You gotta watch Uwe Bolls Postal. possibly the only video game movie he couldn't get wrong. Not a great film but has great scene of Uwe making in fun of himself. Including scene of postals creator running out and and yellling “What did you do to my game!”

So Rampage was really just the original Die Hard movie, but they replaced the Sheriff of Nottingham with a gamer, and took out Bruce Willis?

Nice review Spoony, for someone who never watched the original Anime/Cartoon you
took it pretty good.
The movie sounds like a trainwreck, trying to fit 20 episodes of Book 1 in an 1hr and 40min movie
is just insane.

Atlhough you admitted on not being much of an Anime fan, you should check out
the series ( which is awesome,probably one of the best of the last 5 years)

(And yes, I consider A:TLA an Anime)

Judging from the specific points you dislike about The Last Airbender, I'm guessing you won't care for the series at all.

Kind of sad, though. The idea of channeling the elements through actual martial arts sounds like something I thought you would enjoy, but obviously you don't. (And yes, each form of bending is modeled after a real world martial art. Only Waterbending is based on Tai Chi. And yes, benders performing together in unison yields stronger results, hence the “choreographed” Earthbending.)

From the sound of it they tried to remake the first season of Avatar, the cartoon show. That was unnecessary as the first season of Avatar already exists and could never have been retold in such a short time, equitably. It was a mistake to recover old ground: they would have had better luck if they had come up with an original story. Some side mission that fell between seasons or cartoons that wouldn't ruin the cannon but present a new story that allowed the fans of the show to enjoy their favorite characters in an all new adventure.

I don't know if it's fair to review this without knowing the actual show. Sure the movie should be able to stand on his own without forcing the audience to watch the entire series and don't get me wrong the movie sucks, but the really big problem of the movie is just that they had to compress like 7 hours of the show into 2 hours of the movie and if you consider that, the movie HAS to suck automatically, because that's just not possible. They didn't just take 10 episodes, they took the whole first season and hey, you can look forward to, to another two movies, since there are two more seasons…yay?…

Spoony, i can just recommend to watch this show, i mean yeah everybody here says that, but it is really extraordinarily good. It starts out slow and the first season isn't that great, except for maybe 5 episodes, but if you can get through that you get really rewarded with two amazing seasons. The synchronisation is incredible(hey Rufio from hook and Mako speak Zuko and his uncle Iroh! ;) ), the story gets more and more interesting, so do the characters, but what really sticks out are the animations, especially at the end. Seriously, you might hate Zuko (the evil fire-bender that always catches the avatar) in the movie, but over the second and third season his character develops out of his emo-role into somebody really interesting.

Just my opinion and a recommendation. Check it out or not, but have fun the next years with the following 2 movies ;)

Not that big. There are other ways to give the badguys the same advantage. Also, you could just as easily have introduced the Kyoshi Warriors at the beginning of Season 2. You know, where it wouldn't be a non-sequester.

You don't dramatize a novel or TV show just for fans of that show. Doing a side-story would make no sense, because you don't know who any of these characters are, what their relationships are, etc. That's why you have to start at the beginning.

Please Spoony, watch the series. This movie is one of the greatest disservices to source material I've ever seen! I'm sure you've already got hoards of people willing to donate the Avatar box set, so I won't make that offer, but still, the series is not something to be missed.

Also, I hate to say this but in the same way that the Twilight movies are all planned and paid for ahead of time, M. Night is under contract to do ALL THREE BOOKS! The squeals will be happening, there is no doubt about that.

Will definitely need to check out Rampage though. Looks interesting.

As an argument to the end of Rampage maybe he will use that money to go on an even larger well rampage in a sequel Boll tries to make. I would not put it above Boll to make a sequel to this movie even if it was not as good as it was.

From Spoony's description, The Last Airbender sounds like “Exposition, the movie.” Which is bad for multiple reasons.

People who know the plot don't need it. And people who don't know the plot don't want to sit through 2 hours of exposition.

The problem with this movie, oddly enough, is that it tries to be a *faithful* adaptation. It tries to cram all of season 1 into 2 hours.

If you told me that I had to tell the story of each season in 2 hours apiece, I would say that it could be done. But it could *not* be done by following the seasons exactly in lock-step, like this movie tries to do. The correct answer is to basically tell the old story in a new way.

That means cutting out a *lot*. And rewriting a *lot*. As much as you may want the Kyoshi Warriors or the Dai Li or whatever in the movies, you have to find a way to make due without them. As much as you may want whatever pet episodes' plot involved in the movie, you have to make due without them. The plot needs to be boiled down to its bare essentials, so that you can spend every precious second of screen time on that plot and on the various important characters. The most you might be able to do is have shout-outs to certain events.

Good afternoon Spoony and fellow Spooners.

1. Ankh-Morpork? Wow. Casually delivered geek-reference ftw.
2. Unrelated to this post, but is Miles the guy Spoony riffed on Dungeons & Dragons (the movie) with…the guy who kept claiming (jokingly) that the movie was communist propaganda?

Who the hell is “Harko”, Spoony? Did you mean Sokka? ^^

EDIT: whoops, clicked the wrong button to reply xD

On the whole tai'chi and bending thing, this is a perfectly example how ridiculous this stuff looks when translated to real life. I can honestly expect things from a cartoon to look stupid in real life.

As far as the exposition goes, a perfect example of what you get when you try to compress hours worth of story into a short movie. Why do they even try to make cartoons and videogames in to movies anymore? It doesn't work, it has never worked. I wish they would stop trying. Not to mention turning it into live action makes my suspension of disbelief shatter.

The cartoon is indeed better than the movie (EONS better). I would like to hear your comments about the show Spoony, good or bad. Awesome VLog as usual and good to see you two back giving your opinions on such movies as these.

Is there a… *drum roll* Gender Bender?

Wasn't it that the airbender culture was inspired by Tibetan buddhist culture and the Earth Kingdom is meant to loosely reflect China (it's large and has many cultures within it)?

Yes, on Futurama ;)

Sad part is, M. Night has another movie coming out this winter. Its about the devil, trapped inside an elevator with a bunch of people. A ninety minute movie set in an elevator. Yikes.

Really really recommend the cartoon. The action is amazing, the comedy is GREAT, and the story is really really good. It is surprisingly smart and fluid for a cartoon with great artwork The budget for the show must have been huge

I liked the movie. And you can hate me all you want but I really enjoyed it. Look on the bright side, no dutch angles, and it wasn't Dragon Ball: Evolution!

My jaw dropped to my fucking knees when you said you liked an Uwe Boll movie.

Except I don't really get from the Cartoon that the Fire Nation is evil. You really could make the argument that the Earth Nation is as bad or worse.

Anyways nitpicking racial casting seems stupid in a movie with far worse flaws. (That includes Dragon Ball Evolution)

Oh ya the whole racial thing in the show is the water tribe kids were originally from the northern water tribe where the majority of those people are white they moved to the southern water tribe. But i agree with miles the whole racial thing was stupid and unnecessary

Your statement is invalid because, as you can clearly see, barely anyone agrees with you.

I told you your head would explode if you watch M. Night's latest abortion… I highly recommend check out the original series on NetFlix even though it'll make you even madder at Shyamalan seeing how horribly he missed the mark on this…

I never thought we'd see the day when Dr. Uwe Boll would outclass M. Night in the directorial dept.

And trust me, if you have a Crazy Nick Cage itch… The Sorcerer's Apprentice will definitely satisfy it

I think, for a lot of people, that's what makes it so painful.

Im sorry… I probably just wasted everyone's time on this long-winded rant I think… there are pretty much more well-developed comments down below.. that I've covered up like a drunk collegue over a cat.

I think this movie, from what I hear, might have done better as a movie SERIAL rather than a feature. Just split up in 10~ minute chunks run before the studio's other movies during the summer.

Well, artistically, anyway. I don't know how profitable that'd be. At least you can guarantee a big box office intake for the FIRST weekend with a big movie, rather than gambling on luring in additional audience members for Charlotte's Web II: Die, Charlotte, Die with a new ten minute Airbender short, and keep pulling it off until you make a profit, all summer.

Rampage Jackson The Last Airbender? Cool.

Did I hear Ankh-Morpork? Fuck yeah.

WHAT
WHAT
THEY MADE AANG'S MENTOR BLACK
WHAT

Seriously, though, this was a pretty good review. I'm shocked that Uwe Boll has actually become tolerable, but I guess it would be inhuman not to improve from where he started.

Judging from what I've heard about the movie, my favorite part is when Aang is rallying the Earthbender prisoners to rebel. “EARTHBENDERS! THERE IS DIRT UNDER YOUR FEET!” And they're all like… “Oh yeah. We never noticed that.” The Fire Nation kept them in a prison where they have free access to THE ONE THING that they know they can use as weapons! In the show, they were kept on an oil rig miles out at sea made completely out of metal. But not here! That's this movie in 5 seconds right there.

As for the cartoon, I dunno. I liked it, but there are things you complained about that are a part of the show, too, like the color schemes and the prevalence of martial arts. The fight scenes are much better, going at a much faster pace and the occasional bit of parkour. Ultimately, though, once you get to the heart of the matter, this is a show that revolves around a group of kids saving the world, and I know how much you hate that.

Stay classy, there.

Lol during the avatar review you can see his brother with a face of “you jackass that was also in the show and it kicked ass”

I've read through a lot of the comments on this thing, so I already know that people have suggested this. However, I'm hoping that if enough of your fans ask you to do so, you might decide to give in to popular demand. Or, if you want an explanation that doesn't accidentally sound like a bashing of your integrity (or something): That you will take into account the desires of the majority of your fans in order to provide them with something entertaining.

So, the suggestion I'm about to reiterate is: review the Avatar cartoon (or hell, Anime if you prefer to call it such, it was animated in Korea and uses the same Asian style as Anime, more or less, despite being made for an English audience).

If you have a Netflix account, all three seasons can be streamed. Not rented on DVD, streamed. This means that you can, through your Netflix subscription, watch every episode of the cartoon without even disrupting the flow of DVDs you may have previous desired. You can also do the review at your own pace, without any need to mail in DVDs to get something else that you might want to watch in the interim between episodes. So, if you have a Netflix subscription, you can watch the show without any inconvenience, at all.

Yes, you would have to take the time to watch the episodes, but I can personally assure you that this is not an inconvenience. This show is very watchable, and indeed very enjoyable. While I can not say that certain issues you had with the movie will be any different, I can say that the pacing will be so much better. There is actual characterization, there is well written plot, and there is only the bare essentials of exposition (aside from an annoying reoccurring monologue that sets up the premise of the series that acts as the theme song. Like all theme songs, this can be skipped.)

Now, I have not seen this movie, having already predicted it would be crap. This is the reason I can not say if some things you did not like will be different. I have not seen how they were presented in the film, so I can not make a proper comparison.

However, I can assure you that the “constant Tai-Chi” is not only the entire concept that spawned the series, it is very enjoyably presented in the show. Tai-Chi itself is only used for Water Bending, for instance, and this helps keep the movements from becoming tired out, so if you literally mean that only Tai-Chi was used, this is definantly not the case in the show. Also, there is a lot more creativity in the way fights are won. You will see a lot of faceless, generic firebending soldiers just shooting the same fireballs all the time, however, any character who isn't a faceless soldier does put real creativity into their atacks. The elements are used a lot more flexibly, and abused almost to their full abilities (aside from the fact that airbending is never used to make someone's lungs explode or something, but even this is a characterization induced thing, as the only airbender we see is the Avatar, and he really dislikes killing, so he obviously wouldn't try to develope an instant death attack.)

The color coordination thing is… well, it's true in the show too. The only saving grace there is that it looks far less stupid on cartoons. Why, I do not know. I'd theorize that its a subconscious acceptance of the fact that it makes things easier to animate. Consumers tolerate things like reused background characters, for instance, even when we're not supposed to assume its the same guy. So its less of a stress to just say, “OK, they're on a budget, people having cultural color preferences is acceptable.”)

As for the fire nation being evil simply because they're fire, I don't know how the movie presented this. If the movie litterally said “the fire nation is evil because fire=evil”, then no, that does not happen. The fire nation is presented as evil because they committed an act of genocide on the airbenders, and then invaded the rest of the world, starting a war without any provocation, or any motivation at all beyond “we want to rule the world.” This is, of course, aside from some propaganda that they believe conquering the world will allow them to spread their better (industrialized) lifestyle to other cultures. Now, this sounds like a rather shallow characterization, but this is the Fire Nation as a group, individual characters tend to be more well defined. If, however, your problem is actually with the fact that the Fire Nation was chosen by the writers to be the evil one, just because they are fire… this is pretty much true of the cartoon as well.

It should be noted, however, that there are evil members of other Nations, including a whole evil organization of earthbenders in season two.

Now, if I already know I like the show, why do I want you to review it? I admit, it is partially because I do not enjoy watching you mock something I like, and I want to see a more positive reaction to Avatar the Last Airbender from you. At the same time, I think seeing you point out what you like about a show is often just as rewarding as when you hate a show, such as your Knightmare review. I believe Avatar: the Last Airbender will give you a chance to do so yet again.

Sorry for being so long winded. Thank you for your time, I hope you consider reviewing the original show.

for what its worth though, this movie was so bad that it actually made me go watch the actual show now, even though I never had any interest in it.

I downloaded The Happening a few days ago on your recommendation, and it was fucking hilarious. The hot dog obsessed guy was the best character. Also watched Port of Call a month ago or so as per your recommendation, and it was amazing.

I'm really glad that Uwe Boll got a movie that wasn't completely asinine. It suggests that he isnt a total bastard deliberately making bad movies and writing it off on taxes as we all learned in the Alone in the Dark review. And I won't gush about Avatar being the best thing ever, but I do recommend it. It does have some anime cliches but not too bad, and its not all wavy thai chi in the cartoon either. It looks a lot more like quality martial arts

I…really wouldn't recommend the cartoon. At all. Before I get crucified, I have to admit that I'm the exception in totally not getting the show's appeal. Still, here's my pseudo-criticism.

You know how in FFX you exclaimed “what assholes!” when they were going to a Blitzball tournament instead of, you know, saving the world? Imagine that stretched into an entire show. Admittedly the animation/action is -really- good. Very fluid and all that jazz. But when the action isn't happening is when the quality starts to plummet. Like the attempts at humor. We're talking Jimmy Neutron-level stuff here.

It's like a D&D game, in terms of how the characters interact and how seriously they take things. Like a fighter might critical a goblin and the group would laugh at how hilariously over-the-top the hit was, never mind how threatening goblins might be. Just a constantly immersion-breaking effect as they make stupid jokes and snide comments in the middle of a world-shattering conflict. Not saying the show actually has hilarious over-the-top violence (awesome as that might be), but you know what I mean.

They even make bluff checks like D&D. I remember at one point Aang had to dress up like an old man to win a guard's sympathy and gain access to a city. Natrually it was unbelievably and hokey as hell, but because all guards are idiots it worked anyway. The exact same thing happened in a later episode, only this time Saka had to feign sickness. “Oh nooo, I'm dying”. Free as a bird after that.

If the creators of this show, after it had had its run, revealed it to be a spoof. Like some sort of anime disumbrationism, my mind would be thoroughly blown. I can see it now. “We created Avatar mainly to capitalize upon the vulnerable, non-discriminating tastes of its target audiences. Key elements include:

1. Lots of action and special effects. bendingbendingbendingbending
2. Humor simplistic enough to appeal to the LCD
3. Same with character development
4. A relentless tirade of Asian. The tai chi, the instruments, the emotes, the food the characters eat. Weeabooism is all the rage these days.

All of this put on a network whose cartoons have gone downhill lately (to put it mildly), and you've got a perfect storm of mediocrity. Like people are so fed up with the majority of western crap offerings that anything halfway decent is celebrated like the second coming.

But above all else, I'm not really hostile. Crappy TV is pretty standard for me. I'm just really, really confused. What am I not getting, here? What makes this show so monumentally awesome? If you do decide to watch it Spoony, I hope you “get it” better than I do.

Fire nation are made out of Indian people, I am Indian does mean I am evil? lol jk

This movie seems really bad … but really should we even hold hope for a good live action that as good if not better than the original material, here the truth… IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!! ( although the live action Ninja turtles wasn't bad)

Give him a break on the FFX, Nobody should be forced to play that game too often.

The dragon doesn't say anything in the cartoon, actually, being a dragon he can't talk. He just helps Aang get to Avatar Roku's (the dragon's owner) spirit, who is the real guy for exposition.

And yes, his exposition is indeed actually useful advice, not useless filler. He's pivotal, in fact.

Anyone who can shoot fire is awesome ;)

TMNT the original live action movies were ok, probably because it was a comic book movie, not a cartoon movie. It didn't follow the cartoon show at all, it followed the comic.

Very true, you can't expect fans of the show to accept a name change like that. Every time they said his name I felt like walking out. Also, M. Night's change would only make sense if they hired an Asian to play Aang. (Even if they did I would STILL hate the name change.)

I'm actually also bothered by the tai chi thing. Like, in the cartoon, all that aang needs to do to air bend is by bring his hands in a motion like a push, in the movie, aang needs to do useless kicking motions and swirls just to make fog.

Actually, the dragon doesn't give the advice, the owner of the dragon gives the advice, avatar Roku

It's always nice to see Miles pop in and add a different opinion, cause you two work off each other well :P

Are you fucking serious about the constant Tai Chi thing in Last Airbender. For fuck's- the girl is the only waterbender in her village. That was kind of the point. The Fire Nation military had come over a few decades and either captured or killed them all. But continuity aside, the show does go into the spirituality of martial arts, but it sounds like Shammalammadingdong respects that about as much as the source material.

As a Cracked article pointed out, they take that whole rallying the earthbenders thing from an episode where the characters found a bunch of Earth Kingdom POWs out on a metal ship at sea, where there was absolutely nothing for them to bend. That was kind of a more realistic situation, AND THAT WAS IN A CARTOON. I hate you Shyamalan. And of course it was the girl, Katara, who was trying to rally them. But I suppose girls can't be brave and active in Hollywood.

Also what waterbending scroll? She fucking stole it from pirates. Yeah. She was kind of desperate to learn anything herself seeing as she was the only waterbender in her village and didn't really have anyone to teach her. ARGH. Why couldn't all of this money have just gone to a big budgeted animated film by the same team from the show?

The martial arts moves are pretty subdued in the show, they're fast-paced and basically its just elemental magic added to real martial arts moves.

Yeah, the princess character was pretty… two dimensional in the show too. She really was sort of a deus ex machina. But since everything you described took place over three episodes which would have been.. an hour and a half … yeah.

Thing about the Firelord, you never even see him til like the third season. Arrrrgh.

Season one actually did end with the reveal of Zuko's sister, Azula. And yeah, it was a little corny. But once you see what a manipulative, poisonous and impossibly badass sociopath of a villain she is it's fine. …I hope they don't make a second movie, he'll probably ruin her too.

Ahh the comet. It comes every 100 years actually, it's how the Fire Nation started the war. It makes them retardedly powerful, and they CAN ALREADY MAKE FIRE WITH THEIR CHI OR WHATEVER. How do you fuck that up? In the show firebending is based on Northern Shaolin style and is all about inner energy and breath. It's also a big part of the mythology that the nation learned their respective techniques from animals (dragons, in the case of the Fire Nation) kind of like how kung fu itself is based on the way animals fight. Arghh I haven't even seen this movie and I hate it. I WILL CONTINUE TO NERD RAGE.

I'm glad he didn't do this “it was Earth all along” thing, he's already given a big enough middle finger to the series.

Well the color scheme thing is present in the show, though the Earth Kingdom being the biggest and most culturally varied nation not everyone wears green. Cause the cartoon MAKES SENSE. Just watch it, Spoony. It's got good writing and good comedy too.

I actually have to disagree with your review of Last Airbender. It's not that bad, the “Tai Chi” is overused and the effects are a little hoaky but you can't really complain about it sequel baiting, any trilogy sequel baits. Matrix Sequel baited, LOTR sequel baited, Empire Strikes Back sequel baited! I normally respect your views Spoony, but I think you were just a bit too harsh on Last Airbender.

I saw the tiltle “Uwe Boll's Rampage” and I was like, rampage, the arcade game? WHY? Anyways, nice reviews, Miles is pretty funny, you should have him on more often.

I really think you should give the cartoon a chance. It actually is borderline “Anime” in the sense that it was animated in Korea, but was made for an American audience. That being the case, the humor in it – which was completely lacking from the movie- is easily understood by a Western audience.

Almost all of your complaints for the movie could be remedied by watching the series. First of all, it has wonderful characterization and motivation behind each character. Second, all the disciplines of “bending” use a different style of Kung-fu which lends both to the characteristics of the elements they control and gives a more cultural feel to the different nations. Third, the cartoon actually gives the audience more credit for having a brain. Many things are foreshadowed and hinted at, with only just the exposition that's needed.

The Blue Spirit was one of my favorite episodes in season 1. It said a lot and at the same time it had very little dialogue throughout.

Four – THEY KEEP MISPRONOUNCING THE CHARACTER'S NAMES! Aang should be pronounced like “Bang” not “Ahnk”

I won't say the series is perfect. There are some points I don't completely cotton to but it is still a masterful job, particularly for a children's cartoon.

In season 1, the main villain is Admiral Xiao, in season 2, the main villain is Princess Azula, and in season 3, Fire Lord Ozai finally steps up to bat as the chief and final villain. It's kind of like an RPG in the sense that you elevate to stronger opponents. As well, Aang learns his powers 1 element per season. Thinking of it in that context it may help you a bit.

I can honestly say it would have made a great movie. They made plenty of pit-stops that were not essential to the storyline, but what made the cartoon was the characterizations. You know what? I think Jackie Chan would have made a better director for this because he's at least done comedy (including children's comedies) and knows various styles of Kung-fu very well. I mean, if you had the characters – Aang's kindness yet childish streak mixed with the weight of this great destiny on his shoulders… Kitara and her motherly streak, yet her strong desire to become a great Water Bender.. She is easily the most level headed of the original trio. Then you get to Sokka (Saw-kah) who has no bending powers. He's completely snarky and cynical, but comes in handy as a strategist when he comes into his own. The characters are the core and unfortunately the movie did not preserve them.

M. Knight completely missed what made them great. And as a side note, they continually do different things with the elements in the fights which keep things interesting… something again, missed in the movie. Seriously, the cartoon continually surprised me and outdid itself every season. Even when I wasn't sure of a direction it was taking, they managed (with very few hiccups) to bring me along with them.

you just called the earth city ( Ba Sing Se) Ankh Morpork…YOU FREAKING RULE DUDE!

Thank god! Your giving the toon at least a chance. I can't really say anything new that anyone else has except this, plus everyother live action adaption of an anime/cartoon should be locked up in room 101. Please Allah the cowboy bebop movie breaks the chain. That one isn't necesarry at all, there's already a great animated movie for it…..oh whatever, i'll wait and see ^_^;

A good Uwe Boll movie? Isn't that one of the maiyan prophecies? (poor joke, sorry ^_^; )

And you know what the sad thing is? M Night Shyamalan actually watched the show! He watched the show and fucked the movie up that bad. He got the names wrong of main characters. That's just sad.

I agree with pretty much everything you and your brother said, Spoony. The whole Tai-Chi thing was very unnecessary. I noticed that too that it was pretty much in every scene and perfectly choreographed. Very annoying. And the funny thing about the Earth Benders was that they were imprisoned…in Earth. Seriously, ground was all around them. But they were too pussy to even do anything. At least in the show they were surrounded by metal, not Earth.

Watch the show, Spoony. It is SO much better than this crap hole of a movie. It actually makes sense and you grow to like the characters. What I find kind of funny is that you liked the uncle, Uncle Iroh. Even people who hate the show love Uncle Iroh. That's just how great he is and he's even greater in the show.

1968: Tunnel Rats was not written; it was improvised. I'd say that Stoic fits more in with Darfur, another improv movie. But try out Final Storm…or, when it comes out, BloodRayne 3.

I don't see why you would have a complaint with Tai Chi, since that's what the Waterbending style was based on. The other ones, though, are most definitely not. Also, how would you condense 20 episodes into 2 hours?

Yikes…they couldn't even get the names right. “Ahng”? “Sooka”?

And if you really are going to watch the cartoon, like you said…trust me. It's a little kiddy, but past that, it's pretty damn good.

EARTH SHIELD!
EARTH SHIELD!
DOUBLE DEMON FANG!
RAY THRUST!
WATER SHIELD!

i'm gonna be honest with you guys….why do you pronounce AAng'sname like that? if its written in the movie that way, i'm gonna find M. Night, kidnap him, stap him multiple times in no-lethal area s he must live through the painand then tear all his fingers out so he can never write another screenplay. yessssssss…..mwahahahahaha

now that UWE BOLL cant get german tax thingy anymore, he has to make good movies to make money…..thats still no easy feat for uwe boll.

Watching this review makes me want to draw a Katara with spaghetti arms teaching Aang how to waterbend. Who also has spaghetti arms. XD Watching Spoony reenact all the martial arts was hilarious.

XD Raging at all the Tai Chi.. I have not seen this film, nor do I intend to, but I can't imagine the tai chi will have been all that good; in the cartoon it works pretty well though. Tai Chi is often misrepresented as this entirely spiritual, Yoga-like meditative endeavor, when that's really not all there is to it. If you have a -good- teacher, tai chi is essentially Kung Fu with less acrobatics and more substance – the Chen style is the most similar to Kung Fu, but the Yang style probably has the most depth. There's nothing stopping you from playing around with the principles in partner exercises, i.e. Pushing Hands, and eventually going on to things like chinese kickboxing and full-on wrestling. Very few people actually do so, but that doesn't mean tai chi has to be all wavy hands and nice circular motions. That's not even mentioning the sword fighting, which is extremely practical and much more lethal than say, Kendo (and if villagers in ancient china had to learn to defend themselves they wouldn't have 30 years; with dedicated effort you can get the basics down pretty quickly).

Personally I don't care if it was the greatest movie of all time, Uwe Boll will never get even a cent of my money.

I've always wondered why I seem to be the only person in the world who's noticed Shyamalan's habit to have actors over emotionalize tot he point their performances turn dry.

Jeez, I must have watched the Air Bender part of this review at least 3 times already. It's so much fun watching you rage on crappy movies.

Hopefully haven't heard this too many times, but anyone who's seen the cartoon understands that the all the Tai Chi during the bending scenes was kind of the point. In the world of the cartoon, Bending isn't so much a super power as it is a learned art; the martial arts moves are necessary to bend the elements, so while all the complex, seemingly cheoregraphed movements that the characters made before bending wasn't extraneous: it was just how bending works. In fact, each of the types of bending are based on real world martial arts: Waterbending is Tai Chi, Earthbending is Hung Gar, Firebending is Shaolin Kung Fu, and Airbending is Ba Gua. Of course, I don't fault you for not knowing any of that and pointing out how rediculous all the Tai Chi looked, because, despite all the exposition, Shyamalan wasn't able to convey such an essential aspect of the universe he was filming, that Bending=Martial Arts.

Also, concerning the Anime vs. cartoon thing: It DOES matter, at least to the hardcore fans. Anime, ie. animation from Japan, is a multi-genre, multi-demographic medium. Unfortunately, in America, the perception is pretty widespread that animation is strictly for kids. So along comes Avatar, an American cartoon, that is actually a high quality, sosphisticated, entertaining, genre-busting production, that appeals to older audiences as well as kids. As such, the distinction that it is an American cartoon as apposed to an anime is an important one to make.

Finally, I encourage you to check out the cartoon. The writing is 1000 times better, the characters are fleshed out and you give a damn about what happens to them, and the action scenes are really good, and bending is used much more creatively.

But the show makes it so much less stupid. It's really more like an actual fight in the show, but with the elements added in, so it's like “I just kicked you in the face, and now I'm going to throw you 100 feet in the air with this pillar of rock that I just shot out of the ground” instead of, well, what happened

And Netflix has the show on instant watch, I hadn't seen it since it came out, and it worked as a much needed brain bleach for the movie.
And I agree with all of your points

I saw Rampage yesterday and I have to say that I don't agree with you. I didn't see any problems at all with the ending.

The movie portraits two different kind of extremisms:
- Evan is a left wing extremist, he talk about socialism: all men are equal, money corrupts the world, we are too many so we have to work together to consume less.
- Bill is a right wing extremist, he talk about neo-fascism: not all men are equal, we are too many so we have to eliminate the people that doesn't deserve to use the resources, like “people in the third world countries or cancer patients”.

So the ending makes perfect sense: it's NOT a robbery masked as a mass murder. It's not even a robbery in his mind. “Survival of the fittest” he says at the beginning of his rampage. He “deserve” the money because his the strongest. As he says at the end, he “cleans the world” and “take the resources”.

(I apologize for my english. I'm italin, I'm not used to write in english)

I think he took the money to fund more ammunition and supplies.

Anyhow, Uwe Boll finally made a good film!

Shyamalan on the other hand has received Boll's curse and is now doomed to make crap films!

Is the Last Airbender honestly that bad? Ive seen some of the trailers for it and it makes it look like a good watch… But is it seriusly that disapointing?

if evan is socialist minded, why he works together with a considered right wing extremist? well, on the other hand that wouldn´t be that unusaual, considering that socialism comes in different forms, expressing the social needs of different classes (their layers) in different times and countries. some “socialist” would do that while other not. or to rob a bank at all, thats not strenghten the class consciesness of the working class, so evan is more an anarchist. i wonder if boll potrays this more exactly. in that case the movie would attract my interest.

Noah, watch the cartoon. Its worth it and you will understand.

M Night should of made season one into three movies but for the target audience and time frame. I don't think its that bad. Of course this is coming form someone who loved the series.

TEMPEST!

Dude its SOOOOOOOOOOO Bad it topped my list of Worst Movies knocking Transformers 2 to Second Place

that's 20 episodes, miles.

“Browns and beige. Earth tones people.” Love the Mr. Plinkett reference.

I love Sorcerer's Apprentice! Go see it and access your own opinion, it's cheesy, but really good and Nick Cage is awesome in it :D

Transformers 2 is bad too!?!? Man, I need to get to the cinema more often. I seem to be behind the times a bit. lol

Dude, it's so sad. Really. I had such high expectations for The Last Airbender, but, really, The Sorcerer's Apprentice was lightyears ahead of Airbender.

They never say that she's from the north in the movie though. Besides, Katara and Sokka should only be 1/4 white since Gran-gran married a man from the south.

It's the Fire Nation, Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, and Air Nomads….. YAY!!! I'm a bigger nerd than Spoony!!!

You cant put Ankh Morpork under siege , the gates are always open.

This was the worst movie I have ever gone to the theater to see, and for the love of god I went twice. I never saw the show before but after watching this piece of crap I had the chance to watch some of it and was amazed at how much better it was, it wasn't incredible or anything but it far surpassed this “film”. also regarding the princesses penis hair, how could they possibly of picked that up off the cutting room floor they must have made it looked like that on purpose there is no way that was accidental.

One interview I read with M. Nigh described his inspiration for The Sixth Sense, that it was from an episode his kids watched of the old show Are You Afraid Of The Dark? on Nick. It's the one where some kids were told a story about a haunted graveyard. The kids go to the haunted graveyard seeing the ghost and of course, get scared, but the twist at the end is you find out the kids were the ghosts. He's never really had any original ideas.

IMDB: His inspiration for The Sixth Sense (1999) was based on an episode from “Are You Afraid of the Dark?: The Tale of the Dream Girl (#3.10)” (1994) directed by David Winning.

Makes me wonder if Unbreakable was an original idea. Maybe he should have used the Airbender story as an inspiration as well, instead of just trying to replicate the series.

On a side note, Spoony, how have you not yet made an “Avatar: The Last Spoonbender” poster?

>too
What’s that? You’re stupid and I shouldn’t listen to you? Okay, if you say so.

I’m legitimately worried that Shyamalan is going to fund the next movie personally or some shit like that.

ohh burn by your brother. “its like a actual film maker worked on this” XD

I like that you quoted plinkett

Captain Exposition, eh? I think I like that. Thanks for the Halloween costume idea!

Captain Exposition, eh? I think I like that. Thanks for the Halloween costume idea!

yes watch the Cartoon to see the fail that the movie really is
Think of a show where everything in it is important
That’s Avatar the Last Air bender

yes watch the Cartoon to see the fail that the movie really is
Think of a show where everything in it is important
That’s Avatar the Last Air bender

THis is going to sound like I’m defending that gigantic turd, but when they did the “evil daughter” reveal at the end of The Last Airbender you actually DO see her once before. In a flashback. That one where the prince is about to get burned or whatever, the camera cuts to his sister for all of five seconds.

Actually Spoony, even though you may not like anime, Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is not an anime, but besides that, it was actually a somewhat serious series for a Nickelodeon cartoon. A lot of the themes revolve around genocide and racism, but that’s beside the point right now. You may have actually liked the series, not criticizing you, but the series actually was good, and even the graphic novels are good as well. N. Night Shaymalan needs to go back to school or just write novels. I did watch the Happening and I laughed my butt off because it was so unrealistic. Plants and wind? Really?! With this piece of crap movie, I hated all the actors, and the fact that even though it was supposed to be like Book 1, it was completely inaccurate. If I were to point out all the inaccuracies I would be here all night. Spoony, really all the benders do all different types of martial arts, and I get your annoyance, and each bending type has a different type of martial arts, and it’s annoying that the only used one. The person that played Zuko was way too angry, and I wish Shymalan would stop taping in Philadelphia because he’s making the city look bad. He could’ve did so much better.

I went to Ank Mor-Pork once.  It was a nice place to visit.

You should totally watch the cartoon. It was fun and had a lot of heart, and a lot of wit as well. And for some reason, M Night decided to throw everything fun about it into the trash when he made the movie.

I didn’t notice much acting talent in the old water-bender guy… in my opinion, the random background people and the Fire Nation guy who gave all the exposition were the best actors. Despite the fact that that guy was played by Aasif Mandvi, a correspondent on “the Daily Show with Jon Stewart” whose presence in this borefest of a movie totally astounds me.

The scary thing was that The Last Airbender was supposed to be the first in a trilogy, each one being based off of a season from the show. Thank fucking GOD that didn’t happen, one terrible movie is enough.