Just a note: Aang didn’t freeze himself in the iceberg to run away from his responsibilities as Avatar. He actually got in an accident with Appa and it was life threatening, so his Avatar State activated to save his life and freeze him inside the ice. He wasn’t aware of it happening, which is why he is so confused afterward.
Yes but he blamed himself because he "neglected" his responsibility as the avatar. The accident was when he planned to temporarily run away because he was overwhelmed with being the avatar and distressed at the idea of being separated from monk gyatso. He hated that he had no choice in his life because he was the avatar
Aang was running away from the pressure of being the Avatar (which I'd be other avatars did as children cuz it's a lot of gd pressure for anyone) but he wasn't running away when he knew people needed him or abandoning people since the war started only after he disappeared. He woke up to find out the war had started and his people had been wiped out.
zoojyby93 well, because of the impending war they told Aang that he was the Avatar when he was still very young. The previous Avatars had time to mature and he didn’t. That’s why he ran away while his previous reincarnations most likely didn’t
@NitroFairyWing I'm still not over the fact that they make a whole fucking dance to just move a rock of the size of a hand. Like literally, just pick it up, it's way less humiliating
Their first mistake was to make Avatar: The Last Airbender into a movie. There were maybe like, one? filler episode per season. Condensing a ten-hour season of efficient character and world development into less than two hours was a a cursed idea.
It wasn’t even one episode per season, it was just ONE: The tales of Ba Sing Se. all the other episodes had something that played a big role in the development of the story. And to think someone actually thought it’d be a good idea to make a movie out of it 😭
I think that if they had broken up the books into 2 or 3 movies per book, it could have been a really good saga like Harry Potter. That's assuming that they didnt change the names, change the ethnicities and got some good Sokka humor in there.
Shyamalan really didn't understand the importance of zuko's hair timeline, as weird as that sounds. Him cutting off his ponytail marks the end of a character and the birth of a new one, this movie adaptation Zuko doesn't have that. Imagine the series without Zuko ever cutting his hair off and imagine how different everything would have been.
@@mariajoaquinacarvajal5904 Literally as a kid I would tell people my favorite season was the last by saying “I like the show after Zuko cuts his hair “
but like in asian languages A's are soft, so it would more realistically be pronounced aaaahhhnnnggg even if it is pretty cringey. Maybe they were trying to make it more accurate?
@@chelseahollis4423 I mean... but there were a few very important, like the speach to the earth benders or her little arc against the water bender master. The first one was given to Aang and the second was nonexistent... so bad...
@@CeCeBookworm07 thanks god I screamed this at the movie when I saw it😭they couln't bend the earth that was the whole point...people were fu*** kidnapped by the firenation so they could hava a friggen slavery going on where they did not want them to be able to start a riot🤨and Katara bought them hope god damn while Sokka and Aang made it possible for the eartbenders to bend something else on the ship (it's Kohle in German i forgot how it's called in Englisch) this shit makes me soo angry I cannot watch it without having three heartattacks and 150 000 000 deaths in every terrible made secound🥴
She would have literally been some preppy white chick except her characterization would have been exactly like the one episode with the play- "my name's toph, cause it sounds like tough. I don't see like you do, I release a sonic wave from my mouth!" [scree]
Dang, the movie makes a bit more sense to me now with that comparison. Thank you. Plus, M. Night wanted the Juiciest roles to go to Indian actors. His favorite "Legend of Aang" character is Prince Zuko, so he cast Dev Patel and other South Asian & West Asian/Middle Eastern actors to be the Fire Nation. Unintentionally or not, Tyler Perry's best & most memorable Drama characters are his villains. They've got the best lines and for better or worse, they're almost iconic. Still, he seriously needs to stop casting darker black actors as villains & the light-skinned black guys as heroes all the time. Idk if M. Night is necessarily a colorist himself, but the film's casting came out that way in the end. He forgot that casting brown people like him in Cool villainous roles while making white actors the "heroes" carried Shitty implications. He thought he was doing his South Asian community a favor, but it backfired. He initially planned on making sequels to cover the rest of the cartoon series, wherein the actors playing Azula and Ozai could shine. But we all know how that idea ended.
I don't know if this makes it better or worse, but apparently he originally had his heart set on a white guy for the part of Zuko (I think Shia Lebeouf?), so all the Fire Nation- and all the main actors in the entire film, by default- would have ALSO been white. But when that guy didn't want to do it, we got the All-Indian Bad Guy Nation. Again, I'm not really sure what light this sheds on the situation, but there we go. We could have either had 'everyone is white' or 'only the bad guys have dark skin', there was no winning with Shyamalan.
ALSO apparently the reason the water tribe is white is because he was 100% set on this particular actress for Katara and would not even consider anyone else, which is depressing on so many levels.
@@thisasiankidistrashfordram374 oh that is an interesting backstory, I was so confused as to why he’d make all the bad guys the same or similar race as him. I can finally be at peace knowing the real reason makes sense, but damn that still sucks.
The thing that really gets me about this movie is that when he agreed to direct it he admitted he never actually watched the show, he saw his daughters watching it one day and was basically like “I can do that”. The fact he wasn’t even familiar with the source material makes this an actual hate crime.
"If you're a waterbender...why are you white???" Oh my God Kendall you can't just ask people why they're white! The original series didn't have a single white person in sight. The entire series was mostly Asian.
This movie saddens me because the actor cast as Aang actually grew up loving the show and he must have been so excited to be a part of the live action remake. He's a black belt and everything, too, so if Shamalamadoo was so keen on whitewashing everything, Noah Ringer actually made sense for this. However.... Yeah. He white af, but Shamalalaland thought he felt "mixed with an Asian quality". That's a direct quote. I can't make this shit up.
I remember I watched an interview with M. Night about this movie and he said something along the lines of - “the thing about anime characters is that they have culturally ambiguous features” ...firstly: no , secondly: no
You may be able to argue that with other shows, but ATLA was so Asian influenced! Almost everyone was supposed to be Asian (except the Water Tribes and The Sun Warriors). The whole lore of the show, the cultures of the different nations (besides the Water Tribes), etc., was all Asian inspired! Making the whole cast for the live action White and Indian (only represented in the original show by the Guru) is just beyond disrespectful to the source material.
Okay. Avatar, completely different story. Generally with anime they're "ambiguous", but you can easily assume they're really from Japan. (unless they explicitly state they're from somewhere else.) The avatar was clear though. It had races and cultures, unique to each area.
He’s right tho. A lot of anime is racially ambiguous and just mostly lighter skinned characters and it’s from Asian creators themselves. But he could have changed that, he didn’t have to follow through
The fact that I didn’t know what characters were playing Katara and Sokka until someone said their names speaks volumes on how whitewashed this movie was
Yvanna Bats Fr they could’ve got a ton of Asian Americans that would love to act or Asians who can speak English. They choose White people because they want white people to seem superior. Honestly it’s bull shit.
I will say the girl could play katara is the actual voice actor for her who tried to tell the dumbass director who had no business touching this story...I just have so many grapes other than white washing
I remember when I was little and asked why the main characters were white and a white kid in my class said with their whole chest "its cause they couldn't find asian people good at martial arts and could speak english" and I was like :I also as a dark skinned asian person, i would say you hit the nail on the head abt asian criticism in media cause i never do see asian people like me and my family or friends -- i usually always see half white asians as if those are the only acceptable asians to be seen on screen
I watched this when I was 6 years old and I didn’t remember anything other than I liked the idea, but the movie was boring. Watching this after almost finishing the series I now realize why people hate it and I hate it. KILL IT, KILL IT WITH FIRE.
I have a feeling some people think half Asians or quarter Asians know English, because half Asian means you're possibly half white, having a white parent, meaning you learned English. But when you're FULL Asian, you only know your native language and you don't know how to speak English. Bruh, wtf?! There are Asians out there who know how to speak their native language AND English.
He actually was one of the only people on the team who watched the show and read the books who wanted things to stay accurate, but everyone else wanted big changes
Example: I can name every white dude who had a hand in writing the declaration of independence and can answer any fact about Abe Lincoln and how he was mercuful enough to "free" the slaves, but the history books dont tell us how he was actually quite racist and that Obama was not the first black president of the United states. Best to just read and think for yourself before it becomes illegal.
This is worse because I'm attached to the source material. I can only imagine what a person deeply attached to the Cats musical felt watching that movie
AND THEN THEY FUCKING MADE SOKKA SERIOUS AND PRONOUNCED IT SOCA. IT WAS LIKE THE EPISODE WHEN THEY WATCHED A PLAY ABOUT THEMSELVES BUT SOMEONE ACTUALLY TOOK IT SERIOUS
At first I thought they changed the pronunciation for copyright issues incase Nickelodeon had a copyright on the pronunciation of their names but then I thought "that makes no fucking sense" how the hell could they butcher the pronunciation?? Katara literally says their names at least 3 times an episode
Kennie: "they spend a hot ass three minutes explain the backstory of this one girl that's just gonna die." me: "her name is Yue and she iS A KIND AND GENTLE LOVING LADY.
"I had a Zuko kink." You're not the only one. Zuko was fine and had a nice voice. Plus you gotta love the character development. Edit: Oh wow! This blew up! Thank y'all for the 1k!!! 😭♥️
Honestly when he made the Fire Nation Indian, I thought he was doing the opposite. The Fire Nation had the BEST characters, so when he made the ruthless Fire Nation, well ~INDIAN~ I was like; really, you made everyone white and brought the one group of Asians that weren’t in the show (except the guru) and made them the antagonist ?
When they did that whole dance routine just for that one small rock to slowly float across the screen broken something inside me.I have yet to recover from that scene and it's been years...
YES THIS MOMENT. I'm glad I'm not the only one! I normally don't talk much while watching movies but after that happened I remember turning to my friend in utter disbelief while also trying not to burst out laughing
Can we talk about how they had to convince the “prideful” ( because remember the earth nation have their pride) earth benders to fight for their freedom on ground. Meanwhile in the show that happened on a boat to isolate them from their element and take them away from defending themselves. Then on top of that it took 5 benders to move one rock. Yea. Ok. Clearly sham doesn’t know how strong a bender is let alone fire benders don’t need fire present to bend 🙄🙃
The main detail of the fact that fire benders don't need there fire in order to fire bend was a detail that frustrate me throughout the WHOLE movie (besides them slaughtering a simple name as aang). And at the end of the movie, they had the audacity to be amazed when someone did fire bend with out the present of fire. I almost swore so loudly in the movie theater. Like "duh ya'll are suppose to have the ability to do that". I was looking in the comments to see if anyone else was heated about that
Hakuna Matata oh I was heated about that XD. But not as much as the ship part being altered. It’s lightning bending that’s a rarity. And honestly how could the fire nation be anyone if they needed fire present let alone be winning a war. Can you like imagine XD earth and water would be laughing their asses of like your on our turf assholes.
@@hakunamatata9580 I made a comment on that separately, but it was honestly such a dumb drawback- she's right, if you got hit by that sad display of "power," you deserved it. At that point, why even bother to rely on bending at all? It's much more efficient to just run up and stab them instead.
YES!!! That's the worst part of the movie hands down!! Like in the show they were on a ship and weren't aware of the concept of metal bending so it made sense but this movie straight up keeps them on land and only when they come and tell them "hey you guys can earth bend" do they go 😮 then start using their bending like really??!!
I do want to say that the casting call for this was EXTREMELY offensive - it leaked online and the casting director encouraged extras to bring, like, 'artistan crafts'?? TF?? - and when you learn that M. Night took on this movie because his kids loved it and changed the name pronunciations for 'accuracy' everything TRULY unravels
'Accurate' pronunciations? This man...it is a fictional world in anime for crying out loud. He should have centered that accuracy around the actual story and character traits.
Not only that, but apparently he LOVED the actress who played Katara so much (which...dude...really? That acting?) that he was like "Yep, all the waterbenders need to be white so she can be Katara". Also he originally wanted JESSE MCCARTNEY as Zuko?!!! So I guess everyone was gonna be white?!! Honestly, I can't tell if that would be more or less racist...
I remember coming out the movie theater and this older white woman said “that movie was so bad”. She had the stankiest face too. she haaated this movie
I just looked it up and I'm damn near ready to cry just from looking at two of the thumbnails including the movie thumbnail, I shoulda stayed cluelessssss!!!😢😢😢😭
I was looking for this comment... I was wondering if anyone would suggest the Dragonball FAILURE after this piece of garbage.... I didnt want to be the one to do that to Kennie
The funniest part of the film to me is when Aang is trying to cheer the enslaved Earth benders up and he says, "Earth benders, why are you acting like this? There is earth... _Right beneath your feet."_
E x a c t l y. The whole point of that episode was that the earth benders were trapped on an IRON SHIP and they needed Katara and Aang to get them earth to escape. Everything was so stupid...
I haven't even fully watched Avatar and even I noticed this because it's just such a basic plot hole. They on land, they ain't in cages so for once Kanye is right, this was a choice.
@Okyhonne i know your comment is so old but I screamed at this in the film. It’s like they didn’t want a women to be the one that freed the earth nation slaves😭 I can’t understand how such a progressive kids /tv show was able to be written so badly for a film. I’m so glad both the last air bender and Korra are on Netflix and prime so the younger generation can see how lit our kids shows where back when we were young ☺️☺️☺️
Hollywood: (doesn't give ATLA, Percy Jackson, Eragon or any beloved "kid's" media a faithful adaptation) Also Hollywood: LeT's GiVe FifTy ShAdEs oF gReY aNd TwiLiGhT FaiThFuL AdApTaTiOnS
@@mariamali5002 Because she was given an inordinate amount of control in her movies. More control then Rick Riordan or Bryke did for some reason. Still, we can blame it on EL James.
I've been trying to forget Eragon's movie adaptation for years now but I still can't...as much as I like Sienna Guillory, her version of Arya is just...no
Maya Malla couldn’t have said it better myself. You know it’s going to be an ePiC cIneMaTiC MasTErpEice when the credit theme is freaking keep holding on
something that bothered me a lot (aside from what you already mentioned) is how they completely changed the way that firebending works??? in the original firebenders can literally create fire, but in the movie they could only bend fire that was around them (like how water benders need water to bend, they can't make water) and that literally changes everything?? a big part of what makes the fire nation so powerful and dangerous is that they can create fire, like are you telling me that the firenation armies have to take little fucking candles with them into battle so that they can firebend??? do they have to wait for a thunderstorm to lightning bend too?? make it make sense
@@graceford227 Firebenders do use the sun and/or their personal motivation. I think because I know that was how Zuko originally fire bended until he went to that dragon place and learned how to draw it directly from the sun. Metal bending was because metal is essentially just earth that has been changed... so they just had to focus on the earth parts and bend it like normally.
I really couldn't stand that they wanted to "level the playing field" by making the firebenders only having the ability to bend IF they actually have a source of fire near them. A main point of firebending is that they can draw the element from within themselves. That was the whole point of Aang and Zuko traveling to see the Firebending Masters & doing the dragon dance; to make their fire within stronger. Also how is that fair that firebenders need fire near them to bend when airbenders ALWAYS have access to their element? Air is everywhere. You can't live without it. Another thing is that one of the main attracting aspects of the show is watching the characters find new ways to bend their elements and grow stronger as benders. Zuko is taught by Uncle Iroh how to bend lightening, which is something very few people could do Pre-Korra. Katara learned how to bend water from plants, bend the water molecules in the air, BLOODBENDING which was a fucking GAMECHANGER. She also bended her own sweat when they got locked up in a wooden cell that Toph couldn't bend them out of. Toph learned to bend metal and became a praised pioneer for it in Korra. AND in Korra, Bolin learned to bend LAVA. You can tell he couldn't have watched the show but that's something you just cannot miss.
And now in the Kyoshi books, there are **incoming spoilers to those who haven't read them** . . . . Glassbenders and freezing someone from within (inside out). So there is a constant different bending techniques that is being explored.
wetgukk yeah same. And for the people giving her hate for talking about whitewashing, just because you’re against whitewashing doesn’t mean you’re against white people.
I think they did that because at the time Twilight was really big and they thought "lets have one of the actors from that movie in this one" and all the other actors had to be cast to fit with him I guess
The main thing that made me almost angry cry was the pronunciation of Sokka's name. There's an episode in SEASON ONE when he corrects someone for saying his name EXACTLY like they do in the movie!
Kendall: "...that sway that people on live stage do when they're trying to make a point..." Me, a post grad musical theatre major: "...Where'd all my hair just go?!"
I fourth that because this is what I've been needing. I'm about to rewatch the series for the 5th time and follow up with Legend of Korra so this is right on time.
the “bending” itself was so bad. they are supposed to be practicing Tai Chi, a chinese martial art. Instead for most of the movie they are just waving their hands around in awkward movements. (especially the fight scene with the earthbenders Aang is so ugh) Bending for the most part is executed in sharp and fast movements of Tai Chi, however water is an exception. this movie is so disrespectful to the chinese culture and the show that it’s based on.
The bending styles of the different elements are based on different martial arts styles. Only water bending is based on Tai Chi. Fire bending is Northern Shaolin, earth bending is Hung Gar, and air bending is Ba Gua Zhang. Some specific characters may use a different style or incorporate elements of other styles into their bending, like Toph, Zuko, and Iroh. Which I think just makes the cartoon's chorography so amazing and is more reason the movie was flaming garbage.
The only good live action that I’ve seen is erased on Netflix. The anime is soo good and it goes together with it pretty well. But the live adaptation goes off of the manga so there are some changes but is still really good.
I would like to see Taika Waitit adapt this show. I think he would be able to balance the serious moments with the comedy. And I really want him to cameo as the cabbage guy.
I rewatched avatar the minute it was put on Netflix and it hasn't aged a day imo. I still love it, the character development (especially Zuko and Azula. Azula's breakdown was so heartbreaking and they showed it as that not a happy victory), it shows how ugly war can be in a way that children can understand, and all the other life lessons especially in book three fire, "The Headband" episode is one of my faves because it shows although the fire nation has waged war not every fire bender is bad. Oh and "Zuko Alone", even when he saves that earth nation kid, the earth benders still didn't like him regardless because he's a fire bender. ahhhh it's amazing! the last airbender is an abomination and an insult to the original.
Something that STILL pisses me off to this day is Zuko's "scar". Like okay I'll admit Aang's arrow is pretty cool looking compared to the cartoon version (design wise still wish it was more noticeable/brighter blue) but you see that Zuko has a part of his face deadass burned to the point that his skin is practically melted, his eye can't open all the way, his ear is deformed, no hair can grow in that area at all NOTHING is pretty about the scar! Deadass one of the most iconic things about the show! Yet he saw that and decided that the absolute perfect way to show it in a cinematic adaptation, with a high enough budget to get at least a semi skilled beginning sfx artist, was to put a virtually unnoticeable eyeshadow on him and fuck up his hair a bit. The fucking disrespect.
When the ember island players is better than this movie in pacing and general accuracy, y'know we have an issue. (Ember island players was a beautiful episode though, to this day I still cry from laughing too hard)
An extra layer of sadness about the whitewashing is that shamalan said in an interview that he took on the project because his daughter loved the show and Katara so much...
There was so much source material that was dumped in front of this director and he didn't use a good 95%. Like there is no reason for the movie to turn out as bad as it did
Long ago the avatar fanbase lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the live action movie attacked. Only the creators masters of all things avatar could stop them but when the world needed them most they vanished.
And of course: A week after Kennie decides to just order the whole series, that’s when Netflix announces they’re dropping all three seasons in mid-May 😂
@@Esoteraeon Honestly I thought Zuko was cute even before he let his hair down, when he did he just got cuter to me. Even so I still remember saying Zuko's head looked like a horse's butt XD.
The thing I didn't like about the movie is that they white washed the characters and I tried to like it but couldn't. This movie really hurt my feelings it felt like they killed my childhood, and made it seem like darker people are evil and power hungry and I can't support that as much as I loved avatar just can't do it.
Ok but, have you watched I know who killed me..? ItS a “horror” that has lindsay lohan and her “twin”.... because she’s never done that before and it is one of the worst things I have ever watched
I told people I was watching this movie. Half of them asked was this a cry for help and did I need to talk to someone. And the other half asked why I was watching a movie that doesn't exist.
It’s honestly a sin to udder the words “live action” after Avatar: last airbender Edit: I’m giving the Netflix live action adaptation the benefit of the doubt, lowkey excited ngl
Netflix is doing one BUT the original writers of the cartoon will also be writing for the live action. They said in an interview that they plan on using the live action show to expand on backstories and fill in gaps of history or relationships ect. basically just polish up the cartoon. I am allowing myself to be mildly excited about this one lol
So I officially watched it for the first time today, and to explain how BAD and try-hard in the worst way it is: I've never seen a POC be BAD at trying to be cultured Aang never laughs... ONCE Katara cries the whole time Sokka makes no jokes
First off, you are one the reasons I started doing videos again, you're fucking hilarious and I think if we ever met, it would be sarcastic fuckery. Secondly, this move is so damn bad that watching this review is literally the only way I would ever watch the visual lobotomy that is avatar.
OK gonna be honest, I actually liked this movie as a kid because I'd never watched the animation and when I finally watched the cartoon I realised the live action was the worst shit ever
Happened to me with the cirque du freak saga. First time watching the movie I tough it was ok-ish, then I read the 12 books in under a week and spend three months thinking vampires were real (that's how good they were), then I see the movie again and CRIED at how bad it was cuz' they tried to mix the first THREE BOOKS at once... YIKES.
Taking a time to appreciate your make up DOPE skills. Every single time I'm like "what on earth is she doing? Why is it looking cazy?" Then out of f-ing nowhere it's a masterpiece. Like, how?????? Awesome
This movie Reminded me of that one episode where they all were living in the fire nation and they went to go see that musical where Aang was played as a female
7 year old me might have not known that Aang was Asian but I knew damn well that he wasn't white, and me and my mom equally hated the movie like it was so long when you watched it and then it was over and you're like "Is that- Is that it? Bitch WTF?!" Like ma'am hello? hello? Like, I didn't know why I hated how the characters looked/the actors, like I was like the costume's right but some thing seems off 🤔 it took me a good while to realize that it was the asian erasure that got to me PS: It didn't register to me that Zuko was Zuko until like the end of the movie like where was his iconic burn scar ma'am it took up like 1/3 of his face and they made it so light where you could only see it in like direct sunlight (Edit: also why was most of the movie about the white bitch? It wasn't even about her? Sokka didn't even get with her, sir she died at the end? Like most of the movie was just like at most 3 episodes of season 1 and was meant to cover 3 seasons in an hour and 30 minutes... Make it make sense)
i watched the series in german, where the names were ACTUALLY how the movie said them but i guess its just different because of the language. also the fight scenes are slow because they tried to do it in one shot only, if they tried to take 7 shots in just one spit of the fught instead of one, it wouldve looked better
