THERE! I FIXED THE MOVIE! - The Last Airbender
Before we get started, I gotta make one thing clear: no, I will not be comparing this to the live-action series on Netflix. That’s got its own slew of issues, so I’m gonna put that in the “story for another time” category. Another thing I’ll point out is, as crazy as it sounds, none of this is specifically Shyamalan’s fault. He’s clearly a big fan of the show and the fact he wanted to make the film after seeing his daughter dress up as Katara is pretty adorable. The end product was more the fault of the executive meddling by the producers, so if anything, blame them for the state of the film rather than Shyamalan. So with that outta the way, let's get going!
First, we gotta address the characters, because dude, they couldn't have gotten them more wrong if they tried. I know what I'm about to say is the most obvious criticism of the movie, but why are the three main heroes white? Aang, Katara and Sokka were all clearly meant to reflect East Asian and Inuit origins, but here, the whitewashing is so bad that this is where the phrase "racebending" came from. What makes it worse is that there are elements of nepotism in there considering the actress playing Katara is the daughter of professional degenerate Nelson Peltz. So, simple fix: throw out the white dudes, recast them with people who reflect the characters' origins, done. But I'm only judging the books by their cover here - what about the contents? Remember how energetic, adventure-savvy and quick-witted Aang was in the show? How about Katara's motherly wisdom? Or Sokka's sharp sense of humor? Yeah, the film adapts none of that. These three do so much brooding that they wouldn't feel out of place in a Batman movie directed by Zack Snyder, making their portrayal and the film itself a total downer. It's not like these are even hard personalities to adapt. Just include moments of the three of them bonding, with Katara giving good advice, Sokka cracking jokes and Aang being ready for anything that comes between them. That's one simple fix to make and I don't understand why it was so hard for the filmmakers.
Next, we turn our attention to the faithfulness to the source material. That's right, folks, this is one of those adaptations - one that completely disregards the source material and gets it all wrong. I'd say that the only things they got right were the characters' names, but then I realised they don't even get that right, seeing as they continually mispronounce them. First, the bending. The bending effects in this movie go on forever - in the time it takes for Aang to waterbend, I could run to the store, buy a can of beans, walk out the store, trip on a piece of concrete, spill my beans, skin my knee, mess up some guy's shoes, nearly get the shit beaten outta me, run back to the store, buy more beans, leave the store again, and walk back home, and the waterbending would still be going on. So, easy fix: we speed it up so A. it leaves more room for more exciting bending abilities to show off, and B. the action scenes don't become boring. Then we have the portrayal of Ozai. In the show, for the first two seasons, Ozai was always kept in the shadows to build up to his inevitable showdown with Aang. Here, from the moment he's introduced, he's always on screen. I would suggest they keep him in the shadows from the beginning, but as that may be a little hard to film for a whole 103 movie purposely avoiding seeing Cliff Curtis, so my workaround is having him be in the shadows during the first two acts, then revealing his face in the climax. Then you have the most frustrating deviation from the series: the earthbender prison. In the show, the earthbenders were held on a metal ship, making it impossible for them to just earthbend their way out of there. Here, the prison is in a forest, surrounded by earth, so it would be easy as all hell to escape. In fact, the place looks more like an earthbender's outpost rather than a prison. I'd understand if they couldn't make the set due to a low budget, but seeing as this movie cost $150 million, I think they can afford a damn metal ship set.
Finally, we gotta talk about the tone. The animated series was an emotional powerhouse, but still balanced the serious moments with some levity to keep it entertaining. This film, however, only adapted the serious moments with none of the levity and also none of the heart. Why's that? Because most of the scenes are just non-stop exposition. One of the biggest rules in visual storytelling is "show, don't tell", and this film throws that rule out the window to the point where every last sentence in this movie is dedicated to some form of exposition. And as a result, the film overall lacks any sort of humanity. The movie as is skims through a lot of the characters' relationships, like the three leads, particularly Sokka and Katara, and especially reducing the romance between Sokka and Yue to just one scene. So, what do I do? Add in more scenes of no action, no bending, but rather the characters just sitting back and talking. By that, I mean including scenes that establish these characters further, expand on their personalities and backstories. Don't have Katara narrate how Sokka and Yue became fast friends, show us how that friendship blossomed. Don't just have Aang talking to his ancestors, show us the weight of him being the Avatar sinking in. These are really simple fixes to make to give the movie and its cast a little more humanity and soul.
So bottom line, if you recast the three leads with actors who reflect the characters' backgrounds, give them more moments to build and establish their characters, make it more faithful to the series and give it more humanity by employing more visual storytelling instead of exposition, then I think I may have fixed the movie. What do you think?
About the Author: JF the LOLZOR
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