THE LAST AIRBENDER (2010) REACTION // COMMENTARY

Fucking died when you said the Blue Spirit looks like he should play drums for the Muppet Band xD I googled a photo of Animal and laughed for like ten minutes straight

Michael Anagnostis

100%, had we all already seent it, wouldn't have thought it was a good idea, but I am glad we put it before the finale, cuase i've seen other reactors and it's such a sour note to end on.

Sean TankTop

Some reactors wont even try to watch this but I believe it's a rite of passage lmao

dannydarko27

oof

Stella B.

I MAY have forgiven the casting if everything else wasn't also fucked up. As it is, it's just part of the constellation of horror.

William Timmins

That's rough, buddy

KC

"Aside from having names that resemble Russian vodkas" HAHAHAHAHA brilliant

MrDeltoric

boggles the damn mind!

Sean TankTop

oh noooooo!

Sean TankTop

I saw this in theaters with friends, right after we watched Toy Story 3. And I told them “yeah that was great, but this will be better.” I have never been so wrong in my entire life xD

Manny D.

With Dragon Ball Evolution and the 2009 Tekken film, I don't think Hollywood understood what we wanted. I accepted so easily that the Last Airbender is a terrible film and that just kind of happens in blockbusters. The director thinks, "okay, the black bars appears, this is serious, no funny business, because this is theatre - not television; everything is gritty".

Avi Chetri

That part is so awkward and cringe

Sean TankTop

Apologies!!!

Sean TankTop

"I'm with you the viewer, in that I love Avatar and i get it, it may not have been part of my childhood but it was apart of the last year of my life and this...hurts" YEAH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH

Brimmy

To answer Morgan I vividly remember a lot of people being offended by the casting of white people back in 2010. Once the cast was revealed there was a huge campaign on blogging sites dedicated to avatar called “Aang ain’t white” movement

Lalalalalala Banana

the guy playing sokka is also one of the cullens from twilight (jasper)

Stella B.

I remember seeing that M. Night was doing it and basically was like yup it's gonna suck. Then found out it sucked and was not surprised. Apparently in an interview he said people just didn't understand his vision for it. Deluded as fuck.

frnknstndrgqn

Oh no, yous about to make me re-watch this film after years. Well, if I must.

Blizaga101

Brother, you ain’t kiddin

Sean TankTop

I was definitely in the angry/acceptance phase, it was the Drases 1st time so the sinking depleatedness is palpable.

Sean TankTop

I felt the commentary about feeling sad and deflated after watching this. I watched this movie at midnight opening night with a bunch of my cousins all huge fans, there were people of all ages in line in cosplay ready to watch this movie. The disappointment and rage at the end of the movie were palpable not to mention the number of kids that fell asleep. It really was a gut punch!

Kiki Meowzilla

Welcome to the Blackest Parade, my dudes

Patrick Boyda

i was only 9 when this film came out but i still remember how outraged the fandom was when this came out. some people were shaving their heads as aang for this movie release (which was insane at the time) and some cosplayed as the kyoshi warriors to the theaters which just goes to show how dedicated fans were. so it's no wonder that they were so mad about this shit show that they walked out mid-screening.

Ada

This one is rough, even with the reactions. Rifftrax took this on a while ago, and I couldn't get all the way through it (and I love Rifftrax)

Timothy Falk

I do. But I think it’s a lil more fair to be mad at Someone directing a 150 million dollar adaption than some shitheels whom have never seen the show in their lives. Buuuut, I can understand.

Sean TankTop

NOW do you get why we got so triggered over your earlier mispronunciations? It's cause it made us remember this shit. lmfao

1yoyoyo2

I love how you actually wrote a (honestly, not harsh enough) review of this movie way back when -- when you hadn't even watched the series. I can't tell you how hilarious that is to me. I loved the review and the reaction too! :0

The Ember Island Players > This movie

My favourite lines were the, "Are you an Airbender, boy? [laughs]" Then randomly Katara pushes him and says, "Leave him alone". What did he do? Lady, you're being too aggressive.

Avi Chetri

What really? I would love to see some photos of them, if they are ever published.

Avi Chetri

Funny enough, M Night went with a South Asian pronunciation of Aang as "आंग" which would have the "uh" (kind of) instead of, what I presume is more the East Asian, "Aang" 安昂 with an ah. It was completely missing the etymology.

Avi Chetri

The reasoning was probably M Night's choice of Zuko being Dev Patel and rationalised it with the reality that Fire is very important in Hinduism, the word Agni-Kai is combination of the Sanskrit word for fire and the Japanese word for brawl, I think. Even the word, Avatar is Sanskrit, so it's logical as an interpretation. But I agree, Japan and the US were the imperialist inspiration of the Fire Nation, just go with that M Night.

Avi Chetri

I can't believe I watched this entire thing, it helped I could barely hear the dialogue lol. Ya know the girl who played Azula actually does an incredible job on The Magicians. I have my issues with that show and where they decided to take it but here acting as Margot has always been a delight.

Hunter McKinney

...This is a firenation trick to make us watch the full movie ourselves isn't it?

Kieran Hoare

yeah her performance as Asami was great! if this movie helped her get that spot i'll take it.

Dojee

They need to watch the flames of the fire first, then walk upon the earth of the ground.

Adam Vialpando

That Sokka dude is apparently one of the vampires in the shitty Twilight movies. And the girl who played Katara was in Transformers 4. The one where they discussed the legal ways a 20-something adult can sleep with someone under 18. They went places. Luckily Dev Patel is still very talented.

Adam Vialpando

Holy crap that is him. Wow, he should really fire his agent or manager.

Adam Vialpando

So, how about twilight’s Jasper as Sakka?

M.E. Burnes

I actually like the idea of having Yue discuss her backstory with the moon a good while before the actual battle. It still comes across as clumsy, but I also find the way it's done in the show to be a bit clumsy as well.

J

So the Kyoshi warriors were actually filmed and in the movie originally, but Shyamalan decided that it detracted from the story too much so he cut them:/

M&M

"and this...Hurts" Yes. Yes it does.

Isis Peoples

Sean my man I love you and all but you fucked up my wednesday watching that trailer fire of a movie...... its okay though you'll enjoy the meat and potatoes of the show soon enough!

mrmyrickman

"The water of the ocean" Oh cool wanna go flying through the air of the sky later

Spencer Hahn

Guys! Comment ONE thing we like about this adaptation! We all know it's shit but let's try to practice being nice lol I like the effect of Yue's hair going from white to black. GO! 🏁

Isis Peoples

Sokka: Well the effects were decent 🤷🏿‍♀️

Isis Peoples

Morgan Never-ending Story is also a fever dream of memory for me! Oh I have serious mixed emotions of that movie.

Isis Peoples

That’s well said. I think it’s smart to on M&D’s part to just set up shop at the studio and keep their vision going that way.

Sean TankTop

The whitewashing would sting a lot more if the movie was actually good. Like, the entire thing is so laughably bad that the ridiculous casting actually kind of completes it as a film that's wrong in every conceivable way. At least whatever potential actors of color that should have had these roles didn't have to suffer through the embarrassment of being in it and the subsequent nosedive of everyone's careers. I seriously can't think of a single person in this that I ever saw or heard from again, except for M. Night of course.

John Cedar

Happy belated.

M.E. Burnes

Can we appreciate that they decided to make all the names of the characters "culturally accurate" but cast most of them as white lol

"Water, Earth, Fire and AIr Nomads" fucking yikes.

Burooj Ahanger

Plus, “We care so much about authentic Chinese pronunciation...also we replaced all the authentic Chinese calligraphy with scribbles...wait.”

Catherine Morrill

well actually: the movie pronounces ang's name right in terms of real life chinese pronounciation BUT since this is based on a show and the writers/creators have decided how the names are pronounced they should have just stuck with it instead of trying to please the mainstream audience that had no interest in this film........and funny they were sensitive to the names but NOT to the casting lol

rickie woodson

So, the story is that Shyamalan actually wrote a treatment for the film that was very faithful to the original. It was Nickelodeon that completely changed everything and basically killed his passion for making it. I believe he has since referred to the process of making this as a soul-crushing experience. He's not entirely without blame, but Nickelodeon needs to bear quite a bit of it. As for the names, Shyamalan was attempting to go for how they would have been pronounced with Eastern pronunciation, as opposed to the Western style that the creators gave them. I don't like it, but that was the justification. Yue, played by Seychelle Gabriel was the only portrayal that the creators of Avatar ended up approving of and this bore fruit later. Though once you see her penis-shaped hair in her establishing shot, you can NEVER unsee it. If we're talking about casting actors from the show, especially once the race issue was broken, I would have welcomed Greg Baldwin, the second VA for Iroh. Even if he's not as much of a live-action actor, I still would've taken it. He can look the part too, he's done cosplays of Iroh that look amazing.

J

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! im half joking. its not as bad to me as the fandom makes it out to be. its just horribly miscasted and super boring. lets not talk about the "action" scenes.............

rickie woodson

I am curious to watch it, but at the same time I hate this movie with a burning passion. I don't like seeing good people tortured. If people are gonna watch a terrible movie it needs to be a "The Room" so bad it's good movie. This is not that. I will never forgive Shyamalan for this. I don't if he makes the next Citizen Kane.

Adam Vialpando

too add about animation to live action-- I don't get it either. There are some things that can't really be done in real life, or just aren't believable once you change the medium. AND ALSO people need to put more respect on animations name, like people just need to watch and appreciate animation-!

pollyy clunes

When you’re done with ATLA, I suggest doing Korra and also checking out The Dragon Prince on Netflix. It’s done by some of the people who did Avatar and the co-creator of the show, Aaron Ehasz, was the head writer for the Avatar series. Plus he was the one who pushed to have Toph be a girl instead of a guy

David Proby

I'm going to need a bigger bottle of booze for this reaction.

Wesley Chapman

I Don't like bashing actors (especially children) for the mistakes of the director. Jake Lloyd (young Anakin) had a really shitty childhood cuz people bullied him cuz of George Lucas' lack of good dialogue. it's not their fault.

Mathies

not so fun fact, the chinese in this movie isn't real/accurate (even tho it is in the shows intro etc)-- I guess they wanted to make it look stylized and "cooler", but they just made stuff up. I mean I didn't know until someone told me, but its pretty disrespectful. Guess they thought no one would care. ALSO I was ROBBED of having a realistic koh the face stealer haunt my nightmares---

pollyy clunes

right?? i thought the same thing lol

pollyy clunes

The only character that resembles that of the anime series is Yue... Everyone else is shit just like the movie itself... #sorrynotsorry

luis schalch

The one bright spot in this movie is Seychelle Gabriel. And she got a future in the AvatarVerse...

Mathies

So sad you guys didn't comment on Yue's penis hair, that seems right up you guys' alley.

Mads Peter Hansen

That's not true. The movie came out in 2010, the show ended in 2008.

Mathies

This movie makes me wonder why no one in this universe has invented guns, as it would be way more efficient than the bending.

J

It's funny how they are actually somewhat worried about having the right culture for the firenation characters, but then for some reason they consistently went with Indian instead of japanese. makes no sense lol. If you're not gonna cast japanese actors you might aswell go with Jason Isaacs. Also guys the creators of ATLA are Mike and Bryan, not Mark and Bryan.

Mathies

I'm surprised you guys weren't talking about how for some reason, 'Ang' is the great motivational speaker with the strong moral compass here while in the show, that was clearly Katara.

Mathies

I thought you guys started the finale today the day after my birthday. I'm so disappointed that I have to wait another week.

Jam

I don't understand why they didn't use the proper endemic characteristics of the original characters.. I mean... White Soka and Katara? Uncle Iroh is not the understanding and loving man portrayed in the Manga and series.... There's so much wrong with this movie

luis schalch

shoulda thrown my guy a cameo at least or something tho

Michelle

Dante basco is 45 now, so in 2010 he would have been 34, almost 20 years older than Zuko should be. i understand why they didn't cast him.

Mathies

this is the first time i'm rewatching this since back when i saw it in cinema ten years ago. ...didn't get better lol.

Dojee

I love you guys so much and I have thoroughly enjoyed being on the ATLA journey with you, but there is nothing on this earth that could make me watch this movie again lol I'll see you guys next week <3

Sean Silence

I heard this after the fact but I guess it was basically a situation of the actress who played Katara was related to one of the producers. So, By the stipulations that she had to be cashed in the role that sort of force the hand of the rest of the group!!! Fucking nuts.

Sean TankTop

oh no

Rufus May

I don't know if you've made the connection yet, but this actually came out before book 3 was finished. Hence the slight jab with "but the effects were decent". Even trying to make the Ember Island Players bad the ATLA writers couldn't even come close to the truth.

Amazonian Girl

Also, I can’t wait for the day that america utilizes animation for more than just family films. Serious fantasy stories can sometimes ONLY be done with animation. You can’t do a live action airbender, you can’t do a live action Attack On Titan. At least, it won’t have nearly the same impact. Just because there’s a popular fantasy novel or animated series does not mean it would do well as a live action movie and I wish Hollywood understood that.

Erik Choice

I like to see it as a parody/comedy :)

Im sure uve gotten a lot of requests for this but have u heard of attack on titan? I put it right below avatar

Zach F

I just could never understand how a BIPOC director saw this wonderful world of Asian inspired characters and cultures and said that's nice now watch this... Like WTF.

Kiki Meowzilla

Just imagine, M Night and his Daughter, the ATLA fan and the Destroyer living in the same house. lmao

Bergs Art

I had seen it, so I'm kinda gleefully having fun with how shit it is, but you CAN SEE THE LIGHT LEAVE THE DRASES' EYES by the end of the movie!!

Sean TankTop

this movie makes me sad

Walter

I think some of the water bending effects specifically are decent, but just staged in such a non-kinetic BOOOORING WAY

Sean TankTop

Hasn't been a chill Thanksgiving since!

Sean TankTop

That was the worst movie ever, but the effects are decent

Maria

There is no movie in Ba Sing Se.

Sean Silence

It’s said that M Knight made this movie cuz his daughter liked the show, so imagine how disappointed she probably was when she saw it.

Erik Choice

🙏🏻 Thank you for your sacrifice.

Abbey P.