The Last Airbender Film: How it Disrespected a Great Series (Avatar Video Essay)

it's been nine years and I'm still not over this movie if you see my channel you know that Avatar The Last Airbender is one of my favorite shows and I've made countless videos on it I've watched it too many times to count and every time I do it draws me into this amazing world when it was announced that they were making a live-action movie based on the series I was ecstatic unfortunately I don't think a movie has ever let me down more than the last airbender did since I saw this movie in theaters I have not revisited the film I have not watched any reviews although I knew that they are terrible and now for the first time in nine years I'm revisiting this pile of garbage and as a film student it hurt me to watch parts of this movie in this video I'm going to discuss how this movie disrespected the original series so much and why it's such a bad movie M night Shyamalan Road produced and directed this film and some of his work I'm a fan of but the Sixth Sense but most of his other work is complete garbage and this might be the biggest pile of garbage he's ever made which is saying something I cannot even fathom how much he disrespected this incredible and almost flawless show this film was based on book 1 from the series and initially they plan to make all three books but after this one failed miserably that idea was dropped so what went wrong with this film I have a whole list of things but let's first start with the characters when you're telling a story characters are the most important part they are who the audience follows on the journey and they shape the overall narrative the original series did this perfectly the characters are relatable have defining characteristics and have goals they want to reach and wants to become the avatar and stop Ozai Katara wants to learn waterbending and help Aang on his journey and Sokka wants to lead his team and make his father proud the thing is with this film we do not get the characters that we know and love from the original series for starters their names aren't the same they mispronounce so many things in this movie and it bugs the hell out of me they say egg the main character's name wrong my name is ong they say sokka's name wrong my people are dying they say iroh's name wrong I'm glad you could accept my invitation and they mispronounced so many other things like Agni Kai Agni Kido and the most mind-boggling to me is that they even say avatar on the avatar and I'm sure this was on purpose and I would be less than shocked if Shyamalan was the man behind these decisions that right there show so much disrespect to the source material why on earth would you change the pronunciations of so many words that we've come to know from the original series let's look at how they messed up each character starting with the main hero of the story in the show Aang is brave and shows no fear despite being so young and so small compared to most of his enemies the movie version of hang is the complete opposite of this however let's take a look at a few scenes in the show versus the movie starting with the scene when Zuko arrives in the Southern Water Tribe the scene is set up the same way in both Zuko shows up looking for Aang who he believes to be the avatar and he has a fleet of firebenders to back em up in the show and he makes a daring entrance to put a stop to Zuko and to protect the village but if we look at the same scene in the film egg literally hides into ten and only comes out when he's forced to you by Zuko's men he's a scared little boy when he's supposed to be brave and daring wanting no-one to get hurt and it gets worse in the film Zuko tells the scared little boy that if he doesn't come with him he'll burn the village down Zuko sets the terms and Aang just does what Zuko says I'll go with you again of literally sounding like a scared little boy in the show however and comes and protects the people and while doing so sees the danger that they're in seeing this the selfless and brave Aang turns to Zuko and here instead of doing what Zuko says he's the one who sets the terms saying that if he leaves the village alone he'll go with him willingly and on top of that Aang is not worried at all he even lightheartedly turns to Sokka and Katara's telling them that it will be okay and says to take care of Appa until he gets back knowing full well that he'll easily escape one of the most important parts of this scene is Aang seeing the villagers and dangerous Zuko shoots fire at them it's the thing that makes them realized that fighting will only put the innocent villagers in more danger and why he sets the terms I stated earlier in the film we do have firebenders shoot at the villagers the thing is is it happened after Aang already left with Zuko diminishing the whole point of putting the villagers in danger one of the biggest problems with this film is that they don't know how to blend dialogue with action the scene is either all talking and no action or all action and no talking had they combined the firebender going after the villagers with Zuko and Aang conversation it could have worked really well because Annie would have had a reason to want to go with Zuko seeing the villagers in danger it also would have been less dialog which the film has way too much of making it very bulky Zuko literally says that he'll burn the village down if you don't come if they had just put the villagers in danger the audience would have understood and it would have been way more powerful to see Aang's concern for the villagers rather than just being threatened by Zuko and as I said this inability to have action and dialogue together as a constant problem in this film which I'll explain as I go through more points going back to how they portray Aang's bravery or in the film their lack of it the scene where Zhao has a locked up it's another prime example of how they messed up his character when Aang is locked up in the show he isn't the least bit scared saying that he would fight him right then and there with his hands tied behind his back and then when Zhao continues to egg them on Peng sends him flying into a wall showing that even tied up he's strong and capable but in the film he just sits there and let's shall talk down to him he doesn't talk back he doesn't fight back all he does is sit there like a worthless and scared little boy this is not the angry no and loved the egg from the show always has something to say it never sits back and lets himself be talked down to another huge thing that disrespected Aang's character was him talking about running away again let's compare the show to the movie in the show Aang is so disappointed in himself for running away we see him lie about being the avatar when Katara asks him and after doing so he has a cringe face knowing that he messed up big time he knows he got his fellow air nomads down and let the entire world down it's a constant insecurity that we see throughout the remainder of the show but in the film when he talks about running away from home he literally does this with a smile on his face and talks about it like it was nothing I ran away from home and then we see some terrible acting as he proceeds to say that he was upset but he says it in the most light-hearted way and again with a huge smile on his face I was just upset it's almost as if this pivotal moment in his characters development is whittled down to absolutely nothing with no consequences whatsoever and later in the film we see and run away again he would never willingly abandon Katara and Sokka at this point in his journey especially after how much shame he brought to himself when he ran away the first time I got that the story needed to move forward and Aang had to go off on his own for the Blue Spirit art but in the show he left because his friends were sick and he wanted to help he leaves for a selfless reason which is who Aang is he's selfless but the way he ran away in the film was not for a selfless reason but rather a selfish one could they not think of any other way for him to go off on his own it's just lazy writing there were also a number of things that the film cut that were vital to Aang's character the first thing is the scene where we see him go into the Avatar state to escape from Zuko it's important because this is what showed us how powerful Aang is but in the movie we don't know his true power so far all we've seen is him be bossed around and sit back and do nothing I was also very disappointed that they cut the line where Aang says that he really is the last airbender it's a pivotal realization for aang and it brought the title of the show with the last airbender full circle and considering the fact that the film dropped the avatar part of the title and just made it the last airbender you would think that they would want this line even more now let's talk about Zuko Zuko was one of my favorite characters in the series he is so much dimension but in the film not so much for starters the identifying characteristic of the banished Prince is a scar but you can barely see it in the film it makes his punishment look less severe Zuko scar is his biggest insecurity and in book 1 what this film is based on his scar was a reminder of his shameful past but when you could barely see it it doesn't have the same powerful effects the actor that plays Zuko Dev Patel just came off of Slumdog Millionaire a very well-received movie that won eight Oscars so there was nothing but excitement when it was announced that he would be playing Zuko and honestly he was probably one of the best actors in the film but the lines he was given and the instruction he was given from Shyamalan were dreadful just like Ang's character the film did not even come close to doing Sukkos character justice there's one scene in particular that really annoys me and once again let's compare scenes from the show to the movie we're going to look at the scene where aang escapes you go ship in the film an egg jumps off the ship and flies away and all the duco does is just stand there he doesn't do a thing to try and stop him and just sits there and whines to eyebrow which I'll actually address as another in a minute looking at the scene in the show Zuko fights until the very end trying to capture Aang because that's the type of person he is he takes action and never gives up he oftentimes has to be talked down in certain situations because sometimes he doesn't know when to stop Assange tries to get away he first fights him one-on-one and of course beats him and gets away and his anger fires away on his glider Zuko doesn't let this happen like he did in the movie no he literally jumps off the top part of his ship and pulls him down then when Aang goes into the Avatar state and shows his true power Zuko was shocked yes but he still doesn't give up and when it looks like Zuko has finally beaten above all odds he grabs onto the ship and tries yet again to catch the avatar then he's knocked down again but the relentless Zuko still doesn't give up he orders his uncle to help me shoot them down and only when it's clear that there's no possibility of moving the ship now buried in ice and snow and then flying far out of the reach the Zuko finally stop Zuko never giving up show us how badly he wants to capture the avatar and get his honor back but it tells us without saying a thing in the film however instead of showing us his passion to catch the avatar through his actions they take a separate scene where Zuko just says it from my honor it's almost as if they think the audience is dumb and won't understand unless they actually spell it out for us it's terrible writing and this is another example of how the film doesn't know how to mix action with dialogue there's a scene for him escaping in the action and then after there's a scene for him talking they need to combine these things and as I said they wouldn't even need the dialogue scene if they knew how to write not combining these things makes the film of endless bulky dialogue scenes that slows the film down and honestly makes it boring the scene is made even more stupid when aengdu and Sokka and Katara's says the Fire Nation is up to something I have to go back now nothing in the film could have led him to think that the Fire Nation was up to something and even if it had this line is made pointless because right after that he goes nowhere near the fire nation he instead goes to the southern air temple you're going back to the Fire Nation because that doesn't look like the Fire Nation it literally says air and it's a completely separate place on the map another scene that the film messed up was the exchange between Zuko and his uncle Iroh at the end of book one this was such a powerful scene in the show Iroh tell Zuko that he sees him as his own son and Zuko replies saying I know uncle it's one of the most important parts of both Zuko and Iroh is character after that I bro goes on to lecture him about being cold and using his fire breath stuff that isn't as important to the scene but it adds a lot because we see Iroh knock him like a parent it reinforces what he just said to Zuko when we look at this scene in the movie however they caught the most important part where Iroh says he sees you go as his own and instead they just have the nagging parent part now be sure to keep your uniform close document the most annoying part of this though is that they kept zou coastline of I know but he said it to the nagging parent stuff rather than the deep moment the line is supposed to be paired with if you're going to have that iconic line why not pair it with what it's meant to be paired with and on top of that the nagging parent line only worked in the show because it reinforces what IRA said about being his father but in the movie we don't have that so the nagging that's supposed to have meaning behind it has no real purpose another scene that really bothers me is the scene where sau goes after the moon spirit in the show we see Irish true power here and we see his love for life both humans and spirits he threatens Joe with so much passion desperate to save the spirit in the movie however we see a bro stand next to Joe as he takes the moon spirit out and he does absolutely nothing and then when Zhao takes a knife out IRA says in the most monotone and unthreatening voice commander Zhao he's literally within arm's reach as Joe pulls his knife back and stabs the spirit and he does nothing bro you were right there the IRA from the show would not have just stood there and watched he would have taken shout down before he even had the chance to pick up the spirit and in the show that's why they had him come in after Zhao had already captured it they disrespected the hell out of Sokka and his film as well the lack of understanding that Shyamalan has for these characters is mind-boggling and this is especially prevalent with Sokka Sokka is a funny goofy guy who at times as confidence but as more and more of those around him are Bender's his confidence drops but for this video sake we're going to focus on Sokka from book one who is still confident in goofy the introduction to his character is perfect he's called out for flexing as he looks at himself in his reflection this is the Sokka that we know and love Sokka is also known for being the guy who makes the plans he's the leader the one who put the whole black stone invasion together the one who came up with their well-thought-out plan to escape the boiling rock the one who came up with almost every plan team avatar had he's a go-getter in a natural leader in the film however the Sokka that I just described is not the one we got in the film for starters he barely used his boomerang the thing that's his trademark weapon but I guess I can forgive that well I can't forgive is that they made Sokka who's supposed to be goofy a brooding guy what would you do if they try taking me away that kill them all what is he Batman one that's not how soccer talks to that's something that the soccer from the show would never say they also made them worried in hesitant let's again compare scenes between the show and the movie the scene we're gonna focus on is the one right after Aang was captured in the movie Katara says that they have to go after aang and sokka says what he wants to do Katara how are we supposed to save him they're on a ship we need a miracle to catch them I know you think everything's going to work out but I don't Sokka is the leader the one who comes up with elaborate plans he would not have just given up like that comparing this scene to the one in the show Sokka is not negative he's not against coming after Aang he's ready to go right away and tell us Katara to get in the boat so they can save him do you see what I mean about Shyamalan not understanding these characters it's as if he didn't like the characters in the show so he made all new ones and branded them with the names we all know and love it's nonsense going back to how the film can't combine action and dialogue let's look at one more example the way anger Veals himself is the Avatar to Katara and Sokka was so well done in the TV show because it's in the middle of the action in the movie however we see and get taken away and there's no mention of his identity we only find out that he's the avatar when they have a separate scene dedicated to dialogue might be the appetite they should have had this reveal in the middle of the action like the show dead and it would have caught perhaps the bokya is dialogue seen in the whole film and it's also very unsettling did Aang isn't the one to reveal himself to his friends instead Sokka and Katara's grandmother being the one to do this now the title of this video is how this movie disrespected such a great show and I'm about to give you example after example there are a lot so here goes the whole point of book 1 is for Aang to make it to the Northern Water Tribe so we can get a waterbending master that's their plan from the start that's the journey the three are embarking on in the movie however they have no plan whatsoever they just go from place to place for no real reason at all it's not until almost halfway through the movie that Aang is told to go there and it's for a completely different reason instead of going for bending training he's told to go there to save the moon spirit something that at this point no one is supposed to know about except for Zhao and Zhao himself though they messed that part up as well by having him tell Jose about it that gel from the show would not have done because he wanted all the glory but by telling the Fire Lord the Fire Lord would obviously take credit for it leaving Shia with no credit but anyway the mission that is supposed to drive all of book 1 is just not there and the thing that really messed me up was the dragon spirit that told him this I guess the dragon was supposed to replace Roku but why not just have his real past life why make it a dragon especially because dragons don't even talk in the Avatar world including the spirit world when basing a movie on already existing source material you can't just make up a dragon spirit but then again Shyamalan made up all new characters so what's adding one more another thing they added which made no sense was the test conducted to see if Aang was the avatar this is not how bending works in the slightest they keep making stuff up and it's so disrespectful to this amazing show the biggest thing for me however is the way they show firebending in the show firebending comes from the Bender's core they can make it appear from nothing but in the movie and firebenders want to bend the fire has to be already existing right in front of them that's how waterbending works yes but firebending comes from their inner Chi why are they just changing the rules rules that were established from the beginning and rules that are one of the most important parts of the show at the end of the movie however we of course see Iroh bent fire from nothing and it's a huge deal but that's how it's supposed to work it's nothing special at least it shouldn't be if the film is based on the source material which the more I dive into this film the less I think it is they also said that sozin's comet was supposed to come in three years sozin's comet is returning in three years but in the show roku says if the comet will come by summer's end meaning that the show takes place roughly around a year this is made pointless though because the rest of the films were cancelled so we never even got to see that one thing that is truly awful was that Katara and Sokka don't find out Aang's real name and so what would be the third episode of the TV series he said okay if you tell me your name the monks named me on why did they wait this long why didn't they have exile Katara is named when they were in the tent he told her his whole life story and how he ran away from home but he forgot to say his name and this gets even worse because Katara goes on to say that the boy is their responsibility this boy is our responsibility Kotaro you don't even know his name why is he your responsibility with all the things I just talked about this doesn't even scratch the surface of how bad this movie is as a former film student it hurts me to watch parts of this movie the CGI is terrible which is especially bad because the film relies so heavily on it the bending is comical it really is it's so bad what all those people and all those movements for that tiny rock there are so many flaws like this too like why didn't the earthbenders fight back when they were surrounded by earth in the show they put them on a metal ship so they couldn't escape or bend but here they could destroy the firebenders especially if they take the movies rules of firebending into account they can't bend unless like a fire in front of them the firebenders have a few tiny fire pits worth of things they can bend and the earth vendors have the entire ground they stand on for miles and miles even if the earth vendors were scared it's so clear who would win in a fight in the final battle when the waterbenders get the moon back restoring their ability to bend instead of bending they tackle them why didn't you just do that before one of the worst parts about this film is the editing and I actually visited and got a tour of the production company that made it and they were so proud of this film which was immediately a red flag a few years later I went to film school and I found out that this was the internship that almost everyone could get in film school but that nobody wanted I'm not gonna say the name of the company because it was really nice of them to give me a tour what's a job they did on this film is horrendous this movie focused heavily on action but they do not know how action scenes work and this isn't just the editors fault this is Shawn Mullins fault as well while filming instead of cutting from shop to shop to keep the action moving quickly and to build suspense almost every action scene in this film is done in one shot this is a cool technique when done right but it's not meant for an action scene it's meant for dialogue the third Harry Potter movie does this so well throughout the entire film this is a perfect example of how and when to use this technique it works because they did it with scenes that focused on dialogue but when this technique is used for action it doesn't work at all it makes the scene go too slowly and it's unrealistic it looks way too rehearsed and we never get to see the characters faces or emotion let's again look at a harry potter scene this time in action 1 the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the fifth film was done so well and this is a good example because it actually deals with water and fire two of the four elements the last airbenders action is based around BOTS how many times they cut to another shot it works well because not only do we see the action from far away close up and have suspense build with each change of shot but we also see the characters emotions as they do close ups of their faces and so Voldemort laughing or so Harry being scared or Dumbledore's extreme concentration to hold Harry back but still compete with Voldemort that's how one action scene is supposed to be done Shyamalan needs to know when to use certain filmmaking techniques and when not to use them one of the movie's biggest problems are it's terrible transitions with almost every change of scene they dissolve the most basic and simple transition and when done right it's effective sticking to the Harry Potter examples one of my favorite dissolves in the series is in the first Harry Potter film when it dissolves from Harry who just found out how his parents died - an establishing shot of Kings Cross an establishing shot meaning the first shot of a scene that is far away and shows where the scene takes place you normally see this kind of shot at the beginning or at the end of the scene it's editing 101 one of my favorite establishing shots in any movie was in the Avengers after Thor Iron Man and Captain America's flight this is an example of an establishing shot at the end of a scene it's the calm after the action and we see all three heroes from afar and as it zooms out if we see the damage the fight caused the perfect way to end the scene there's one transition in this film that is by far the worst we see the men go after Aang and Zuko and not only does the final shot of the scene not have an establishing shot but it's a fast paced shot that is a prime example of what to use in the middle of an action scene you can't end a scene on an action shot and you especially can't do this with a dissolve this literally looks like something out of my film textbooks that shows what not to do another transition when they tried to be fancy but it turned out terribly was when you a was delivering a powerful and important line well before she finishes speaking the scene cuts and then she finishes what she was saying over the first side of the next scene there is a very spiritual place the city was built around this place it's so awkward they shouldn't have had to finish her line and had music build off and then cut to the quickly paced shot there's a great example of this from Avengers infinity war and it's almost exactly like this both Captain America and UA are talking about this special place you were talking about the spiritual garden and Captain America talking about Wakanda and right after they say this it cuts to a fast paced shot the difference is infinity war did it right and The Last Airbender did it wrong infinity war had Captain America finishes line I know someone and music built up and then been it's Wakanda but with The Last Airbender by cutting before you I finished delivering her line it ruined the suspense and made the end of that scene and the beginning of the next seemed very awkward and the bad editing is not just in the transition but it extends to entire scenes the worst thing is the constant narration of Katara a tactic in filmmaking that is sometimes used to cover up bad filming and editing always practicing but for some reason he was having trouble with waterbending it's the laziest thing you can do this tactic should be saved for certain kinds of scenes and movies one of the best examples being Avatar not The Last Airbender but the avatar with the blue Navi everything is backwards now I got there is the true world and here's the dream this works because the voiceovers aren't just thrown in over the film their jigs video logs that he makes throughout his time on Pandora another terrible editing choice was the constant cuts of Angra member in his days with the air nomads it's placed in the worst spots possible especially during the final showdown they completely ruins the pacing of this action scene that might have actually been good had they not added these scenes here those sorts of flashback scenes work best during quiet and slow parts in the movie they aren't meant to be paired with an action sequence this film is just so bad and I hope I shed some light on why it's so hated both for disrespecting the original series and for it's terrible filmmaking techniques now that I've made this video I can finally put this crappy film behind me and move on let's just hope the Netflix does better than Shyamalan thank you so much for watching guys you can follow me on social media and see more of my personal life and see more of this little dude you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook for movie's flame updates and I want to give a huge shout out to all my patrons listed below if you want to be featured in the next video plus get a bunch of other awards become a patreon today again thank you so much for watching make sure you press that like button and subscribe and look out for more great videos on the way you

Channel: MovieFlame

Views: 3,439,336

Rating: 4.9151735 out of 5

Keywords: Movie Review, TV Show review, Harry Potter, Superhero, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Disney, Hunger Games, zuko, katara, toph, aang, iroh, bad movie, sokka, azula

Id: 2r71I8lvTIA

Length: 25min 16sec (1516 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019