11:02 AHA I’M THE NIECE!!! A bunch middle school/high school boys in the row behind us stood up, said “that SUCKED,” and walked out when the credits rolled. (I have since redeemed myself in the gift giving department. My brother has forgiven me.)

It also should be noted that M. Night was chosen to direct this film because his daughter cosplayed as Katara for Halloween. This must be the worst gift a father could make for his child. I would really love to hear what she thought of the film.

See, if you'd waited a couple of weeks, you could have released this on April Fools Day and just had it be a gif of the brainwashing scene with the text "The is no Last Airbender movie".

And with that, you've taken more looks at this movie than everyone else has.

After seeing this movie, I would GLADLY allow the Dai Li to erase it from my memory. In fact, I wouldn't even need an invitation, I would just march myself to Lake Laogai and demand the last few 90+ minutes of my life given back.

I got into Avatar: The Last Airbender two years ago and the praises were well deserved. Soon afterwards, I decided to watch The Last Airbender movie to test my new adoration of the show. I knew, before watching it, it was going to be bad, but *GOOD LORD!!* After seeing the film in its entirety, I now understand why there's no live action film in Ba Sing Se.

Here’s a fun fact for you; Seychelle Gabriel, the girl who played Yue in this movie, eventually went on to voice Asami in The Legend of Korra. Going from the low point of the Avatar franchise to a starring role in the series that helped redeem it is definitely a nice change for her career.

I could never look at Admiral Zhao in this movie and not think of the pizza delivery boss at the beginning of Spider-Man 2. "Capture the Avatar, or your ass is fired. *GOOOO!!"*

Sean, your attempt at suspense about the * nonexistent * Last Airbender picture is more credible than all of Shyamalan’s post-Sixth Sense plot twists, combined

I tell people the only reason I have a remotely positive memory of this movie is because my friend and I spent 1hr and 40min screaming “MY CABBAGES!!” at random points in a crowded theater.

The reveal that Zuko was descended from Avatar Roku was one of the best aspects of the original series, it really helped emphasize a lot of the show's main themes, and propelled Zuko's arc forward in a brilliant way. By creating a nonsense "rule" that the Avatar can't have a family, the movie not only undermines all of that, but it makes Zuko's birth impossible. WHY?

What's also baffling about the exposition in this movie is Zhao's constant mentioning of the great library, because in the show, he only brought it up ONCE.

Nice to see that your favorite character is Toph as she’s mine as well.

Shang-chi did what shamalayan's last airbender couldn't do: proper airbending fighting. Shang-chi at leadt knew when to track shots and show how the gathering of air can have a powerful effect.

I don't understand how Shyamalan didn't understand that a huge part of the firelords characterization was the fact that he was an extremely handsome man, who relished in his handsomeness, and then burned his potentially equally handsome son in the face.

I am honored to accept his invitation

I call bullshit on the "changing the names more authentically asian" for two big reasons. 1. Now, I may be wrong here, but I do recall the creator saying they just made those names up. 2. They changed what was authentic Chinese calligraphy in the opening sequence to pseudo looking asian gibberish. Also, IIRC, Katara's actress got her position thanks to nepotism and there was a ton of executive meddling behind the scenes. BTW, Avatar Roku apparently was meant to appear in the movie. However, they originally cast a white actor to play him... Yeah, they were gonna make it that the only good person from the Fire Nation which was cast full of dark-skinned actors was the only white guy in the nation... I think you may want to think the whole, "most racist movie" award.

@3:54 Ironically, there is actually a reason behind that one: Zhao's recounting Zuko's banishment to humiliate him. It actually makes sense in context and kind of fits the character from the show. ...Zuko asking a random child to tell him his own backstory for no damn reason, on the other hand, is one of the most pointlessly clumsy pieces of exposition I've ever seen.

Another thing about the fighting in the show vs. the movie: In the show, all of the bending is based on real martial arts styles, but in the movie, it was just... random crap. d-: I agree about Yui's hair! That was the one (1) good thing in the movie.

I finally started checking out the TV series in June 2020 at a friend's house when it became available on Netflix. I FREAKING LOVED IT!!!! It ended up beating out "Hey Arnold" as my favorite Nickelodeon show and is probably one of my top 3 favorite animated shows, period. That being said, I'm not gonna even bother with this movie.

I remember seeing this in theaters with my ex and she told me she thought it was pretty good. We broke up for a lot of reasons, but I think that was the moment I realized she and I weren't going to make it. 🤣

This movie is a punishment for all those who love the show. It pushes my rage buttons like no other.

The Last Airbender also known as The Great White Wash.

This movie does have a pretty epic redemption story for one of the actors, Princess Yue in the movie went on to be Asami in LOK

I've only seen two episodes of the show just before this movie came out. Unfortunately, since my mind was elsewhere at the time, I couldn't think much about it. Yet, after I watched this movie recently, I think I still know more about the show than Shyamalan given the material.

Contrary to popular belief...M. Night Shaymalan is actually not the reason for the film's problems. I know just about everyone assumes that since he was the director, a producer, and a writer for the film, but the story behind the films problems are lot more deeper than you think. The information I'm about to give came from a crew-member who worked on the film and described the production of it as a total nightmare for everyone, including Shyamalan. Shyamalan came across the Nicktoon after one of his daughters wanted to dress up as Katara for Halloween. Soon after, he began watching the show with his family and became intrigued by it. So much in fact, that he saw the potential of it being turned into a film trilogy, with the first film being based around Book One. And apparently, the first screenplay made for the film was....actually pretty good! Good enough to get the approval by Bryan and Mike. So you may be wondering, if Shyamalan had a script that was actually good enough to be approved by the original creators of the Nicktoon, why did the film ended up so awful? Well...it was not because of Shyamalan, it was the producers. Apparently, the producers of the film were charge of 80% of the production, including casting. So basically, they had more power over the film than Shyamalan, even though he was also a executive producer and the director. And this is where things get bad. The producers had little to no knowledge of the Nicktoon, and it really did more harm to the project than good. Rewrites to the script had to be done constantly and several key scenes were cut out of the film in order to keep it under 100 minutes. This led to Shyamalan and just about everyone who worked on the film to lose their enthusiasm for it and basically led them to phone just about everything in just so they could get their paychecks and finally get this shit over with. Which honestly, I can't blame them for that. But arguably, the area where the producers did the most damage was with the casting, all thanks to our old friend-nepotism. Nicola Peltz, Katara's actor, was only casted because she was the daughter of an important investor, who one of the producers personally knew. So yeah, she wasn't casted because actual talent and especially not because she actually looked like the goddamn character, it was because of a favor! Hell, Nicola's audition tape was said to be subpar at best. As for Jackson Rathbone, Sokka's actor, he was only casted because since they had Nicola as Katara, they needed to find someone who could pass as her brother. Luckily, his audition tape was actually pretty good. Jackson definitely proved that he has seen the Nicktoon before and nailed down the character of Sokka quite well. Unfortunately, the producers didn't feel like the movie had enough time for intentional humor and Sokka was left as the blank stale he was in the movie. As for Noah Ringer, Aang's actor, he was the only one who honestly openly audition and was chosen based on talent. Unfortunately, due to the rushed production, he didn't have anyone to help him with his acting. And remember, this was his very first role, and kid actors are not really know for the being the best actors around. As for Zuko, originally, he was suppose to played by Jesse McCartney, but he turned down the role for another film at the time. The producers wanted to have a big name for the film, but they didn't want to cast another white person as Zuko. So they decided to the cast Dev Patel as the Fire Nation Prince, and because of that, they had to make the entire Fire Nation based around the Indian ethnicity, just so he wouldn't stick out like sore thumb.... I'm pretty sure we all know that turned out.... As for the effects, it was really horribly budgeted, which is the reason why the bending looked so off. Since the crew wasn't really able to make people controlling the elements actually look believable with camera practical effects, the producers had to rebudget and gave most of the money to ILM for post production. As for the filming, most of it was done in around dingy areas in Philadelphia like an old high school and a emptied aircraft hangar. The only other place they did film at was in Greenland for the Southern Water Tribe. In all honesty, I can't help but feel sorry for Shyamalan. He had an idea for a potentially great film series and had a good script to match, but thanks to arrogant producers who had their heads so far up their asses, that idea went up in flames. Shyamalan constanly butted heads with the producers and desperately tried to fix the film, but after awhile, he pretty much gave up. And if that wasn't bad enough, Bryan and Mike didn't have it any better either. They had very little say in the film's production, even though they were listed as executive producers, and just like Shyamalan, they gave up on the project as well.

Hey Sean, Shyamalan is hardly blameless for how this movie turned out, but a few things: -He pitched the idea of a live-action adaptation to Paramount - they didn't hire him! Although the initial draft he turned in got the approval of the showrunners who then disavowed of the many changes forced on the script during production. -Casting white people in the lead roles wasn't his idea either, the studio owed one of its bigwigs a favor and Nicola Peltz got cast as Katara due to being his daughter. -It wasn't Shyamalan's idea to compress the movie into just 90 minutes, the studio chopped off additional scenes to reduce the cost of a 3D conversion.

As always, Well done. Here's a cup of tea **hands you a tea cup** 🍵

One of the things I remember most about this movie (Other than the unshakable feeling this was basically glorified ATLA fanfic, with Iroh cast as the _real_ hero), is how many of the (frankly baffling) changes Shayamalan made would've shot holes in future installments. "The Avatar must not kill" (There went the flashbacks to Kyoshi and Aang's crisis of faith in the finale), "The Avatar cannot have a family" (There went Roku AND Zuko's backstory), "Firebenders must have a source like everybody else" (Which would make Sozin's Comet not that big an advantage, right?). The list goes on.. How can someone who claims to be a big fan of the show intentionally hamstring the story with such needless changes?

So, about the Avatar not having a family. I think that was taken from the part of Aang's backstory where the monks planned to take him away from Gyatso to make him focus on his Avatar training because they were worried about Sozin starting a war and thought the Avatar's power was needed, that is also why they told Aang when he was 12 rather than 16 like was tradition for the other Avatars. It was specifically because of the potential war that was looming that drastic measures were taken for Aang, not because of any tradition that requires the Avatar to live a life of celibacy, so I have no idea why this change was made. Again, another example of Shyamalan not thinking things through.

if they were going to adapt an entire season of Avatar in a whole movie, here's a couple of things you should do: Firstly, watch the series. Then write out a script for what should be put in. Secondly, make it at least three hours long. That way we can have more story and action and less exposition.

Your humor & reviews are always a pleasure.

The shout out to Rifftrax! Yeah, I can't comprehend watching this without Mike, Bill and Kevin. Another excellent review!

I was among the generation that grew up with A:TLA. I was nine when this show first came out, and I was hooked immediately. Every time a new episode was set to premiere, childhood me would be curled up on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn ready to see what happened next. And as I grew older, I only grew to appreciate it more. The characters are amazing, the story is wonderful, the effects are excellent (especially for the early 2000's), The world is so incredibly immersive and rich, and the acting is absolutely stellar. With how much Shyamalan fucked up this movie, I have to wonder if he actually *watched* the show, or just read Wikipedia pages.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

First time I ever watched the show (at least properly) was a couple of years ago, when I was living in another apartment with an old/ex-flatmate. I had my TV set up in the living room and we both used it to watch TV, films and games. One day, I went out into the kitchen (directly across from the living room) and saw him watching Episode 10 of Season 1 on the TV. I asked him if it was any good and if it would be alright to join him, and he replied "yep" to both. After only watching just that one episode, I was immediately hooked. We then spent the next few hours binging through the rest of Season 1, with me finally heading off after the first episode of Season 2 so I could catch up with Season 1 in my own time and not spoil anything. The next day, I watched the rest of Season 1 and then spent the rest of the next few weeks going through Seasons 2 and 3.

I would rather watch Cats(2019) over this. At least everybody is having fun and it’s over the top insane. The Last airbender is just…. Boring and painful

A second look? You barely survived the first encounter, Sean deserves a medal of commendation, for our entertainment and amusement.

The avatar not having a family would literally erase Zuko and Azula from existence as they're descendants of the previous avatar

My brother was a huge fan of the show. He even put on a Last Airbender costume to attend a midnight premiere. I can only imagine how heartbreaking this must have been for him.

ATTENTION: “Diana: The Musical” has scooped up 5 of its field-leading 9 Razzie nominations, including Worst Picture-meaning it will now officially be added to Sean’s current marathon. Thoughts/reactions/opinions from anyone?

Your review of The Last Airbender was among the first videos I found on this channel. If I'm not mistaken it was just the second review of yours I watched after DBE (Disgusting Bile Extract).

Youre completely right about the action scenes being to slow. I remember seeing someone speeding some of them up and they look infinitly better.

I honestly think this video is better than your original review. Nice work. :) This movie is honestly so fascinating to me.... it was released a decade ago and we're still here talking about how it's not just one of the worst movies ever, but possibly the worst adaptation ever.

Since we are talking about anectodes, I also have one regarding this movie: when I first saw it I was 14, was addicted to fantasy films and had never watched the show. So at first I actually kinda liked it, mostly because as I said, I was a dumb kid and anything with cool designs and good soundtrack was enough for me. One year later, for completely unrelated reasons, I started watching the show and, as you could expect, immediately loved it, and even made me get addicted to cartoons and anime. One day, while watching clips of the show on KZfaq, I clicked on one video that caught my attention mostly because of the title which sounded interesting. That video was, surprise surprise, YOUR original The Last Airbender review! And I absolutely loved it. Not only was it hilarious, but it helped e understand why so many people hated a movie that up to that point I found okay. I binged-watched all you videos in just a few days (it was at the time of that "Kiara the Brave" review) and even started watching and comparing other youtube film critics and eventually any kind of film criticism. It made me see movies in a different way, and for a couple of years I even kept a personal film blog. So yeah, if it wasn't for this movie, I wouldn't have known you, nor developed a relation with films I have to this day

Benders in this movie: *takes too damn long to bend their element* Paramount: *insert Alta overreaction here*

I think it would be better if they live-filmed the Avatar comics for Netflix. No matter how good their show is, I find it impossible to imagine that it can surpass the animated show, at the very best it can become just as good. I'd be more lenient with the comic stories since they haven't been in animated form yet.

I can in a somewhat similar way I can say thank you to the director as well. I didn't watch the show when it was first airing, but I did see a trailer for the movie on TV and was somewhat intrigued. Then when I first got Netflix I noticed the show and noticed that it had the same title as the movie in the trailer that interested me, so I tried it out. I then fell in love with the show and it is now one of my favorite shows of all time.

I am honored to accept his invitation.

As usual, another quality episode

These videos are so worth the wait.

I never tire of your MST/Rifftrax shout outs. They make these bad movies (and life itself) bearable.

That opening bit got me good. Well done!

A few notes on the whitewashing, that wasn't Shyamalan's doing. Katara's actess was the producer's daughter, which forced Shyamalan to pick a white actor for Sokka to not look too weird. As for Aang, the actor who plays him is a legit black belt martial art prodigy and was casted just on that (this is on shyamalan). Shyamalan went onto say he thought he was mixed race, which is why the air nomads were all mixed race in the casting. Shyamalan did put a lot of effort and thought in the diversity department, the prolem is that not one character ended up being the correct ethnicity.

Anyone else here an original fan? I remember how excited i was for the premiere episode because it looked so interesting

Best time of the month!

Wow! Not gonna lie your original video is first one I watched of you been addicted since aah

It makes sense that one day before the Oscars that "The Last Airbender" won 5 Razzies, since Shyamalan's first high profile movie, "The Sixth Sense" was nominated for 6 Oscars.

0:00 I humbly accept his invitation

"It's rare to hear someone in this movie sound like an actual human" Well it IS an M Night Shyamalan movie.

I finally checked out the show late 2020 on Netflix and afterwards got my sister into it and we loved watching it. And after that and Legend of Korra we saw the movie and still today we talk about how dirty it did the show. Our favorite thing to talk about regarding it is how it couldn't even pronounce the names correctly.

I actually saw this movie in 3D during its theatrical run, and can confirm that it deserved the Razzie for worst use of 3D that year. Why? Because literally the only part that looked remotely 3D was the opening sequence recreating the show's intro. If it weren't for that actually looking passable, you could've told me they were showing the 2D version in both screenings and just charging more for one of them, and I would've believed it.

Not to defend Night, he cited in an interview for this very movie that Kubrick was a major influence on him. He probably saw Barry Lyndon and thought, “That movie has a narrator that explains almost everything and it’s effective!” So that might be why he relied so heavily on narration. But that movie’s narration was effective because the acting was incredible, the characters were strong, and the dialogue was amazing. This movie has none of that.

the show was really great and tons of fun

Yay, Rifftrax! Thank you for giving them a shoutout. They’re the best at making bad movies fun (right after you, of course).

“I am honored to accept his invitation." …I had to, also clicked so fast

God damn, love the intro gag.

We are honored to accept the Earth King's invitation.

According to the special features on the TV show's box sets, Shyamalan wanted to do the movie because he and his daughter were fans of the show. That somehow makes it even more sad...

I saw the Movie before the series too. Thankfully, the movie left me very confused and I couldn't remember much of anything afterward, so it didn't taint my view of the show. The show is frickin' amazing and I'm glad I watched it later.

My dad rented this movie along with The Lovely Bones and Romana & Beezus from the local Blockbuster (which is now a Dairy Queen) back when I lived in Lake Stevens. We watched it on a Saturday night in November 2010.

Thank you for pointing out the good in this bad film. I never watched Avatar the series when it came out either. Schmalam's film introduced me to this universe and sparked my interest in watching the show. If it makes you feel better, it was a bad edit that made the earth benders do a dance to lift a single stone. Their choreographed bending was actually creating walls of rocks to block the fire attacks. The edit however cuts these effects short to focus on that single floating rock.

You deserve a like just for meme-ing the intro, sir.

The whole “the Avatar can’t have a family” bit is even worse when the series reveals that Zuko is a descendant of Avatar Roku. Well, the film never even introduced Roku or got to season three, so at least that’s not around to break that nonsense.

Also, ozai in this film would have worked if they kept the deleted scene of him turning an ember into a wild fire of destruction. Showed why the fire lord was top dog

Above and beyond, Sean, above and beyond…

I knew we were kindred spirits, Toph and Iroh are my favorite characters too.

You know it's bad when the Ember Island production is better than your movie

9:40 You’re gonna do a retrospective of The Twilight Saga like you did with The Transformers films, aren’t you? EDIT: Called it!

"Where were shows like this when I was a kid?" Mysterious Cities Of Gold.

The movie did one good thing. If not for this movie I would have never watched the show.

I can’t believe you made it farther than 10 minutes into the film. I wish I could erase from my mind what I saw in that ten minutes time, it haunts me while in quiet reflection and in my dreams. Can you sue a director for PTSD?

Oh dear. Twice... Thank you for your service, sir!

I can't believe I watched Bounty Hunters, SatC2 and Vampire Sucks in a relatively short span of time!😅

Goin from Sixth Sense Shymalan to Last Airbender is like goin from Back to the Future Zemeckis to Beowulf. Dude, you can make great films, I know I didn’t imagine it, what are you doing?

I love the subtle dig at YMS

I saw this in theatres with my brother and WOW, I was dumb back then!

that "warning" at the beggining last at least 5 seconds to long I actually had to check and see if i accidentally paused the video

Brentalfloss when seeing Princess Yue’s hair: “Ha ha! Look! A penis!” Me: I’m sorry. I had to get a Moulin Rouge NC quote in for this movie. It was worth it.

There Is No Live Action Film in Ba Sing Se

They couldn't even call the movie "Avatar - The Last Airbender" because apparently James Cameron - that master of original ideas - said, "nuh-uh! I got there first, a___holes! You can't use Avatar in your movie title!" The movie was crapola but the animated series is extraordinary and well worth watching.

I honestly think some of the changes and cuts for the adaptation were at least justifiable. Cutting Bumi, Bato and June might have turned out better in the long run, since you have not as many subplots to handle and can concentrate on the main characters. However, changing the characters' motivations will always result in tragedy, and Shyamalan made the whole story more about spirits and religion than it ever was.

I am honoured to attend

Thank you for this. I'll be interested to hear you cover Diana The Musical now that that's just won Worst Picture.

There is no The Last Airbender movie in Ba Sing Se

Definitely enjoyed the subtle Letterkenny reference...

Honestly, I would have preferred if they just made an original script for the movie instead of trying to cram an entire season into a short film

I'm looking forward to that Cats review

6:11 Appa looks JUST LIKE the monkey dad from the movie Dinosaur. Like they literally took the model of him from that movie and just changed him to look kinda like Appa

you know what i loved about this movie? the arm flailing, even with the cgi around them it still looked stupid af