Nice site you have here. I’ll have to come back more often!

I honestly wonder if Shayamalan gave these actors anything on their characters to pull from, cuz the characters from the show are not in this film at all. It’s like they received their name and costume and were told to say their lines. And the dialogue was (supposed to be) part of that character portrayal. I laughed in the theater at the dialogue. I wanted to strangle whoever wrote it. (Wasn’t it Shayamalan?) Overall I did not get a sense of WHO these characters were.

I thought the 3D effects were not there, much less to their potential. MAJOR disappointment in that area for me. I wanted stuff flying at my face, and their final product just floored me, but not in a good way. I was actually told that it originally wasn’t shot of 3D, but that they added it later. So I guess I have to let that argument go since I found out this tidbit of info.

I agree that this movie seemed rushed, and that things were not developed as they should have been. For example: who Aang is and how he deals with being the Avatar and his regrets are a big part of the show that make you come back for more. You could not connect with this movie like you can the show. But some things, like Zuko and Ozai’s relationship, aren’t really developed in the show in season 1. They come about more in the 2nd and 3rd seasons (or books, as they refer to them). So I can understand them leaving that out, but still.

If anyone is interested, I have a post on my own blog about this movie, as well as others I’ve seen. Check it out if you’d like the full break down of my review and what made it SOOOOOOO bad.
http://ml1214movies.wordpress.com

Anyway, my only comments are that I enjoyed this review and even if I had not seen the film I don’t believe it would have been spoiled for me. You gave a fresh and unappointed statement on the subject that didn’t feel forced (much unlike the film itself.) I think any reasonable person would expect the races to be displayed as prominently in the film as they were in the cartoon (though I’m aware that it wasn’t much more than a skin tone thing from my perspective,) even if they’re not familiar with the source material because of the lore displayed in everything surrounding the story. Even assuming someone hasn’t even caught a glimpse of the “source material” and generally hasn’t heard of Avatar: The Last Airbender before being introduced to the film.

The way some have responded to this seems blind and extremely biased. I applaud for replying fairly to positive and negative comments, even some that are frightfully painful to read.

I don’t find it surprising that you were shocked at the white actors while going in expecting a marital arts film, while you never specified which trailer you saw I would like to remind the other commenters who so quickly jumped to the conclusion that you were ‘blowing your cover’ with that comment in saying, maybe she didn’t see the same trailer as you. The only trailer I ever saw was the one in theaters were Aang is in his temple, and the camera zooms in to the approaching fire tribe, none of the other characters are seen. Even if that isn’t the one she saw, do you remember ever detail of every movie trailer? People take from it what they will, I actually had to REWATCH the trailer for this comment because all I remembered from the trailer was Sokka and the Princess kissing.

I don’t find it weird that she comments on race even though she claims she had no predisposition to the race factor before the movie. If I saw a romantic comedy chick flick with a non white (or maybe black in rare cases) couple I’d be pretty shocked too. As someone who is also not white, sadly, I notice race a lot as well. Being asian I definitely have a predisposition to this movie, and am offended (asian actors are no where to begin with! Why do they gotta keep taking them out of the only films we’ve got?) However that has nothing to do with this review

I think it’s great that she commented on dialogue, films now and days it’s so easy to say ‘wow the effects were great!’ Really in the end it all falls on storytelling no matter what shiny sparkles the film may be dressed in.

Also, R-girl I’ve been reading some reviews, and it seems like you are not alone – fans and non fans agree that the movie wasn’t all that.

also, it might seem rushed because there was so much in the season that they probably couldn’t fit easily into just a couple hours, but m. night really wanted to get everything, and even the co creators were telling him to leave out certain things for they’re not as important. he worked closely with them on this film, so i expect them to not leave out much, but i’m hoping you’re exagerating on how rushed it seemed…