The Last Airbender movie disappointing

My son, Nick, and I have been following the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" show on Nickelodeon since it first started showing. I love the show. It is beautiful and moving, funny and suspenseful, and all over wonderful. I love the message it sends of finding peace through non-killing ways. I wouldn't say nonviolent because Aang, the Avatar, must still fight in order to stay alive and save people from the Fire Nation, but he has a rule that he lives by and that is not to kill.

So when we heard about the live action movie coming out (probably due in part to their awards and nominations for the cartoon), Nick and I were so very excited. We wondered how they would throw three seasons worth of material into a couple of hours and pondered the idea that they may break it up into separate movies so they would be able to truly tell the story (which is what they did).

We had been counting the days until it came out. Finally July 1 arrived and we all (our whole adopted family) decided to go this weekend. We were so excited to finally be able to see it on the big screen.

Horrible. That's all I can say.
What a huge disappointment! I can't imagine the writers for the TV show were involved at all in the movie because it had none of the personality that made the show so wonderful. I highly doubt the writers or director of this movie ever saw the series. The characters were not well developed. They didn't even pronounce the characters names the same way they did in the show. The plot and scenes were all out of order. Some of the very important characters were not in it at all and some of the most important parts (like the ending scene of the movie) were completely fabricated (and very badly at that).

There were parts of the movie where, if you had not followed the series like Nick and I did, you would not have known what was going on. There were other parts where, if you did follow the series, you would have said, "What the ...? Where did that come from?" Even as a follower of the show, I was lost in some parts.

And the pace was just gut wrenching. It was so dull and slow at the beginning. I felt for sure it was going to pick up and we'd have our wonderful story, but it never did. It just kept going on and on and on.

And the humor from the show was just tossed out. The thing that made the show so wonderful was its full range of emotion. Aang, the main character, is just a goofy kid and Sokka, the Southern Water Tribe warrior, was comic relief throughout the show. But in the movie, everything was serious and there was no fun at all. I recall about three humorous parts in the whole movie. That's it.

I'm not difficult to entertain
I'm no movie critic. I'm not that picky when it comes to movies, so it is really bad when I decide about 20 or so minutes into it that I want to leave. I had this huge hope that it would get better, but it didn't. The final scene (the totally fabricated one) had some decent special effects, but still wasn't worth the money I paid to see it.

We were all very disappointed. Those of us who followed the show felt it could have been so much better. Everything was already written for a screen, so it wasn't like they had to make it all up. The scenery and everything was already laid out for them, but they clearly paid no attention to the actual show when producing this film. I understand some embellishment here and there, but they took a beautiful idea and destroyed it.

And for those of our group who did not follow the series, they were a bit confused and bored. They were more impressed by the special effects because they didn't realize it wasn't supposed to be that way.

Don't go
I know the temptation to go see something even when everyone else it saying it's horrible. You have to see for yourself. Maybe your tastes are different. Well, I will remind you that bad movies like this come out on DVD quickly so they can recoup their losses as quickly as possible. If you must see it, wait until then and rent it. Otherwise, save yourself the money and heartache. I was so saddened that they ruined the beauty of the show like they did. If you are a follower of the show, don't see it. It will disgust you too.