Where do I begin? Well firstly, for all you aspiring directors out there, let this movie be a lesson on why it is a bad idea to shoot on location in frackin' Greenland. This movie had a huge budget, but it becomes obvious that much of that budget went into keeping Jackson Rathbone and friends from suffering hypothermia and keeping camera lenses thawed than into important stuff like the CGI and convincing Shyamalan that he has no screenwriting ability. Why Greenland? Honestly, why drag your crew out to the middle of nowhere when you can just as easily find all the ice you need just a few miles hike from Reykjavik, a large and cosmopolitan city? Lord knows Iceland could have used the extra tourism.
Anyways, after squandering most of his budget on the first fifteen minutes of the film, Shyamalan decided to do the rest of the shooting in Philadelphia, and it shows. When fire benders storm the walls of the Northern water tribes' fortress, the fake snow and even faker ice look like something out of an old Star Trek set. After spending about half the film wandering around what is clearly the New Jersey pine barrens doing random things, our not-so-intrepid (or interesting or fun or lovable or anything) heroes finally got to do some bending with the much anticipated blue spirit scene. At least, if you call rattling a few wooden shutters around while Noah Ringer attempts to communicate with the fire nation through interpretive dance "bending", then damn did we ever see some bending! Oh that's right, someone forgot to save some money for hiring a competent CGI team that could actually make bending look like the awesome that it was in the television series because they spent it all on shooting in the middle of a freezing hellhole that is six hours sled ride to the nearest shack. And that is the biggest problem with this film - everything that should have been cool wasn't. Katara didn't do any bending because the actress couldn't do the martial arts moves, Sokka had zero sarcastic lines, Iroh was skinny and Appa looked like a furry plastic cockroach. And you know what the sad part is? Shyamalan isn't kidding when he says that he is a fan of the show - he's covered the walls of his house in Airbender posters. I can see him now, curled up in the corner of a dark room, hugging his knees to his chest and crying, the poor bastard.
Review By an Avatar Fan for Avatar Fans
Where do I begin? Well firstly, for all you aspiring directors out there, let this movie be a lesson on why it is a bad idea to shoot on location in frackin' Greenland. This movie had a huge budget, but it becomes obvious that much of that budget went into keeping Jackson Rathbone and friends from suffering hypothermia and keeping camera lenses thawed than into important stuff like the CGI and convincing Shyamalan that he has no screenwriting ability. Why Greenland? Honestly, why drag your crew out to the middle of nowhere when you can just as easily find all the ice you need just a few miles hike from Reykjavik, a large and cosmopolitan city? Lord knows Iceland could have used the extra tourism.
Anyways, after squandering most of his budget on the first fifteen minutes of the film, Shyamalan decided to do the rest of the shooting in Philadelphia, and it shows. When fire benders storm the walls of the Northern water tribes' fortress, the fake snow and even faker ice look like something out of an old Star Trek set. After spending about half the film wandering around what is clearly the New Jersey pine barrens doing random things, our not-so-intrepid (or interesting or fun or lovable or anything) heroes finally got to do some bending with the much anticipated blue spirit scene. At least, if you call rattling a few wooden shutters around while Noah Ringer attempts to communicate with the fire nation through interpretive dance "bending", then damn did we ever see some bending! Oh that's right, someone forgot to save some money for hiring a competent CGI team that could actually make bending look like the awesome that it was in the television series because they spent it all on shooting in the middle of a freezing hellhole that is six hours sled ride to the nearest shack. And that is the biggest problem with this film - everything that should have been cool wasn't. Katara didn't do any bending because the actress couldn't do the martial arts moves, Sokka had zero sarcastic lines, Iroh was skinny and Appa looked like a furry plastic cockroach. And you know what the sad part is? Shyamalan isn't kidding when he says that he is a fan of the show - he's covered the walls of his house in Airbender posters. I can see him now, curled up in the corner of a dark room, hugging his knees to his chest and crying, the poor bastard.