Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

So, we just finished our semi-annual binge of Avatar: The Last Airbender when I noticed that the motion picture was on Prime Video. I honestly don't remember much of the movie even though I saw it in the theater, and I didn't see the cartoon series for another 3-5 years after that so I didn't have a memory for comparison. I thought I would check out the movie again with an open mind, aware of the bad reviews, for for a little more Avatar. Holy cow. Um, OK, I will try to be fair about this. It doesn't make sense to complain about little things like pronunciation changes however, I think in the end, taking those liberties led to the deconstruction and oversimplification of core characters and plot that was much more detrimental to the experience. Sokka's character was made all but irrelevant to the group dynamic. Katara's character was ironed out to a paper thin embodiment of extreme concern for everything. And Aang was boiled down to an unrealistically stoic and wise child monk, devoid of his trademark joy and goofiness as well as his inner conflict as he developed as Avatar. This has been said in other reviews, but it deserves repeating that fight scenes were indeed painfully slow and became boring to watch. The slow mechanics of CGI were one thing, but the excessive tai chi/kung fu techniques used to conjure a single attack were a directorial decision I can’t understand. A non-bender could seriously run up to a bender and boop them on the snoot while they stood there doing half a tai chi form to splash some water at them. I’m not really sure about the decision to make fire benders normally require a fire source to bend, either. Had this movie continued to the 3rd book, this would have made the Fire Nation as a whole look incredibly shallow. By the end of this movie alone they come across as simple racists rather than a tradition of complicated, institutionalized hyper-nationalism which was ultimately a cult of a single (if you don’t count Azula), sociopathic ego. The script writing was dull and tropey. Every single line had a life-or-death urgency which led to nothing being important or remarkable. I feel bad for the talent, because these were all wonderful actors and actresses given a disappointing script. The plot simplification to Aang inspiring a rebellion really oversimplifies the complexities of a 100-year war that the animated series acknowledges (and the comic books acknowledge even further). The score was not inspiring. The themes from the animated series have a much bigger impact on the experience and are generally more moving. I see the positive reviews from folks that say “my kids loved it.” Having just hosted my best friend and his tyke, I understand the value in that. I’ve tried to grade it on it’s own merits and not compare it to the series, but I clearly failed. As a 104 minute alternative to watching the series, it’s just not an acceptable. I consider the temptation to watch this movie with knowledge of the animated series, akin to the sugar-free Haribo challenge, without the nasty side effects. Love yourself. Watch the series instead.