Poll: The Last Airbender. Why does it suck?

[jamescorck]

Hey everyone!

I haven't seen anybody talking about why did this movie sucked so much, and I want to know the opinion of everyone who has suffered through it. I don't want to throw money on this, so I am reserving my opinion, since I don't have any. The title of the topic is justified since very few people (only MovieBob apparently) have said that the movie is actually "okay".

So here you go! Share your opinions and let us know what aspect made the movie so bad.

Note: I love the Avatar TV Show. Maybe that's why I don't want to go watch the movie, I foresee how much it's going to hurt.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Ahem

BLAH BLAH BLAH x 28

The film just has too much talking. It must stop and talk to you for ages at a time in order for it to explain so much. The problem? They crammed too much into too little.

Calumon: And M.Night cried himself to sleep, wondering where it all went wrong. : /

 

[avelmen1889]

Sokka wasn't Sokka, there was no sarcasm, there was no meat loving, he was just played like "john smith; action hero "
none of the names of the characters were pronounced corectly, and they cut out some of the important stuff from the series.

 

[Matt_LRR]

The movie is filled with blunders, front to back.

It's a poor adaptation of the series on which it's based.
It arbitrarily uses VO narration to fill you in on gaps in the plot (show, don't tell).
the special effects are weak, and their use questionable.
actions in the narritive don't follow from previous events.
romance plot forced, and served no purpose other than the insertion of emotional manipulation of the audience (and failed).
Directorial decisions highly questionable in many places.
3D was TRAGIC.

basically, it failed in ever concievable category.

I didn't hate it, but it was simply a bad movie. not so bad it's good, just bad.

-m

 

[ArMartinez02]

Oh my goodness, were to start? The actors, writting, directing, the story itself was the best it could be portrayed into the big screen, urgh, so many things about this movie that didnt live up to my expectations as a The last airbender fan, M. shaylaman or what ever his name is, ruined a prefect story, Sokka wasnt funny, Katara was like in the cartoons, prince zuko wasnt all that meh, but the guy who did prince zuko did a wonderfull job, uncle iroh was just..... urgh so many things that made this movie a epic fail of the summer.

I believe this movie was incorrect an many ways and forms, were to start?
The story.
so much crammed into a movie that was about what? a hour and something long? they had over 400 minutes in season one! M.night forgot the biggest event that happened in the cartoon in season one that wasnt present in the movie.
The bending.
Its wasnt that bad but, it was terrible innacurate for the fire benders, in the cartoon they could make fire out of them, in the movie they needed a fire source in order to bend.
Cheesy phrases and other sutff. momo and appa,... wtf?!!! they looked unatural, hideous. gosh I dont know were to start and finish with the last airbender, I just want to kill M.night for makng the best cartoon ever into a silly disgusting movie. and Aang wasnt Aang, it was someting like Jang.

Goodness greacious me *goes into berserk mode*

I WANT TO KILL THAT PRICK OF A DIRECTOR THAT DARES TO CALL HIMSELF A DIRECTOR!!!!!

PS: And 3D was a fucking joke...

 

[WorldCritic]

I'm gonna go with the actors and the writing. They couldn't get anyone else to play Aang besides a 12 year old we've never heard of?

 

[dragontiers]

In my opinion, it was to rushed. It hit all the important plot points, but that was all it did. It felt like someone had given them a rough outline of all the important things that happened in the series as a starting point, but instead of filling it out, that was all they filmed. There was no character development. If you didn't watch the series, you would be mystified why people were doing things the way they were, because their personalities were not explored.

As an example, we have the scene where Aang frees the imprisoned earth benders. In the series, it was a touching episode, showing how the earth benders had been beaten down, their spirit broken. They were doing what the fire nation wanted just so they would let them live in (relative) peace. Aang gives them back hope, shows them they can fight back and reclaim their lives. In the movie, however, we lose all the back story. All we are shown is that a) the fire nation are the baddies, and b) they are locking up all the other benders so they can't fight back. When Aang does his speech, it feels more like "Hey, aren't you smart enough to bend the earth here to fight back? Boy, you are a bunch of dummies." The whole point of the scene is lost in the rush to get through it.

Basically, it's like they had a check list. Saka use his boomerang? Yep (exactly once). Uncle mention tea? Yep (exactly once). Significant romances mentioned? Yep. Entertaining movie for both people who have and have not seen the series? Nope, sorry.

EDIT: Oh, and how could I forget: Ong and Soaka. How can you mispronounce main characters names for the whole movie, when the source material was a TV show? It's not like it was only written down and nobody had heard them say it before. And we know somebody who worked on the movie saw it before, as certain scenes were almost shot for shot reproductions from the TV series. I swear, I cringed every time they said it, and every time a new character was introduced after that, in case they screwed it up again.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

All of the above and It got the races wrong Fire Nation was supposed to represent the western world. Water tribe was to represent Native Americans aka Indians. Air Nomads were Chinese. and Earth Benders= Western World

 

[The Procrastinated End]

How about the mistake of trying to condense an entire section of a series into 90 minutes?

 

[Marowit]

m.night shalamalamadingdong

edit:

I haven't seen it, but Asif Mandi needs to be featured as the main character to make it better too.

 

[Thaius]

Ahem

BLAH BLAH BLAH x 28

The film just has too much talking. It must stop and talk to you for ages at a time in order for it to explain so much. The problem? They crammed too much into too little.

Calumon: And M.Night cried himself to sleep, wondering where it all went wrong. : /

Exactly right, Jack. And Calumon, I hope so. I truly, truly hope so. Ah, how the mighty have fallen...

Ahem... anyway, yeah, the writing was bad. Even some of the random crap they added in. I mean... "The Fire Nation fears the Avatar because, with his mastery of the four elements, the Avatar will begin to change hearts. And it is in the heart that all wars are won."

... No, the Fire Nation is scared of the Avatar because, with his mastery of the four elements, he will kick their collective asses. Don't go all ridiculous on us for such a stupid concept.

The movie looked great, though. Visually, it was fantastic in pretty much every way. And the soundtrack was great. And I won't deny that some moments made the Avatar fan in me leap for joy (it's my all-time favorite show, so things like Sokka's boomerang and that sequence with Aang near the end made my heart explode with awesomeness and happiness), but the movie as a whole failed on many levels. I agree with MovieBob pretty much completely, actually.

 

[Colonel Joson]

It hardly followed the source material. Aang's name was pronouced wrong, his goofy childishness was gone, Sokka wasnt a meat loving sarcastic fall guy that we all love... and such.

 

[InnerRebellion]

Sokka wasn't the sarcastic meat lover, and I don't think I saw my giant mushroom scene....which greatly annoys me.

Oh, and there was too much dialog. WAY too much.

 

[Tim_Buoy]

All of the above and It got the races wrong Fire Nation was supposed to represent the western world. Water tribe was to represent Native Americans aka Indians. Air Nomads were Chinese. and Earth Benders= Western World

actually the fire nation is more of a representation of japanese and earth kingdom chinese
while the air nomads were shaolin monks