As I’ve been working on finishing up my sophomore year of school while simultaneously helping to make sure the house doesn’t burn down while we (my family and I) pretty much remodel it, I’ve been almost chronically online, listening to podcasts, music, and YouTube videos. While scrolling through my YouTube feed, I found a review of the notoriously bad M. Night Shamalan adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I listened to it, laughed some, and, when I got to a point where I needed to make dinner, I found that movie for free on Roku. Being an avid fan of the original cartoon, I knew what everyone had said about this movie. I knew it was going to be bad, but that didn’t stop me. I turned it on, set about cooking dinner and was amazed at the horror show that was on T.V.
#1: Costumes
The only somewhat positive thing I can say about this movie is that the costumes look okay. While they aren’t super consistent with the outfits in the original show, they still give you the general idea of who’s who and what’s what. I enjoyed that the winter outfits worn by Katara and Sokka aren’t as ornate or bright blue like they were in the Netflix adaptation where everything looks like a really good cosplay. They actually look like they could be made out of animal skins, which would be more consistent with where they live and the technology that they have. I can’t even really criticize the armor too much since even in the T.V. show, the armor was a mishmash of cultures (though some of it did look a bit hokey). But from there, everything goes downhill.
#2: You’re From ATLA? Then Why Are You White?
I think most everyone who has seen the original show then seen this movie have commented on this, but I’m still going to talk about it, because it seems that every character has been race-swapped with someone white or of Indian descent. While I don’t think there was any malicious intent in this (like we’ve seen repeatedly with other live action remakes/adaptations), it still doesn’t make any sense within the context of the original show. The original show was based off of many different cultures, most notably being Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Tibetan, and Inuit cultures. While some characters have lighter skin than others, none of them are white. Their ethnicities all are represented by what culture that kingdom takes the most from. Katara and Sokka are supposed to have a darker skin tone since they’re Inuit. Zuko, Iroh, Ozai, Azula (who is shown in this movie), and General Zhao are supposed to look more Japanese/Chinese. Aang (pronounced Ang, not ah-ng) is supposed to look Tibetan. Even for as bad as the new Netflix adaptation is said to be, from what I’ve heard of it, they at least tried to hire a cast that looks like the original characters. Meanwhile, M. Night Shamalan didn’t even try. Here are some examples so you can decide what looks better.
Original vs. M. Night Shyamalan
vs. Netflix
Zuko from show
Zuko from M. Night Shyamalan (Where’s the scar? It’s barely even there.)
Zuko from Netflix
Aang from show
AHH-NNG from M. Night Shyamalan
Aang Netflix Edition
Even if the actors in the M. Night Shamalan movie had done a good job (which they didn’t), I still would’ve been wondering why they look so different from the original show. If you’re going to make a faithful adaptation of a story, make sure the people look like how they’re supposed to look instead of going the lazy route.
#3: Exposition Dump
I just love it when movies or shows are in such a rush to get through every story beat that they just tell the audience what’s happening instead of showing you what’s happening. Immediately, the movie gives us an uninteresting prologue that was nowhere near the masterpiece that was the prologue of the original show and when Aang comes out of the iceberg, instead of building up his character and having people figure out exactly who he is on their own, we’re just immediately told he’s the Avatar with little explanation and are expected to go with it. This doesn’t just stop with the beginning of the movie either. This continues for the entire thing, especially when the events that are occurring are supposed to take place several episodes after the last plot beat. For example, when the Gaang are with the Northern Water Tribe, we’re just told that Sokka and Princess Yue have become good friends and are in love with each other without any explanation for why. It’s just there because it was in an episode.
Now contrast this with the original show where there were full episodes lasting 20-30 minutes dedicated to building up the lore of the show, who the characters are, why the Avatar’s important, what the cultures are like, what people’s motives are, etc. This allows for amazing character development that allows the viewer to connect with the characters and give them something to root for. In the M. Night Shyamalan-a-ding-dong version, we get none of that. It’s all just thrown in our faces, and we’re expected to understand what’s going on.
#4: Jankety Timeline
Due to how long the first season is (21 episodes to be exact) and how short the movie is, we end up getting a timeline that is very jumbled. The writers clearly bit off more than they could chew, meaning that events that were originally several minutes to several episodes apart are randomly smashed together into an almost unfathomable mess. Each plot point hits you like a freight train going a hundred, there’s no room to breathe, and things that take a long time are filled in with those crappy exposition dumps I mentioned earlier.
#5: Characterization Who?
Characterization? Who dat? Never met her.
Because of the jank timeline and constant exposition dumps, every character is really flat. They just do things because the plot needs them to and seem to have no soul. This makes the movie extremely boring to watch as they just move and act like a bunch of chronically tired people trying to make a few bucks to keep up on rent.
Once again, compare this to the original show where there were full episodes dedicated to character development. Even from the start of the show, we see the main things that make the characters fun to watch and root for. Sokka is the funny, sarcastic one who wants to be a man. Katara is the motherly one trying to make sure Sokka and Aang don’t blow up the world. Aang is a kid who is being forced to grow up to fulfill a mission that he didn’t want. In the movie we don’t ever get to see these things and the characters feel bleached of any personality.
#6: Bending
The bending in this show looks like the film crew just got the actors to start doing some sort of interpretive dance. The movements are very slow and the reactions of the elements they’re bending are even slower. While, yes, in the show, some bending required slower, more precise movements (such as waterbending), they were still way faster than whatever M. Night Shyamalan gave us. In the show it looks like the actors did some moves and someone remembered, “Oh yeah, I need to CGI a floating rock here,” and then timed it incorrectly.
#7: The CGI
The CGI was giving me Sharkboy and Lavagirl vibes, it was so bad. I realize that Nickelodeon was helping to produce that movie and maybe that’s where they got the CGI from, but that’s still no excuse. Appa and Momo look terrifying, the bending looks horrific when anything does move, and in a few places, I could see where the CGI was fuzzy around real objects.
To sum up, don’t watch this movie unless you want to lose IQ points.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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