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

It's been nine years and I'm still not done with this movie. If you watch my channel, you know that Avatar The Last Airbender is one of my favorite shows and I've made countless

video

s about it. I've seen it too many times to count. and every time I do, it draws me into this incredible 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 any movie has ever let me down more than The Last Airbender. I did since I saw this movie in theaters.

I haven't revisited the movie. I haven't seen any reviews, although I knew they are terrible and now, for the first time in nine years, I am revisiting this pile of garbage and, as a

film

student, it pains me to see 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 Sixth Sense fan, 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 can't even imagine how much he

disrespected

this incredible and almost perfect show on which this movie was based. in book 1 of the series and they initially planned to do all three books, but after this one failed miserably, that idea was abandoned, so what went wrong with this movie.

I have a whole list of things, but first let's start with the characters when you are. Telling a story the characters are the most important part, they are the ones the audience follows on the journey and they shape the overall narrative. The original series did it perfectly. The characters are identifiable, they have defining characteristics and goals that they want to achieve and want 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 movie we don't get the characters we know and love from the original series to begin with. the names are not the same they mispronounce so many things in this movie and it bothers me a lot they say egg the main character's name is wrong my name is ong they say sokka's name wrong my people are dying they say iroh's name wrong yo' Me glad you could accept my invitation and they mispronounced so many other things like Agni Kai Agni Kido and the most mind boggling thing to me is that they even say

avatar

in the avatar and I'm sure this was on purpose and I would be less than surprised if Shyamalan was the one man behind these decisions that show such disrespect towards the source material, why would you change the pronunciation of so many words that we have come to know from the original series?

Let's see how they were wrong. Each character starts with the main hero of the story on the show. Aang is brave and shows no fear despite being so young and small compared to most of his enemies. The film version of Hang is the complete opposite of this, however, let's take a look. In some scenes from the show versus the movie, starting with the scene where Zuko arrives at the Southern Water Tribe, the scene is set up the same in both, Zuko appears looking for Aang, who he believes is the avatar and has a fleet of firebenders to back them up in the show and makes a daring entrance to stop Zuko and protect the village, but if we look at the same scene in the movie, the egg literally hides among ten and only comes out when it is forced to you by the Zuko's men he is a scared boy when he is supposed to be brave and daring wanting no one to get hurt and things get worse in the movie Zuko tells the scared boy that if he doesn't come with him Zuko's town will burn down he sets the terms and Aang just does what Zuko says: I'll go with you again, literally sounding like a scared little kid on the show and he comes and protects people and while he's doing it he sees the danger they're in.

Seeing this, the selfless and brave Aang turns to Zuko and here instead of doing what Zuko says he is the one who establishes the terms saying that if he leaves the village alone he will go with him willingly and on top of that Aang is not worried. he even cheerfully turns to Sokka and Katara telling them that everything will be okay and tells them to take care of Appa until he returns, knowing full well that he will easily escape. One of the most important parts of this scene is that Aang sees the villagers and the dangerous Zuko shoots them, it's what makes them realize that fighting will only put the innocent villagers in more danger and why he sets the terms I mentioned. earlier in the movie we have firebenders shooting the villagers, the thing is it happened after Aang already left with Zuko which lessened the point of putting the villagers in danger.

One of the biggest problems with this movie is that they don't know how to combine dialogue with action. The scene is all conversation and no or all action. action and no talking if they had combined the firebender chasing the villagers with Zuko and Aang's conversation, it could have worked very well because Annie would have had a reason to want to go with Zuko upon seeing the villagers in danger, there would also have been less dialogue, which the film has too much to make it very voluminous. Zuko literally says that he will burn the village down if you don't come.

If they had put the villagers in danger, the public would have understood and been much more powerful. seeing Aang's concern for the villagers instead of just being threatened by Zuko, and like I said, this inability to have action and dialogue together is a constant problem in this movie that I'll explain as I go into more points, going back to how they portray Aang's bravery or in the movie his lack thereof, the scene where Zhao is locked up is another excellent example of how they ruined his character when Aang is locked up in the show, he is not afraid in the slightest saying he would fight . him at that very moment with his hands tied behind his back and then when Zhao continues to goad them, Peng sends him flying into a wall, showing that even tied up he is strong and capable, but in the movie he just sits there and let's talk.

He doesn't talk back, he doesn't fight back, all he does is sit there like a scared, worthless little kid, this isn't the angry one, no, and I loved the egg of the show, he always has something to say, he never lets himself know. He sits down and lets himself be talked about another big thing that disrespected Aang's character, it 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 it he has a embarrassed face knowing that he made a big mistake, he knows that he brought down his fellow air nomads and let the whole world down, it's a constant insecurity that we see throughout the rest of the show, but in the movie when he speaks of running away from home, he literally does this with a smile on his face and talks about it like it's 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 cheerful way and again with a big smile on his face, he was just upset, it's almost as if this crucial moment in his character's development was reduced to absolutely nothing with no consequences whatsoever and later in the film we see it and we run. far again, I would never willingly abandon Katara and Sokka at this point in their journey, especially after the shame felt when he ran away the first time I understood that the story needed to move forward and that Aang had to go alone. for the Blue Spirit art, but in the show he left because his friends were sick and he wanted to help, he left for a selfless reason, which is who Aang is.

He's selfless, but the way he ran away in the movie wasn't for a selfless reason, but rather a selfish one, couldn't they think of another way for him to go off on his own? It's just lazy writing. There were also a number of things in the cut of the film that were vital to Aang's character. The first thing is the scene where we see. Him entering the Avatar State to escape from Zuko is important because this is what showed us how powerful Aang is, but in the movie we don't know his true power until now, all we've seen is him being bossed around and he sits and Not doing anything, I was also really disappointed that they cut the line where Aang says that he really is the

last

airbender

.

It's a crucial realization for Aang and he closed the show's title with The Last Airbender and considering the fact that the movie dropped. the avatar part of the title and just made him the

last

airbender

, you would think they would want this line even more now let's talk about Zuko Zuko was one of my favorite characters in the series, he has many dimensions, but in the movie not so much . For starters, the banished Prince's identifying feature is a scar, but barely visible in the film makes his punishment seem less severe. Zuko's scar is his biggest insecurity and in book 1, what this movie is based on is his scar, it was a reminder. of its shameful past but when it could barely be seen it doesn't have the same powerful effects the actor who plays Zuko Dev Patel has just left Slumdog Millionaire a very well received film that won eight Oscars so there was nothing but excitement when it was announced who was going to play Zuko and honestly he was probably one of the best actors in the movie but the lines he was given and the instructions Shyamalan gave him were terrible, just like Ang's character, the movie didn't even come close.

Doing justice to Sukko's character, there is one scene in particular that really bothers me and once again let's compare scenes from the show to the movie, let's look at the scene where Aang escapes, you go to the ship in the movie, an egg jumps out of the ship and it flies away and all the duco does is stand there, he doesn't do anything to try to stop it and he just sits there and moans with an eyebrow, which I'll actually address as another in a minute watching the scene on the show from Zuko. He fights to the end trying to capture Aang because that's the kind of person he is, he takes action and never gives up, you often have to talk down to him in certain situations because sometimes he doesn't know when to stop.

Assange tries to escape. first she fights him one on one and of course she hits him and runs away and his anger shoots into his glider. Zuko doesn't let this happen like he did in the movie, no, he literally jumps off the top of his ship and shoots. Then, when Aang enters the Avatar state and shows his true power, Zuko was surprised, yes, but he still doesn't give up and when it seems that Zuko has finally overcome all the odds, he grabs onto the ship and tries again to catch it. the avatar is then shot down again but the relentless Zuko still does not give up he orders his uncle to help me take them down and only when it is clear that there is no chance to move the ship now buried in ice and snow and then fly away out of reach , Zuko finally stops Zuko and never gives up, he shows us how much he wants to capture the avatar and regain his honor, but he tells us this without saying anything in the movie, however, instead of showing us his passion to catch the avatar. his actions take up a separate scene where Zuko just says it on my honor, it's almost like they think the audience is dumb and won't understand unless he actually explains it to us, it's terrible writing and this is another example of how the movie doesn't knows how to mix action with dialogue, there is a scene where he escapes in the action and then there is a scene where he talks, they need to combine these things and like I said, they wouldn't even need the dialogue scene if they knew how to write without combining these things makes the movie have endless scenes of voluminous dialogue that slows down the movie and honestly makes it boring.

The scene gets even stupider when Aengdu, Sokka, and Katara say that the Fire Nation is up to something. I have to go. In the past, nothing in the movie could have led you to think that the Fire Nation was up to something and even if it had, this line doesn't make sense because right after that he doesn't approach the Fire Nation, but instead goes to the southern air temple. Let's go back to the Fire Nation because it doesn't look like the Fire Nation, it literally says air and it's a completely separate place on the map. Another scene the movie ruined was the exchange between Zuko and his uncle Iroh at the end. from book one, this was such a powerful scene in the show.

Iroh tells Zuko that he sees him as his own son and Zuko responds by saying: I know man, it's one of the most important parts of Zuko and Iroh's character, after that, brother, move on. lecturing him about being cold and using his fire breath, that's not that important to the scene, but it adds a lot because we see Iroh beat him like a father, it reinforces what he just said to Zuko when we watch this scene in However, in the movie they captured the most important part where Iroh says he sees you leaving as his own and instead they just have the annoying parents part.

Now make sure to keep your uniform close to the document. However, the most annoying part of this is that they kept your coastline. I don't know, but he said it to the annoying parent stuff instead of the deep moment he's supposed to.combine the line. If you're going to have that iconic line, why not match it with what it needs to match and on top of? Of course, the annoying father 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 complaint that's supposed to have meaning behind it has no purpose. real, another scene that really bothers.

I is the scene where Sau goes after the moon spirit in the show, we see the true Irish power here and we see his love of life, both humans and spirits, that he threatens Joe so much with. desperate passion to save the spirit in the movie, however we see a brother standing next to Joe while he takes out the moon spirit and does absolutely nothing and then when Zhao pulls out a knife, IRA says in the most monotone voice and less threatening, Commander Zhao, he is. literally within arm's reach as Joe pulls his knife back and stabs the spirit and does nothing bro you were there, the IRA on the show wouldn't have stood there and seen it, he would have gotten yelled at before he had the chance. opportunity to choose. they lifted the spirit and in the show that's why they had him come after Zhao had already captured him, they disrespected Sokka and his movie, plus the lack of understanding Shyamalan has for these characters is mind-blowing and this is especially prevalent with Sokka Sokka is a funny and goofy guy who is confident at times, but as more and more people around him become Bender, his confidence drops, but for the sake of this video, we will focus on Sokka from the book one, who still has confidence in the foolish.

The introduction to his character is perfect, they ask him to flex while he looks at himself in his reflection. This is the Sokka we know and love. Sokka is also known for being the guy who makes the plans, he is the leader, the one who puts everything together. black stone invasion together, the one who came up with his well thought out plan to escape the boiling rock, the one who came up with almost all the plans, the avatar of the team, was an ambitious, a natural leader in the movie, however, the Sokka who What I just described is not the one we have in the movie to begin with, he barely used his boomerang, that's his signature weapon, but I guess I can forgive that, well what I can't forgive is that they turned Sokka, who is supposed which is foolish, in a melancholic.

Boy, what would you do if they try to take me and kill them all? What is Batman? One like that is not how he talks about football. That's something the football program would never say. They also worried and doubted them. Let's compare scenes again between the show and the movie, the scene we will focus on is the one that occurs right after Aang was captured in the movie. Katara says they have to go after Aang and Sokka says what he wants to do. Katara, how are we supposed to save him? We are on a boat, we need a miracle to catch them.

I know you think everything is going to be okay, but I don't. Sokka is the leader, the one who comes up with elaborate plans. He wouldn't have given up like that comparing this scene to the one in the show Sokka is not negative, he is not against going after Aang, he is ready to go immediately and tell Katara to get on the boat so he can save him. Do you understand what I mean about Shyamalan not understanding these characters? It's like he didn't like the characters on the show, so he created new ones and branded them with the names we all know and love.

It's nonsense, going back to how the movie can't combine action and dialogue, let's look at one more example. Veals himself is Katara's avatar and Sokka was very well done in the TV show because he is in the middle of the action in the movie, yet we see him and are taken away and his identity is not mentioned, we just find out that he is the avatar when they have a separate scene dedicated to dialogue could be the appetite they should have had for this reveal in the middle of the action as if the show was dead and had caught maybe the bokya is the dialogue seen throughout the movie and It's also very disturbing.

Isn't it Aang who reveals himself to his friends? Instead, Sokka and Katara's grandmother is the one who does 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 many, so here goes the goal of book 1 is for Aang to get to the Northern Water Tribe so we can get a waterbending master, that's their plan from the beginning, that's the journey the three of them embark on. the movie, however they do it. They don't have any plan, they just go from one place to another for no real reason.

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 to bending training he's told to go there. to save the moon spirit, something that at this point no one is supposed to know except Zhao and Zhao himself, although they also ruined that part by having him tell José that the program's gel wouldn't have worked 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 quest that's supposed to drive the entire book 1 just isn't there and what really ruined it for me was the dragon spirit telling him this I guess the dragon was supposed to replace Roku, but why not just have his real past life?

Why make him a dragon, especially since 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 invent a dragon spirit, but Shyamalan invented all new characters so what adds one more thing they added that didn't make sense was the test done to see if Aang was the avatar, this is not. how the bending works in the slightest, they keep making things up and it's so disrespectful to this amazing show. However, the most important thing for me is the way they show Firebending on the show.

Firebending comes from Bender's core, they can make it appear out of nowhere other than in the movie and the Firebenders want to bend the fire already has to exist right in front of them, that's how waterbending works, yes, but Firebending comes from your inner Chi, why are they just changing the rules, the rules that were established from the beginning and the rules that are one of the most important parts of the show at the end of the movie, however, of course we see Iroh bend fire out of nowhere and it's a big deal but that's how it's supposed to work, it's nothing special, at least it shouldn't be if the movie is based on the source material, the more I delve into this movie, the less I think it is.

They also said that Sozin's comet was supposed to come in three years. Sozin's comet will return in three years, but in the Roku program it says if the comet will come. The end of summer means the program runs for about a year or so. However, this doesn't make sense because the rest of the movies were canceled so we didn't even get to see that one thing that's really horrible was Katara and Sokka not finding out about Aang. real name and what would be the third episode of the TV series, he said, okay, if you tell me your name, the monks named me why they waited so long, why they didn't go into exile.

Katara calls out when they were at the store. he told her the whole story of his life and how he ran away from home, but he forgot to say her name and this gets even worse because Katara continues saying that the child is her responsibility, this child is our responsibility, Kotaro, he doesn't even you know. his name why is it 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 pains me to watch parts of this film. The CGI is terrible, which is especially bad because the movie depends so much on it the bending is comical it really is it's so bad all those people and all those movements for that little rock there are so many flaws like this too like why the masters earth didn't fight back when they were surrounded by earth in the show, they put them in a metal ship so they couldn't escape or bend, but here they could destroy the firebenders, especially considering the firebending rules from the movies , they can't bend unless it's like a fire in front of them, firebenders have some little fire pits with things they can bend and earth sellers have all the terrain they stand on for miles and miles even If the earth sellers were afraid, it's so clear who would win in a fight in the final battle when the waterbenders take back the moon by restoring its ability to bend instead of bending, they attack them, why didn't you do that sooner?

One of the worst parts of this movie is the editing and I actually visited and toured the production company that made it and they were very proud of this movie which was immediately a red flag. A few years later, I went to film school and discovered that this was the internship that almost everyone could get in film school but that no one wanted. I'm not going to say the name of the company because it was very nice of them to give me a tour. The work they did on this movie is horrible. This movie focused heavily on action, but they don't know how action scenes work.

It's not just the editors' fault, this is also Shawn Mullins' fault as we filmed instead of cutting from store to store to keep the action moving quickly and build suspense. Almost all the action scenes in this movie are done in one go. This is a cool technique when done right, but it's not intended for an action scene, it's intended for dialogue. The third Harry Potter film does this very 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 focused scenes. in dialogue, but when this technique is used for action it doesn't work at all, it makes the scene go too slow and is unrealistic, it seems too rehearsed and we never get to see the characters' faces or emotions, let's look again at Harry Potter.

The scene this time in action 1, the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the fifth movie was done very well and this is a good example because it actually deals with water and fire, two of the four elements, the last action of Airbenders is based on BOTS, how many times? cut to another shot, it works well because not only do we see the action from afar up close and build suspense with each shot change, but we also see the emotions of the characters when they do close-ups of their faces and therefore Voldemort is laugh or so, Harry's fear or Dumbledore's extreme concentration to stop Harry but still compete with Voldemort, that's how an 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 biggest problems with the film is that they have terrible transitions with almost every scene change, they dissolve the most basic and simple transition and when done well, it is effective to stick to the examples from Harry Potter. One of my favorite fades 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 close-up of a scene that It is very far away and shows where the scene takes place;

You usually see this type of shot at the beginning or end of the scene being edited 101 One of my favorite establishing shots in any movie was in the Avengers after the flight of Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. This is an example of an establishing shot at the end of a scene. It's the calm after the action and we see it all. three heroes from afar and when he walks away, if we see the damage that the fight caused, the perfect way to end the scene, there is a transition in this movie that is by far the worst, we see the men chase Aang and Zuko and not only does the final shot of the scene have no establishing shot, but it is a fast-paced shot that is a

great

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. this with a fusion this literally looks like something out of my film textbooks showing what not to do in another transition when they tried to be fancy but it turned out terrible it was when you were delivering a powerful and important line long before she finished saying the la scene cuts away and then he finishes what he was saying on the first side of the next scene, there is a very spiritual place, the city was built around this place, it's so awkward that they shouldn't have had to finish his line and make the music builds and then cuts to the fast paced shot, there's a great example of this in Avengers Infinity War and it's almost exactly like this, both Captain America and the AU 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 cuts to a fast paced shot the difference is Infinity War did it right and The Last Airbender did it wrong Infinity War if CaptainAmerica would have finished the line I know someone and the music built up and then it was Wakanda but with The Last Airbender cutting before you finished saying his line it ruined the suspense and made the end of that scene and the beginning of the next seem very uncomfortable and the bad editing is not only in the transition but extends to entire scenes the worst thing is Katara's constant narration a tactic in cinema that is sometimes used to cover up bad filming and editing always practicing but for some reason it was having trouble with waterbending, it's the laziest thing you can do.

This tactic should be saved for certain types of scenes and movies. One of the best examples is Avatar, not The Last Airbender, but the avatar with the blue Navi. Everything is backwards. Now that I entered, there is the real world and this is the dream. This works because the voiceovers are not simply included over the film, its video records. that he makes during his time on Pandora, another terrible editing choice was the constant cuts to the Angra member in his days with the Air Nomads, placed in the worst possible places, especially during the final confrontation, they completely ruin the pacing of this scene of action he could have had. actually it would have been nice if they hadn't added these scenes here, those kind of flashback scenes work better during the calm and slow parts of the movie, they are not meant to be combined with an action sequence, this movie is so bad and I hope I have shed some light. about why he's so hated for disrespecting the original series and for his terrible filmmaking techniques, now that I made this video I can finally put this shitty movie behind me and move on, let's hope Netflix does better than Shyamalan.

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