Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Last Airblunder?! Let's Discuss Shyamalan's The Last Airbender || Avatar Month
58 Plays26 days ago
Planning. Recording. Editing. Marketing. Long ago, these four skills lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the podcast bots attacked. Only Chatsunami, master of all four skills, could stop them. But when the world needed them most they vanished...
Yes it's finally time for THAT episode. Join Satsunami and Andrew as they tackle what could quite possibly be one of the most infamous adaptations of all time! But why did M Night Shyamalan's vision of Avatar: The Last Airbender fail? And why do fans recoil in horror even when it's mentioned today? Let's find out in this episode of Chatsunami!
This podcast is a member of the PodPack Collective, an indie podcasting group dedicated to spreading positivity within the podcast community. For further information, please follow the link: https://linktr.ee/podpackcollective
Check out all of our content here: https://linktr.ee/chatsunami
Website: chatsunami.com
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ChatsunamiPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chatsunami/
TikTok: tiktok.com/@chatsunami
Patrons:
Super Pandalorian Tier:
- Battle Toaster
- Sonia
- Ghostie
- Cryptic1991
Red Panda Tier:
- Greenshield95
- Danny Brown
- Aaron Huggett
Free Members:
- Middle-aged Bodcast
- IRIDYSCENZIA
- Rob Harvey
- Aaron (Super Pod Saga)
- Billy Strachan
Use my special link zen.ai/chatsunami and use chatsunami to save 30% off your first three months of Zencastr professional. #madeonzencastr
Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr
Stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated!
Recommended
Transcript
Content Warning & Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, Andrew here. Before we start this Avatar Month episode, I just want to warn our Mandalorians listening that this episode contains content that some viewers may find upsetting, including the murder of the source material. Come on, and it can't be that bad. Look, let me just put in the DVD and... No, wait! One eternity later... Yeah, Andrew was right. That truly was terrible. That's rough, buddy. Welcome to Avatar Month.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to the third episode of Avatar Month. My name is Satanami and joining me today is the, well, I was going to say filmmaker extraordinaire but compared to who we're going to be talking about today, you honestly look like Spielberg as the other than the one and only Andrew. Andrew, welcome back. Hi everyone, glad to be back but not glad to talk about today's topic. Yeah, today's topic is a bit of a bummer, as you heard by the skit slash disclaimer at
Challenges of Film Adaptations
00:00:59
Speaker
the beginning. Yeah, we are going to be diving into quite possibly one of the toughest topics that we have ever discussed in the whole Chatsunami Cinematic Universe. I mean, we've talked about bad films like Bardemic, the Super Mario Brothers film, Andrew and I, we've talked about Death Note. Dragon Ball Evolution. Yep, Dragon Ball way Evolution as well. Who did I forget that considering this topic is all about life? action adaptations. Yeah, we are indeed going to be talking about, as the title suggests, we are talking about an Avatar Month topic that is still infamous to this day, and that of course is the
Initial Reactions to Avatar Announcement
00:01:38
Speaker
M. Night Shyamalan adaptation of The Last Yearbender. Before we go on and um talk to the lovely listeners, as if they were our therapists,
00:01:47
Speaker
Andrew, starting with you, as we've established in the last couple of episodes, you are an Avatar fan. Did I say an Avatar fanatic? You grew up with this. You love this series. How did it make you feel when, first of all, it was un announced that there was going to be a live-action adaptation, and then second of all, when you actually had to subject yourself to this film? When it was announced, I was apprehensive.
00:02:13
Speaker
But I was kind of excited because it meant more of the thing that I liked, even if it was just a recreation of it. I didn't really know much about M. Night Shyamalan and his work prior to this. He hadn't quite established himself as being a kind of controversial director at that point. He was still well known for The Sixth Sense and the opening trailer that shows Aang blowing out candles in a temple with his airbending. It was pretty cool. So I was apprehensive, but there was a little bit of an excitement there. As more of the film was being revealed and the build up to it, the more concerned I was getting and then upon its release and early kind of critical response, I was already fully against it and I was very disappointed. I managed to avoid watching the film because I knew how bad it was going to be, how upsetting it would be to me at that age, because it came out in 2010. So I would have been 15 at the time, maybe 14. So I didn't want to subject
Avoiding the Avatar Film
00:03:03
Speaker
myself to that. I remember my mother at the time sort of saying, oh, do you not want to go see it? You love Avatar. Should we not go and see it? I said, no, I've heard what it's like. I really don't want to go and see that. And she was so like shocked and surprised, but it's subsequently been regarded as one of the worst films ever. Major blockbuster films ever, at least.
00:03:19
Speaker
And I had seen kind of clips of it over the years and it has been on TV and I'd see little bits of it, but I never actually sat down to properly watch it until just the other day for this episode. So I have subjected myself to the film for the first time for you lovely viewers.
00:03:35
Speaker
yeah I'm not going to lie, I'm in the same boat here. Not so much the going to see it at the time because, as I said in the very first episode of this month, I wasn't really a big Avatar fan until, of course, Andrew Nye Ben University.
Becoming Avatar Fans & Adaptation Hesitance
00:03:49
Speaker
He airbended his copy of Avatar The Last Airbender to my door and then I absolutely fell in love with the series. I thought it was amazing. And I had heard about the end for May 4th Avatar The Last Airbender but I never sat down and watched the M. Night Shyamalan version, I had heard it was terrible. I heard it was on par with the live-action adaptation the year before, which was, as you mentioned before, Dragon Ball Evolution. It seemed to be like a period of really bad live-action adaptations, I have to say, because we had that with Dragon Ball and people must have thought, oh, how can it get any worse? And lo and behold, M. Night Shyamalan showed us up And usually when we do these kind of episodes, I don't like to be overcritical because I know at the end of the day that the particular film or the particular project that we're discussing is somebody's vision, it's someone's passion project, there are very talented people involved. For this one, however, I feel as if it's on the same level of Dragon Ball evolution in the sense that everybody just wanted it over and done well. They wanted to direct it, write it, edit it and then just throw it out there, get so many other sequels out and then that was it. What's quite interesting with both those films is that directors of both films are predominantly horror or thriller movie directors. Neither of them have been able to create a horror movie quite as scary as the final production of either Dragon Ball Evolution or The Last Airbender. It's amazing to think that even 15 years on, which makes me feel so old, but 15 years on, we are still talking about this film in the pop culture sphere.
Concerns About Live-Action Adaptations
00:05:30
Speaker
Even last year, we had the Avatar The Last Airbender live-action adaptation on Netflix And don't get me wrong, it wasn't the worst that was actually quite good in a couple of regards, but there seems to be this obsession with trying to right the wrongs of the past, ah especially with this film. Because genuinely, when they announced that they were going to do a live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender, everybody seemed to think, oh, is it going to be like the a Night Shyamalan version? Oh, it's going to be like the Shyamalan. It was just everywhere, wasn't it?
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah, again, I was using the word apprehension. There was certainly a lot of concern and apprehension that it was just going to be exactly the same as the Shyamalan one, that the source material didn't lend itself to live action, or if it would lend itself to live action, it would have to require a serious amount of effort and working alongside the creators of the franchise, which it initially did. And then due to creative differences, they parted ways. And so at that point, fans got very concerned that we're just gonna have another Shyamalan Last Airbender situation with the live-action TV series. Fortunately it wasn't quite as bad as that, but it still has its own moments. I feel as if, and this is a whole other episode in itself, but I definitely feel as if they have to move away from trying to adapt to the Last Airbender into live-action. Although they've already done it, they've already greenlit Season 2 and everything, and don't get me wrong if that's how future generations are going to get into the original show then that can only be good but they just have to be careful that they don't replicate another M.
Social Media Reactions
00:07:04
Speaker
Night Shyamalan situation here. Before we dive into it and before we talk about our pros and cons of this film. Namely Collins, not so much pros. I went to all the usual social medias, all the usual haunts. I went to threads, I went to twitter slash x, I went to blue sky and I asked the lovely panda lorins out there what they thought of this film. Andrew, are you curious to hear what people are saying 15 years on? Yeah, I am curious to hear what the Pandaloreans have to say about this masterpiece. So the first one comes from Blue Sky, and this is from High Hammock Radio, who says, I saw this at a midnight premiere with some buddies. He sat in a depressive funk
00:07:46
Speaker
the whole way home. that's rough buddy That's simultaneously the funniest yet most depressing review for this film. But it does get worse, don't you worry. it Over on the Twitter sphere, Shifting Tones podcast said, I was so excited to see it as a kid and then was so disappointed. Some aspects were cool but that Earthbending scene made me want to throw up. All we know, and we will be getting on to that.
Mixed Viewer Opinions
00:08:12
Speaker
Monty says, I want this film to be erased from existence. That is all. And last but certainly not least, from the Podpack Collective chat, we have actually two very interesting points here. So this first one comes from Reboot Deeboot Podcast, who says, trigger warning, chaos and the surface of the sun level take here.
00:08:35
Speaker
I have never seen a single episode of Avatar, nor do I plan to. However, I saw this in theatres and thought it was very okay. I totally understand the hate that the movie gets because of the lack of understanding and total disregard of the source material. I'm sure it's a pile of hot garbage like the rest of Shyamalan's movies. That being said, being a total and complete novice to the Avatar world and outsider perspective, it's very mildly all alright. To which our very good friend in the Podpak seismic cinema said, I didn't like it when the humans were shooting the blue people. but then followed up and said that they're also a bit like reboot, never watched the cartoons and thought it was alright. It was just a typical fantasy film of the time, very flashy and not so memorable. To which then, reboot reboot, last comment says, I remember seeing this in theatres and feeling okay with the money I spent on the ticket, which of course is not a consensus view there. That being said, I'm sure I missed out on character growth, development, chemistry, story, and world law and background. I can assume this because I have been on the other side of the fandom wherein a subject I understand and follow has also had bite-sized versions released.
00:09:52
Speaker
Now that is an interesting perspective that I've never really thought of because when you think of this movie a lot of people that are complaining about it rightfully so are fans of it but it's never usually casual cinema goers is it? No, you don't hear that much from that. I mean, I'd like to see some of the Rotten Tomatoes scores from general movie critics who won't have had an influence of having watched the show. And they did not paint it in a great light either,
Beginning the Avatar Film Analysis
00:10:17
Speaker
though. So I don't think it's just a fans being upset with the movie situation. Yeah, I think it's just a terrible film overall. But you know what? See without any further ado, we've been holding back this element of chaos long enough. Well, we'll just dive into it. Yeah, if we have to. And as always, we'll be right back after our therapy session. Previously on Chatsunami, we've analysed what makes a good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs James Bond, and listened to us take deep dives into both the Sonic and Halo franchises. Also, if you're an anime fan, then don't forget to check us out on our sub-series, Chatsunani, where we dive into the world of anime. So far, we've reviewed things like Death Note, Princess Mononoke, and the hit Beyblade series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out on Spotify, iTunes, and all big podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:11:21
Speaker
We are Sizing Cinema. I'm Colin. I've probably not seen it. Paul's watched it in the wrong order. And I'm James, and I've probably written an essay on it. And that side of the cinema, we believe in the power of escapism.
00:11:36
Speaker
Oh, thank God for that, that'll do. Phew, what a great session that was. Unfortunately, we have to go and face our demons as there are red panda lawyers slash therapists. He is honestly working overtime today, but that's beside the point. but He isn't a hybrid animal, he's got a hybrid jobs. That's true. He's like the opposite of an avatar animal. isn't it? So while we just start at the beginning of this film, and I know that sounds like a bit of a cop out but I genuinely do not know how else to tackle this film.
Critique of Film's Introduction
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's best place to kind of pick it apart piece by piece, scene by scene, not quite to that level because we don't want to be here all day. It starts out with this weird long intro monologue
00:12:16
Speaker
Yes, the TV series, like the intro of the TV series, we were talking about this two weeks ago. It starts with this monologue from Katara, where she kind of quickly summarizes the plot of the show, which gives you kind of a synopsis of what happened prior to the events of the show and and get you kind of leading up into that. This, and I believe this is voiced by Mae Whitman, the voice of Katara in the cartoon, not the Katara actress in the movie, which they have an odd decision. It doesn't follow the actual same lines that is said in the show. It deviates a little bit. It gives you like a tidal crawl as well. Do you know what it reminds me of? It's, see when you were in university and you got the perfect paragraph that summed everything up, but obviously you can't read that verbatim, so you had to add your own extra bits in and it just comes across as being really, really clunky. That's what it felt like. They asked chatgpt to slightly lengthen a paragraph. I mean, honestly, a church APD back then, they would 100% have used it. You're right, it's just it' so clunky and what's really stupid as well is they have the benders at the beginning, they bend their respective elements and whatnot and then they have the title crawl.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah, they should have had the tile crawl or like the person talking over that like they do in the show. So you don't have to hear the weird, clunky audio effects that they try and match to the elements. It's not taking up so much more time to start the film. I think that's one of the, one of, and I'm emphasizing that, major problems with this film is the constant narration. It's all about telling and not enough showing in this film. It's constant katara going oh and this is what happened and that's what happened and I know why or I partly know why. It's largely because they're trying to summarise 20 episodes worth of TV series into our 20 long movie. I don't even know how long this film was. It could have been forever. It felt like forever. They're trying condensed this 20 episode show into a movie and so they're having to like skip over things and briefly touch upon a little bits of the show. At one point during like a montage they seem to go to Omashu. You don't see any of the fun stuff from Omashu which is like a huge fan favorite location and scene and like episode. They just brush over these things and it's such to the detriment of the story.
00:14:28
Speaker
It definitely feels like the cliff note versions of Avatar but not in a good way, not like the Netflix series does and granted the Netflix series condenses the story and it's all in a very special way but but at the same time you've got eight episodes that are about what 40 to 50 minutes in length, maybe an hour. The Netflix series ends up being pre-equivalent to the length of the 20 episode first season of Avatar, The Last Airbender, just because of how long each of those episodes were. But as you said, it has a kind of similar problem where they have to skip over a little bit or what would have been its own episode is now like part of two episodes you get jet as well as this other random storyline that they're doing. And so you don't really get a chance to concentrate on a specific storyline there. It just kind of pops around. Whereas this just doesn't even
Mispronunciation Issues
00:15:18
Speaker
bother. you're not even really meeting most of the characters and this has been pointed out before where like Zuko appears to them at the very start of the movie and they have that fight with him, they leave the boat and then they don't see him again until the very end of the movie. You're gonna hear this a lot in this episode, there's a lot of weird pacing choices, there's a lot of weird characterisation and it just it feels as if in no shade to some of the actors. I know certain actors like Katara got in, not by Have you actually heard about this with Katara's actress? The nepotism thing? Yep, that's the one. It was a favour to her father, who was a billionaire slash very cosy to Paramount, and Paramount were like, yeah, sure. Bringing in your daughter is one of the main characters for this album, and I don't think she's overly She is not the worst she's no no she's not the worst actress in that movie but I mean that's not saying much. I was talking to this but with my wife and her sister because I get mixed up with the most recent live-action TV series and the Shyamalan movie with the actors because there was a controversy surrounding Sokka about lying about his Native American heritage. And I thought that was for the Shyamalan movie, but actually it was for the most recent series. So I couldn't remember whether or not that was the case for the q guitar actress if the nepotism thing was for this one or for the live action TV series. And also fun fact, she's actually married to, you know, David Beckham's son. What, Brooklyn? Yeah, apparently so. That's your fun trivia fact. Wait, which one? The Shyamalan Katara? Yeah, Katara and the Shyamalan film. She's married to Brooklyn Beckham. That's funny.
00:16:57
Speaker
That has nothing to do with the film. I just thought that the listeners would like to know that fun fact because it's probably the last fun fact you're gonna get as we descend into the madness here. I had so many thoughts. I actually wrote them out. It's a bit like therapy. I wrote them out. how I published them on on Twitter and Blue Sky. I was like, okay, this is what I'm thinking so far. Basically, for anyone who's wondering how much of this film covers the original series, this is based off of the first book, Water, isn't it? it's condensed into about, as you said, I think it's an hour 40. I could be wrong, it's like an hour 20, hour 40. It's not a lot of time in comparison to the show that had time to breathe with 22 or so episodes in comparison to this. And something that that I really didn't like was just the fact that in Avatar, as we spoke about a couple of weeks ago, Avatar has this very much emotional core to it. It is one of these things you look at, you think, oh it's kid friendly, oh it's goofy, and then when you actually sit down and watch it and you see this story that has been so lovingly crafted, you realise, oh, there's more to this show. But then when you get to this one, there is no emotional core whatsoever. And that was made very apparent when Sokka decides to act like Anakin Skywalker. That is the best way I can describe it. You were saying the same thing, weren't you? Yeah, Sokka comes across so much like Hayden Christensen. His chemistry with Yue, the princess of the Northern Water Tribe, is so wooden It's so bad. I mean, you'd made a joke in your notes that you'd published to Twitter, and it's also sent me the it was like watching a dead fish and which is appropriate for you a because she becomes a dead fish. Sorry to steal your jokes, sir. Oh, man. I don't have got more.
00:18:48
Speaker
i've got plenty in the bottle to It's so painful. The actor that plays Sokka, Jackson Rathbone, is so painful. He's such a bad actor. He keeps doing weird shit with his face. Are you familiar with the Jasper face from Twilight? o vehiclely So, Jackson Rathbone plays Jasper in Twilight, which is one of Edward Cullen's brothers. Because the story in Twilight is that he struggles to be like a vegetarian vampire, which just means not human blood. It drinks animal blood instead. He struggles a lot. And so Bella has very attractive blood to vampires. And so every scene where he's in a room with her, he's making the face of trying to contain himself. And he just looks so derpy.
00:19:30
Speaker
actually clearly is perfect for that because that's his resting face, he constantly looks like that. My wife couldn't stop laughing every time he was on screen because she kept remembering the Jasper face which she showed me both a picture of and she did a limitation of it so I'm very familiar with it now. It's so uncomfortable, he just looks like he shit his pants. Because that's exactly what you want to think about when you think of Sokka from the TV show, isn't it? This proud Water Tribe warrior who looks like he's about to shut himself every two minutes. I think what annoys me is he is probably the worst character assassination out of all of these characters. Again, I half joke when they say he's like Anakin or Hayden Christensen to be more accurate, but he genuinely felt like his portrayal in Attack of the Clones where he is obsessed with, and talking about Attack of the Clones, not this one, but where Anakin's very obsessed with his love interest Padme, and he's like, oh I gotta to protect you because i I'm a protector, I love you.
00:20:31
Speaker
you know, that kind of energy, let's face it, that he's bringing to the table here. And Sokka does that in this film as well. He brings down the mood quite a bit. There's a bit at the very beginning where Katara says, oh, what would happen if the Fire Nation took me? What would you do? And he literally, no hint of a joke here, turns round and says, I'll kill them all. Not just the men with the woman in show. Okay, he doesn't say that, but I was expecting this. He is so serious. You're just watching this character going, really? Is this? And again, I don't know if this is the actor's interpretation of this pun-loving meme ward of the Southern Water tribes or is it a director's thing? I think it's a director's thing. I hope it's a director.
00:21:14
Speaker
it turns thing It's just such a weird, weird choice. And of course, in the first 10 minutes, we get the exposition of the
Visual Execution Critique
00:21:24
Speaker
world building. We get the discovery of the Avatar. Well, they say in the original show Aang, but in this, they decide to call him Aang, which I make this note later on. I don't know if you remember this. It wasn't until the end of the film that clicked what it sounds like. It sounds like Tim Curry kind of pronounce the name Aang, so he's going around going, ooh, Aang, how you doing? Aang. There were four egregious ones to me. There was Aang, there was Sowka, like they didn't say Sowka, they said Sowka, or Suck, or Sucka. Eero, instead of Iero, there was General Eero. And then, are you the Arvitar? Arvitar? What?
00:22:06
Speaker
What was up with that? Are you the arbiter? I can't believe I'm bringing this up in this episode, but do you remember the derp memes? Like the 2010s where it was like, oh, derp derp. People tried to be quote-unquote random. Yes. And just mispronouncing things intentionally. That's kind of what it's like here, but the only difference is it's a multi-million budget and they were told to say it like that. Yeah, the arbiter.
00:22:30
Speaker
Completely forgot about that. They spent so much money in this movie. They spent $150 million-ish on the movie, and then another $100 million on marketing it. Where was that going? i've no like They green-lit $250 million dollars for the trilogy, because this is going to be a trilogy of movies.
00:22:47
Speaker
And so Paramount had said we're going to give $250 million, assign $250 million for you to make three movies. They spent 150 on just the first one and then had to spend another 100 million marketing it. And it was so garbage. They had to like bust ass trying to cancel all the other projects that they were going to be doing with this.
00:23:04
Speaker
I cannot even begin to see where the budget went in this film. Don't get me wrong, there are one or two very, very rare moments where the film does look good, in particular with the design of the fire nation ships and things like that. and some of the uniforms. Again, I've got this as a pro and con in my notes here. that The pro is when they get the outfits right, then they do get them right, but they seem to have this obsession with desaturating everything. There's barely a hint of color in the Southern Water Tribe. When you look at the Southern Water Tribe, they're always wearing their blue coats and things. In this one, they just look like
00:23:45
Speaker
like a typical Inuit community and it's like, what are you doing here? It was just so baffling to see them take the joy and the visual elements that made Avatar so interesting and just make it gritty and serious. I don't know if this is the mindset of, you know, oh it's gritty, it's serious therefore it's a more adult than a cartoon show. It was absolutely baffling. Did you feel like that? See with the design of the whole film. There are elements of it that you could see that they were trying to do a lot with special effects, the outfits and the towns and that kind of stuff. And there may have been limitations at the time and with the budget they had to do that, but it did just lack any kind of personality for something that they wanted to feel grounded, just did not feel that way. It looked.
00:24:31
Speaker
So Saturday morning Power Rangers-esque action and like set pieces, this random kind of dirty area between these two cliff sides was going to have some Taekwondo. It doesn't look right for all the source material. And you'd mentioned earlier about them kind of wanting to make it a bit darker. I was looking at some of the quotes prior to us recording where he said that a lot of inspiration for the direction of the film came from a friend of his who wanted to take away more of the slapstick stuff. that was there for little, little kids, the fart jokes and things like that. So they wanted to ground Katara's brother and really did wonderful things for the whole theme of the movie. And this is the weird thing as well, because see as soon as we're introduced to Aang, sorry, Aang, never gonna get old. You see how happy he is, obviously, to get out the iceberg, but something that really unsettled me was the fact he was way too happy to be out of the iceberg. You know, I don't get me wrong, I know he's a child and everything, but he was far too smiley for someone who didn't realise that 100 years had passed.
00:25:30
Speaker
I don't get how you can look at a franchise like Avatar and say, oh no, the kiddie stuff is. And I can see their point of view, but I think it's a severe misunderstanding of why people like those elements, why they like an upbeat Sokka instead of whatever the hell we got in this film. Sokka is, as a character, he is a little bit more serious than likes of Aang. He's usually the one like, why are we playing around right now? We need to be getting on with the mission kind of thing. He does like have his sarcastic side and he does enjoy a bit of a joke, but he's serious and in some ways. I can understand to some extent, but you don't need to just remove any level of personality from him. He just he seems like he's just there. What did he contribute in that movie? Not much to me. honest because that actually takes me perfectly onto quite possibly one of the most infamous scenes of this film.
Earthbending Scene Critique
00:26:22
Speaker
You know what's coming up Andrew, but one of the most infamous scenes in this entire film and one of my main problems with it, that of course being the earth-bending prison camp.
00:26:33
Speaker
There is misinterpreting the source material and then there is someone telling a friend of a friend of a friend who watched an episode or two of Avatar explain it to you and then you have to adapt that. This was somehow worse than that because for the people who don't know what we're talking about, in the TV show, the Fire Nation do quite a clever thing where when they capture a particular element bender, they will put them in a place that they cannot utilize that power. So for waterbenders they'll put them underground, for earthbenders and in particular this they put them on a big metal ship in the middle of the ocean where they can physically bend. In this one they decide that oh we're going to take these earthbenders who as the name suggests they can manipulate the ground below them they decide to put them in the middle of just this, I don't know, this dirty village forest place where they are surrounded by earth. They're in a secure prison. Open air. Always wander into it. I think it's more like a town that they have occupied, I guess. But they've still got the big Fire Nation gate on it. It's really hard to tell, isn't it? Because what I find quite insulting is when Anne comes in and they
00:27:49
Speaker
Hey guys, um you ever thought that maybe you shouldn't be prisoners? And then they're like, oh no we would, but the Avatar's dead and we've lost all hope. And then he takes his head down and he goes, I'm the Avatar, can you maybe ah rise up now? And they're like, holy shit, that's the Avatar, let's rise up. And then they do the most baffling. I describe this as jazz hands with extra steps, but with the element bending in this film, it feels as if they literally have to do a song and a dance before anything comes out of their hands or any element is cast forward. And then of course we get that infamous scene where seven earthbenders take a rock that you could hold on your hand and then they punch
00:28:32
Speaker
One guy. A Fire Nation soldier. Yeah, I'm going to hand it over to you with all those points. No wonder they've been subjugated. If it takes, as you said, about seven of these Earthbenders to lift this tiny rock in this weird marching dance thing that they do to slowly hover it over to another guy who then just fires it a fair bit faster at one Fire Nation dude, no wonder it was so easy to keep oppressed because they clearly are really rubbish Earthbenders. Or maybe just Earthbenders in general is really rubbish in this interpretation of the universe. What's really frustrating about that is in the TV show, earthbenders are a very formidable force to be reckoned with. You know, you've got the city of Ba Sing Se and you've got to mash in things and you can see how they can repel things like metal tanks and they can hold their own, they can repel hundreds of Fire Nation soldiers. They are so powerful and in this it's literally just Oh, we could throw a rock. Here you go. That's the thing. In the cartoon, the freeing factor when they managed to get them, they're on this big metal barge, as you said, that's prison. And they discover that it's being powered by coal, which earthbenders are able to manipulate. And so they just need to get a bunch of coal to the earthbenders and they figure out a system of doing that. And then once they do that, the earthbenders are able to overpower the Fire Nation and free themselves. And in this, they're just like, look around you, you're surrounded by earth. And they're like, Oh, yeah. Who'da thunk it? Even the movie acknowledges the fact that it's stupid. Thank you, Avatar. I don't mind the plot line that they kind of go with that's like, the Avatar has returned and it helps inspire each kind of village to rise up against their Fire Nation oppressors. And now they know that they have a united front and that if they all do it together that they can fight back and win.
00:30:13
Speaker
I don't mind that as a plotline. That works. Other stories do that, and that's fine. It's just the way it was presented was just so lazily done. Like I said earlier, it felt like a Power Rangers bit. There was nothing well thought through about it. It's something you brought up there as well, that they came to just skim over.
00:30:30
Speaker
that whole arc of going through these Earth villages. After they pretty much say they stop being such losers and being subjugated by a foreign power, they fly off with what I can only describe. I know it's meant to be Appa, but it looks like something from Where the Wild Things Are. He is terrifying, isn't he? Genuinely, I wasn't really paying attention to his face. And then it see the scene where they're flying to in the Northern Water Tribe? That's the one. It's like a close-up of his face. And I genuinely, I was sitting in bed and I recoiled. I was like, oh my God. Horrifying. We had the same reaction because we hadn't really, as you say, we hadn't really seen his face close up until that point. We were kind of like, it looks kind of whatever. It looks a bit weird. I don't like it that much. But then we were like, Oh my God. When my wife's sister came over the other night, we watched the honest trailer for them the movie. I just wanted to give her a quick snapshot of what the movie was like. Cause she's not seen it and not going to see it. And when that scene showed in the honest trailer, she was like, is that Appa? And we were like, yeah. And she's like, Oh my God. I was like, yeah, I know. Right. Cause that is genuinely horrifying. and then of course after that bit we just get narration after narration that Aang is inspiring hope and blah blah blah and we also get one more mispronunciation that I don't think you mentioned and I honestly picked up on this immediately because it's when they're talking about Zuko who is played by Dev Patel in no shade to him because genuinely he is a fantastic actor but in this I can see why he acts the way he does because I think he watched
00:31:59
Speaker
about the cartoon to get an insight into Zuko's character, and Zuko very much is quite shouty and very brash and arrogant and obviously there's a character arc there, but in Book 1 he is a little bit insufferable so I can understand why he acts the way he does. That being said, he genuinely looks like he's had a can of Dormio or something slammed against his face, because the makeup goes from sometimes looking really good to, oh right, it kind of looks mildly red. are you in? Yeah, I was about to say Agni Kaido, but it's not an Agni Kaido. As Zuko tells us, it's an Agni Kido. I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder. I think everybody got fired for this blunder. off
00:32:44
Speaker
I'm not gonna lie, I just wanted to point out there's some bits where you think, oh right, maybe the actor slipped up once or twice but if it's the rule out of the film, something went wrong with the writing and the directing for sure, which obviously you don't need me to tell you that. I also love the scenes, sorry, to see before we get to the Northern Water Temple, which is pretty much the end of the film. There is that moment where Anne gets captured, he goes to the Northern Air Temple and he gets kidnapped by the Fire Nation and There's this guy, can I talk about this guy who's larping as an ear-monk in the temple? He leads him to the room where it's a room of reincarnation where he's got all these previous cells as statues up there and he brings up the line of, oh I'm sorry I had to betray you to the Fire Nation but ever since they took over I've been living in poverty and don't get me wrong, that's a very valid reason and it would hold emotional way.
00:33:40
Speaker
If not for the fact that that air temple was deserted and he's probably living it up there in this big-ass temple. Yeah, I mean I guess he might not have been living there, but how did he know he was going to be there? Like honestly, and I said this to my partner, they've set an ambush for Aang, but they had no reason to believe he would be there. And that guy who seemed to be leading him to this place, there was nothing to suggest that that would happen. Unless there was a section I missed, did he get like a letter or something telling him to come to the temple? No, there's this scene where they're relaxing at the side of the river and they say, oh, the Northern Air Temple was nearby. I just want to visit it. I'll be back in a day. And that's it, I think. I can't remember the reason in the show, but definitely in this. In the show, he gets captured by these like specialty archers while he's trying to get some medicine for Katara and Sokka, who've got this really bad cold slash pneumonia from the previous episodes where they were on a ship during and bad weather. And so he gets captured by the Yu-Zen archers or something like that and gets taken to Admiral Zhao's prison camp thing for questioning. The eternal question from Avatar fans after watching that is like, why do these archers never get used again? They're the only ones to successfully capture the Avatar and they never come up again. Where does the Euro know, dammit?
00:34:57
Speaker
in the cartoon they have a storyline that kind of makes sense from that but the movie just makes no sense as to like why they were there and how he got captured. Yeah he just ends up getting captured. We've got the whole loose spirit scene who I'm going to be honest I don't know about you I think he looks like a sleep paralysis demon.
Weak Plot Points
00:35:15
Speaker
you know he's got the very traditional mask on and Zuko's hiding his identity as the Blue Spirit spoilers but he is because let's face it this film is long enough as it is. They have a very Zack Snyder-esque slow-mo fight to break out and the funniest thing going back to something you said at the beginning was he takes off the mask of him and he's like, it's you! That person that I met once in literally met Zuko once and he takes off the mask as if, oh my god, it's such a big reveal. Really? And then of course, they end up going ahead. There is a very stupid line where when they actually get to the Northern Motor Tribe, someone says the city was built to withstand everything, says the man who lives in the city of ice fighting against Firebenders, which I thought was very stupid, and then of course begins the...well, they've really glossed over. And again, I don't want to keep comparing to the show, but I feel as if I have to, because there's a really nice arc where Katara learns how to waterbend from one of the masters in the Northern Water Tribe, and the Northern Water Tribe master doesn't want to teach her, so she tries to prove herself against them. And that is a big thing of character development, and I can understand in the way why they cut it from the film But what's weird is they've been building towards that, where Katara is like, oh, I'm not a good waterbender, I've got to learn how to be a better waterbender. And that felt like the perfect opportunity to bring that up, but I feel as if they just kind of cut that and said, nah, it's fine. She'll learn along the way. It's fine. tandem to the Katara learning waterbending and fighting against sexism. We also get Sokka and his introduction to Princess Yue that they kind of start falling in love with each other. But in the movie, we just immediately skip to the chief being like, Sokka, look after my daughter. I have to do warrior shit and she needs to be protected. There's nothing prior to that. No it's not even that because I do remember how this went down. When they get to the Northern Water to Tribe they go up and it's all explained through a narration from Katara again where she's like, oh Princess Yuri and my brother go along well, oh they're falling in love I honestly felt like I was watching an audio description version of this film with the amount of time she just randomly popped up to describe things. And then, as you said, the leader of the tribe was like, alright, I'm gonna go away to do Warrior Shit but I need someone to defend my daughter. And Sokka turned round and goes, I'll do it, I love your daughter. but the good Good eye protectors. You've met her for like, what, a few hours? Maybe a day if I'm being generous here? It's like voiceover Katara, how long have I been here? We've been here for three days, it's like that year. Going back to Katara actress who were talking about her earlier, I'd read a thing that Shyamalan had said that he did not want to make The Last Airbender without Nicola Peltz, who played Katara, only once before my career, and that was when I met Hailey Jo Osman in the Sixth Sense Auditions, had I said that. I mean, not in the fact her dad does a billionaire that's cosy with Padman and probably didn't hurt either, but What do I know? She's such a bizarre situation. She had been in other stuff prior to that as well. Maybe everything was after that. I mean, the thing is, a lot of the actors maybe bar the actor who plays Aang. A lot of them went on to do different things after this film. You know, as you said, Jason Rathbone, he went on to do Twilight, or that might actually have been before. yeah So Twilight Eclipse came out the same week that this did. why is role He was in both movies. And so he was nominated for a Razzie Award for both roles as Sokka and as Jasper. Oh Jesus Christ. but He's got a rough career, on the bit ah but i admire the tenacity I'm not I admire someone who's been in two Razzie films and picks himself up. Oh my god. As I said though, going back to the film sadly, the only kind of positive I'll give this film is again there's some nuggets of good visuals, one of which being the coal and the ash falling on the city, or rather the fortress, and you know that harkens the beginning of the invasion from the Fire Nation, I genuinely did like that. I thought, oh that's a really good visual. Despite the fact that, as I said in my notes, the Northern Water Tribe gave me, and I don't know if you felt the same, it felt very much like the Golden Compass. That kind of whatever moment they're in a nice place. It felt very much like that. Well, when they were the the polar bears? Yeah, they only seem to actually remember from that film when the polar bears fight. It kind of felt like that. And again, I don't know if that came before wo or after this film. It came before, I'm pretty sure. The Golden Compass was a bad movie, but that polar bear fight ruled. Yeah, that was sick. It's got the chance to now be stuck with my approval. It's like, that film sucks, but damn, those polar bears. He ripped off his jaw, damn it.
00:40:07
Speaker
Anyway, I wish I was watching that instead of this, but there's actually one person we haven't mentioned, so and well rather two people, and it is the antagonist of this film.
Fire Lord Portrayal Issues
00:40:19
Speaker
That of course being the Fire Lord, who they do not make an attempt, do they, to make him shrouded in mystery and menace or anything. He's just like a surly dude. He's not even surly. He doesn't even look intimidating. My note was Ozai looks just like a dude and seems to have more faith in Zuko than you'd expect given the story. He's like, ah, General Zhao would be careful. My son will be you to it. Whereas in the cartoon, he thought his son was a moron. I mean, they watch all the burned half of his face off for questioning him. It's such a weird decision again. I mean, even when General Zhao, which I have to say, he's not the best. He's sort of the worst. He's just kind of there. Although I did like his diss against Iroh. Yeah, he loves like a passive aggressive comment. Oh, he's such a bitch, isn't he? Yeah. yeah it and How can exposition luncheon?
00:41:08
Speaker
Yeah, he just decides to tell the plot of Zuko's backstory to a room full of people who definitely already know it. And it's just awkward in the universe and it's just awkward to watch on our end as well. Oh, that was so funny. It was giving me steam time. I hope you're ready for an unforgettable luncheon. As you know, this is the final episode of Blah Blah Blah. You're like, someone, what are you doing?
00:41:31
Speaker
What are you doing man? One of my favourite scenes is See After Zuko dies, well quote unquote dies, or show thanks he dies. This is like the hate canon response I had for him where he's like, I think you're a brilliant strategist Thayru, except you failed to breach passing's side, your son and your nephew are dead, and you still live on. Other than that, you are. Perfect. He is such a passive-aggressive bitch. Yeah, you're speaking to one of the most accomplished generals in the Fire Nation, the brother of the Fire Lord, and you're making a very passive-aggressive comment. It's like, I'd like to see you try to breach Ba Sing Se like you mean. Once you breach Ba Sing Se, you can come back and start criticizing me. But yeah, it's so weird. I don't think in the cartoon he really comes at Iroh that much.
00:42:19
Speaker
I remember Iroh was kind of like the mediator between Zuko and Zhao when they had the interactions. He's still quite passive-aggressive, but it's done in a kind of villainy way that, oh, he's got his own scheming and agenda and everything, and he wants to court the Fire Lord's favour, because at least the Fire Lord is very much an isolated figure, at least in the cartoon, that he is someone who, by reputation, is feared across the land and everything. But hasn't this Pali, Pali with him, he's in the palace like, yo, what up, it was I. We've had a minor setback but it's okay because, you know, we'll pull it back with this and he's like, oh, see that you do, okay, okay, so it's good. You're like, why is this film? And of course, then we get Zuko cosplaying his moon knight, which I found very odd, jumping into the water with his light ninja outfit. I said this to my wife, I was like, he's just waterboarding himself with that fabric over for his mouth in the water. ice cold water and the fire vendors just waterboated themselves. I thought 10 out of 10. There's a video from a year or so back of a guy in a Spider-Man costume at a birthday party that falls into the pool.
00:43:26
Speaker
hey going with but because he's wearing the mask, the water gets in and he's just drowning in this costume and so that I would like pull him out and this Spider-Man party actor guy is just freaking the hell out and traumatising all these children. That's what I thought happened to Zuko. So after, as you said, after he waterboards himself and manages to get out, Katara plays Captain Exposition again and literally says something along the lines of, it's you, Zuko, the Fire Lord son. when Aang's meditating under the tree gets her arse kicked and meanwhile you've got the leader of the northern water tribe with one of the weirdest battle cries out there where he goes
00:44:08
Speaker
At that point I was checked out of the film and I'm like, OK, absolutely done. But yeah, then we've got the scene where Aang talks to Eragon. Sorry, I mean, the dragon spinner. Am I making this up, by the way? Was I in delirium when I saw this, that the Fire Nation soldiers have drill helmets? Some of them do kind of have pointy World War One style helmets. No, this was literally a drill on the top of the head because as soon as they're up top, they rope them, they come out the ground. Oh, I didn't notice. I didn't see them pop out of the ground like daisies.
00:44:42
Speaker
that was the thing. It's like they have a helmet on and then they take off the helmet as soon as they're up, which I mean I'm no tactician but I feel as if that's a pretty bad move, but it's like all I could keep thinking was does the blade in the top spin? Did they spin underneath? I mean the firebenders in ice, surely they'd use their own ability to push themselves up. What's weird in this is, and that there might be some times where this isn't the case, But firebenders in this movie seem to require fire to be near them. Whereas a unique thing about firebenders in the cartoon show was that they were the only ones who didn't require their element to be around them. They could create it with what was referred to as the breath that they could fire fire out of their hands without there being to be a lit torch next to them. Whereas here, it seems like you can see the catapult over these flaming balls into the city, and then five rangers are like, I'll take that. And that feels like a huge downside to their abilities. What I'd said earlier about them not requiring their element to be near them was one of the things that makes them so scary. They can just attack you. Whereas if they don't have that ability, then how have they gotten so far against the other three elements in this world? I mean, have you seen the Earth Kingdom?
00:45:54
Speaker
but Granted, they seem pretty incapable of doing anything, but like the waterbenders seem like they would very easily defeat firebenders in this situation. Even just a basic earthbender should presumably be able to best a firebender that has no fire source to hand, unless they're always carrying torches, which seems inconvenient.
00:46:13
Speaker
I do love that scene earlier on where the leader of the Motor Tribe is like, oh, as soon as they invade, put out all the torches. And then when you're watching the battle, there's just torches everywhere and it's not just the Fire Nation ones, it's theirs as well. I want to talk about a camera decision just very quickly. In the Earth prison scene, there's a point where they're talking to someone and the cameraman seems to be filming them over one of their shoulders I was so confused. I was like, why have you done this? And then like you could see them literally walking around this huddled group and then not so zoomed in close to each of the actors. And I was like, ah, why have you done this? And it must be a Shyamalan decision because he did everything in this stupid movie. He produced it. He wrote it and he directed it. And he's he's even in it. That scene, he's in the movie. He's one of the Fire Nation prison guards in that Earth Kingdom scene. So he was right there. How has such a basic element of film work been so poorly handled? I said this to my wife. This scene in particular feels like something was made in a high school or a university level production. It does not seem like something an established Hollywood director and filmmaker would have made. No, you're completely right there. there are and a lot of very odd cinematography choices. Again, when he gets it right, he gets it right, but when he gets it right, that's like what, two scenes? Maybe three? Push? It's just baffling. And again, going back to the battle, you know, he's got a real weird thing about slow-mo in
Aang's Misguided Advice
00:47:44
Speaker
this film. I can't remember if this is the same time that 300 came out with all the slow-mo, but even when Aang's fighting, again when Aang's fighting with the quote-unquote blue spirit and then he's fighting with
00:47:56
Speaker
the water tribe. It's all slow motion. I also so love the dragon spirit's response when he's like, how do I to defeat the Fire Nation? And he's like, I don't know, just chock the ocean at them and then he just leaves. You know what? Thanks for that. The dragon spirit thing annoyed me as well, because that's not a thing. Yeah. In the cartoon, you do have this blue dragon spirit thing that is the companion to the previous avatar, essentially the previous avatar. His name is Roku's version of Appa. And in the cartoon, he presents himself to Aang and encourages him to like follow him to this temple where he will be able to commune with his previous life with Avatar Roku. This movie is essentially combined Roku and his dragon to be this one dragon spirit thing. There is no recognition of his previous life in this movie. At one point, one of the people points to the statue of Kyoshi and was like, this is one of your previous lives. And that's all we really get. Oh, they go all so far that's so fast.
00:48:53
Speaker
One of the beautiful things in the world building of Avatar is reincarnation in his previous lives and the fact that what his previous lives did is a huge impact on what the next Avatar has to deal with. That's explored really well in the books and in Legend of Korra and in Avatar the Last Airbender itself. A lot of what is happening in that story in the world at that time is because of the actions or inactions of the previous Avatar.
00:49:21
Speaker
The Hundred Years' War is largely down to Avatar Roku's inability to stop his best friend from during the war. Such an important element of the story that, again, they just don't touch on. yeah because one of the things about the avatar as a character and can't remember for the life of me if they do say this in the film. But the avatar is the bridge between the mortal human world and the spirit world. And spirituality and spirits are treated in such a mature way in comparison to this film. because in the cartoon you have a lot of varying degrees of spirits. You've got ones that are very helpful, ones that are utterly barbaric, ones that have risen above the morality of the human world. It's not just black and white. You've got all your good spirits and your bad spirits. You've got these ones that are in between that understand the pros and cons of the conflict in comparison us to those that have come before them. It is very nuanced, it's very interesting, but in this film they essentially say, oh yeah, the dragon spiritual eastern, yeah sure, he has a dragon spirit and that is such a detriment and it just simplifies, I mean the whole film is simplified but it just simplifies it to quite an insulting degree because as you said before that I'd mentioned in my notes is the scene where Jo finally gets to the moon spirit and sees it's a fish and he literally, and he's passive aggressively says, why are they fish? Oh, are they dumb? Iroh explains that, oh, it's because, you know, they want to see the world in a humble way, and he's like, yeah, that's dumb. And then he stabs it, and that's pretty much what happens. To which then Iroh takes a hissifat, and then you've got a weird line that's been dumped over as the Fire Nation soldiers are running away from Iroh because he's just shooting fire out his hands and his mouth, and they're like, oh, he's making fire out of nothing. What?
00:51:21
Speaker
ah but That's not how bending works. I mean, in the show, obviously, it does work, but that's the way they make a big deal about it, is what I'm saying in the film, and it is so weird. I mean, between that and the fact that Zhao has one of the most brutal deaths I think I've ever seen in the Avatar universe, and this is comparing to what happens to the Earth Queen in Legend of Korra, he just gets straight up drowned. And I don't remember that at all, but as soon as I saw that, I was like, oh, hot damn. Well, in the show, he kind of gets dragged away by the water spirit into the water and it's implied that he likely drowns. But we do actually see him in the Legend of Korra. In the spirit world, he's been pulled into this fog of ri regret or something. Yeah, like infinity fog where you're constantly constantly just reliving your worst moments and you can't get out and it's horrible and that kind of thing. And so it's shown that he doesn't actually die. He's just brought into the spirit world, which is also something that happens in the show to other people that they are pulled into the spirit world happens to soccer. And there's a funny line about whether or not this bathrooms in the spirit world. I wanted to quickly take a look on Rotten Tomatoes. It's got 5% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is one of the lowest scores I've seen. But I was curious by the positive reviews to see what merit was given to the certified fresh and their complete nonsense.
00:52:39
Speaker
An exotic 3D battle of the boys blockbuster, teeming with dazzling exotic imagery, though a bit on the wet side as drenched seafaring adversaries and awful adult role models kept in line by unruly children collide. I see damp people, I guess. A reference to The Sixth Sense there. What?
00:52:55
Speaker
hitable review that ownly sounds like it was made by ei A lot of these good ones do, which is wild considering it was 2010. I've got It Captivated My Imagination, fantasy works best off linear narrative clarity while many scenes transition whirl like air in the hands of Aang yet Night ignites the separate moments of visual magic worthy of his mythology. what does um I know, you're right. It sounds like what you see on Twitter nowadays of just like absolute nonsense comments from clearly bots. Wonderful. Can't wait to see where this will go. What majesty will we see from this stunning visionary? It is no surprise to me it is doing better business at the box office than most experts anticipated. Is that the end of it? Yeah, that's it. Is it a masterpiece? Oh God, no. But I'm intrigued to see where the next film goes. Ah.
00:53:41
Speaker
but that's the extent ofosit reviews i could find In terms of my positive reviews for this, it is very slim. The one scene I actually did like, so you go back to the battle, was there's one waterbender that straight up just throws hands with a firebender. He doesn't even attempt to waterbend, he just jumps on the guy and starts pubble with them to which I wrote Ben this, you filthy casual, but it's funny you mentioned that the person saying they can't wait to see where the next film goes, because of course Aang ends up putting up a huge wall of water, which I find hilarious when he says he doesn't want to kill them. he clearly kills a couple of the Fire Nation soldiers that are trying to cross back to their boat and then of course the day's saved and then they set up for the sequel with a cliffhanger that is worthy of other ones like the Super Mario Brothers film where it's never going to happen and then as you said it comes up very glaringly written produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan himself. He's such a narcissist. Oh yes. it really is. I'm going to be honest, this film overall, it is a hard watch and I'm not saying that in a jokey way like, oh it's such a bad film, get your friends round and watch it. It's one of these bad films that it commits the cardinal sin of just being boring as hell. It doesn't adapt the source material very well. The actors, while they're not the worst,
00:55:04
Speaker
have absolutely terrible direction. They're not told how to say things correctly, Arvitar being the main example. There's just a lot of baffling decisions and I know a lot was cut from this and Shyamalan himself has said that there was a lot of studio interference and I think that was to the extent that he kind of just said, right, okay, let's do this, let's do that. I'm gonna cut my losses here and go and do something else after after this film, which I can understand how frustrating that must be for a creative. But on the other hand, this has its name all over the place. And did you see much of the dialogue from the creators of the show like Dante Di Martino and Brian Knezco? I heard that initially they were involved in the process. They were excited to see where the film was going to go and everything. And then the more and more it went on, the more discouraged they got to the extent that they ended up Here we go, am I right? So that was more so the case, I think, for the Netflix one. For this one, they really didn't want to make a film and Paramount were the ones that are really pushing it. And they were like, all right, well, if we're going to do it, then let us direct it and like write it and whatnot. And they said, no, we're going to get an established Hollywood director in, but we still want you guys to be on board with the creation of it. And they were like, okay, so we'll be there and we'll offer help as needed. But if it's going in a different direction, then we'll just kind of step out of the way.
00:56:23
Speaker
And that's kind of what ended up happening. They had a big kind of falling out at one point with, I assume Shyamalan, if not one of the other producers. And so they just left the project. I don't know if they claim this later point kind of distance themselves from it, because it did seem at the time like they were very on board with it. and that they were really keen to kind of be part of the Hollywood side of things, which they hadn't before. They'd been in children's animation for Nickelodeon, so getting a Hollywood film felt like a bit more a legitimate for them. But the word that came out afterwards was that they were very anti this movie from the get-go. can see why though, and I would be disappointed if I had made a really influential series that was beloved worldwide. It had so many interesting and unique ideas, only to be ground up into the most milk toast. Just complete misinterpretation as it is. I don't understand a lot of the decisions in this film.
00:57:18
Speaker
I can understand why Paramount wanted to make it a bit more simplistic and linear, you know, to say, oh, we want to do this with the characters, we want to do that, we want to make it a bit more understandable. So I can understand why a lot of it was cut. But on the flip side, I wonder, by cutting it, you're essentially just sacrificing what made this so good. And you're not even replacing it with things that weren't. You're replacing it with things that nobody liked. And as you said, with 5% Rotten Tomatoes, no one except the weird proto chat GPT people actually liked this film. So again, it brings up the question of who was this film made for? Was it made to just cash in on the avatar hype? Or yeah, what was going on there? Again, not only did it dampen the idea of a live-action avatar adaptation for years, about 14 years later was when we actually got a live-action adaptation again of Avatar, but it seems to be one of the few examples next to Dragon Ball Evolution, next to, again, the Super Mario Bros. film Street Fighter or whatnot, or I will say I do enjoy Street Fighter. but Where does this film rank for you next to those?
00:58:31
Speaker
I'd say it's probably the same level as Dragon Ball Evolution to be honest, this which is pretty low. At least with something like the Super Mario Bros. film or Street Fighter, you know, I know there are video game adaptations that were received poorly, but they are a lot of fun to actually watch.
00:58:48
Speaker
I at least enjoyed it for the goofiness. There is nothing in this film that I can say, even in Dragon Ball Evolution, there's some moments that although I think over all the film's terrible, at least you and I can joke about it and say aw wasn't this goofy with Goku slid across the car with his head.
00:59:05
Speaker
In this, I genuinely, other than us talking about the bad acting, the bad directing, the bad cinematography, I can't actually think of many scenes where I looked at it and thought, oh, haha, isn't that a funny scene? Let's talk about it. Well, other than the prison scene, but even then, the prison scene doesn't make me feel, oh, this is, oh, so funny, it's good. It makes me think, that the studios were so disrespectful to the source material and I don't usually get so passionate in that regard because I know will obviously things have to be changed around for an adaptation and whatnot but this was on poor form. This was 100% on poor form and even as the reboot, debut and seismic cinema podcasts were saying earlier, even if you're not a fan of the original Avatar, even if you're not going to watch it, it still doesn't hold up as a
Conclusion on Film's Failure
00:59:54
Speaker
good film. Who was this made for? Because non-fans of Avatar don't like it. Fans of Avatar loathe it, and it's gone down in history as one of the worst adaptations of all time. So to be honest, this is genuinely I think one of the worst films that we have reviewed in Chatsunami. But flipping it back on to you, where does this rank in your list? Are you in a similar boat or do you think this is even worse? I think this is the worst film that we've reviewed. It is up there with one of the worst films I've ever seen. My partner and I watched a terrible Adam Sandler animated movie, Eight Crazy Nights. yep i've always in And she said, this is as bad a film as I've seen since Eight Crazy Nights. I said, that was only last month. She was like, yeah, we're so sucked. I mean, you're not wrong. That film does suck.
01:00:38
Speaker
Yeah, he's a drawy bender. He sucks all the drawy out there and just flings it away. As much as we like to joke and everything and say, oh, this is so bad, it's good. Genuinely, I don't know if I would class this as, you know, a so bad, it's good film that you should watch it with your friends and things because our mutual friend and close to the show, Martin McAllister, him and I did a bad movie night together many, many years ago. This was pre-Covid days and I remember some of the films we watched and they were absolutely terrible. But for this, I feel as if it would have been down there as one of the lowest of low. So you know what, I can't recommend this film in good trade. If you want to see how bad it is, hop onto Netflix at your own discretion. because we've warned you. You could arguably give it a drinking movie every time they say a character's name wrong, you drink or something like that. Oh no, you kill people with that game. From a heckle point of view, I can see it. My partner and I had the most fun when we were heckling this movie, and it's very easy to do so. But you don't leave the movie being like, well, that was a fun time that we got to heckle it. You're still like, well, that was dreadful. I'm just imagining you and your wife just yelling at the screen, go back to the fire nation.
01:01:50
Speaker
Nice reference to Sokka. Yeah, thank you. But on that note, Andrew, thank you so, so much for enduring this film for the first time. I think this was a first for both of us and it's probably the last we'll ever see this film. I hope so. But no, thank you so much for coming on for this episode. No, well, I'd like to say thank you for having me, but you did subject me to this film, so I can't say that in real faith, to be honest. So, before we wrap up, and before you cut me out your life forever, where can these lovely Pandalorian listeners at home find your content?
Andrew's Other Content
01:02:22
Speaker
Well, before I'm banished from the Fire Nation, the lovely Pandalorians can find me on Twitter at greenshield95. You can also find me on my other podcast, Stop, Drop and Roll Initiative at SCRI Pod on Twitter. Stop, Drop and Roll Initiative is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast that you can move around where all good podcasts are. And you can find me on many other fantastic episodes of Chatsunami. We're coming to the end of Avatar Month very soon. There's been two episodes prior to this. And then prior to that, there's been a whole catalog of episodes that include me and episodes that don't include me. But who cares about those? Very true. And if you want those episodes that don't go down good, then you can check them. and other ones that do. You can check them out at our website, Chatsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons, Robotic BattleToaster, Sonya, Ghosty, and Cryptic1991. Thank you so, so much for supporting the show. But if you would like exclusive access to behind the scenes content, early access episodes, commentary tracks,
01:03:22
Speaker
bloopers, our thoughts on other Shyamalan films for legal reasons that last one is a joke, then you of course can check us out on our Patreon page patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. Just want to point out that this podcast is a member of the Podpack Collective. For more information check us out at our twitter slash x page at podpackcollect. But until next time, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly please don't watch this film. Just please don't watch it.