Greetings, all, Uncle John here. Against my better judgment and much to my chagrin, I recently decided to watch The Last Airbender, the live action film based on the brilliant Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Going into the movie I had very low expectations … I’d heard about a lot of changes that I didn’t exactly agree with and read a lot of very scathing reviews, so I wasn’t at all surprised that it was bad. What did surprise me was that it was actually worse than I was expecting. Director M. Night Shyamalan made so many changes to the source material that it rendered the story virtually unrecognizable to fans of the series and had to cut so much to get it down to the 1 hour 40 minutes running time that it became next to impossible to follow for anyone not already familiar with the series. What we end up with is nothing short of an unintentional parody, completely lacking any semblance of the humor and emotional/philosophical core of the source material. In short, it was an atrocity.
Before I go any further, I should explain that I am a rabid, evangelical fan of the original series. In my opinion, it is a nearly perfect masterpiece and not only the greatest animated series of all time, but one of the greatest television series of all time. In fact, it has even usurped Star Wars as my favorite franchise. As a result, I may not be completely objective. I should also mention that the following will include references to the series that may not make much sense to those who aren’t familiar with it. There also may be some spoilers from this point on. I’ve made no effort to avoid them, since I do not think that anyone should be subjected to this hideous piece of trash.
Now, onto the specific problems. I won’t be getting into every single issue I had with the movie, since that would take up several pages, but I will hit the low-lights. I also won’t be getting into the whole racebending controversy. While a do agree that Shyamalan should have cast more Asian actors in the lead roles, the argument has been made quite thoroughly and eloquently elsewhere.
Since it’s the one issue that will have the most impact on those unfamiliar with the original series, I’ll start off with the plot. Avatar: The Last Airbender is essentially your basic Campbellian hero’s journey. To sum up the first season (which the movie is based on) … Aang (the titular last airbender and our hero), after spending 100 years frozen in an iceberg, is rescued by Sokka and Katara and and the three set off to the North Pole to find Aang (and Katara) a waterbending master so that he can begin learning the other four elements and save the world from the evil Fire Nation who are waging a war to take over the world. All the while he’s being pursued by banished Fire Nation prince Zuko. Now, the first season of the series takes place over 20 episodes, each roughly 22 minutes in length and therein lies the problem. The movie only covers about 7 of them (and a couple of those are really only referenced in passing), changes a great many details of the episodes that it does cover and in one case even takes them out of order. This makes it seem very hurried and removes any sense of gravity from what is happening. It’s all going by so quickly that you barely have time to process it before you’re onto the next scene. I understand that cuts have to be made, but those that were made in this case reduce the story to little more than a poorly paced series of action scenes which aren’t even as good as those in the series due to the absence of martial arts consultant Sifu Kisu. Shyamalan also removed all of the humor that was in the series. He claimed that the darker tone was more fitting, but failed to see that the tonal shifts are, not only a big part of what give the series its charm, but also a reflection of its anime roots. The particularly short running time doesn’t help matters either. There’s no reason why Shyamalan couldn’t have opted for a 2.5-3 hour running time, much like the prequels (which had a very similar audience) that would have allowed him to leave much more of the story in tact. In an attempt to fill in the gaps between the random action scenes, Shyamalan uses narrative voice overs by Katara, but this just serves to bring the whole Basil Exposition joke to a new level.
Now, onto what is possibly the biggest travesty committed by the movie; the characters. While it does have great action scenes, the original series is really all about the characters, relationships and individual story arcs. Almost all of the main characters change and develop over the course of, not only the series as a whole, but even over the course of each season and this a big part of what makes it so poignant and relatable and elevates it from being just another mindless action/adventure series that we’ve seen countless times before to something really special. What’s worse, is that the characters in the movie don’t even start off as interesting as their animated counterparts. Aang is downgraded from the outgoing, joyful, happy go lucky trickster of the series to a dour, stone-faced depressive who, even when he’s supposedly happy about the prospect of returning home, just seems whiny and scared. Also removed from the movie is any trace of his romantic interest in Katara … a key factor in his transformation over the course of the series. Sokka, who starts the series as little more than the comic relief and even by the end of the first season is well on his way to becoming a very competent warrior, strategist and leader (while still remaining the comic relief), is turned into a mindless robot who’s only purpose is to protect the women in his life. Perhaps the biggest injustice in terms of the characters is that which was done to Katara. Instead of the passionate, strong-willed character from the series who was at once a powerful bender, a gifted healer and in many ways the maternal figure of the group, we get an insecure little girl who serves as no more than a cloying Aang fangirl. Her lack of development is only made worse by the fact that her two most significant and defining moments were taken away … her speech to the Earth Kingdom prisoners was given to Aang and her fight with Pakku is completely cut from the movie. Rounding out our team of heroes are animals Momo and Appa who lack any of the personality that they have in the series due to the absence of voice actor Dee Bradley Baker. The villains were also short changed, albeit not as much. Zuko was made even whinier than in the series, Iroh lost most of his humor and sense of fun (not even one mention of Pai Sho), Zhao is changed from a megalomaniac psychotic into Fire Lord Ozai’s lap dog and Ozai himself (who is barely seen in the first season of the series) goes from the enigmatic embodiment of all evil to a cliche, overly arch, somewhat poncy, mustache-twirling bad guy. Shyamalan also decided to cut a few key characters who have a considerable impact on the plot of the series (namely King Bumi, Jet and Suki).
I could go on (especially about the changes to the pronunciations to some names), but I’ve rambled on long enough, so I’ll leave it at this. If you have any interest in seeing this abominable waste of time, please do yourself a favor and just watch series.
