History Film / TheLastAirbender

* AlternateContinuity: The events of this film take place in an alternate timeline separate from the main franchise's timeline.

* AuthorUsurpation: Whenever people think about movies made by M. Night Shyamalan, this is the first movie people will think of--and it occasionally might be the only one thought about.

** Sokka is also a lot more serious, even when compared with his more dry and sarcastic book 1 self. To the point where despite being the definitive comic relief in the series, he doesn't crack a single joke in the movie.

** Played more straight with his uncle Iroh who is taller, thinner, and younger than he was in the series.

** The most famous is in the retelling of the episode "Imprisoned." In the show, the Earthbenders are trapped in a metal ship out at sea, far away from any sources of earth to bend [[spoiler: and metal bending had not yet been discovered at this point in the series]]. In the movie, they're imprisoned in a camp on land, which would be like building a prison and then giving all the prisoners assault rifles with infinite ammunition... and then the prisoners not using them for no adequately explained reason.

* ElementalIgnorance:
** In an AdaptationInducedPlotHole, the Fire Nation rounds up earthbending prisoners and keeps them in a quarry, yet they still don't attack until Aang rallies them.
** The Northern Water Tribe manages to fall into this despite fighting the Fire Nation on a field of snow and ice. They point out immediately before the battle that firebenders need a supply of fire to bend and give orders to extinguish their own torches, and then leave fires burning all over the place, evening the playing field.

* BladeOnAStick: The Fire Nation soldiers wield guan daos.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Everyone seems to have their own personal idea as to how to pronounce "Avatar". Many character's names are also mispronounced in the film. M Night stated he wanted to "honor the show" by using the Japanese pronunciations.

** Sokka, being both the ComedicReliefCharacter and TheSmartGuy in the show, has little in the way of character traits in the film and does little beyond receive exposition.

** Sokka, being both the ComicRelief and TheSmartGuy in the show, has little in the way of character traits in the film and does little beyond receive exposition.

* MrExposition: Pretty much all the characters, but the worst offenders are Katara and Zhao.

** Zhao gets drowned by the Waterbenders here but in the show, he suffers a FateWorseThanDeath by being banished to the Fog of Lost Souls for all eternity.

''The Last Airbender'' is a 2010 LiveActionAdaptation by Creator/MNightShyamalan based on ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the word "Avatar" being omitted to prevent the title from [[WritingAroundTrademarks bumping into]] the film ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. It [[StillbornFranchise was]] planned to be the first film in a trilogy matching the three seasons of the show but plans were canceled after it barely broke even at the box office.

The world of ''The Last Airbender'' consists of four nations: the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribe, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Each society has people capable of manipulating--or "bending"--the [[ElementalPowers element that is their namesake]]. Only one person in each generation, the Avatar, is capable of [[AllYourPowersCombined bending all of the elements]]; their duty is to be a mediator and peacekeeper of the world.

** In the cartoons, Firebenders can create flames, while in the film all but the very best require existing flames to bend.
** The Earthbenders in the prison have had their spirits broken by the Fire Nation and do not attempt to resist until Aang rallies them. In the series, while they do also have their spirits broken, they additionally do not resist because they're kept away from earth on a massive metal platform in the ocean. And even when they ''do'' resist, they're severely underpowered compared to the show: the number of Earthbenders that it took to slowly move a small rock would have completely destroyed an opposing army in the show.

** Every Earth and Water person in the film suffers from this. Unlike the series, Firebenders (who aren't masters) need an available source of fire in order to bend it. This is all well and good, except none of the other characters ever think to ''put them out''! Granted, some of the fire sources are fairly large, but nothing that couldn't be doused with a little effort. Taken to truly ridiculous extremes in the Earthbender camp when several Firebenders are literally bending from a single source they could not conceivably protect. Same with the siege of the Northern Water Tribe at night -- someone ''does'' give the order to douse the flames when the alarm bells sound … but apparently, nobody got around to it, because all of the fires are still going during the battle.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Several.

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Done to several of the characters:

** Zuko's scar has changed from covering half his face to a barely noticable red line over his eye. This is more an example of shifting things to work in the new format (film) where the extremely stylized scar might not be as believable. Additionally, Zuko is already considered attractive despite the disfigurement.

* AdaptationalJerkass: Sokka gets hit with the hardest. In the show, he can be a bit of a sexist jerk to Katara (at least early on) but it never moves past normal sibling squabbling. Here it's implied he's hit her due to the way she cowers when she gets him wet and he raises his arm.

** The Earthbenders in the prison have had their spirits broken by the Fire Nation and do not attempt to resist until Aang rallies them. In the series, while they do also have their spirits broken, they additionally do not resist because they're kept away from earth on a massive metal platform in the ocean. And even when they ''do'' resist, they're severly underpowered compared to the show: The number of Earthbenders that it took to slowly move a small rock would have completely destroyed an opposing army in the show.

** Every Earth and Water person in the film suffers from this. Unlike the series, Firebenders (who aren't masters) need an available source of fire in order to bend it. This is all well and good, except none of the other characters ever thinks to ''put them out''! Granted, some of the fire sources are fairly large, but nothing that couldn't be doused with a little effort. Taken to truly ridiculous extremes in the Earthbender camp when several Firebenders are literally bending from a single source they could not conceivably protect. Same with the seige of the Northern Water Tribe at night -- someone ''does'' give the order to douse the flames when the alarm bells sound … but apparently, nobody got around to it, because all of the fires are still going during the battle.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Everyone seems to have their own personal idea as to how to pronounce "Avatar". Many character's names are also mispronounced in the film. M Night stated he wanted to "honor the show" by using the Japanese pronounciations.

* TheOner: The battle between the Earthbenders and the Fire Nation. Also doubles as FightSceneFailure as you can see in the backgound several extras standing around waiting for their cues.

** The grey-eyed Air Nomads are heavily based on Tibet. In the movie, Aang was portayed by a white actor with Native American ancestry, and Monk Gyatso became black.

* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: Imprisoning Earthbenders in a quarry. The Fire Nation's stupidity is turned UpToEleven here. At least in the show, they keep Earthbenders imprisoned on metal ships far out to sea, where no earth is available for the Earthbenders to use against their captors. Subverted, in a way, because the Earthbenders spend years in the camp without fighting back. The Firebenders' stupidity was turned UpToEleven, but the Earthbenders' stupidity was turned Up to ''Twelve''.

* LogoJoke: The stars from the Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures logo are accompanied with splashes of water. [[http://www.agonybooth.com/movies/The_Last_Airbender_2010.aspx (“And after this movie, you’ll be wanting to put Paramount on ice too.”)]] The Nickelodeon logo that follows is on fire.

* MagicalNegro: Monk Gyatso.

* MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext: This clip of the infamous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jau77pwpvkk "Pebble Dance"]].

* MissingTrailerScene: Many; especially anything with the Warriors of Kyoshi, whose entire story was cut. The ''entire teaser'' was not even meant for the original movie. This got to the point where entire TV spots for the film were made of footage never seen in the film itself.

* PowerGlows: Aang's tattoo.

* SceneryPorn: A number of scenes easily qualify for this.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Monk Gyatso dies first. His race was [[RaceLift changed to black]] for the film.

[[caption-width-right:350:You want the fella on the ''right.'']]

The film's hero is Avatar Aang, an Air Nomad boy who froze himself in an iceberg to avoid his destiny. One hundred years later, he reawakens to find that his people have been massacred by the Fire Nation, which is trying to take over the world. Seeking to take his calling seriously and challenge the Fire Lord, he journeys with his new friends, Water Tribe teenagers Katara and Sokka, to the North Pole to find a Waterbending master to learn the art. But news that the Avatar has returned spreads quickly, and he is hunted by both Prince Zuko, the disgraced son of the Fire Lord, and [[TheDragon Admiral Zhao]], the Fire Lord's second in command.

*** Which, if you really think about it, is a line of thinking that misses the entire point of the show, as the Fire Nation is ''supposed'' to be the post powerful nation in the ''Avatar'' world, since they were the ones waging a hundred-year war against everyone else... and ''winning''.
*** Thoroughly misses the point that water, earth and air are ''all'' common features of environments humans can live in. Fire? Not so much. Fire is transient, a source of fire can be extinguished but the other elements cannot be readily destroyed. Any battle between the movie Fire Nation and anyone else should have been an absolute [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomp Battle]] as their fires were doused/smothered/blown out by waterbenders/earthbenders/airbenders who can then thorougly paste them without interruption.

** ''All'' benders due to the change in bending mechanics meaning a non-bender like Sokka could easily run up knock out any opponent due to the "charge-up" routine when the show depicted benders being able to blast as quickly as they could move a body part.

* CardboardPrison: The Earthbender prison camp. Imprisoning people in a camp surrounded by a substance they can magically manipulate… [[WhatAnIdiot yeah]], [[SarcasmMode great idea]], Fire Nation.

* GroinAttack: Used hilariously on a Fire Nation soldier by Sokka.

* AdaptationTitleChange: The title was shortened from ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', the name change was likely due to avoid confusion with James Cameron's ''Film/{{Avatar}}''.

** The Earthbenders in the prison have had their spirits broken by the Fire Nation and do not attempt to resist until Aang rallies them. In the series, while they do also have their spirits broken, they additionally do not resist because they're kept away from earth on a massive metal platform in the ocean.

*** Which, if you really think about it, is a line of thinking that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint misses the entire point of the show]], as the Fire Nation is ''supposed'' to be the post powerful nation in the ''Avatar'' world, since they were the ones waging a hundred-year war against everyone else... and ''winning''.

''The Last Airbender'' is a 2010 LiveActionAdaptation by Creator/MNightShyamalan based on ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the word "Avatar" being omitted to prevent the title from [[WritingAroundTrademarks bumping into]] the film ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. It [[StillbornFranchise was]] planned to be the first film in a trilogy matching the three seasons of the show but plans were canceled after it broke even at the box office.

*** Thoroughly misses the point that water, earth and air are ''all'' common features of environments humans can live in. Fire? Not so much. Fire is transient, a source of fire can be extinguished but the other elements cannot be readily destroyed. Any battle between the movie Fire Nation and anyone else should have been an absolute [[CurbStompBattle]] as their fires were doused/smothered/blown out by waterbenders/earthbenders/airbenders who can then thorougly paste them without interruption.

** As explained above, the movie backed itself into a corner story wise by making the reason Aang ran away being told the Avatar couldn’t have kids. If they had made more movies, they would have likely either [[HandWave handwaved]] this or had to have made [[spoiler: Zuko the illegitimate heir of Avatar Roku. Not making him the descendant of the Avatar AND the Firelord would arguably negate his whole character arc.]] It’s also established in the Avatar Extras that Avatar Kyoshi had a daughter named Koko.
** Zhao's death at the hands of waterbenders. In series, rather than killing him, La drags him into the Spirit World and imprisons him in the Fog of Lost Souls, as later revealed in "Darkness Falls", while the movie has a group of waterbenders kill him by drowning him in a water bubble. Had they later adapted Legend of Korra as well, they would have had to explain how he ended up imprisoned in the Fog.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Everyone seems to have their own personal idea as to how to pronounce "Avatar".