All TLA Reviews

[Emtee]

Japan gives "Airbender" 3.5/5.5

Original - http://eiga.com/movie/54104/critic/
Google Translate link - http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Feiga.com%2Fmovie%2F54104%2F&sl=ja&tl=en

Not so bad? The review complains about lack of explanation and that the story flows too fast.

I guess they didn't get the Katara voice over or what??

[Screemo]

^ That's.. a way better rating than what's been seen here.

[DarthSkyGuy]

Alright alright. So I thought the film was passable. I thought it was more along the lines of it being underwhelming in accordance to my medium expectations for this.

Some good points about the film were a few of the scenes that weren't rushed. They portrayed just a moment of powerfulness that adapted well from the show to on-screen. One of them was the Blue Spirit part. My god, I could watch it over again and again.

Also, the flash-back part right before Aang makes a huge tidal wave at the Northern Water Tribe. The emotion of Noah Ringer's face was truly believable and, I hate to admit it but, I almost cried. I want to hug that kid.

The music really helped the movie throughout. Nice job to the composer. (I would go into depth for the score but since I'm a musician myself, I'd probably have to write ten pages about it. So I'll just say this, simple and clean.)

The sets, costumes, and props were really fantastic. I smell a possible Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design and the like. It made me want to see more of it and made me jealous to not live in beautiful places (I know most of it is CGI but that's how good it was XD).

Some of the good acting included Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Shaun Toub, Seychelle Gabrielle, and Summer Bishil. Perfect Azula, I have to say (due to the fact that I was getting the chills even though she had, like, one line at the end). The rest are in the areas of "meh."

The so-called "bad" parts of a movie was the editing and cutting. I believe that the guys up at Paramount or Night might have shaved off too much. Sure, too much depth might confuse the audience and give them a crash course on Avatar mythos but it could have had just a little more depth. Katara and Sokka, I felt, were just side-kicks. Didn't really feel like the Aang Gang. The only real development of characters I saw was Aang (the only real reason I can think for this is because he's the main character) and Zuko (possibly because Night just has a particular liking toward Zuko? ).

The bending effects itself was really nice but perhaps too grounded. I understood Night's approach to make it more realistic and the idea of Firebending with a source was genius, but since it is a fantasy film, I would have liked to have seen more magic and flashier stuff. After all, the laws of Fantasy are limitless.

I thought the pacing was at both ends of the spectrum. Scenes were either too fast or dragged out. The dragged out scenes usually were the scenes that I enjoyed the most but not all were like that.

One scene I would like to point out is at the end when Aang makes a huge tidal wave to "scare away" the Fire Nation. Things I liked about it is the fact that Aang didn't necessarily kill the Fire Nation Soldiers. This helped back up the fact that he's a peaceful monk through in and out. And again, the emotional flashback sequence right before the "attack."

The downside was how it was executed. A huge tidal wave and then splash. Again, getting to the "too much groundedness" factor, I would have liked to have seen more intimidating waterbending. Like, for instance, encasing the entire Navy in a huge Ice ball or something and then maybe Aang speaking toward the entire Navy in a big, booming voice, telling them to leave. Then to finish it off, evaporating the ice ball into, like, snow (perhaps adding to the effect of Aang's inner peacefulness?). That's just the way I, as the director, maybe would have executed this scene. But all Directors have different interpretations and perceptions. *shrug*

So basically, Night did have a lot of good changes to the movie in mind but didn't execute them as well as he should have.

Oh and I wasn't conscious about the race thing throughout the movie. Honestly, I'm still on the fence for that so I won't add it in as a factor for my review of this movie.

The movie was decent but it did have so much potential. 2.75/4 stars (make that a really close 3 star movie).

This is what confuses me about those that say this is a good movie and it is the editing that ruins the film. I agree that editing is a problem, but what is there does not work well either and has little to do with the editing and far more to do with the direction and writing.

Characters speak as if they are the exposition monsters. It literally sounds like this.

"You are the Avatar."

"I am the Avatar."

"The Avatar protects people and gives them hope."

"I must protect people and give them hope."

"Then lets go do it."

Que montage

Even the moments that have a chance at working like Iroh and Zuko testing Aang, and Zuko asking the kid to tell his tale fall flat do to the dialogue. You have no clue what is going on in the first scene, while the second is missing key dialouge which would emphasis that Zuko's life will always be haunted by his dishonor.

I mean seriously how can anyone listen to the words spoken and not cringe? Katara just randomly starts introducing herself to Zuko, barely mentions Aang, if she even does.

[JackalKiller]

I can understand people liking certain aspects of the movie, but liking the whole? I simply can't see enough in this movie to justify a score higher than half on whatever meter you're using.

[Anixe]

This is what confuses me about those that say this is a good movie and it is the editing that ruins the film. I agree that editing is a problem, but what is there does not work well either and has little to do with the editing and far more to do with the direction and writing.

Characters speak as if they are the exposition monsters. It literally sounds like this.

"You are the Avatar."

"I am the Avatar."

"The Avatar protects people and gives them hope."

"I must protect people and give them hope."

"Then lets go do it."

Que montage

Even the moments that have a chance at working like Iroh and Zuko testing Aang, and Zuko asking the kid to tell his tale fall flat do to the dialogue. You have no clue what is going on in the first scene, while the second is missing key dialouge which would emphasis that Zuko's life will always be haunted by his dishonor.

I mean seriously how can anyone listen to the words spoken and not cringe? Katara just randomly starts introducing herself to Zuko, barely mentions Aang, if she even does.

Ah, I forgot to mention about the directing and writing. I didn't mean that the editing was the only thing that let down the movie. I thought that the directing was good while the writing was below average. I think I meant that the bad editing made it seem that the directing and writing was much worse than it probably should have been.

[ARROWHEAD]

MybasementReviews finally did his review. He's one of the people who did updates for the film on youtube, like jeff palmer
he pretty much spoke my mind

[Melon Lord's Revenge]

http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=19249&reviewer=392

I can accurately and completely review The Last Airbender by quoting my ten-year-old daughter's own thoughts on the movie: "They messed up everything."

ouch

[Crystal<3]

MybasementReviews finally did his review. He's one of the people who did updates for the film on youtube, like jeff palmer
he pretty much spoke my mind

i love this guy! he shaved his head and drew an arrow on it!

[voustler]

MybasementReviews finally did his review. He's one of the people who did updates for the film on youtube, like jeff palmer
he pretty much spoke my mind

Cool review.. I just love his facial expressions..
especially those with his eyebrows

[Timstuff]

Japan gives "Airbender" 3.5/5.5

Original - http://eiga.com/movie/54104/critic/
Google Translate link - http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Feiga.com%2Fmovie%2F54104%2F&sl=ja&tl=en

Not so bad? The review complains about lack of explanation and that the story flows too fast.

I guess they didn't get the Katara voice over or what??

I bet that they took Katara's narration out. That would explain both the complaint about "lack of explanation" and the higher rating.