I've been a total failure when it comes to things. So! I'm surprising everyone and actually writing something. HUZZAH!
Okay. So I was totally looking forward to the Avatar movie, as I'm a huge fan of the cartoon. I hesitated to watch the cartoon at first, mainly because it was on Nick and they're pretty much assholes. But, after being convinced to watch it I was hooked. They did an amazing job with the show!
*sighs*
This is where the joy stops. Writer, Director and Producer M. Night Shyamalan isn't famous. To be honest he's really only had one or two good movies. So when I found out he was working on Avatar I was really pissed. Thinking (this was silly of me) that he would hire writers, or something, all would be okay. Months went by and all we got were little hints at how awesome it would be.
The first let down was when they announced the cast. Two things were wrong; the racial miscasting and the white washing. You were either white, or just looked wrong. It wasn't really all that surprising, it was just a little sad. Some members of the cast fit their characters perfectly; others did not. I let this go, mainly because it was from an American company, what else would you expect? Not to mention this was the least of their problems...
And then the trailer came out. I was SO pumped, as most people were. The acting looked strong, the CGI was breathtaking and the plot looked strong and well written. Boy was I surprised. We sat down in a nice quiet theater (Lots of couples shoving their tongues down each others throats) on a Friday night. Sure, I'd read reviews (Rottentomatoes.com gave it a 9%) and had told myself that while the reviews were bad, there was still a chance. So for a hundred and three minutes, I sat there with my jaw dropped and suppressing tears. It was awful. Just horrible!
The dialog was crap. It was unreal and stiff, it's like the writers had never talked to anyone else in their small pathetic lives! OH WAIT.
THERE WERE NO WRITERS.
Mr. Shyamalan wrote the entire thing himself, and instead of deflating his ego and hiring writers he just wrote the script himself. He edited it himself too, I'm thinking. I kept watching the credits, praying, that the man didn't write it himself. At least I could blame Nick for hiring shitty writers. BUT NO. It really shows that he didn't hire real writers. The plot was a bit of a disaster too, but I'm willing to over look that. The first book was really long.
The other main part that really bugged me was the spirit of the movie. It was just so different from the cartoon. Part of it was because they pronounced everything wrong, and part of it was because of the poor adaptation. Aang went from a light hearted kid to some war hardened monk, which was really disappointing. Sure, his situation stunk but jeeez. He's 10 years old! Katara was pretty much dead on, her dialog was horrible though. Sokka, the comic relief (Along with Momo and Appa) was a complete let down in the movie. Again, not the actor's fault. The dropped all of his jokes and he became this serious protector of his sister. Not that it's a bad thing or anything, he did step up as a leader when he needed to. He just...made mistakes and was always doing something funny. And Iroh. Oh Iroh. I can't even talk about him without making myself sad. Moving on!
The martial artists were fantastic, everyone was amazing and it was the highlight of the movie. They did hire real martial artists, so while the acting suffered a little bit they looked amazing (When it comes down to it that's really all that matters). The CGI was good, I had trouble focusing in spots, I'm not really sure what caused that- I didn't see it in 3-D, I heard that it wasn't worth the extra $5 and it wasn't well done. Mr. Shyamalan must have done that himself too- but it wasn't really enough to irritate me to the point of leaving. The locations were stunning, I would love to visit their filming sites!
So, honestly save your money and don't even bother with this one. It really is a shame, because it had so much potential and could have been an incredible movie. I joke about it a lot, but it's really just sad. At least I have hockey season to look forward to...hopefully.
Hope I didn't ramble too much!
--Kit
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