THE LAST AIRBENDER REVIEW: A Brilliant Adaptation!
M. Night hasn’t made a good movie in a long time… and yet when he was trusted to adapt the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender into a film, he managed to make one of the most faithful adaptations we’ve seen in years! Matt loves the original series, and Nat has never seen it, but Airbender gets a unanimous cheer from the geeks, knocking out a great adaptation, a fun movie, and a Shyamalan movie that wasn’t the Crappening!
August 8th, 2010 at 3:21 am
((I accidentally submitted the comment above before I finished. So, could the moderator please delete it for me? That would be most appreciated))
I would like to start out this comment on a positive note and say that I usually enjoy your videos and agree with a majority of the opinions expressed in them. The few times that I have disagreed with your opinions did not warrant a comment because they were only minor grievances. I really do not enjoy leaving negative comments because I would rather be positive and focus on nice things, so if either of you are offended by anything I am about to type, I am sorry and i tried to be as kind as I possible could.
I am, like you two, a geek, and a proud geek at that. I’m also a huge fan of the TV show of Avatar: the Last Airbender and I am in no way a professional critic. With that being said, I thought I would defend the opposing side of the people who have watched this movie and show you why we dislike it.
Now, I will go ahead and say that if this wasn’t an adaptation of the TV show, it would have most likely been a decent film. However, since it carries the title of The Last Airbender, this film dug its own grave by, in my opinion, lacking the fun and spirit of the original and gave us a lifeless film.
I do agree with you on Dev Patel’s performance as Zuko. Like Matt, Zuko was also my favorite character from the series and I think Patel filled the shoes of the banished Fire Nation prince very nicely. Sadly, the three main actors were not very good in my opinion. Noah Ringer’s performance was very wooden and boring. He also barely cracked a smile the entire film, which is weird since he’s playing a character that tries to look on the brighter side of things. Nicola Peltz was also wooden in her performance and annoyed me greatly, which is strange since Katara was my second favorite female character from the show (Toph takes the honor of first). Jackson Rathbone was a poor choice for Sokka because he lacked one of the most important aspects of the character; being funny.
Shyamalan, in my opinion, is a mediocre director at best. His first movies were good, but he quickly grew worse and worse with each film. While some of the stories his later movies try to tell are somewhat interesting, they lack any life or charm that makes an audience care about what they are watching. This movie suffers from this as well. The only thing I really cared about in this film was Zuko, but that was because of Patel, not Shyamalan. I think he was a bad choice for the director of this film. They should have found a director that is good at doing action scenes, but can also tell a story that captivates the audience (which is a rare thing to find in Hollywood these days).
This film was a disappointment in my eyes. I had high expectations when I walked into the theater, but those expectations were not met. I felt angry at first, but that quickly turned to sadness. While this film was not as bad as that horrible excuse for a film that was G. I. Joe, this film was still bad in my eyes.
I hope that I have not offended either of you with my comments. I respect your opinions and I believe you have the right to believe what you want to believe. If you enjoyed the film, that is completely fine. I just thought I would shine some light on why some of us didn’t and state my own opinions about the show.
Anyway, I’ll end this like I began, on a positive note. I look forward to see your future reviews (especially the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World one) and as long as you two keep making videos, I’ll keep watching.
~Cody
August 9th, 2010 at 1:50 am
How much money did Paramount pay you guys to say all that crap?
August 10th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
This review made me sick.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
I used to love your reviews. After this, I’ve lost faith in your taste, and your opinions. This film was one of the worst adaptations ever. I failed those who wanted to see the feel of the original be brought to the silver screen, and worse it failed those who had no idea what the original was, and wanted to just enjoy a good movie. There’s no way around it. This was a bad, bad movie.
August 27th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
This might just be me. So If you disagree, that’s cool.
Now I’ve seen all the episodes from all three series and seriously enjoyed them. From the swamp water benders to the sand earth benders, and even in the episode with the collection of shorts dedicated to some of the characters ( this is when appa went missing.) the bending was to the point. Each move did something. If you were going to kick someone, you wouldn’t the makaraina first! For me it was a bit to flashy. Espesially when angg is fighting in the northern water tribe.
September 13th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Please, PLEASE! Just admit it, guys! You were wrong about The Last Airbender! It’s the WORST movie adaptation of any medium!
September 14th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Hahaha! Never! I enjoyed it Heath… BOTH times I saw it! We’re just going to have to agree to disagree… after all, you DO like The Dark Knight… *shudder*
~Matt
September 15th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
You damn dirty bastard!
December 10th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
are you freakin kidding me? This movie sucks from the moment M Night signed his named to it, it completely betrays every thing the animated show set up. Even the creators of the show are embarrassed at what M Night did to there creation Worst movie adaptation Ever!!!!!!!!! and If you seriously enjoyed this movie and this isn’t a joke you wouldn’t know a good movie if it came up and bit you on your ass!!!!!!!!
February 13th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
a little late comment but I have to say it. I agree with you two. I like this movie.
I have watched the series to death, over and over again, and I must say that the movie did a pretty good job. mabye it’s because my expactations of this movie was very low. but in the end I actualy enjoyed it.
of course there are a lot of things that are missing or aren’t right accourding to the show, but in the all it was a good live action movie.
I really don’t get why this movie pisses people off so much.
well this is just my opinion, I enjoyed the review, at least know I now that I’m not the only one who likes this movie.