Today we mourn the loss of these beloved characters.
I have many, many fond memories of the Nickelodeon cartoon epic “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. I remember the first time I saw it; my kids were watching it and I scornfully glanced out of the corner of my eye at the silly cartoon playing on the TV. Ever a cynic, I nevertheless found myself drawn in by the beautiful art, the haunting and mystical soundtrack, and the exciting scenes playing in the other room. I sat down. I watched.
I went back, and watched it from the beginning. For weeks, I was absorbed; the plot got deeper and deeper, the characters became more and more well-developed and the story became engrossing and mature.
By the end of the series, I was in tears. Never in my life had I been moved so much by a show; and by a cartoon, no less.
Since that first viewing, I have watched the entire saga thrice more and am on my fourth viewing. I cannot stop gushing to people who have never seen it: “Trust me,” I say. “You have to see this. It’s incredible.” They usually start as I did: cynical, perhaps rolling their eyes a few times at what first appears to be a children’s cartoon, and then finding themselves wanting to watch just one more episode.
The Last Airbender is a deeply moving and highly spiritual story which is ultimately a three-season-long Buddhist parable. In a gentle and compelling way, it explains many important concepts such as impermanence, balance, suffering, and the cessation of suffering through the removal of worldly attachment. We watch, we absorb, and ultimately we are left to admit that hey… a lot of what they say in this “children’s” cartoon sure does make a lot of sense.
So of course, the anticipation leading up to the live-action rendition of this saga was quite intense. Fans had their doubts about M. Night Shyamalan as a director; they expressed disdain at casting choices, and they wondered if live action was the proper medium for this tale.
All we wanted was for it to be handled correctly.
I’ll start at the end: In a theater full of what had to have been mostly fans (this was the midnight show on opening night, and there were people in costume in the audience), I heard nothing but negative comments, moans and groans, and outright anger at some of the decisions made by Shyamalan.
As a fan sits through the awkward, rushed, and uncomfortable introductions to all the main characters, they keep waiting for things to calm down and for the plot to start. We understand that when attempting to cram 18 episodes of TV content into one and a half hours of theatrical release, there will be sacrifices. We don’t, however, expect them to be sacrifices in something so critical to a character-driven show as… actual character development.
I’m not going to comment on the mutterings about racism in casting; there are other people who are more keen to that idea. I personally find it silly to get upset about the race of actors when we’re talking about a fantasy world that doesn’t actually exist. Talking about who should be Chinese and who should be Indian in a world where China and India don’t exist is a bit too deep for me.
To say that the characters we know and love are shallow and flat in this film is an understatement. Not only are they not the characters we’re used to, they are completely lifeless templates of over-emotional kids, weeping their way from one scene to the next. Even the goofy and beloved Sokka is nothing more than a whiny and angry sidekick who serves absolutely no purpose in this movie. Jackson Rathbone’s “acting” reminds me far, far too much of Hayden Christiansen’s portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. Why do these directors keep thinking that angry and bitter whiners make good characters?
In the show, the only character that came across as whiny and emo was the early Prince Zuko; and yet, in this film, he is one of the only even remotely likable characters. It boggles my mind.
Kitara, as portrayed by Nicola Peltz, delivers one over-acted and forced line after another. I’ve seen better delivery on high school stages. Noah Ringer’s Aang is deplorably bad. He is supposed to be “a light-hearted and fun-loving young monk of the Air Nomads”; the few times he is forced to actually crack a smile or laugh in this film are so awkward that they make you cringe at how contrived his entire performance is.
The only good part of the entire movie.
Fire Lord Ozai is nothing more than a soft and unimposing wimp. This is supposed to be a man who killed his own father and burned his son for speaking out of turn. He is a terrifying man, the ultimate evil in the world. Yet in this film he comes across as nothing more than an imperious and demanding throne-jockey who barks out one futile command after another.
So, with terrible actors, a complete abortion of character development, and the absolute gutting of almost everything we loved about the show, perhaps the plot and special effects can save the day. Wrong.
I find it telling that at no point in the entire movie did anyone in the theater actually laugh out loud. The show is funny—sometimes raucously so—but the movie attempts to appeal to some sweeping sense of outrage and injustice instead. The juvenile and insulting way in which we are presented with the ideas of “Fire Nation Bad! Everyone Else Good!” is so poorly executed that even young fans find themselves angry at the lack of any semblance of plot development or believability. The premise by which Sokka and Kitara leave their homeland and venture off into the skies is insultingly flimsy. “You must go” says “Grandma” (We don’t call her Gran-Gran here, no sir.) “He might be the Avatar”.
The kids discover an Earthbender village that is being held by approximately eight Fire Nation soldiers. They liberate it by doing a little dance and telling the Earthbenders that they need to rise up. A kid throws a rock at a soldier. Sokka hits someone in the head with his boomerang. That’s the end of that. Before you know it, they’re at the Northern Water Tribe. That’s the summary of about 12 episodes worth of content crammed into 30 minutes of film. There is no Ba Sing Se, there is no Kyoshi Island. We never meet Bu-mi, there are no Kyoshi Warriors, there is no Suki, there are no pirates, and we never hear Uncle Iroh talk about tea. The Blue Spirit makes a brief appearance, but there is no Jet or his Freedom Fighters. Yes, it is that bad.
One last comment about the production: Why would they change the pronunciation of many of the names? It serves no purpose at all, and sounds grating to anyone who has seen even one episode of the TV show. At the end of the film, many people in the theater were loudly bitching about the pronunciation changes. Aang becomes “Ah-ng”. Sokka is “Soe-ka” and Iroh is “ee-roh”. Why? It’s pointless and superbly annoying.
Who is this movie for? Are they trying to attract a new audience? If you’re a fan of the TV show, you will be highly disappointed in this adaptation. M. Night Shyamalan has taken the heart and soul out of a beloved story and left us with a shell that is nothing more than a cardboard diorama with cardboard cutouts inside of it. Don’t waste your money or your time. You will find yourself angry and bitter just like everybody that I shared a theater with tonight.
This is not The Last Airbender. Do yourself a favor, and re-watch the Nickelodeon series on Netflix. You’ll have a much, much better time.
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