You, sir, are Made Of Win. Far too many reviews are too harsh on the film. It's not a GOOD movie, but it's not the hellspawn people keep screaming it is.
Ozai being involved from the beginning was actually an improvement over the source material.
I disagree. Ozai was better as a faceless and intimidating force of evil that would state in that awesome voice of his some scary thing and scare the shit out of the audience. Movie!Ozai looked like an actual king, not an Evil Overlord and if they wanted to go for the whole evil could look like anything aesop that could work...if they didn't try to make the Fire Nation look as over the top as possible.
"Whoa" Keanu Reeves
We're going to have to differ there. Ozai in the TV show was a huge letdown. In the first season, our Big Bad was Zhao, who had easily established himself as a villain and won our enmity by countless acts of douchebaggery and general unpleasantness. In season two, our Big Bad was Azula, who was incredibly threatening and even scary.
When season three came around, we had Ozai, who we barely saw. Azula continued to be the dominant force, and by far the most active and interesting villain. Not only does she continue to be the biggest threat to the Gaang, but she starts to earn our sympathy while continuing to be frightening and villainous.
Ozai, meanwhile, sits on his throne and waits for things to happen to him until Sozin's Comet arrives. He is an archetypical Dark Lord, with very little to differentiate himself from any of the others. You would have had exactly the same story if you had replaced Ozai with Sauron.
A villain that could be replaced that easily is not a good villain, no matter how "scary" they are.
And for the record, I didn't find Ozai scary in the cartoon. Azula was scary. Koh the Face Stealer was terrifying. Ozai was....just there. He was the villain because he was in charge of the Fire Nation and the Fire Nation were the bad guys. I didn't actually care about him much at all. He was little more than a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere as far as I'm concerned.
So yeah. Bringing him in earlier, and making him responsible for some of the more despicable acts in the movie? Way I see it, it's entirely to the benefit of the story to do that.
I do agree that his voice was awesome, though. As Batman The Animated Series proved, it's hard to go wrong with Mark Hamill for your villainous voice acting needs.
A villain that could be replaced that easily is not a good villain, no matter how "scary" they are.
Ah hah! I disagree, it's the same with hisworfing of Azula, that doesn't work when you do it repeatedly, but Ozai showed up and proceeded to make an absolute bitch out of all the previous villains. And why would Ozai do things before shit got real, he didn't have to. Ozai is the most powerful man on the planet, why would he get involved in such trivial matters? And as for Ozai being a picture perfect cardboard cutout of an Evil Overlord? Yeah, he was, as you see, the villains went from, Anti Villain -> Lone Dalek -> Complete Monster. Aang wasn't fighting somebody he could understand, he was fighting an alien, barely human monster who's absolutely bat shit delusional, not unstable crazy, he's completely certain in the Fire Nations superiority. And he wasn't a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere, everybody knew Aang would have to fight him eventually. This movie humanized Ozai, it portrayed him walking around and seeming rather rational, i.e. not what Ozai is supposed to do.
"Whoa" Keanu Reeves
I agree with this review. Serious is the wrong sort of tone to take with this series,but that's all Shyamalan knows how to make.
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
In the first season, our Big Bad was Zhao, who had easily established himself as a villain and won our enmity by countless acts of douchebaggery and general unpleasantness.
Techincally, Zuko was the Big Bad of the first season for the most part. Zhao just took that status away from him (along with his ship, crew, and nearly his life) in the last 3 episodes.
You would have had exactly the same story if you had replaced Ozai with Sauron.
Or Emperor Palpatine.
He was little more than a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere as far as I'm concerned.
Here, Phrederic has a point: he was set up early on as Aang's final opponent, so he didn't come out nowhere at all.
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Not as bad as everyone says. Still unfortunate.
It wasn't So Bad Its Horrible. It also definitely wasn't So Bad Its Good. I'm not even sure it qualifies for So Okay Its Average.
None of the individual parts I noticed were that bad, except the dialog and pacing. The visuals weren't bad. The characters looked good and were fairly believable as being the characters they claimed to be, racebending issues aside. Costuming was good. Sound was good. The choreography was okay, other than looking more like dancing than fighting and being too slow. They hit the major points of the story, and the changes that were made to the script were not that big a deal.
For example, extending the story to three years makes sense given the fact that the actors are going to be aging and that's how long it will take to make the three movies. And if anything, it makes the speed with which Katara and Aang become proficient at Waterbending and in Aang's case Earthbending and Firebending more sensible as well. Firebenders needing their element to bend....a bit bothersome, but not so egregious as all that, one or two moments of Fridge Logic aside. Ozai being involved from the beginning was actually an improvement over the source material.
What it all comes down to is just clumsy filmmaking. It was like watching a good movie where the DVD skips around at random and a friend summarizes the parts you miss to you. The pacing is clumsy. The dialog is clumsy and exposition-heavy. The plot arc what it needed to accomplish but, again, clumsily.
The acting....wasn't that bad. From anyone. At least, considering what the actors had to work with. Where the acting seemed bad, I'm fairly well convinced that the dialog they were being given, and the mood that the director decided to try to set, were at fault.
Part of the problem was the gravitas around the project. The movie took itself seriously, which was obviously a big waste, and not just considering the source material. There were a few scenes that unintentionally got chuckles from the audience just because of the humor in the situation, or because it involved Unfunnys being so serious.
Honestly, I feel like this entire movie could've been salvaged by making one change: Shyamalan. And I feel sort of bad about saying that, because honestly it does seem like he had respect for the source material. He just didn't have the filmmaking abilities to accomplish anything.