I watched it, and I am a fan of the show.
As Bob said, it is a well made movie. It is a beautiful movie.
The way they portrayed the Spirit world was amazing.
I have no problem with "the lack of Asians" because this isn't an Asian work. Having the different nations represented by different actual Nationalities is a really good idea.
The Water Tribes are white and have a culture based on knightship and chivalry.
The Earth Kingdom are Asian seeing as Ba Sing Sa is practically build like Beijing.
The Fire Nation are Middle Eastern, a region we know as a giant desert would be the perfect place for Fire.
The Air Nomads have no distinct culture, because Nomads also have no distinct culture.
I have no problem with Fire Nation needing a source of Fire to bend, and that I think it makes a lot of sense to show how powerful Iroh is. When you see it you'll know.
Some of the characters (Zuko, Iroh, Zaoh) were really done well [wait, the actors who did a good job are Indian? smooth Mr. Shyamalan])
Other characters (Katara, Aang, Gran Gran) weren't amazing, but they weren't bad.
[here's where my complaints begin]
BUT a few characters just didn't jive well (Sokka [though he did have moments. a very few moments where it felt like he was Sokka], Fire Lord Ozai [I didn't know he was the fire lord until they said he was, and even then it was hard to believe])
Another thing is that it just took so long for them to do anything.
before anyone could bend their element it would take what felt like a 30 second dance. That wasn't how bending worked and in a movie trying to save as much time as it could they really shouldn't have done that. Bending in the show is an extension of yourself. Your energy flows through you and effects your element. You don't need to summon this power if your element is around.
And they were trying to do too much in the alloted time. a lot of the scenes weren't necessary, and the scenes that were felt really rushed. some of the dialog was taken right from the show, but it felt like it was peppered fanservice (remember when this character said this? Well here's this character saying this.)
all of the good unfortunately is drowned out by the amount of boring going on.
its hard to say what I want without giving anything away.
[EDIT]
AWDMANOUT said:
To anybody that actually watched the series, I think the movie lost a lot of value due to one major point:
They pronounced the characters names freaking wrong.
When I saw Michael Dante DiMartino's and Bryan Konietzko's names I was crushed because it was like they didn't care how the names were pronounced.