Everything Wrong With The Last Airbender

Bending Battles

Yeah, there are a lot more character fails than that but I need to move on.

Now let's get to the part that makes this show so awesome. BENDING!!!!!

And believe it or not, this stupid movie messed that up too.

If you did not know, all the bending seen in the show was based off of real martial art moves. Yeah! They had a martial arts consultant and everything. How it would work (as seen in a behind the scenes video), they would tell their consultant the type of move they wanted to do for a certain type of bending, and he would try out of some stuff to see if that move actually exists in the martial arts and if it works for the show. They would then film him and it would soon be animated. It was a long process.

Each type of bending was based off of a certain type of martial arts.  Airbending-  Ba Gua. Waterbending- Tai Chi. Earthbending- Hung Gar. (Though Toph's style used Southern Praying Mantis due to her blindness). Firebending- Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.

Ok, lecture done. Now let's get to how the movie messed this up. It's kind of hard to describe, but when you see the bending in the show, the movements the characters use are realistic and purposeful and make them look like they are really bending the elements in the way they move their arms and/or legs.

The bending movements in the movie did not look derived from any martial art at all. The actors were just moving their arms around in a stupid and ridiculous combination of air karate and yoga. They would slowly do some arm movements and after like 5 minutes some bending would actually happen. Gasp!

I highly doubt M. Night Shyamalan had a martial art consultant or actually looked at the bending in the show. 10 bucks he let the actors improvise and do whatever the heck they want and then choreograph a dance sequence with 6 "earthbenders" to slowly float a rock towards their opponents.

Its just plain sad.

In the show, when the characters have to fight one another in awesome bending glory, the action is fast-paced, exciting and very realistic. The cool fighting background music helps too.

In the movie, I don't know what special effects they used but the battles were just plain pathetic. It felt like half the time it was all in slow motion. The water slowly moved. The rock slowly hit the guy and he fell over dramatically. Watch some scenes from the movie if you dare!  You'll see what I mean.

Here's something that made me want to smash my TV earthbending style.

As you know in the show, the benders use the water, air and earth around them but firebenders create their own fire from their chi, which is basically sources of energy in the body. It makes sense, right?

I was getting really confused while I watched I firebenders in the movie. They bended the fire from campfires and torches and never made it themselves. I thought, This is really weird.

And then it hit me. In the movie, firebenders can only bend fire that's already made! They can't create it themselves!

WHAT IS THIS MADNESS???!!!!??? Why the heck don't they make their own? It inaccurately portrays the bending of the show and leaves the firebenders really limited. I guess that's why when the Fire Nation was going to invade the North Pole, the Chief said to put out as many fires as possible to limit their sources. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Here's another scene that made me want to vomit. So, Iroh was trying to stop Zhao and his cronies from killing the moon spirit so he made fire shoot out of his hands. What?!?

Then one of the soldiers says, "Look! He's making fire out of nothing!" And they all run away in terror. I was all like, "Duh! He's supposed to! That's the whole point!"

Its a disgrace.