this one did, guess what? Just get another guy to play the character. If your actors are running the show on what they think you should record, maybe you shouldn't be in charge...
i‘ll never forget the moment i witnessed a horde of adult men flailing their arms for a good minute just to have a pebble levitate across the screen at the speed of an electric wheelchair
The fact they fundamentally changed fire bending in the movie so drastically still drives me nuts today. Fire benders never needed a source of element to fight which made them feel stronger and scarier.
So true, and how easy would it be for a waterbender to defeat them? Just douse their source. Of course that would be all waterbending would be good for in this movie...
Not just that, but it made Aang and the Fire Nation fundamentally opposed. They were using the two gaseous elements, the two derived from the very air around them, the hardest to deprive them of. The Fire benders could drive the other benders from their element if given a chance, but not Aang. This made him their greatest threat, even on their home turf, simply because he fought them evenly. Here, both Aang has the advantage, and no one's bending is strong enough to actually be worth a single soldier, so it doesn't matter.
What's funny is that in a prequel comic I found Iroh mentioned the Sun Warriors and how they did bending (without mentioning the dragons) and said something about firebenders being disconnected from their original source or something at some point? This was a while back so I don't remember, all I know is Ozai mentioned something about it at the end of the movie but I was barely paying attention at that point.
yeah, and it's because this movie doesn't allow the characters to be actual characters with emotions unless the story demands it. until then, they're just exposition dumpers. Ong and white Katara will not have any romance because it's not crucial to the story yet
@@mani-ei5kqand they mentioned in the movie that the avatar isn’t allowed to have a family so they probably wouldn’t even be together at the end of the third movie that could have been if this movie was a success which of course also opens up 2 issues in the story for the story’s history and future
"It's difficult for the actors to replicate the physical movements for bending" people say about a magic system that revolves around real-world martial arts styles practiced and mastered by millions of people around the globe
Also, when Avatar was aired on Nicktoons, there were commercial bumpers where they explicitly stated which forms of martial arts were the references for each style of bending. On top of having the directors there with their martial arts master to ask for their world bible. He just never took their advice.
Instead they settle with needlessly slow movements that are just waving their hands and feet around like they're trying to fight off a swarm of bees. That's just a shoddy excuse that really doesn't play out when you have Chinese movies with less budget than this doing something better.
There are very few times when watching a movie that I feel like I could have genuinely written a better one Just copy and pasting a few select scenes from the original would have probably already been better
If the movie loves dialogue it could have went all the way with dialogue, if the movie likes comedy it could have went all the way with being a comedy, this movie had a lot of potential to be good given the options available. #1 comedy because of the terrible bending. #2 Dialogue because of all the talking.
Every time I hear people say that of course they couldn’t do the bending, it would be to hard because it’s too fast, I die a little. There’s a convention I always go to and every year they have a martial arts team from the local university perform all the marital arts of avatar and they literally do the routines seen in the show at full speed and you can almost actually see the bending happen
I mean, I could get their sentiment, since they would have to train a lot of people on the martial arts forms needed and whatnot, but the pace they go about doing it in the movie is INCREDIBLY slow. Like “You can’t feasibly make action with that” slow.
@@sakethvenkatesh2492 They could've hired actual martial artists. Not sure about big speaking roles, but having people who know the moves would make for fast fights on a large scale.
Book two when they go to the great library. The owl spirit says to them: "As you know General Zou came here and raided my great library and took the secrets to kill the moon, in his raid. And as you know he almost succeeded in killing the moon. All because he raided my great library
This library? The library we are currently standing on? The library that General Zhou went to and raided because of a prophecy about a moon spirit and how it's connected to water bending? That Library?
Here’s a theory: This isn’t a live action adaptation of The Last Airbender. This is a live action adaptation of the play by the Ember Island Players re-enacting the story of the Gaang. Now excuse me while I go on the run from the FBI.
@@gustavodeoliveira5254 Judas had a close circle of friends, and so do I. Surely it means that I'm the one who's supposed to betray you, the new messiah.
Wanna know something? I watched this movie when I was about 10ish. And I loved it. I thought the premise was super cool and I was really mad that there wasn't a second movie. When I was 11 a friend of mine introduced me to the TV show. And suddenly I had everything that I'd previously wanted, but a thousand times better and I was obsessed. We still owned the movie of course, but suddenly it wasn't so cool anymore. And it's only gotten worse as I grew up.
This is how I was with Eragon. I Loved the movie when I watched it in I think 5th grade. My brother showed me the books. And then the movie was less cool, but was still nostalgic.
One thing that always upsets me is the scar is hard to see in the movie. Zuko's scar is what makes Zuko Zuko. It's how we all see him, what makes him stand out from the others. It's something he hates because his father burned his face. Zuko with a scar that is barely noticeable is not our Zuko.
Taking away Zuko's scar is like taking away Sokka's (or in this case Soaka's) boomerang, like taking away Aang's arrow, like taking away Katara's hair loopies- Oh wait, they took away all of those things, except for the arrow
If they wanted to race bend him, this was probably the least intelligent choice due to skin tone. Or they maybe should make it way more bright red to contrast with the dark skin
And it's not just something physical, it's also very emotional and a manifestation of his conflict with his father and with his past. A reminder that the Fire Nation didn't hust just the other civilizations but also it's own people
Yeah Iroh was the worst change. Which is impressive because they do all of them dirty. But Iroh has almost no characterization similar to his cartoon form. Not just lines, not just look, but also couldn't get emotions, meaning of character, or even reason for being in the story.
Zuko’s ‘scar’ in this is just pathetic, his eye is supposed to be practically shut from the severe scar tissue and it stretches around his face to his now deformed ear, but what we see here is a barely visible birthmark with a thick luscious eyebrow and wide open uninjured eye.
See, that's because in the show, the scar stops that side of his face from having muscle movement and showing emotion. In the movie, you don't need to worry about that because none of the characters show emotion.
@@puli_dreadhead Yeah they could have changed it to being something that just happened so that it creates a sense of urgency. Also less chance of screwing up makeup.
What makes it even worse is that he didn't even HAVE to write basically anything. It was already written by somebody who was better and he went out of his way to ruin it through his own hubris lol my 10 year old writes better than this
Aang had like no trouble learning waterbending because it's really similar to airbending. It's fluid. That's why he had trouble learning earthbending. It's not like airbending, it's like *solid*
Heck, I loved the plot point where Katara got jealous he got it so easily as she was used to being special as the only water bender and then growing more emotionally secure. Then that character arc ended, mostly, when she then used her confidence to school that sexist northern water tribe teacher.
@@ProbsNotABot You remembering that part right? She put up a good fight, but she still got her ass handed to her, and she wouldn't have been made a pupil if not for Pakku softening up because he saw his ex-fiancée's necklace on her.
@@seg162 Putting up a good fight as a self-taught juvenile southern waterbender (the junior tribe) against a master elder northern waterbender (the senior tribe) is a massive accomplishment.
The fact that this review talking about everything that is wrong with the movie is longer than the actual movie is something that makes me so happy. Congrats man, you really nailed with this one.
@@matthewmuir8884 Exactly. Especially for a teenage character. Many teenagers have Sokka's exact attitude. These are real people. That's as grounded as you can get.
Lmao, right? I can't believe they really thought having "Katara" move her hands around in front of a RIVER which NATURALLY FLOWS would work as "Waterbending", like c'mon even a little kid would probably notice she isn't bending shit. But ngl I kinda love the scene cuz it's hilarious how they didn't have the budget to just have an orb of water floating in front of her or something, hell they could have even just reversed the footage of the river flowing to make it seem like she was "redirecting the current" or idk actually doing something whatsoever, it'd still be lazy but atleast it'd be something instead of her just practicing sign language next to a flowing stream 😂😂😂
"Aang was having trouble waterbending." 1. I can SEE that, thank you. 2. In the series, Aang picks water up very well because it's his elemental compliment. So why did they have him incompotent with it here??
That's the thing, that entire episode was about how quickly he learned waterbending and how it made Katara feel self-conscious about how she had to train for most of her life to learn what little she did, by herself. If they're going to cut out the pirates, and the cabbage merchant, AND the necklace, AND the conflict, then why not have Aang start learning when they reach the Northern Water Tribe?
3. This clearly causes a bit of a rift between him and Katara, who had to work very hard on her bending for years. Aang picked up water bending in what seemed (to me, at least) as a few days.
One of the things that really stood out to me when watching the film is that he didn’t “get” Ozai. His lines implied that he cared for his son. He didn’t. He sent him off to find the Avatar-someone missing and presumed dead. This wasn’t a kindness-he never wanted to see him again. But the director took it at face value. Somehow didn’t notice.
Something like that I don't really mind it *that* much, it's an adaptation and this change could work as an alternate interpretation for Ozai if it was done with competence, like if he's similat to Thanos in that he thinks his abusive actions would somehow be beneficial for his children. It's Shyamalan so that didn't work out but still.
@@kingofthegundam7974 either way... think of it like this... I'll ask you to go find a evil-good Samaritan. You'll never find it. But in this case, the firebird happened to choose somthing that actually existed. It does not change the face this man, CHOSE to send his son to find an impossible object because he spoke out of turn that in if itself vs "I send my son to find the very real avatar to teach him a lesson" the original didn't have a reason other than "this boy dare disrespect the fireworks!?!? How dare he. He must be punished. I choose to kill him" and then his son chooses not to fight not giving his father the fight he clearly wants. The father thinks "he chooses not to fight, I'll make this a teaching moment. I choose banishment since I never want to see my son again. Anf if I do see him, I can laugh at him." He never expected his son to actually succeed.
@@HiddenOne-D-1321 I agree that the way Shyamalan handled it didn't work at all, I was just thinking of a different way it might have done as an alternate interpretation.
And would've been more like the show since skilled Fire Benders can use lightning. I assume he's skilled since, A: he's leading an invasion, B: he walked beside Ozai(horrible choice/scene) and C: it's been a while since I've watched ATLA.
@@EpsilonD2 Man, those multiple hour Good-Faith-Criticism are amazing. So for my fellow Kaiju-Fans and Kappa-Simps, i present the info to you all that Hbomberguy, Jay Exci, madvocate and Krimson Rogue all did hour-long videos so good that you dont even need ot know the Franchises they're talking about to enjoy it (as countless comment seperately from each other) exist.
16:04 this is like if in Harry Potter, instead of showing us the scene of dumbledore leaving him on the doorstep, Petunia just says, “wake up, Harry Potter my nephew who I found on the doorstep and who’s mother I was jealous of and that led to me hating wizards!”
@@noattendance9801 All this nonsense and all the mistakes of this Movie repeated itself with the heinous all-bad moie 'Mulan 2020'. It really shows that the World overall learns nothing! I almost thought Quality went extinct after having seen barely any good movie for years - but then 'Wolfwalker' came out! What an OUTSTANDING Movie! Its not an Adaptation, and heck, its not even 'original' (others told similar stories even), but its still absolutely Amazing. I recommend it to everyone here who is starved for Quality - and i just assume you are.
He wanted it to be "darker" but the original show, despite all its colorful world and funny cartoonish moments, was way darker that the film. It ends up becoming cringey when you try too hard to make it all "dark and edgy" without understanding what actually dark stories mean.
imo it’s a mix of how light the show was, which made those dark moments hit harder and the fact that the movie wasn’t able to invest people in the characters. ex: yue - we aren’t shown enough of her and sokka’s relationship and don’t feel much when she dies
@@everett.d.r “there is no war in Ba Sing Se.” “The Earth King has invited you to Lake Lou Gai.” That shit is darker than most movies, let alone most kids shows. The only other one I can think of that goes to that level of fucked is The Clone Wars, and go figure Dave Filoni got his start in Avatar (the show of course, not this mess).
For me, the only good thing to come out of this movie was a bonding moment with my mom. As a kid, I had a hard time understanding that when my parents would watch a movie they wouldn't know what would happen next, so I'd always ask what was happening and try to get them to explain to me what was going on. This was the first movie I knew what was going to happen, and I still spent the movie explaining to her that what was happening wasn't right and didn't feel like the show. Even now she feels slight disappointment for taking me because of me having a hard time enjoying it even though before I was excited for it. She never saw Avatar: the Last Airbender and took me because she knew I wanted to see it. What helped us bond after though was sitting in the Target parking lot near the theater (she wasn't ready to go home, and not too long after I found out it was because she didn't want to be around my biological dad and just wanted a bit more time away. They would divorce a few months later). While in that parking lot we roasted the movie and talked about how bad it was. Over the years my mom and I have grown apart slightly due to differences and how I've become more my own person, yet I still love to look back at this moment where we bonded about something I enjoyed.
I don't know anything about you or your situation, so forgive me for intruding, but I need to say this. We tend to feel like we will always have chances to spend time with our loved ones and tell them how we feel. We don't realize it's not true until it's too late. If you have things to say to your mom, things you want to do with her, don't wait for "the right moment" or stuff like that. Just do it. You'll regret it if you don't. Sorry for the preachiness. Like I said, I don't know you, so I speak from ignorance.
@meaburro4207 I mean, I get to see my mom every day, so I guess growing apart physically isn't what I meant and, at this point, plan to physically be close enough to drive in an emergency. On an emotional level, it's changed in so many ways I don't think it'll go back. I mean, she divorced my abusive bio dad, I went on student exchange and have moved around and back so much that I have grown. She's remarried. Overall, our lives have changed that we won't have the same bond we always used to. I won't be able to look up to my mom as the woman I used to because I've seen her as she is, and who she is is not who I expected, or even wished for in a mom (I have vivid memories of my mom refusing to hug me because her mom wouldn't want to hug her) and so I feel typical advice isn't applicable here. I'm finding my ways to connect with her, just that it will almost always have to be meeting her on her level, and when she has moments of awareness for me and I feel seen, it's nice.
“He was the teacher responsible for me. He’s kind of like my father.” Okay, RIGHT OFF THE BAT this looks like almost the same dialogue from the show but is SO inferior and fumbled when it comes to execution and subtext. “This is Monk Gyatso. The most powerful airbender in the world. He taught me everything I know.” Seems like it’s getting across basically the same information. But no. Aang’s inherent respect for Gyatso is IMPLIED through his (correctly, but almost childishly) calling Gyatso the absolute greatest airbender alive. His line delivery on “he taught me everything I know” and bow following it show just how thankful Aang is for the tutelage he was given; he pays respect to it even when Gyatso isn’t literally there. He also uses present tense when referring to Gyatso’s abilities, showing that even his subconscious mindset still assumes that the airbenders haven’t really been killed. He hasn’t faced or accepted yet that they’re gone and part of his past now. Not to mention the fact that everything Aang says to his friends paints a picture of this great, respected air bending master, a characterization that the following flashback then deliberately SUBVERTS and deepens by showing Gyatso waxing on “ancient cake-baking techniques” and enlisting Aang to chuck the cakes at other masters’ heads. All of a sudden we have a deeper understanding of where someone like Aang came from: an incredibly talented kid who still has this deep-seeded priority and veneration of whimsy and fun. We learn all of that by connecting dots between what we are shown and what an eleven-year-old kid tells us, what he CHOOSES to say and how he says it, naturally, through his lens, not just reading off of a screenwriter’s plot notes. And the scenes actually flow together in a deliberate manner to gradually evolve the audience’s perception of the story and its characters. Leaps and bounds apart from the film. Just, the closer you look the crazier the gulf gets. I am losing my mind as I write this.
The scene of Katara facing Zuko really demonstrates how stupid the decision was to remove the concept of "breath is fire" from firebending. It's a tense standoff. Zuko lowers his torch to set the grass ablaze, providing him with an ample supply of-- Katara quickly waterbends to soak the grass and extinguish the torch, then punches Zuko repeatedly into the wall. The end.
@@9xprincess It's not just that scene either. The movie is riddled with making firebending dependent on whether or not there's an actual fire nearby. With the exceptions of off-screen characters, you *need* already existing fire to firebend, as we could see in Aang v Zuko and the fight at the Fire Nation prison in the Earth Kingdom. This was the 1 thing that stood out as odd to me when I watched the movie.
It's worse when you realize if the fire nation to needed lug fire everywhere how the heck did they win the war in the first place. The biggest advantage the fire nation had outside the comet snd surprise is the fact they didn't need their natural element to bend. The way the movie set it up all the water tribe needs to do is make it rain and the fire nation can't do shit. Plus they would have plenty of time to do it since the entire army would have to light torches. it would be a huge light source so no sneak attack either.
@@mr.protagonist5639and also explains why the airbenders were the biggest threat to them, as technically, yes they did need air to bend, but it would never be an issue of not having air. Air and fire were the only two with no necessary materials required and therefore the best for an offensive attack
It's an interesting bit of light sexism, IMO: Katara's strongest emotional anchor is her mother, but Sokka's is his father. For Sokka, their mother was replaced by his _younger_ sister. Their father was still alive, as far as they knew. It's a point of anguish for Katara, but for Sokka, it's merely a reality of war... which, frankly, is a tragedy and itself a reality of war. It's not surprising, then, that Sokka is unable to think of women as independently capable: his mother was never around to demonstrate otherwise and Katara is barely able to do anything until the show starts.
Michael Chui what do you mean Katara wasn’t able to do anything? She was mainly tasked in taking care of the small village in the traditional way, which is why Sokka “replaced” his mother with her cause she took care of him in a somewhat motherly way.
@@donkeykong3628 She still did do only the things that women used to do in the water tribe, hence Sokka unable to accept that his girl sister could fight or do "manly" things.
@@o7o6o5o4o3 and it can also be his way of wanting to protect her cause yeah he lost one mom and doesn’t want to lose her. He wants to do the thing he couldn’t have done in the past beg the protecter. Not excusing his actions but gives context to his misogyny (before suki beat it out of him)
I can't honestly believe Shyamalan actually watched the show. It almost feels like he had someone watch the series and then tell him about it, then he created this abomination off of what he was told.
As someone whose name is constantly mispronounced, I am in total agreement. I understand in the Indian culture the names would be pronounced the way they were in the movie, but rule of thumb: always pronounce names the way the person or the mother (who birthed the person) pronounces the name. Mike and Bryan (who birthed the characters) said Ā-ng, Sock-ka, and Eye-roh. The characters said Ā-ng, Sock-ka, and Eye-roh. So changing that further alienated us from the characters.
@@GAshoneybear This is just one thing that proves even more that Shyamalan didn't understand the show at all. He wanted to represent his own culture rather than that in the show. Of course, showing one's own culture isn't bad... Until it's replacing or erasing another culture in a pre-existing source. It would be like making Mulan Slavic and renaming her Milan or making her Japanese and naming her Ran.
(Robs the best lab in the world) WHERE IS YOUR MICROSCOPE THAT CAN SEE ZUKOS SCAR them : AAAAAH WE DONT HAVE IT THE FILM IS JUST SO TERRIBLE HE HAS NO SCAR?.?
Can we talk about the prison break scene in more detail please though? Someone else mentioned that uh. The whole point of taking the Earthbenders into the middle of the ocean, surrounded by water, in a prison made of metal, that they couldn't get away and were truly trapped, thus losing their morale. Coal is brought into the equation paired with character development from Katara's bleeding heart, and they escape. In the movie.... they're just... on land. Earth... everywhere. They outnumber the Fire Nation soldiers there. Like. Come on.
I had never watched the cartoon when I first watched this trainwreck but even I was going "wait, what" when I saw that earth was surrounding the EARTH benders in their prison.
Adapting a story always requires a certain degree of translation, not just copying. That translation then requires truly understanding the language, aka what the story is really about.
On the race issue, I'll defend Shyamalan, as it wasnt him but the studio/board. It's a pretty open secret that Nicola Peltz was the cause for the white (Jewish in her case, technically speaking) washing. This was due to her billionare Dad, Nelson Peltz being a major stakeholder and allegedly demanded she get the lead female role. It gets more speculative here, but rumour was that Zukos actor was lined up for Sokka's role, but after Peltz was forced in, they swapped him to Zuko and made the water tribe white to match the main actress. Just old fashioned Hollywood nepotism at play yet again.
You know, Dev might actually have made an at least fair Sokka. Could it be Shyamalan really wanted to do it properly, but because of studio intervention just gave up?
@@MissCaraMint I'd guess he likely did plan for a mostly pan Asian cast, I noticed the Air Nomands were pan-racial, so Aang may have been planned to be white/ambiguous as a bone to throw to the studio/marketing team, which doesnt seem to unreasonable given the time period this was happening. I agree that Dev would have been good as Sokka, his background is in more lighthearted/comedic roles anyway.
Honestly, I think both sides shoulder some of the blame. Shyamalan partially because... Well, his directing style and way of storytelling just don't mesh well with the Avatar universe. The Hollywood executives, on the other hand, probably gave Shyamalan a lot of behind the scenes studio interference. Whether or not the movie could have been good in Shyamalan's hands is a matter of debate. All I do know is that... Well, the movie's an underwhelming (And bad) adaptation. Heck, even the show had a scene in The Ember Island Players where the characters basically give their thoughts on the play they just saw... And said words are eerily similar to the thoughts a lot of people had on the movie. And the weirdest thing is... The episode came out SEVERAL YEARS before the movie!
@@TF2Fan101 I was referring specifically to casting issues, but more broadly I'd say you're totally right, M.Night just isn't the right man for the job. But it was also the studio who hired him and signed off on everything, so vant just blame him for it all.
14:08 The line, "the scroll proved to be helpful" is immediately contradicted by, "he was having trouble with waterbending." Which is canonically wrong! Aang learned the new techniques easily, Katara was the one who struggled. Also, the film doesn't show Katara bending water in this scene, without the exposition, you wouldn't know that she was doing better than Aang.
1:45:45 "One of the main actors got their leg caught and snapped as the curtains closed." I was so intrigued by this that I looked up the event. And well...no that's not what happened. The actor did get his leg caught in the machine and they stopped the show to take him to the hospital, but his leg wasn't broken.
1:05:30 Despite Film Zuko making two very audible effort yells for bending, Film Katara apparently forgets about peripheral vision and how to actually do more than slowly follow one thing moving toward her
It's like star wars this guy was given the keys to the kingdom this movie should have launched his career into the stratosphere and he wouldn't have to do anything except pick the right actors and take what was on tv and put it on the big screen instead he went yeah fuck that imma fuck this all the way up
I remember when, as both a fan of ATLA and a fan of Shyamalan I was actually excited about this movie. My main reason was because because I totally thought that Shyamalan (after watching Lady in the Water) had a deep understanding of irony and at least a decent amount of dry humor. I was looking forward to seeing how he would take the heart of ATLA - which I would argue is the pacing and humor of the show and translating that to film in his own unique way. I never, ever, thought someone would take ALTA and strip it from its humor. 😱 I watched this in theater, glued to my seat in horror. Bad acting I could forgive, and even useless explanations I could ignore, but if you strip Sokka of his puns, Zuko of his awkward overcompensation, Katara of her hope, or Aang of his innate childlike joy… you’ve already lost the point. ATLA not just a story, it’s a character driven tapestry.
But ember island players are exaggerating every character they play and overacting every emotion. This film is just empty of any emotions. :|. It would not even work as a parody
One thing that struck me was how they keep making choices that make the world feel smaller. Zhao reporting back to Ozai every five seconds, even when he has nothing to say that would actually make him look good, really limits the perceived scale of the world. Show Zhao has a transcript of his "I caught the Avatar," speech written up, but when Aang escapes _he doesn't send it._ Because stopping in the middle of a mission to report a failure would tank his career, and he knows it. Movie Zhao spouts impolitic insults in front of the rank and file, and stops doing his job intermittently to scuttle back to the capital and say, "Fire Lord Ozai, I fucked up," _in person_ for no discernable reason. And the spirit world! Shyamalan changed the opening text to emphasize the importance of the spirit world, and yet all we see of it is a path, a few trees, and a little cave. And they threw a stupid distortion effect on the footage to disguise the fact that their "spirit world" has less surface area than a school playground. This "world" contains exactly one spirit, and he never goes outside. It's just sad.
“ung was practicing, but for some reason he was having trouble with water bending” *in the show it’s literally the one he finds the easiest (besides air bending) and he can bend water almost instantly when he tries for the first time*
Listening to that scene made me angry. Even aside from changing story elements, it was also a wasted opportunity for a character arc. In the show, before Katara received training from Pakku, Aang was actually better than her at waterbending, and it was surprising how that made Katara angry and hurt. That was a brilliant character moment; I think that scene was one of the first times we saw proof that Katara felt special because of her bending abilities. Before that, being a waterbender was just a "background fact" of who she was, and not something she emphasized a lot. And yet, when Aang easily did waterbending better than the best she knew how to do, it made her feel threatened, which revealed something about how she perceived herself. That scene made it all the more satisfying when Katara later proved to be exceptionally gifted as a waterbender, once she had a chance to learn and practice. It makes her personal arc similar to Zuko's; they both had to work hard to develop their abilities, as opposed to Aang or Azula, who were apparent prodigies who just naturally got it. But no, clearly it's better if Aang is the one struggling with waterbending's flowing movements, and the peaceful, spiritual concentration that we already have proof he's very good at. *Sigh.* This movie.
Personal headcannon, we're seeing the story from Katara's point of view as the narrator. She's still salty about Aang mastering water faster than her so lies about him struggling to make herself feel better.
Looking back, I actually have rather fond memories of seeing this film on opening night. Not because it was good, but because my friends and I spent a good two hours in the parking lot roasting the film with a couple other groups we met in the theatre.
That is a good memory. I went to watch it with my family, who were just as excited. I wished I paid attention to how other people felt in the theater but I was busy being horrified of the movie
Lucky! My brother and I saw it and got sat behind a mom whose kids were asking her to be quiet the entire film cause she wouldn't stop talking. And they were the only other people in the theatre
Roasting a weird film with your homies is really one of the greatest things you can do to create great memories imo, it's why I look up weird films to watch with my friends
Honestly, same. The movie itself was absolutely infuriating, but the catharsis of my friends and I ranting about it together in the parking lot afterwards for a few hours was genuinely a lot of fun. 😅
I figured out why they cut the part where Aang asks Zuko, dressed as the Blue Spirit, if they could have been friends and Zuko shoots fire at him. It's because in this movie firebenders can't shoot fire! If that scene were to have been recreated, there would have needed to be an already burning fire somewhere for Zuko to bend, which would interrupt the notion of them resting in a peaceful forest. Therefore, Zuko would have been forced to listen, maybe even respond somehow, which would have been beyond the capability of this movie to demonstrate. Therefore, they cut all dialogue and had Aang run off.
1:32:10 there’s a fire going there tho? (Unless that’s a different scene ofc) Couldn’t just they have the moment like… Aang asks, Zuko looks into the other boy’s eyes and kind of considers it but then his gaze flickers towards the fire and reaches out for it, cutting to Aang realising what he’s doing and running away in the treetops?… I still don’t see why the scene is missing if they wanted to add it later on(?) Like, the calm of resting in the forest could’ve worked too even with a small fire going on, it was nighttime when they escaped so… idk
Artemis Fowl: I am the worst movie adaptation! Dragonball Evolution: No, I am! The Last Airbender: *Amateurs* Dragonball Evolution: What was that punk? The Last Airbender: (Turns around) *Amateurs*
The sheer hubris of Shyamalan to think he was making *improvements* to the source material by changing the magic system, names, etc, is honestly kind of impressive in a way.
AHOY! I love big Criticism-Videos and -Essays so much that i want to share the names of other videos just like this 1 here, to spread some Fun and support these Content-Creators.
I will never forgive the fire benders not being able to fire bend. "Oh look, here's a nation that took over the entire world....I guess by dragging some giant torches with them and hoping that no one just puts them out."
That's one of my biggest gripes of the movie. How was Shyamalan thinking of doing Sozin's Comet? It was terrying and effective BECAUSE they don't need external fire.
When Zuko and Katara fight and she's completely surrounded by water and zuko has a little but of fire around him, I literally screamed at her to just put the fire out with her limitless water and make Zuko useless. AHHHHHHHHHHH actually infuriating
The series really does exposition quite well, usually, and manages to be naturalistic about it, even if it can't use the ... gonna call it a "mystery hook" to make the audience invested. Patik's exposition serves in-universe to enlighten Aang, while it serves on a meta level to explain Toph's invention of metal bending. As dry as the exposition can be, by making it serve both a plot and a meta purpose, it becomes better than it had been as one of either. The opening convo between Sokka and Katara is another example. After popping the bubble, Sokka calls it magic, and Katara retorts its bending, but is cut off by Sokka saying "it's an ancient art, unique to our culture, bla bla". In three lines of dialogue, we learn: -the magic system is common place and understood enough to never be called magic -it's bound to culture, so expectedly different people will have different styles or vastly different abilities -its existence is a small enough deal that teenagers will casually discuss it -Katara is respectful towards the magic system, but Sokka clearly isn't, establishing the way they'll act about similar concepts later on (especially establishing Sokka's irreverent sarcasm when it relates to anything mystical). "You think you're just watching two siblings arguing about how to catch a fish, you [d]ucking idiot, but you're secretly having the main concepts of the world explained to you." -Hbomberguy
True there were episodes about both. Can't was better than Katara at Waterbending which made her mad and Aang struggled with earthbending which caused Toph to beat him up.
The biggest sin was shyamalan didn’t use any of the suggestions of the show’s creators. When the live action movie was being introduced, they said the creators were going to have creative input to make sure the movie was true to the source material, and then they kicked the creators to the curb almost immediately.
I would bet money that the producers probably supported or told him to do that. If you take a look at the list of producers and their history with such actions.
I don't think it even got to that level. According to The Writer's Panel podcast interview with the Avatar's creators, they offered any help the studio and director needed for the film. They never heard from them even once for help or advice. The credit in the movie was something their attorney insisted on and not something they cared about.
It's not just Shyamalan to blame, but also his producers and the production companies that let him do this. Let's not forget that with any given show or movie, there's a lot of people above the director of that are also in charge.
"Whether he's a bottom or a top." Lol and the prison scene was awful. there was a very good reason the show had the prison on a steel rig in the middle of the ocean. you can't imprison earth benders in a rock quarry lol.
It gets worse the longer you think about it, since the Fire Nation in this movie can’t even produce fire on their own. They literally in prisoned them in a “prison” made up of the element they control, these people should’ve murdered them all before Oong and co even show up.
But just think about how bad it would've been if he actually put it into his movie? Don't think of it as something he missed, think of it as something unharmed
"you can't imprison earth benders in a rock quarry" I mean, you can if it requires six or seven earth benders to do a very well choreographed set of movements just to move one rock like in the movie.
I think the scene still could have worked as they did it. Learned helplessness is a real phenomenon. If they were still threatened with overwhelming force for the slightest display of rebellion, I can see why the earthbenders would have held off. Granted, it made little sense for them to be imprisoned there to begin with, and there were plenty of other problems with that scene.
"Why the last airbender is the worst film ever" (Noticing the video is longer than the actual movie) Me:Hey pass that bottle over here, were all gonna need some internal disinfecting
aS yOU kNoW, I have a patreon www.patreon.com/hellofutureme
Stay sane,
Tim
Ok
Ok
how can I stay sane when I have to think about that movie, Tim?!?
How is your comment 11 hours ago it was just uploaded 2 minutes ago
If you make effort to wear clothes with the next psychologist appointment, I will support you 😂
And when the world needed him most… *he returned* -R
Amen!
Couldn't have said it better myself
I left a like on this comment, but then I took it back.... for reasons...
Overly Sarcastic u here too? Bless you
Ten years ago...Shamalan attacked...
Whatever you earn from this video will just pay for your therapy...
Of all places, i didn't expect to see you guys here!
@@TheFanoren why? Storytelling is what we are about :-)
@@KingsandGenerals bruhhh, I just subscribed to your channel 2 days ago and I'm benge watching your videos right now
SENPAI!!!!!
@@KingsandGenerals Y'all need to do some videos on ATLA battles!
Me before the movie came out: "I hope they don't turn it into a brainless action movie."
Me after the movie came out: "I wish this was at least a brainless action movie."
Yes. Good action and effects will do.
For real tho
Brainless action, or at least trying to make it funny. That's what I would have settled for.
I’d rather have had Michael Bay direct it. A movie with Zuko making houses explode for no reason and Katara summoning huge tidal waves to wash whole armies away ten minutes after learning how to would have at least been fun to watch.
Yep. I remember thinking I shouldn't expect it to be as good as the show, but if it's even half as good, it'd still be a decent movie.
But it was like... 2% good. The settings and costumes were okay. So I'll give it like a quarter of a star out of 10 for that. I was amazed they could so thoroughly ruin such good source material.
"But for some reason, Aang was having trouble with waterbending."
That's not how I remember that happening Shyamalan. As I recall Aang didn't have any problems with waterbending at all. In fact, he was able to pick it up so quickly Katara needed to have an arc about how that made her feel weak.
I agree
I'm rewatching the series at the moment and I can confirm that's definitely what happened. I'm in the middle of this Katara arc right now.
@@julleebean "The Waterbending Scroll." Maybe Shymalon got it mixed up with "Bitter Work," because I DO remember Aang having trouble with earthbending.
@@ceinwenchandler4716 Agreed, I know he had a hard time with it because it's considered the opposite of airbending.
The element he was struggling with was earth bending as it is the opposite element of air
“As you know, I raided the great library. The library I raided, the place where I conducted a raid which was a library that was great. The great library.”
The library specifically reserved for greatness, the great library where we'll find the books for Kuzco, Kuzco's books
I feel like if they'd said this in the film they could have gotten away with it on pure comedic genius
How Mojo Jojo. Love it.
The Kronk reference 😂
Oh. That library.
Fun fact: this movie was actually directed by Ko, the Face Stealer. That's why none of the characters express any emotions...
Ah! That explains everything! 😊👍
Well... almost 😑
Do not express any emotion, please.
@Cenestpasmapersonnalité 🟡
you made me laugh🟡
That makes so much sense.
You know a movie is bad, when the “what went wrong” video is forty-five minutes longer than the movie.
Which is coincidentally the theoretical number of minutes that movie needed to be at least a so bad is good, but no, is just so bad is "Oh God, forgive us all. How we allow any of this to happen? We are not worthy!! Send a giant asteroid and end us all!!!" bad.
Turns out this movie is like a gish gallop, so many bad things strung together that to unpack what's really wrong you have to be selective AND it will still take longer to explain and correct than to spew the bad stuff ever did.
Not only is it longer, but after only a day it has over 50k views. Shoot people are probably more willing to watch this video than they are the movie!
I think this might have more likes than any other comment I’ve ever made, so thanks guys.
Remember it takes seconds to shit your pants and hours to clean it up.
i thought Sokka was joking when he said he'd give up meat and sarcasm if he could just escape that hole, but damn.... he's a man of his word.
Another great piece of dialogue, that emphasizes how shit this movie is.
@@ApinofArc for real.
@@Refried_BeansYou can like it now
You're thinking of Sokka. The guy in this movie is Soaka.
@@ShizuruNakatsu lmao, you're right.
I don't think I've ever seen an empathetic review of what this adaptation tried to be before. You've become the Uncle Iroh of Avatar fans :O
Between Dom, Tim, Red, and Blue, it's starting to look like the Endgame crossover of vastly underappreciated critique youtubers up in here.
Hello there Dom!
I was thinking sth similar. He manages a scathing, yet reasonable and founded criticism without completely shit-spraying everything about the filmmaker. Kinda nice to see these days, despite my own disdain for M. Night. I couldn't have been so thoroughly fair.
Dom! i'm so happy to see you here as well! i was thinking, he should ask dominic. the two of them should talk... adaptation.
I love when my favorite RUclipsrs comment on my favorite RUclipsr’s videos
I was a teacher when this series had completed. I bought all the DVDs and showed them to my students during lunch. By the fourth episode ALL my students chose to eat with me and watch this series. It transformed my class. We discussed empathy, character development, character purpose, internal and external conflicts, etc. These discussions changed my students as well. They were kind and reflective. Also, this was the year every student passed every mandatory assessment. My principal asked me my secret but didn't believe my answer. To him it was just a cartoon.
I would absolutely love you as a teacher
I would like to know what kind of teacher, how old were your students at the time?
Because CarToOnS aRe fOr KIDZ!!! But it was an incredible bonding experience. Also, cartoons are just an artstyle. The lessons and stories can be told in any medium, as the cartoon vs the movie shows.
@@weltraumkotze I taught third grade, all subjects. My students had me all day, which is why I was surprised they would eat lunch with me too.
@@Chadius I was 27 when I finished the series for the first time. I was skeptical at first. It looked like a kids show and in anime style which is not my thing. Well... I was wrong. Very wrong. And 27 isn't too old for that show. Hell, I showed it to my mom (57) and she recognized its value.
For some reason, it's really irritating me that the movie portrays Aang as struggling with water bending.
Water bending came so naturally to Aang that it irritated Katara.
This irritates me because it's another example of how he has no idea of Aang as a character.
Right? Aang having issues with being comfortable with earth and fire whereas understanding water made sense with his psyche yet the movie just threw the character in the garbage, as well as everything else.
Also, didn’t the series say that some elements share similarities to one another? I can’t remember the specifics of it, but I remember Iroh saying that he learned how to apply the flow of the Waterbening technique to Firebending. Really it made sense that Aang was able to get the hang of Waterbending so quickly. Air and Water are very free, flowing elements. They share a lot of similarities in that sense.
@@Cheetahgirl_Studios Air is the opposite of earth, fire the opposite of water. But it's mostly a mental thing, as I understood it. That's why Korra mastered fire without a problem but was struggling with air.
@@noni-lx1it Simmilar to real-world martial arts with different sub-schools, each element represents an approach to combat and how they interact.
Water represents fluidity and momentum, as you dodge your opponent and observe them before retaliating.
Earth revolves around endurance and strength, as you tank through their attacks until they get tired.
Fire is about aggression and efficiency, as you create your own openings and try to end a fight as quickly as possible.
Air is about redirection and counterattacks, as you move around your target and let them hurt themselves against their surroundings.
Air is related to water as they both revolve around dodging, but one is active while the other is passive, meanwhile earth is about simply shrugging off attacks. Fire is the sole outlier in that it is the only form that encourages chasing down an opponent.
@@marctaco2624 not only that, but each bending style is based on a martial art:
Tai Chi- Water
Hung Gar- Earth
Ba- Gua- Air
Northern Shaolin- Fire.
You can also see some aspects of Aikido when Suki explains how to use an opponent’s strength against them, and the same idea appears quite a few times when Aang fights against Zhao and Zuko
The one thing I like is how they made the Airbender tattoos more intricate. That would actually look very cool irl, unlike having solid blocks of blue tattoos on your head
I'd rather have the solid blue blocks. I've painted temporary Airbender tattoos on my forehead before, and the results of that looked better than the blue vines Aang has in the movie, at least in my opinion.
@@ceinwenchandler4716I feel like all they needed to do was make the lines brighter, but that’s an issue with the entire show, not just the tattoos
Um, what?
Well Avatar is an animated show so having simplified blue lines make it easier to animate.
@@perrilewis180they didnt say that it wasnt. they just said intricate lines translate better into live action than solid blue blocks do.
"I'll burn down the village."
The village is made of snow, Zuko. It won't burn, it'll just melt.
"Aight bruh they're igloos we can build like 10 more by night time. DO IT"
That actually would've been a really hilarious back and forth.
"I'll burn their village to the ground!"
"The village is made of snow and ice, Lord Zuko. It'll melt."
"Th-then I'll melt it to the ground! Whatever!"
@@greylithwolf But then wouldn't the water just refreeze and couldn't they just make new igloos with that water? I don't think he will achieve his goal.
@@Mattfromthepast Which would show his shortsightedness in mindlessly focusing on his anger and therefore develope his character a bit
@@erikkesler1739 Exactly, it would have given us some much needed humor and developed the character.
How these people make millions screenwriting in Hollywood when random people on the internet can do their job better.
If we got a second movie for earth, Toph would be a full grown man using sonic-waves through his mouth to detect where everything is
LOOK HOW THEY MASSACRED MY BOY
Yea it would just come out of nowhere like no refrence or anything just incredibly low iq
Don't insult the Ember island play by comparing it to **vague hand gestures** this
She would be the Toph from the theatre play
Lmao Toph screaming like a bat omg its gotta be played by Dwane Johnson lmaooo
IT'S TIME!
ITS HAPPENING!
Tim, Merphy AND Daniel... The holy trinity is complete🎉
i knew i'd find her in the comments. happy to see you here Merphy :)
Yayyy
@@joshuam772 WE DID IT EVERYONE
I love during one of Katara's narrations she says "Aang told us" instead of Aang actually telling us
And then in the next scene she asks for his name. After traveling to a new continent with him.
@@bbjygmthat's because this Appa does instant travel. They got there in minutes, no time to ask names 😂.
My author's heart is so full of disappointment at especially that kind of thing, in a *film* no less, that it's making me tear-bend.
it’s like “show don’t tell” but then they doubled down on the “tell”. katara told us that aang told her.
He also told them after he woke up in the tent
Iroh not being a chubby cheerful Uncle is a crime. They casted him as if he were Scar from the Lion King
Tbh they could have kept Shaun Taub, but Jesus Christ have him tell jokes, muse about random shit. Do all the classic iroh stuff
@@samuellubell4557 I completely agree. He's not Iroh he's a random Uncle. He's unimportant. I don't recognize him at all.
Yeah, he looked like he should have been casted as Firelord Ozai. He would have been more fitting for that role.
What's ironic here is you can tell he really wanted to play as Iroh but was basically directed not to.
I bet you my left leg that movie iron (bad iroh) doesn't even like tea
A breakdown of all the reasons why The Last Airbender is bad that’s longer than the actual movie? Sounds about right.
When you find out its only part one
It's bigger on the inside. :D
It always takes longer to explain why something wrong is wrong than for that something to conclude.
Doesn't matter if it politics, economics, an innapropriate joke, philosophy, games, books, tv, and movies.
I mean, yeah, he spends time not just tearing it down, but using it to actually *TEACH* how to make stories better.
The longman's rule spreads
Is such a bad movie that it warrants a whole movie talking about how bad it is.
You clearly don't watch MauLer's channel.
This is 2 and a half hour, this is Lord of the Rings long movie.
@@schwarzerritter5724 imagine his potential 30 hour video series on this movie lel
Veriskem Kroya
MauLer isn't even the first long review guy, I watched Spoony when he was in his prime.
yes
Did Shyamalan just change it up so that the fire nation soldiers, instead of taking earthbenders to a full metal sea platform where they can't bend earth... They went with A FREAKING STONE QUARRY?
Apparently, one of the main reasons for the change of prison was budgetary. They blew most of the set budget filming the Northern and Southern Water Tribe scenes on-location in Greenland and had almost nothing left afterwards. It's the same reason that the Fire Nation throne room is very obviously an elementary school gymnasium.
@@matthewmuir8884 wait so they were shooting in Greenland, which has a majority Inuit population and they STILL cast white people. Why????? Why??????? They were so close yet so far!
@@matthewmuir8884That makes the Fire Lord scenes even more laughable.
To be fair this is also the same world where the firebenders-who have to have an already lit flame source-somehow took over the world despite how easy it would be to fight back
@@gloomygloomstalker3878
So what? Sure having to have a source is a disadvantage. So I guess Earth and mostly Air have the advantage there. Then again Id much rather be hit by Air or Water or even Earth than by Fire. So Fire has the advantage there imo. More importantly though look at the other half of the names. Water TRIBES, Air NOMADS... I mean those two are basically seemingly out right there. So its really between Earth and Fire. And army strength has a lot to do with simple numbers. Conquerers usually simply have the will. I mean how did Germany kick so much ass at the beginning of WW2 with seemingly everything and everyone against them? Theres an answer.
Has anyone ever considered that the reason why the actor's faces are so boring and stale is because the camera man is Koh the Face Stealer?
That's exactly what I was thinking!
Damn, that’s impressive of them! Didn’t get startled or anything, I’m proud of them
Ha! Brilliant! Wish I’d thought of that...
oh no
*DEEPEST LORE*
"There's no live action adaptation in Ba Sing Se. This is a safe space."
-The therapist probably
Here we are safe. Here we are free.
@@samarendra109 Σ(꒪ȏ꒪)(꒪⌓꒪)(￣Д￣；；
EMDR is basically this hahahAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA *feels fear*
There's no movie within the walls...
@@EvanSol919 here we are safe. Here we are free
Honestly, the idea of Zhao being this jackass that CONSTANTLY brings up that one cool thing he did a decade ago is hilarious.
"Hey, did you know I raided the Great Library-"
"YES ZHAO, YOU'VE TOLD ME THIS SEVEN TIMES! TODAY!"
Shame it was played straight.
I’m picturing Shyamalan showing up at the library and trying to offer the script for this movie as his addition to the collection, and Wan Shi Tong being like “Get the hell out.”
@@stellabelikiewicz1523 someone needs to make something about that 😂 it's priceless
He would do that XD
That would have made it a bit funnier.
Yes, Karen, you went to Italy and it changed your life, WE GET IT!
You are 100% correct in not blaming Noah Ringer. I watched a behind the scenes video, where he was fun, funny, and full of life. Shyamalan took what could've been an amazing actor, into a lifeless husk.
So many times a good actor is being destroyed by an incompetent and/or entitled director...
Just look at the actor of Luke Skywalker... He is amazing and full of personality (Quite a funny guy too), yet he was forced to play a character that doesn't make any sense because the director wanted a more "edgy" and "serious" tone... Like... He freaking cried at the scene of the jedi academy burning... It was actual tears because that scene literally displayed what was happening: Burning the entire franchise down.
Not the first time Shyamalan has done that with a great actor. RIP
It's a shame. He can be a good Aang with the right direction. He was Aang behind the scene than he was in the movie. Why can't Shyamalan tell the kid to just be himself
From what i saw in the bts, if he was direcred well he couldve been a great aang
@@andre_601Mark Hamil stated multiple times fhat he DID NOT LIKE what they did with his character
This is why people who believe “cartoon is for kids” should never make a live action. They will never get it.
Its like saying music is for kids because The Wiggles exist.
Amen
I think Shyamalan or corporate had similar feelings. Apparently, the creators of ATLA were completely shut out of the creative process of this film.
For me, the term "cartoon" refers to a show that is *strictly* meant for kids; as in "no adult would find any personal enjoyment in". And there are some shows out there that fit that category, such as the _Ben 10_ reboot, _The Adventures of Fanboy & Chum-Chum,_ and some others that I can't think of right now. But then you have shows like _Avatar: The Last Airbender, Batman: The Animated Series, Young Justice,_ and _Voltron: Legendary Defender,_ where they were initially intended for a young audience but the quality of writing, the storytelling, and the characterization(s) just grabbed not only kids but also adults. I just refer to those types of shows as "animated TV shows". And even if you still like to refer those as "cartoons", that's fine; to each their own. But I hope you see the point I'm making here. And, of course, you have Anime, which EVERYONE knows can be for pretty much anyone.
But, I agree that anyone who thinks just because something is animated being strictly for kids should not work in animation or make a film adaptation of said show.
@@cjkalandek996 Where would you put Spongebob on that spectrum? Just curious
handing out popcorn, take one!
🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
Don't mind if I do.
I’ll take two!
Thanks!
Thanks! I'll take enough for the homies
Can I have seconds?
Honestly I feel like the show was "darker" than the movie. The show depicted complex political corruption and shit.
The movie attempted to be edgy and failed at it.
Oh yeah, the show was definitely darker without being overt about it.
@@kira-dk2mx People actually die. People who we have gotten to know well. And don’t get me started on Tales of Ba Sing Se. I cry every time.
@@MissCaraMint I know. I'm pretty sure there are comps of people watching Iroh's tale for the first time and crying at the end.
So, the movie was the edgy teenager and the show was the mature adult.
@@catlover2223 That's actually a good way to put it.
The biggest crime was that they didn't gave our fire bois their lushous long locks. Like, Ozai looked amazing in the series and here he is just a normal dude, totally unthreatening.
Ozai was pretty ordinary in the show
@@twinzzlers he was built like a brick wall during the final showdown
@@SeaguIISoup You could say he was bricked- actually no don’t.
Iron’s hair is too long and Ozai’s is too short….
@@twinzzlersordinary????? wow
The thing that annoys me most is that Shyamalan didn't understand Zuko's backstory at all. Yes, he is told if he finds the avatar, he can return home, but it is AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK as far as Ozai knows. That's why he is tasked with it, because he thought he could NEVER fulfill it, and best of all, he gets to send Iroh with him, so they're both out of the picture.
Xiao in the movie makes it sound like this is ACTUALLY his task, instead of mocking him that the effort is futile, because everybody thinks the Avatar cycle is broken. Iroh joins his nephew, because he feels that he needs him, but he also NEVER expected to find the Avatar.
Sorry to be nitpicky with your great comment but isn’t it spelled Zhao? (Just bugged me)
@@misspinkrainbow5856 it is indeed spelled Zhao
@@misspinkrainbow5856 yes, it is spelled Zhao, but Xiao would be funnier, since Xiao in Chinese is a prefix for little. Such as Xiao-long meaning little dragon, or Xiao-Mei meaning little Mei (Mei is a name).
@@roteberg1 cool! Now I know something!
@@misspinkrainbow5856 you learn something new every day.
What are you talking about, Tim? There is no such film called "The Last Airbender."
Did you forget to accept the Earth King's invitation to Lake Laogai again?
Oh...yes, yes...i am honoured to accept his invitation
Thank you King Edward "Longshanks" I, Hammer of the Scots, Lord of Wales and King of England, very cool.
There is no movie in ba sing se
what a name my dude, my god
What would you say if I said flower of Scotland?
This movie is a masterclass in how to insult your audience.
Tell, don't show.
And also insult everyone else in the process
Right! When I watched AtLA as a teen, I felt like the writers were not talking down to me.
Much like Season 8 of Game of Thrones. No joke, I would literally use that as an example of what not to do if I were teaching a writing class.
Apparently, Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson took that class.
Shyamalan treats the martial art bending moves as if they were magic spells to conjure the elements, rather than the elements becoming an extension of the bender through bending. That's why it all looks so disconnected. It's pretty clear he never understood the source material.
That’s why Shyamalan needs to be cancelled!
@@jordanrobinson9064Cancel to have failed adapting a show? That's stupid.
@@lou9635 Says you!
@@jordanrobinson9064the initial purpose if cancelling is to call out morally reprehensible behaviors. Like child abuse and rape accusation shit. Saying those things and making a bad adaptation of a tv show are equal in immortality is insanely overdramatic if not straight up idiotic.
@@undercookedtoast1479 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
One of MANY things that pissed me off about this movie was how quickly they actually showed Ozai's face. In the OG series, they purposely kept hiding his face to build him up as a suspenseful intimidating character and only revealed his face once Zuko came back to the fire nation.
They lost all suspense with Ozai as a character right away and made him dull.
And add that the whole point of his reveal was to show the audience that the most dangerous evil in the world is... just a man. A terrifying, apathetic, and narcissistic man, but he's just a normal human man. He's not some grotesque monster or evil spirit, simply just a man, and that's what makes him so terrifying
@@mugginsttp1396 They also made him a very pretty man, to add to the cognitive dissonance, to make our knowledge of him that much more off-putting. It was grotesque, in a way, and perfectly executed. Perfect example of how looks aren't everything.
Instead of Fire Lord, we got Fire Manager.
It's extra funny that the Ozai in Zuko's family photo actually looks more accurate.
That's an issue between live action and animation. A voice actor gets paid the same whether we see the animated character's face or not. The live action actor wants their face shown, so do the producers, they paid a lot for those actors; no one wants them hidden.
@@Clint52279 No, that's the issue of poor filmmaking. Things are intebtionally not shown for suspense all of the time in movies. This includes characters/ actors and there's nothing wrong with that. Usually actors don't mind either and even if this one did, guess what? Just get another guy to play the character.
If your actors are running the show on what they think you should record, maybe you shouldn't be in charge...
i‘ll never forget the moment i witnessed a horde of adult men flailing their arms for a good minute just to have a pebble levitate across the screen at the speed of an electric wheelchair
Is this a broken electric wheelchair
I think my electric wheelchair is faster tbh
Just pick up and throw the rock, it would be faster and you could throw 6 at a time.
Some of those mobility scooters can MOVE, its awesome
Anyway yeah its super bad haha
HOW DARE YOU!
It wasn't a pebble. It was a very small rock.
SMH. All these shymalan haters tryna spread fake news. /s
The fact they fundamentally changed fire bending in the movie so drastically still drives me nuts today. Fire benders never needed a source of element to fight which made them feel stronger and scarier.
So true, and how easy would it be for a waterbender to defeat them? Just douse their source. Of course that would be all waterbending would be good for in this movie...
Not just that, but it made Aang and the Fire Nation fundamentally opposed. They were using the two gaseous elements, the two derived from the very air around them, the hardest to deprive them of. The Fire benders could drive the other benders from their element if given a chance, but not Aang. This made him their greatest threat, even on their home turf, simply because he fought them evenly. Here, both Aang has the advantage, and no one's bending is strong enough to actually be worth a single soldier, so it doesn't matter.
Now they’re just like the other benders
What's funny is that in a prequel comic I found Iroh mentioned the Sun Warriors and how they did bending (without mentioning the dragons) and said something about firebenders being disconnected from their original source or something at some point? This was a while back so I don't remember, all I know is Ozai mentioned something about it at the end of the movie but I was barely paying attention at that point.
I wasn't even a superfan of the show and I KNEW THAT, even I was mad af at the treatment of the source material lol
This movie actually made me forget that Aang had a crush on Katara
yeah, and it's because this movie doesn't allow the characters to be actual characters with emotions unless the story demands it. until then, they're just exposition dumpers. Ong and white Katara will not have any romance because it's not crucial to the story yet
@@mani-ei5kqand they mentioned in the movie that the avatar isn’t allowed to have a family so they probably wouldn’t even be together at the end of the third movie that could have been if this movie was a success which of course also opens up 2 issues in the story for the story’s history and future
@@mani-ei5kqwhite katara doesn't even look bad imo, she did her best acting wise as well
@@Jiub_SN one of the biggest lies in 2024 but ok
"It's difficult for the actors to replicate the physical movements for bending" people say about a magic system that revolves around real-world martial arts styles practiced and mastered by millions of people around the globe
Also, when Avatar was aired on Nicktoons, there were commercial bumpers where they explicitly stated which forms of martial arts were the references for each style of bending. On top of having the directors there with their martial arts master to ask for their world bible. He just never took their advice.
I literally use half-remembered bending moves when I dance sometimes just because I feel like it
@@artemisfowldragon do the zuko spin
Tbf some of the bending is sped up. IRL waterbending, for example, is so slow that grannies love it
Instead they settle with needlessly slow movements that are just waving their hands and feet around like they're trying to fight off a swarm of bees. That's just a shoddy excuse that really doesn't play out when you have Chinese movies with less budget than this doing something better.
There are very few times when watching a movie that I feel like I could have genuinely written a better one
Just copy and pasting a few select scenes from the original would have probably already been better
hell, just copy pasting the opening exposition from the original would be an improvement
@@tardigrade8019 Right. When this movie makes changes, it makes all the wrong ones
Lol let’s all get together and try it
If the movie loves dialogue it could have went all the way with dialogue, if the movie likes comedy it could have went all the way with being a comedy, this movie had a lot of potential to be good given the options available.
#1 comedy because of the terrible bending.
#2 Dialogue because of all the talking.
agreed, like, why did they butcher this so much
-also how are you everywhere I go omg-
This dude made a movie about a bad movie.
What a legend.
Legendary
A better movie about a theatrical release.
He made a good movie about a bad movie, Legendary 100
English please
@@farheenellahi2546 ?
Every time I hear people say that of course they couldn’t do the bending, it would be to hard because it’s too fast, I die a little. There’s a convention I always go to and every year they have a martial arts team from the local university perform all the marital arts of avatar and they literally do the routines seen in the show at full speed and you can almost actually see the bending happen
What convention is that? That sounds super cool!
baffles me. if you can’t do it then why do a live action of this???
I mean, I could get their sentiment, since they would have to train a lot of people on the martial arts forms needed and whatnot, but the pace they go about doing it in the movie is INCREDIBLY slow. Like “You can’t feasibly make action with that” slow.
@@sakethvenkatesh2492 They could've hired actual martial artists. Not sure about big speaking roles, but having people who know the moves would make for fast fights on a large scale.
@@HappyBeezerStudios true true
Book two when they go to the great library. The owl spirit says to them: "As you know General Zou came here and raided my great library and took the secrets to kill the moon, in his raid. And as you know he almost succeeded in killing the moon. All because he raided my great library
"the library most didn't even believe existed, the one you are currently standing in"
"...Which most thought didn't exist, of course"
This library? The library we are currently standing on? The library that General Zhou went to and raided because of a prophecy about a moon spirit and how it's connected to water bending? That Library?
@@buggart That one. As you know, most didn't even believe it to exist.
But what about Zhaos Raid on the Great Library?
Here’s a theory: This isn’t a live action adaptation of The Last Airbender. This is a live action adaptation of the play by the Ember Island Players re-enacting the story of the Gaang. Now excuse me while I go on the run from the FBI.
You may be right
Remember, if you or any of your IMF team are caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Good luck, Mr. Salavador.
I thinyou might be ontasoming therethen.
Nah the play still had funny sokka and things actually made sense like the fire benders could bend normally
The Ember Island Players played up emotion to the millionth degree
This adaptation turned it all the way down
“I like games, too.”
Most people like games. That’s not the deep connection you think it is, Aang.
Jesus liked bread, and so do I. Surely it means that I'm the new messiah
@@gustavodeoliveira5254 Judas had a close circle of friends, and so do I. Surely it means that I'm the one who's supposed to betray you, the new messiah.
@@fairycat23 Lol
"I'm a bit of a Gamer myself, actually"
-Live Action Aang
Kyoshi and Aang were nothing alike!!! They had completely different upbringings and ideologies
Wanna know something? I watched this movie when I was about 10ish.
And I loved it.
I thought the premise was super cool and I was really mad that there wasn't a second movie.
When I was 11 a friend of mine introduced me to the TV show.
And suddenly I had everything that I'd previously wanted, but a thousand times better and I was obsessed.
We still owned the movie of course, but suddenly it wasn't so cool anymore.
And it's only gotten worse as I grew up.
This is me. I was introduced to the world with this movie and then the show years later.
I watched the series and then the movie but I was also young and I did love the movie. But as time went on all the flaws of the film become apparent.
This is how I was with Eragon. I Loved the movie when I watched it in I think 5th grade. My brother showed me the books. And then the movie was less cool, but was still nostalgic.
I loved The Black Cauldron when I first saw it, but when I read The Chronicles of Prydain my memory of it became worse.
I feel bad for you
One thing that always upsets me is the scar is hard to see in the movie. Zuko's scar is what makes Zuko Zuko. It's how we all see him, what makes him stand out from the others. It's something he hates because his father burned his face.
Zuko with a scar that is barely noticeable is not our Zuko.
Taking away Zuko's scar is like taking away Sokka's (or in this case Soaka's) boomerang, like taking away Aang's arrow, like taking away Katara's hair loopies-
Oh wait, they took away all of those things, except for the arrow
If they wanted to race bend him, this was probably the least intelligent choice due to skin tone. Or they maybe should make it way more bright red to contrast with the dark skin
the scar is also about 3 years old, meaning it would still be healing, so it should be even more noticeable.
And it's not just something physical, it's also very emotional and a manifestation of his conflict with his father and with his past. A reminder that the Fire Nation didn't hust just the other civilizations but also it's own people
It's literally the mark of the Banished Prince. It's what makes him ashamed. Without the scar being noticeable, this isn't Zuko.
I actually thought that Iroh was just a random guy. They did him dirty.
Yeah Iroh was the worst change. Which is impressive because they do all of them dirty. But Iroh has almost no characterization similar to his cartoon form. Not just lines, not just look, but also couldn't get emotions, meaning of character, or even reason for being in the story.
They did Avatar dirty
@@AsobiMedio what's avatar I think you mean ava-ta.
I hate how iroh looks like who he was, a general and not the tea guy
Iroh? Don’t you mean Earoh?
Zuko’s ‘scar’ in this is just pathetic, his eye is supposed to be practically shut from the severe scar tissue and it stretches around his face to his now deformed ear, but what we see here is a barely visible birthmark with a thick luscious eyebrow and wide open uninjured eye.
Yup. I had to keep pausing to see if he even had a scar in most of his scenes
See, that's because in the show, the scar stops that side of his face from having muscle movement and showing emotion. In the movie, you don't need to worry about that because none of the characters show emotion.
Honestly if he walked around with his face bandaged that would be half assed but not completely ignored.
@@puli_dreadhead Yeah they could have changed it to being something that just happened so that it creates a sense of urgency. Also less chance of screwing up makeup.
Dudes da literally blasted his face point blank with a blow torch fist but hes just got a little cut guys lol. I hated how they botched zuko so sad
Any time i think I'm bad at story writing, i remember this movie exists, and feel instantly more confident
What makes it even worse is that he didn't even HAVE to write basically anything. It was already written by somebody who was better and he went out of his way to ruin it through his own hubris lol my 10 year old writes better than this
This is hardly the worst storytelling. DragonBall Evolution exists and is far more egregious than the Last Airbender.
I’m convinced Shyamalan never had the time to actually watch the show, he just watched a Mojo recap on RUclips
While also drunk
And at 2 in the morning, while falling asleep for 40% of it
@@Decatur-qd3wz and on at least 3 illegal drugs
What's embarrassing is that he has a quote in the Avatar the Last Airbender behind the scenes book :(
@Peasant unbreakable
you following?
Aang had like no trouble learning waterbending because it's really similar to airbending. It's fluid. That's why he had trouble learning earthbending. It's not like airbending, it's like
*solid*
Makes me realize he'd probably love swamp/sand bending
Heck, I loved the plot point where Katara got jealous he got it so easily as she was used to being special as the only water bender and then growing more emotionally secure. Then that character arc ended, mostly, when she then used her confidence to school that sexist northern water tribe teacher.
@@ProbsNotABot
You remembering that part right? She put up a good fight, but she still got her ass handed to her, and she wouldn't have been made a pupil if not for Pakku softening up because he saw his ex-fiancée's necklace on her.
@@seg162 Putting up a good fight as a self-taught juvenile southern waterbender (the junior tribe) against a master elder northern waterbender (the senior tribe) is a massive accomplishment.
I don't know why, but the bolded delivery of solid cracked me up.
One of the worst sins of this movie is turning Sokka into a humorless prick.
Yeah, they did Sokka seriously dirty
Turned into Humorless Zuko
I’m never happy - Zuko in season 3
I’m never happy - Almost Suhka
No, it's his darker clone, Souka
@@user-vz5wu8ty3z そうか
Oh my god. There's a whole long-running subplot (in the show) about how Aang is actually REALLY GOOD at waterbending, which makes Katara jealous.
The fact that this review talking about everything that is wrong with the movie is longer than the actual movie is something that makes me so happy. Congrats man, you really nailed with this one.
Sokka's silly painting at the end of the series is a better representation than this whole movie.
Yeah I can’t believe they gave Katara Momo’s ears
@@pokemonmanic3595 this is so sad, can we get control of the avatar state
Not to mention the play that they watched was more accurate than this movie.
@@cungzjohnjohn122 if anything this movie is a poorly made recreation of that play
@@pokemonmanic3595 THOSE ARE YOUR HAIR LOOPIES!!!
They "grounded" sokka's character by making him genuinely unfunny
It's so dumb; how does he think Sokka being a wisecracker is not realistic or "grounded"?
That’s soaka
Not sokka
@@matthewmuir8884 Exactly. Especially for a teenage character. Many teenagers have Sokka's exact attitude. These are real people. That's as grounded as you can get.
@@keadonboze968 facts
Look at how they massacred my meat loving sarcastic boi.
32:44 the problem is she is not waterbending.... she just dances on top of a rock, overlooking a naturally flowing body of water called "river"
Lmao, right? I can't believe they really thought having "Katara" move her hands around in front of a RIVER which NATURALLY FLOWS would work as "Waterbending", like c'mon even a little kid would probably notice she isn't bending shit. But ngl I kinda love the scene cuz it's hilarious how they didn't have the budget to just have an orb of water floating in front of her or something, hell they could have even just reversed the footage of the river flowing to make it seem like she was "redirecting the current" or idk actually doing something whatsoever, it'd still be lazy but atleast it'd be something instead of her just practicing sign language next to a flowing stream 😂😂😂
"Aang was having trouble waterbending."
1. I can SEE that, thank you.
2. In the series, Aang picks water up very well because it's his elemental compliment. So why did they have him incompotent with it here??
Probably to add some hurdles, in the series we see him struggle with fire and earth, both of which weren't covered here
Because reasons …(none clearly) - film. I have cero remarks for the series that is one of the best ever written.
That's the thing, that entire episode was about how quickly he learned waterbending and how it made Katara feel self-conscious about how she had to train for most of her life to learn what little she did, by herself. If they're going to cut out the pirates, and the cabbage merchant, AND the necklace, AND the conflict, then why not have Aang start learning when they reach the Northern Water Tribe?
3. This clearly causes a bit of a rift between him and Katara, who had to work very hard on her bending for years. Aang picked up water bending in what seemed (to me, at least) as a few days.
He literally had a conflict with katara bc he was doing moves she'd worked months on in a few minutes.
One of the things that really stood out to me when watching the film is that he didn’t “get” Ozai. His lines implied that he cared for his son. He didn’t. He sent him off to find the Avatar-someone missing and presumed dead. This wasn’t a kindness-he never wanted to see him again. But the director took it at face value. Somehow didn’t notice.
In Villains Wiki, Ozai is actually classified as "Pure evil", so yeah, he isn't supposed to be caring and nice.
Something like that I don't really mind it *that* much, it's an adaptation and this change could work as an alternate interpretation for Ozai if it was done with competence, like if he's similat to Thanos in that he thinks his abusive actions would somehow be beneficial for his children.
It's Shyamalan so that didn't work out but still.
Exactly! Sending zuko to find the "avatar" would be like sending soneone to find a unicorn
@@kingofthegundam7974 either way... think of it like this... I'll ask you to go find a evil-good Samaritan. You'll never find it. But in this case, the firebird happened to choose somthing that actually existed. It does not change the face this man, CHOSE to send his son to find an impossible object because he spoke out of turn that in if itself vs "I send my son to find the very real avatar to teach him a lesson" the original didn't have a reason other than "this boy dare disrespect the fireworks!?!? How dare he. He must be punished. I choose to kill him" and then his son chooses not to fight not giving his father the fight he clearly wants. The father thinks "he chooses not to fight, I'll make this a teaching moment. I choose banishment since I never want to see my son again. Anf if I do see him, I can laugh at him." He never expected his son to actually succeed.
@@HiddenOne-D-1321 I agree that the way Shyamalan handled it didn't work at all, I was just thinking of a different way it might have done as an alternate interpretation.
To be fair, if Zhao had said "unlimited power" and used lightning bending there, the movie might've at least made me laugh
And would've been more like the show since skilled Fire Benders can use lightning. I assume he's skilled since, A: he's leading an invasion, B: he walked beside Ozai(horrible choice/scene) and C: it's been a while since I've watched ATLA.
Then we could replicate the scene in the Zuko vs Zhao agni kai where Iroh catches Zhao's foot.
Don't forget about the possibility of Azula telling Zuko to execute order 66 in the earth kingdom
@@EpsilonD2 Man, those multiple hour Good-Faith-Criticism are amazing.
So for my fellow Kaiju-Fans and Kappa-Simps, i present the
info to you all that Hbomberguy, Jay Exci, madvocate and Krimson Rogue all did
hour-long videos so good that you dont even need ot know the Franchises they're talking about to enjoy it (as countless comment
seperately from each other) exist.
@@EpsilonD2 Lightning generation in the first show is restricted only to royalty. Azula, Iroh, Ozai, and Zuko... tries.
16:04 this is like if in Harry Potter, instead of showing us the scene of dumbledore leaving him on the doorstep, Petunia just says, “wake up, Harry Potter my nephew who I found on the doorstep and who’s mother I was jealous of and that led to me hating wizards!”
This movie was the reason why Azula had a mental breakdown
The lore
@@noattendance9801 All this nonsense and all the mistakes
of this Movie repeated itself with
the heinous all-bad moie 'Mulan 2020'.
It really shows that the World overall learns nothing!
I almost thought Quality went extinct after having seen barely any
good movie for years - but then 'Wolfwalker' came out!
What an OUTSTANDING Movie!
Its not an Adaptation, and heck, its not even 'original' (others
told similar stories even), but its still absolutely Amazing.
I recommend it to everyone here who is starved for Quality - and i just
assume you are.
He wanted it to be "darker" but the original show, despite all its colorful world and funny cartoonish moments, was way darker that the film. It ends up becoming cringey when you try too hard to make it all "dark and edgy" without understanding what actually dark stories mean.
imo it’s a mix of how light the show was, which made those dark moments hit harder and the fact that the movie wasn’t able to invest people in the characters. ex: yue - we aren’t shown enough of her and sokka’s relationship and don’t feel much when she dies
It's like Zack Snyder trying to turn Batman dark, when he was already dark.
It didn't even have Uncle Iroh, by far my favourite character in the whole show. And no, that person in the movie ISN'T Iroh.
@@everett.d.r “there is no war in Ba Sing Se.”
“The Earth King has invited you to Lake Lou Gai.” That shit is darker than most movies, let alone most kids shows. The only other one I can think of that goes to that level of fucked is The Clone Wars, and go figure Dave Filoni got his start in Avatar (the show of course, not this mess).
He wanted it to be "darker" so he made the 'bad guys' dark skinned
The fact you see Ozais face before book 3 is the most heinous sin.
I would say the worst part would be Uncle Iroh having a huge ego rather than being humble
@@PashaGamingYT The worst part is that they made this movie at all lol
made even worse by the fact that he was actually mnight shammalan
I Disagree, calling Aang "Oong" will forever be the worst sin of all!
They did the same thing in the inspector gadget movies
For me, the only good thing to come out of this movie was a bonding moment with my mom. As a kid, I had a hard time understanding that when my parents would watch a movie they wouldn't know what would happen next, so I'd always ask what was happening and try to get them to explain to me what was going on. This was the first movie I knew what was going to happen, and I still spent the movie explaining to her that what was happening wasn't right and didn't feel like the show. Even now she feels slight disappointment for taking me because of me having a hard time enjoying it even though before I was excited for it. She never saw Avatar: the Last Airbender and took me because she knew I wanted to see it. What helped us bond after though was sitting in the Target parking lot near the theater (she wasn't ready to go home, and not too long after I found out it was because she didn't want to be around my biological dad and just wanted a bit more time away. They would divorce a few months later). While in that parking lot we roasted the movie and talked about how bad it was. Over the years my mom and I have grown apart slightly due to differences and how I've become more my own person, yet I still love to look back at this moment where we bonded about something I enjoyed.
I don't know anything about you or your situation, so forgive me for intruding, but I need to say this. We tend to feel like we will always have chances to spend time with our loved ones and tell them how we feel. We don't realize it's not true until it's too late. If you have things to say to your mom, things you want to do with her, don't wait for "the right moment" or stuff like that. Just do it. You'll regret it if you don't.
Sorry for the preachiness. Like I said, I don't know you, so I speak from ignorance.
@meaburro4207 I mean, I get to see my mom every day, so I guess growing apart physically isn't what I meant and, at this point, plan to physically be close enough to drive in an emergency. On an emotional level, it's changed in so many ways I don't think it'll go back. I mean, she divorced my abusive bio dad, I went on student exchange and have moved around and back so much that I have grown. She's remarried. Overall, our lives have changed that we won't have the same bond we always used to. I won't be able to look up to my mom as the woman I used to because I've seen her as she is, and who she is is not who I expected, or even wished for in a mom (I have vivid memories of my mom refusing to hug me because her mom wouldn't want to hug her) and so I feel typical advice isn't applicable here. I'm finding my ways to connect with her, just that it will almost always have to be meeting her on her level, and when she has moments of awareness for me and I feel seen, it's nice.
“He was the teacher responsible for me. He’s kind of like my father.”
Okay, RIGHT OFF THE BAT this looks like almost the same dialogue from the show but is SO inferior and fumbled when it comes to execution and subtext.
“This is Monk Gyatso. The most powerful airbender in the world. He taught me everything I know.”
Seems like it’s getting across basically the same information. But no. Aang’s inherent respect for Gyatso is IMPLIED through his (correctly, but almost childishly) calling Gyatso the absolute greatest airbender alive. His line delivery on “he taught me everything I know” and bow following it show just how thankful Aang is for the tutelage he was given; he pays respect to it even when Gyatso isn’t literally there. He also uses present tense when referring to Gyatso’s abilities, showing that even his subconscious mindset still assumes that the airbenders haven’t really been killed. He hasn’t faced or accepted yet that they’re gone and part of his past now.
Not to mention the fact that everything Aang says to his friends paints a picture of this great, respected air bending master, a characterization that the following flashback then deliberately SUBVERTS and deepens by showing Gyatso waxing on “ancient cake-baking techniques” and enlisting Aang to chuck the cakes at other masters’ heads. All of a sudden we have a deeper understanding of where someone like Aang came from: an incredibly talented kid who still has this deep-seeded priority and veneration of whimsy and fun. We learn all of that by connecting dots between what we are shown and what an eleven-year-old kid tells us, what he CHOOSES to say and how he says it, naturally, through his lens, not just reading off of a screenwriter’s plot notes. And the scenes actually flow together in a deliberate manner to gradually evolve the audience’s perception of the story and its characters.
Leaps and bounds apart from the film. Just, the closer you look the crazier the gulf gets. I am losing my mind as I write this.
Wow broo that’s deep
Very well written analysis
Beautiful analysis
This is a rly amazing analysis.
In the first one his like talking about his psp functions to his firends from suburb
The scene of Katara facing Zuko really demonstrates how stupid the decision was to remove the concept of "breath is fire" from firebending.
It's a tense standoff. Zuko lowers his torch to set the grass ablaze, providing him with an ample supply of--
Katara quickly waterbends to soak the grass and extinguish the torch, then punches Zuko repeatedly into the wall. The end.
I laughed out loud when I saw Zuko with that torch!
@@9xprincess It's not just that scene either. The movie is riddled with making firebending dependent on whether or not there's an actual fire nearby. With the exceptions of off-screen characters, you *need* already existing fire to firebend, as we could see in Aang v Zuko and the fight at the Fire Nation prison in the Earth Kingdom. This was the 1 thing that stood out as odd to me when I watched the movie.
It's worse when you realize if the fire nation to needed lug fire everywhere how the heck did they win the war in the first place. The biggest advantage the fire nation had outside the comet snd surprise is the fact they didn't need their natural element to bend. The way the movie set it up all the water tribe needs to do is make it rain and the fire nation can't do shit. Plus they would have plenty of time to do it since the entire army would have to light torches. it would be a huge light source so no sneak attack either.
@@mr.protagonist5639and also explains why the airbenders were the biggest threat to them, as technically, yes they did need air to bend, but it would never be an issue of not having air. Air and fire were the only two with no necessary materials required and therefore the best for an offensive attack
@@garrettcooper58that and they had the next Avatar brewing
It’s also interesting how everyone says “Katara’s mother” because she holds on to it so much as if Sokka spontaneously generated
It's an interesting bit of light sexism, IMO: Katara's strongest emotional anchor is her mother, but Sokka's is his father. For Sokka, their mother was replaced by his _younger_ sister. Their father was still alive, as far as they knew. It's a point of anguish for Katara, but for Sokka, it's merely a reality of war... which, frankly, is a tragedy and itself a reality of war. It's not surprising, then, that Sokka is unable to think of women as independently capable: his mother was never around to demonstrate otherwise and Katara is barely able to do anything until the show starts.
Michael Chui what do you mean Katara wasn’t able to do anything? She was mainly tasked in taking care of the small village in the traditional way, which is why Sokka “replaced” his mother with her cause she took care of him in a somewhat motherly way.
@@donkeykong3628 She still did do only the things that women used to do in the water tribe, hence Sokka unable to accept that his girl sister could fight or do "manly" things.
@@o7o6o5o4o3 and it can also be his way of wanting to protect her cause yeah he lost one mom and doesn’t want to lose her. He wants to do the thing he couldn’t have done in the past beg the protecter. Not excusing his actions but gives context to his misogyny (before suki beat it out of him)
@@spilledteaissadtea3037 Yeah that could be true as well.
I can't honestly believe Shyamalan actually watched the show. It almost feels like he had someone watch the series and then tell him about it, then he created this abomination off of what he was told.
Wait, I got it, Shyamalan made the movie off of the play towards the end or the series.😆😆😆
@@jeffnak5598 i just had a stray thought like that 10 minutes ago
Agreed; CANCEL M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN!
@@jeffnak5598even that play was a much better version of the story with better acting, writing, and effects than the movie
To me, the most jarring thing about the movie was the pointless and unnecessary changing of how names were pronounced.
As someone whose name is constantly mispronounced, I am in total agreement. I understand in the Indian culture the names would be pronounced the way they were in the movie, but rule of thumb: always pronounce names the way the person or the mother (who birthed the person) pronounces the name. Mike and Bryan (who birthed the characters) said Ā-ng, Sock-ka, and Eye-roh. The characters said Ā-ng, Sock-ka, and Eye-roh. So changing that further alienated us from the characters.
"SO-ka, don't!"
Who casted that actress?
@@GAshoneybear This is just one thing that proves even more that Shyamalan didn't understand the show at all. He wanted to represent his own culture rather than that in the show. Of course, showing one's own culture isn't bad... Until it's replacing or erasing another culture in a pre-existing source. It would be like making Mulan Slavic and renaming her Milan or making her Japanese and naming her Ran.
@@andre_601 she was the daughter of one of the producers
"EE-ROW"
"Where is Zuko's scar?"
*leans in to get a closer look*
"I still don't see it."
Use my atomic microscope. That might help.
(Robs the best lab in the world)
WHERE IS YOUR MICROSCOPE THAT CAN SEE ZUKOS SCAR
them : AAAAAH WE DONT HAVE IT THE FILM IS JUST SO TERRIBLE HE HAS NO SCAR?.?
It's the area that looks like acne. :P
(Burns 13 year old as a severe punishment)
( child gets acne)
HOW
Are you sure you're not just looking at the wrong side?
Can we talk about the prison break scene in more detail please though? Someone else mentioned that uh. The whole point of taking the Earthbenders into the middle of the ocean, surrounded by water, in a prison made of metal, that they couldn't get away and were truly trapped, thus losing their morale. Coal is brought into the equation paired with character development from Katara's bleeding heart, and they escape.
In the movie.... they're just... on land. Earth... everywhere. They outnumber the Fire Nation soldiers there. Like. Come on.
Plus they totally nerfed the fire-benders by making them unable to produce fire themselves!!
@@merchantarthurn quaking with hatred for that decision like ???? who??? thought that was a good idea???
It also took half the earth kingdom for them to bend a pebble.
I had never watched the cartoon when I first watched this trainwreck but even I was going "wait, what" when I saw that earth was surrounding the EARTH benders in their prison.
@@catandrobbyflores I wonder if any actors pointed how stupid it was
Adapting a story always requires a certain degree of translation, not just copying. That translation then requires truly understanding the language, aka what the story is really about.
That is probably the best way I've ever seen that described!
@BadNessie mmm… very well said.
copying would’ve been better than this nonsense
Well said. Also, clearly none of those things happened here.
On the race issue, I'll defend Shyamalan, as it wasnt him but the studio/board. It's a pretty open secret that Nicola Peltz was the cause for the white (Jewish in her case, technically speaking) washing. This was due to her billionare Dad, Nelson Peltz being a major stakeholder and allegedly demanded she get the lead female role. It gets more speculative here, but rumour was that Zukos actor was lined up for Sokka's role, but after Peltz was forced in, they swapped him to Zuko and made the water tribe white to match the main actress.
Just old fashioned Hollywood nepotism at play yet again.
You know, Dev might actually have made an at least fair Sokka. Could it be Shyamalan really wanted to do it properly, but because of studio intervention just gave up?
@@MissCaraMint I'd guess he likely did plan for a mostly pan Asian cast, I noticed the Air Nomands were pan-racial, so Aang may have been planned to be white/ambiguous as a bone to throw to the studio/marketing team, which doesnt seem to unreasonable given the time period this was happening.
I agree that Dev would have been good as Sokka, his background is in more lighthearted/comedic roles anyway.
Honestly, I think both sides shoulder some of the blame. Shyamalan partially because... Well, his directing style and way of storytelling just don't mesh well with the Avatar universe. The Hollywood executives, on the other hand, probably gave Shyamalan a lot of behind the scenes studio interference. Whether or not the movie could have been good in Shyamalan's hands is a matter of debate. All I do know is that... Well, the movie's an underwhelming (And bad) adaptation. Heck, even the show had a scene in The Ember Island Players where the characters basically give their thoughts on the play they just saw... And said words are eerily similar to the thoughts a lot of people had on the movie. And the weirdest thing is... The episode came out SEVERAL YEARS before the movie!
@@TF2Fan101 I was referring specifically to casting issues, but more broadly I'd say you're totally right, M.Night just isn't the right man for the job. But it was also the studio who hired him and signed off on everything, so vant just blame him for it all.
*Racebending.*
*Not even once.*
14:08 The line, "the scroll proved to be helpful" is immediately contradicted by, "he was having trouble with waterbending." Which is canonically wrong! Aang learned the new techniques easily, Katara was the one who struggled. Also, the film doesn't show Katara bending water in this scene, without the exposition, you wouldn't know that she was doing better than Aang.
Which, again, goes to show just how incompetent the script to this film was.
honestly this is just a poorly written fanfic not a film
@@lelouchstrife1891 Shymalan should have worked for Disney.
@@marctaco2624 that'd be punishing Disney
@@lelouchstrife1891 good
1:45:45
"One of the main actors got their leg caught and snapped as the curtains closed."
I was so intrigued by this that I looked up the event. And well...no that's not what happened.
The actor did get his leg caught in the machine and they stopped the show to take him to the hospital, but his leg wasn't broken.
Thanks for the clarification!
huh
I’m honestly relieved that it was way less terrifying that he made it sound
I respect the fact check.
The guy claims that the fire nation is based on Japan, too. Totally untrue.
1:05:30 Despite Film Zuko making two very audible effort yells for bending, Film Katara apparently forgets about peripheral vision and how to actually do more than slowly follow one thing moving toward her
A character is only as intelligent as their author
Cut her some slack man... Her 2 braincells were already running overdrive here....
It’s nice to see that after 11 years nobody’s still over this movie
When something insults your childhood as much as this movie, you never forget
We can't forget.
It's like star wars this guy was given the keys to the kingdom this movie should have launched his career into the stratosphere and he wouldn't have to do anything except pick the right actors and take what was on tv and put it on the big screen instead he went yeah fuck that imma fuck this all the way up
You know a film is bad when its $3 wii tie in was more fun, cohesive and had more character than its source film.
its impossible to forget smth that insulted our very childhoods
You know a movie makes a MASSIVE NEGATIVE IMPACT when people are still making analysis videos on it years later. Never forget.
People still make analysis videos about good movies too.
This movie was a crime to humanity
@@nexusshark While that is true, I highly doubt Avatar: TLA fits into that description.
@@Profile__1 The point is that it doesn't really matter if it's good or bad. People will analyse it for a long time anyway.
@@nexusshark Well I'd say what really matters is that it's THAT bad that people keep coming back. If it's just bad, it'll be forgotten
"He has learned that sometimes directors tilt their cameras, but he has not yet learned why"
That quote is gonna be evergreen as long as bad-movie-criticism exists, huh?
I remember when, as both a fan of ATLA and a fan of Shyamalan I was actually excited about this movie. My main reason was because because I totally thought that Shyamalan (after watching Lady in the Water) had a deep understanding of irony and at least a decent amount of dry humor. I was looking forward to seeing how he would take the heart of ATLA - which I would argue is the pacing and humor of the show and translating that to film in his own unique way.
I never, ever, thought someone would take ALTA and strip it from its humor. 😱 I watched this in theater, glued to my seat in horror.
Bad acting I could forgive, and even useless explanations I could ignore, but if you strip Sokka of his puns, Zuko of his awkward overcompensation, Katara of her hope, or Aang of his innate childlike joy… you’ve already lost the point. ATLA not just a story, it’s a character driven tapestry.
I will never, *_ever_* get tired of people trashing this film.
Two and a half hours is just what it needs... and desrves.
It's longer than the actual movie!
@@JPTLN and better
they should have made the film a comedy than everyone can laugh.
Zuko's scar doesn't even look good
I have watched this movie 10x over. 90% is from youtube videos trashing it. It never gets old.
I never understood why they didn't simply rename it "Ember island players: the movie" and play it as a parody, would have been loved.
Wow, didn't think I'd see a title change make a bad movie into a cult classic
But ember island players are exaggerating every character they play and overacting every emotion. This film is just empty of any emotions. :|. It would not even work as a parody
IKR?!
@@becciblue6556 then it would be, um...
*Looking up synonyms on Google*
Uh... How does "Charcoal Isle Participants: The Movie" sound?
@@UltimaDoombotMK1 dont sound so bad actually
"I ran away from home," said the avatar grinning like he's proud of it.
after reading through all the other comments this is the one that made me laugh the most
@Avery FrancisCampbell Auvatar Ong
It's kinda like "HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLETOFFIYAH???!" except opposite energy... XD;;
@@caledfwwlch Auvader Ong.
One thing that struck me was how they keep making choices that make the world feel smaller. Zhao reporting back to Ozai every five seconds, even when he has nothing to say that would actually make him look good, really limits the perceived scale of the world. Show Zhao has a transcript of his "I caught the Avatar," speech written up, but when Aang escapes _he doesn't send it._ Because stopping in the middle of a mission to report a failure would tank his career, and he knows it. Movie Zhao spouts impolitic insults in front of the rank and file, and stops doing his job intermittently to scuttle back to the capital and say, "Fire Lord Ozai, I fucked up," _in person_ for no discernable reason.
And the spirit world! Shyamalan changed the opening text to emphasize the importance of the spirit world, and yet all we see of it is a path, a few trees, and a little cave. And they threw a stupid distortion effect on the footage to disguise the fact that their "spirit world" has less surface area than a school playground. This "world" contains exactly one spirit, and he never goes outside. It's just sad.
i hope you take a good break after this
Woah... youre heeree too?? This is so cool
love your channel!!!!
I can actually hear your heavy, calming voice right as u r telling him go take a break😁
Me: I don't want to cry.
Sage's Rain: deep voice go sad
@@supermodelzdancerie thank you!
“ung was practicing, but for some reason he was having trouble with water bending”
*in the show it’s literally the one he finds the easiest (besides air bending) and he can bend water almost instantly when he tries for the first time*
Listening to that scene made me angry. Even aside from changing story elements, it was also a wasted opportunity for a character arc.
In the show, before Katara received training from Pakku, Aang was actually better than her at waterbending, and it was surprising how that made Katara angry and hurt. That was a brilliant character moment; I think that scene was one of the first times we saw proof that Katara felt special because of her bending abilities. Before that, being a waterbender was just a "background fact" of who she was, and not something she emphasized a lot. And yet, when Aang easily did waterbending better than the best she knew how to do, it made her feel threatened, which revealed something about how she perceived herself.
That scene made it all the more satisfying when Katara later proved to be exceptionally gifted as a waterbender, once she had a chance to learn and practice. It makes her personal arc similar to Zuko's; they both had to work hard to develop their abilities, as opposed to Aang or Azula, who were apparent prodigies who just naturally got it.
But no, clearly it's better if Aang is the one struggling with waterbending's flowing movements, and the peaceful, spiritual concentration that we already have proof he's very good at.
*Sigh.* This movie.
@@LamanKnight and even sadder, they could have made the way it is work, but the film just doesn't commit to anything. It's worse than fan fiction
Personal headcannon, we're seeing the story from Katara's point of view as the narrator. She's still salty about Aang mastering water faster than her so lies about him struggling to make herself feel better.
@@michaelkenner3289 LMAO
@@michaelkenner3289 I accept this theory as the truth.
Looking back, I actually have rather fond memories of seeing this film on opening night.
Not because it was good, but because my friends and I spent a good two hours in the parking lot roasting the film with a couple other groups we met in the theatre.
That is a good memory.
I went to watch it with my family, who were just as excited. I wished I paid attention to how other people felt in the theater but I was busy being horrified of the movie
same, i have fond memories of bashing this film with my siblings when we were kids
Lucky! My brother and I saw it and got sat behind a mom whose kids were asking her to be quiet the entire film cause she wouldn't stop talking. And they were the only other people in the theatre
Roasting a weird film with your homies is really one of the greatest things you can do to create great memories imo, it's why I look up weird films to watch with my friends
Honestly, same. The movie itself was absolutely infuriating, but the catharsis of my friends and I ranting about it together in the parking lot afterwards for a few hours was genuinely a lot of fun. 😅
I figured out why they cut the part where Aang asks Zuko, dressed as the Blue Spirit, if they could have been friends and Zuko shoots fire at him. It's because in this movie firebenders can't shoot fire! If that scene were to have been recreated, there would have needed to be an already burning fire somewhere for Zuko to bend, which would interrupt the notion of them resting in a peaceful forest. Therefore, Zuko would have been forced to listen, maybe even respond somehow, which would have been beyond the capability of this movie to demonstrate. Therefore, they cut all dialogue and had Aang run off.
1:32:10 there’s a fire going there tho? (Unless that’s a different scene ofc) Couldn’t just they have the moment like… Aang asks, Zuko looks into the other boy’s eyes and kind of considers it but then his gaze flickers towards the fire and reaches out for it, cutting to Aang realising what he’s doing and running away in the treetops?… I still don’t see why the scene is missing if they wanted to add it later on(?)
Like, the calm of resting in the forest could’ve worked too even with a small fire going on, it was nighttime when they escaped so… idk
Artemis Fowl: I am the worst movie adaptation!
Dragonball Evolution: No, I am!
The Last Airbender: *Amateurs*
Dragonball Evolution: What was that punk?
The Last Airbender: (Turns around) *Amateurs*
Me: calm down ladies, your both ugly
Help RUclips how do you love a comment
Nah Evolution is worse. At least with The Last Airbender, we can tell what they are trying to adapt
Honestly, I think DBE is even worse. At least The Last Airbender resembles its source material.
Percy Jackson: LOOK AT OUR MISERY!
Dragon Ball Evolution: Just back away slowly.
The Last Airbender: Don't maintain eye contact.
The sheer hubris of Shyamalan to think he was making *improvements* to the source material by changing the magic system, names, etc, is honestly kind of impressive in a way.
AHOY!
I love big Criticism-Videos and -Essays so much that i want to share the names of other videos just like this 1 here, to spread some Fun and support these Content-Creators.
The balls of Shyamalan for changing key details of what’s regarded as the best kids and young adults show ever
@@lorddio7029 The best kids show, and young adult show? As if. Clearly ATLA is in the ranks of overall best shows.
@@radfatdaddy4169 eh I wouldn’t go that far
@@dylanb2990 If Seinfeld is listed as being one of the best, then ATLA surely belongs on the list.
I will never forgive the fire benders not being able to fire bend. "Oh look, here's a nation that took over the entire world....I guess by dragging some giant torches with them and hoping that no one just puts them out."
Maybe the torches contained the severed hands of fire benders.
¯ \_(ツ)_/ ¯
hope the Earth kingdom never hears about rain
That's one of my biggest gripes of the movie.
How was Shyamalan thinking of doing Sozin's Comet? It was terrying and effective BECAUSE they don't need external fire.
When Zuko and Katara fight and she's completely surrounded by water and zuko has a little but of fire around him, I literally screamed at her to just put the fire out with her limitless water and make Zuko useless. AHHHHHHHHHHH actually infuriating
@@zephyrerazortail5478 All the comet would have done was make every firebender as strong as the average firebender in the show. Sweet baby Jesus.
The series really does exposition quite well, usually, and manages to be naturalistic about it, even if it can't use the ... gonna call it a "mystery hook" to make the audience invested.
Patik's exposition serves in-universe to enlighten Aang, while it serves on a meta level to explain Toph's invention of metal bending. As dry as the exposition can be, by making it serve both a plot and a meta purpose, it becomes better than it had been as one of either.
The opening convo between Sokka and Katara is another example. After popping the bubble, Sokka calls it magic, and Katara retorts its bending, but is cut off by Sokka saying "it's an ancient art, unique to our culture, bla bla".
In three lines of dialogue, we learn:
-the magic system is common place and understood enough to never be called magic
-it's bound to culture, so expectedly different people will have different styles or vastly different abilities
-its existence is a small enough deal that teenagers will casually discuss it
-Katara is respectful towards the magic system, but Sokka clearly isn't, establishing the way they'll act about similar concepts later on (especially establishing Sokka's irreverent sarcasm when it relates to anything mystical).
"You think you're just watching two siblings arguing about how to catch a fish, you [d]ucking idiot, but you're secretly having the main concepts of the world explained to you."
-Hbomberguy
This is how to world-build. A+ analysis
This movie wishes it were acted by the Ember Island players.
If it wasn't for the fact that the episode came out two years before the movie I would actually think they made it to roast the movie in some capacity
@@mariatourino9545 How long was the film in production? If it was more than two years, it really might have been.
Honestly I would have rather watched that
At least the ember island players showed some semblance of emotion in their preformances.
At least they got the characters race right...
And Aang wasn't bad with Waterbending it was Earthbending.
True there were episodes about both. Can't was better than Katara at Waterbending which made her mad and Aang struggled with earthbending which caused Toph to beat him up.
'The Waterbending Scroll's inciting incident is literally that aang is way better than katara at waterbending and she gets mad about it
Ong can't be a natural waterbender because he needs ANGST!
@@EvanSol919 Aangst
The biggest sin was shyamalan didn’t use any of the suggestions of the show’s creators. When the live action movie was being introduced, they said the creators were going to have creative input to make sure the movie was true to the source material, and then they kicked the creators to the curb almost immediately.
I would bet money that the producers probably supported or told him to do that. If you take a look at the list of producers and their history with such actions.
and now netflix does the same
I don't think it even got to that level. According to The Writer's Panel podcast interview with the Avatar's creators, they offered any help the studio and director needed for the film. They never heard from them even once for help or advice. The credit in the movie was something their attorney insisted on and not something they cared about.
yea I heard that rumor and pretty much assumed the movie would be garbage
The biggest sin was pronouncing "Aang" "Ahhng"
It's not just Shyamalan to blame, but also his producers and the production companies that let him do this. Let's not forget that with any given show or movie, there's a lot of people above the director of that are also in charge.
"Whether he's a bottom or a top." Lol
and the prison scene was awful. there was a very good reason the show had the prison on a steel rig in the middle of the ocean. you can't imprison earth benders in a rock quarry lol.
It gets worse the longer you think about it, since the Fire Nation in this movie can’t even produce fire on their own.
They literally in prisoned them in a “prison” made up of the element they control, these people should’ve murdered them all before Oong and co even show up.
But just think about how bad it would've been if he actually put it into his movie? Don't think of it as something he missed, think of it as something unharmed
"you can't imprison earth benders in a rock quarry" I mean, you can if it requires six or seven earth benders to do a very well choreographed set of movements just to move one rock like in the movie.
I think the scene still could have worked as they did it. Learned helplessness is a real phenomenon. If they were still threatened with overwhelming force for the slightest display of rebellion, I can see why the earthbenders would have held off. Granted, it made little sense for them to be imprisoned there to begin with, and there were plenty of other problems with that scene.
"Why the last airbender is the worst film ever"
(Noticing the video is longer than the actual movie)
Me:Hey pass that bottle over here, were all gonna need some internal disinfecting
You know you mess up, when a video about why you mess up is longer than your mess up... And I think I mess up this comment.
I’m guessing he has never seen Dragon ball evolution.
@@carlosroo5460 What remembers me the video "Cats is worse than you think"
It takes more time to debunk bullshit than it is to claim it
He made a film about a film describing how bad that film was.
And his film is infinitely more entertaining to watch.
@@corhydrae3238 Infinity is too small a concept to describe the difference, it's almost insulting in fact.
@@michaelreetz7026 might as well call it the best flim in the multiverses.