what a twist it sucks
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
reasons The Last Airbender film is hated
before we begin we publish new content
every day so be sure to subscribe to our
channel and ring the bell to get
notified about our latest videos for
this list we’re going over why The Last
Airbender is such a despised film and
considered a poor adaptation of its
source material to be clear we’re not
saying we hate the movie but we kind of
understand why people do number 10 the
tone is wrong you seem to be having a
lot of nightmares lately you want to
tell me about it Avatar The Last
Airbender is a cartoon that expertly
balances comedic and dramatic moments
with each mood rarely stepping on the
other’s toes
in contrast the movie barely has an
intentional laugh to be found during its
entire runtime with an overly serious
approach to the material and the few
jokes that does have dead-on-arrival
even the dramatic moments fall flat
because of well a whole lot of things
we’ll get to later
bottom line an adaptation should capture
the tone of the source material and The
Last Airbender didn’t even try taking it
to my ship if you don’t come
Oh burn down this village I’ll go with
you number nine
bad 3d conversion should we try it yes
we should following the boom in
popularity of 3d movies in the 2000s a
host of big-budget blockbuster set out
to cash in on the craze however some of
these were actually originally shot in
2d and then converted after completion
The Last Airbender was one such example
and as in the case of other movies that
tacked on the extra dimension in
post-production the results were widely
panned as drab and unnecessary the
lackluster 3d only further enhanced the
perception of the last airbender as a
shoddy production number 8 in correct
pronunciations The Last Airbender did a
lot of disservice to the show it’s based
on including dropping avatar from its
title to avoid confusion with James
Cameron’s Avatar but one of the more
bizarre alterations is the fact that
several names and words are consistently
pronounced incorrectly frequently spoken
words like avatar are butchered despite
being the focus of the story
worst of all even the names of main
characters like aang and sokka are
mispronounced um can you hear me we
could understand if the only source
material had been a book or a comic
their names are spoken aloud in
practically every episode of the series
it’s like no one on set even watch the
show Aang would never turn his back on
anyone number 7
bad directing that child is being
arrested what he was bending tiny stones
at us from behind a tree it really hurt
contrary to popular belief M night
Shyamalan isn’t the worst director ever
he has a distinctive style that works
well for some material just not for this
one
Shyamalan hallmarks awkward close-ups
static shots cool colors and emotionally
distant characters are all featured here
and feel especially jarring with a kind
of warm and adventurous story he’s
tasked with telling Shyamalan inability
to alter his style to bring the much
more dynamic and light-hearted cartoon
series to the big screen is one of the
number six bad acting no one taking
anybody away while it was tempting to
put this under the umbrella of Shyamalan
s bad directing the bad acting in this
movie is so front and center that it
deserves an entry all on its own
although a few members of the cast like
Dev Patel do their best with what
they’re given the majority of the
performances in The Last Airbender make
would seem expressive monotone delivery
and awkward facial expressions abound
and to be honest it’s hard to take
anything seriously when we’re trying not
to cringe or laugh at the delivery we
should go visit some of these towns on I
need to tell you something what is it
all I ran away before they trained me to
be the avatar
[Music]
sometimes a mediocre movie can be saved
by decent action this is not one of
those times the fight scenes in the
cartoon show utilized bending to
complement the characters movements and
create fantastic well choreographed
scenes however by comparison the bending
in The Last Airbender is absurd
requiring flurries of action for very
little effect and with very little
dynamic movement from either the
fighters or the camera
in fact the fights look more like dances
than battles with actual stakes making
them yet another aspect of the movie
number four they stuffed the whole first
season into one movie you will not ready
do week The Last Airbender is based on
avatars first season book one water in
order to condense 20 episodes of
television into under two hours of
runtime massive swathes of plot had to
be trimmed including some key
information that gives context to what’s
going on of why character development
and entire subplots that are important
later on in the story unfortunately
instead of trying to adapt the story to
the new medium
Shyamalan tries to throw in as much as
he can while omitting the smaller things
that give the story life speaking of
which what is this number three
exposition dumping thanks for bringing
offer to me the Fire Nation is up to
something I have to go back now we’ll
come with one of the biggest rules of
storytelling is show don’t tell M night
Shyamalan must have forgotten about that
one since most of the dialogue in The
Last Airbender is devoted to exposition
all means to ask you something I have to
talk to the dragon spirit
he can help me defeat the Fire Nation
characters speak to one another almost
exclusively in terms of exposition
either outlining what they need to do
next or giving context to actions taken
by them or others through ham-fisted
commentary all often preceded by the
words as you know if you want a story
explained to you this way
we recommend Wikipedia number 2
incorrect characterization a badly told
story can still be enjoyable if you like
the characters but the last airbender
gets those wrong to the Aang of the
source material is a reluctant avatar
who loves having fun and feels burdened
by his destiny but his movie counterpart
is relentlessly somber similarly comic
relief characters Sokka and Iroh lose
their goofy natures and only the latter
retains his cunning Zuko
while accurate in broad strokes loses
all his subtlety as does the romance
between Aang and Katara understanding
the source material especially the
characters is essential for an
adaptation so while we’re on the subject
of not being able to recognize the
characters who are you number one
whitewashed characters I probably should
get home
you’re not so upset not as much as I was
arguably the most visible thing wrong
with The Last Airbender is the casting
the characters in the film are clearly
different races than those in the show
Hollywood has a long history of
whitewashing roles but this is one of
the most egregious examples in recent
memory
we understand wanting to cast people
based on talent rather than race but
that’s clearly not the case here Plus
given that the antagonists are all dark
skinned while the heroes are light
skinned the implications are really
unfortunate avatar the last airbender
has a diverse cast of characters based
on many nationalities if the filmmakers
threw that opportunity out the window it
can be friends you know
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from WatchMojo
and be sure to subscribe and ring the
bell to be notified about our latest videos
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
reasons The Last Airbender film is hated
before we begin we publish new content
every day so be sure to subscribe to our
channel and ring the bell to get
notified about our latest videos for
this list we’re going over why The Last
Airbender is such a despised film and
considered a poor adaptation of its
source material to be clear we’re not
saying we hate the movie but we kind of
understand why people do number 10 the
tone is wrong you seem to be having a
lot of nightmares lately you want to
tell me about it Avatar The Last
Airbender is a cartoon that expertly
balances comedic and dramatic moments
with each mood rarely stepping on the
other’s toes
in contrast the movie barely has an
intentional laugh to be found during its
entire runtime with an overly serious
approach to the material and the few
jokes that does have dead-on-arrival
even the dramatic moments fall flat
because of well a whole lot of things
we’ll get to later
bottom line an adaptation should capture
the tone of the source material and The
Last Airbender didn’t even try taking it
to my ship if you don’t come
Oh burn down this village I’ll go with
you number nine
bad 3d conversion should we try it yes
we should following the boom in
popularity of 3d movies in the 2000s a
host of big-budget blockbuster set out
to cash in on the craze however some of
these were actually originally shot in
2d and then converted after completion
The Last Airbender was one such example
and as in the case of other movies that
tacked on the extra dimension in
post-production the results were widely
panned as drab and unnecessary the
lackluster 3d only further enhanced the
perception of the last airbender as a
shoddy production number 8 in correct
pronunciations The Last Airbender did a
lot of disservice to the show it’s based
on including dropping avatar from its
title to avoid confusion with James
Cameron’s Avatar but one of the more
bizarre alterations is the fact that
several names and words are consistently
pronounced incorrectly frequently spoken
words like avatar are butchered despite
being the focus of the story
worst of all even the names of main
characters like aang and sokka are
mispronounced um can you hear me we
could understand if the only source
material had been a book or a comic
their names are spoken aloud in
practically every episode of the series
it’s like no one on set even watch the
show Aang would never turn his back on
anyone number 7
bad directing that child is being
arrested what he was bending tiny stones
at us from behind a tree it really hurt
contrary to popular belief M night
Shyamalan isn’t the worst director ever
he has a distinctive style that works
well for some material just not for this
one
Shyamalan hallmarks awkward close-ups
static shots cool colors and emotionally
distant characters are all featured here
and feel especially jarring with a kind
of warm and adventurous story he’s
tasked with telling Shyamalan inability
to alter his style to bring the much
more dynamic and light-hearted cartoon
series to the big screen is one of the
number six bad acting no one taking
anybody away while it was tempting to
put this under the umbrella of Shyamalan
s bad directing the bad acting in this
movie is so front and center that it
deserves an entry all on its own
although a few members of the cast like
Dev Patel do their best with what
they’re given the majority of the
performances in The Last Airbender make
would seem expressive monotone delivery
and awkward facial expressions abound
and to be honest it’s hard to take
anything seriously when we’re trying not
to cringe or laugh at the delivery we
should go visit some of these towns on I
need to tell you something what is it
all I ran away before they trained me to
be the avatar
[Music]
sometimes a mediocre movie can be saved
by decent action this is not one of
those times the fight scenes in the
cartoon show utilized bending to
complement the characters movements and
create fantastic well choreographed
scenes however by comparison the bending
in The Last Airbender is absurd
requiring flurries of action for very
little effect and with very little
dynamic movement from either the
fighters or the camera
in fact the fights look more like dances
than battles with actual stakes making
them yet another aspect of the movie
number four they stuffed the whole first
season into one movie you will not ready
do week The Last Airbender is based on
avatars first season book one water in
order to condense 20 episodes of
television into under two hours of
runtime massive swathes of plot had to
be trimmed including some key
information that gives context to what’s
going on of why character development
and entire subplots that are important
later on in the story unfortunately
instead of trying to adapt the story to
the new medium
Shyamalan tries to throw in as much as
he can while omitting the smaller things
that give the story life speaking of
which what is this number three
exposition dumping thanks for bringing
offer to me the Fire Nation is up to
something I have to go back now we’ll
come with one of the biggest rules of
storytelling is show don’t tell M night
Shyamalan must have forgotten about that
one since most of the dialogue in The
Last Airbender is devoted to exposition
all means to ask you something I have to
talk to the dragon spirit
he can help me defeat the Fire Nation
characters speak to one another almost
exclusively in terms of exposition
either outlining what they need to do
next or giving context to actions taken
by them or others through ham-fisted
commentary all often preceded by the
words as you know if you want a story
explained to you this way
we recommend Wikipedia number 2
incorrect characterization a badly told
story can still be enjoyable if you like
the characters but the last airbender
gets those wrong to the Aang of the
source material is a reluctant avatar
who loves having fun and feels burdened
by his destiny but his movie counterpart
is relentlessly somber similarly comic
relief characters Sokka and Iroh lose
their goofy natures and only the latter
retains his cunning Zuko
while accurate in broad strokes loses
all his subtlety as does the romance
between Aang and Katara understanding
the source material especially the
characters is essential for an
adaptation so while we’re on the subject
of not being able to recognize the
characters who are you number one
whitewashed characters I probably should
get home
you’re not so upset not as much as I was
arguably the most visible thing wrong
with The Last Airbender is the casting
the characters in the film are clearly
different races than those in the show
Hollywood has a long history of
whitewashing roles but this is one of
the most egregious examples in recent
memory
we understand wanting to cast people
based on talent rather than race but
that’s clearly not the case here Plus
given that the antagonists are all dark
skinned while the heroes are light
skinned the implications are really
unfortunate avatar the last airbender
has a diverse cast of characters based
on many nationalities if the filmmakers
threw that opportunity out the window it
can be friends you know
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from WatchMojo
and be sure to subscribe and ring the
bell to be notified about our latest videos
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