Not Shyamalan.
Also known as Shyamalamdingdong and 'How do you even say that?', Shyamalan delivered plenty of nightmares in The Sixth Sense, so when I heard he was behind the film adaptation of Avatar: The Legend of Aang I was thoroughly pleased, hoping that his masterfully terrifying understanding of when viewers were least expecting fear would translate well to create a faithful recreation of one of the most beloved cartoons of all time.
Now for a history lesson. When I was very young, around 5 or 6, every Thursday my mum would take me up to my Aunt's house. Every Christmas, she would throw our letters to Santa into the fire then throw some powder in after, turning the fire a brilliant blue colour. But that was not my favourite reason for going to my Aunt's - in fact, it was Tom and Jerry, which she had 6 VHS tapes of. Quickly it became my favourite cartoon and it remains as such today because of the nostalgic value each cartoon gives me. Second place is a draw between the Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM cartoons, a surprisingly dark and at some times disturbing depiction of the battle for control of the planet, and Avatar: The Legend of Aang.
Avatar was a rare breed - a drama for children that had some pretty mature themes in - war, love, and balance, not to mention family - which still succeeded in captivating its audience with each oncoming episode whether they were children or adults: it was a show that it was hard to dislike. The series even had a dubious sense of historical reference with the Fire Nation's attack representing Japan's aggression towards China prior to WWII. And if you were a follower, it was impossible not to lip-sync the series' intro every time.
The series got a sequel in The Legend of Korra, but people still think The Legend of Aang is far superior because of its infinitely loveable characters, the individual episodes being so unique, and of course the epic fight sequences involving fast-paced elemental bending.
Then Shyamalan came along and suggested the idea of a live-action adaptation of the first season with a possibility for a sequel, and nickelodeon wet their pants with anticipation of a reception as large as The Spongebob Movie's. And so did the audiences when they saw the movie's opening sequence - faithful to the original, with the four elements being displayed by four benders in precisely the same way the show presented it. I remember how excited I was to see these four short clips that so accurately followed the show and I couldn't wait for more. Little did I know that this would be the exact opposite I would want to wait for.
Then appears a bunch of text explaining the basics of the world of this film with a handy voiceover to make it less of a chore - but already I noticed that it wasn't following the intro like it could have done for a much more concise and interesting way to show this information. After this, the camera fades down from black to reveal the South Pole, the home of a surprising amount of wood considering there are no trees. Oh wait! Those are the actors?
Just two lines in and the actors have already told us too much. Firstly, Sokka, the comic relief character from the show who's always strived to prove to his Dad his maturity, is now not only a brick wall but also has the attitude of one. Sokka is the complete opposite of what he was in the show - in the show, Katara, his sister, drops water on him, leading to him yelling at her in a sarcastic and silly way, but here he stands up, walks over to Katara, grabs her hands, and tells her to 'Stop doing that stuff around me' in what is now the completely characteristic monotone of the comic relief character. Katara, on the other hand, is also the complete opposite of her TV counterpart - she drops water on Sokka in the show and he yells, and she just giggles. Here, she apologizes multiple times almost sounding as if it's out of fear of Sokka. In the show, she's typically represented as an independent and mentally strong young lady who can kick some butt if she feels the need to, including that of her brother, but here she's shown as weak and vulnerable.
Things only go downhill. Now we have more exposition from Katara in the form of a voiceover before they discover Aang on a greenscreen set (the greenscreen is so badly done for a big-budget film like this that you have to wonder what editing software they used - probably Windows Movie Maker). Along with Aang is his Sky Bison, Appa, who in the show is a hugely important character, where his capture leads to one of the most touching side-stories in the entire series. To build up to this immense moment the entirety of Season 1, which this film covers, is spent with Appa in every episode to help the audience get a strong and positive liking of him. And this point brings me onto one of the biggest complaints of the entire movie.
The movie skips out some of the best and most important parts of the first season. The biggest of these is entirely focused on what a lot of people consider is the best episode of the series in The Storm - an episode where Aang and his pursuer/enemy Zuko's backstories are juxtaposed to show viewers how similar they are, which leads up to Aang's rescue from a Fire Nation prison by a mysterious masked figure called the Blue Demon. Although this rescue is shown in the film, not included is one of the best and most important fight sequences in the entire series which involves a spectacular crossing from one prison wall to another using three enormous ladders. In the film, there is a fight sequence, although as I'll talk about these are massively underwhelming. After the pair's escape, the Blue Demon's mask is knocked off, revealing that he is actually Zuko in a classic Shyamalan "what a twist!" moment. Yet the emotional impact is nowhere near as powerful as the show where the astonishing similarities between them had been revealed and the power of their teamwork been accentuated so massively - especially when the show includes a short scene when Zuko awakens to realize that Aang has saved him too and a short reflection by Aang that the two aren't really as different as they make themselves. In the movie, this scene is cut out and Zuko is left in the woods.
The best part about this short sequence where Aang is rescued is the obligatory Shyamalan cameo, and hilariously it's because he's the best actor in the film. Admittedly the actor from Slumdog Millionaire as Zuko was nowhere near as bad as the others but it still felt like he didn't try.
Another sequence that got changed a bit too much is a small part involving an Earth Nation village which has been taken over by Firebenders. Haru is presented as a love interest for Katara which makes Aang jealous, but he helps Haru to rescue his earthbending father who is being held prisoner in a huge metal ship - as far from any earth to bend as possible. Of course, this is in the TV show and the film gives us the typical lack-of-effort approach by not thinking and imprisoning earthbenders in a camp SURROUNDED BY EARTH. Not only was this a weird change but Haru is now a small child, making any potential for romantic thoughts about him quite illegal.
Then it comes to the fight scene where Aang tells all the earthbenders (who, according to Toph, Aang's earthbending teacher in the show, are stubborn and solid like the earth) to stop laying around when there's earth to bend in what might be the most sensible line of dialogue in the movie, aside from the thousand or so lines of exposition that everybody watching the film already knew because they watched the show too. Anyway, the fight begins in quite possibly the funniest synchronised dance routine ever where a large group of benders stomp a bit which makes a medium-sized rock float in the air before another punches it to send it flying at a single soldier. Meanwhile, the firebenders stand around and pick their noses.
Shyamalan spent too much time worrying about how things would work out because the bending in the show had the endless capacity to be fluid because of the animation medium yet the CGI, in places, works out fantastically well - if only it looked authentic. Shyamalan thought that by having huge-scale choreography he would appeal to fans by making the fights look more epic than they already were. Unfortunately this decision was bad and it makes the film's action sequences (of which there are far too little) look more like a bunch of people flailing around and another bunch doing nothing at all.
Going into detail about the rest of the film will do nothing except appear to be the angry rants of a disillusioned fanboy and while it's true that I am by far an Avatar fanboy I am anything but disillusioned about this film and its horrific mutilation of a fantastic show. All that I have left to say about the movie is that its casting director Douglas Aibel needs to have chosen actors which can at least understand the characters they represent instead of just picking people off the street that look vaguely like the characters from the show.
If there was one thing I had to credit this film for, it's that it ended.
What did I learn from this film?
1) Don't give a beloved series to a director on an imdb list called "Please do us all a favour and quit your job"
2) Don't make a TV series into a film - it doesn't work
3) Don't hire actors with no acting experience at all when you have $150 million to spend
4) Don't deviate from the source material if you want to keep fans happy
5) Don't make any more Avatar films please
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