First off i am one of very few who really liked the movie, i would say 95% of the avatar fandom did not like this movie.

My point here is that some of the criticism for this movie is just wrong and should have no affect on how much you enjoy this movie.

Basically The Last Airbender is M Nights take on the Story of Avatar The Last Airbender, note i said take and not Exact copy of the series.
Many people have given this movie bad reviews just because it is different to the show, The Movie should not be compared to the Show.
Because it is M nights take on the show it is a different continuity of the same Avatar Story, In the movie continuity ,going into the movie we know nothing about the characters, we cannot bring in our information we have from the series as they are different characters.

Movie Aang is not the Same as Series Aang, not because there is a name pronunciation change or because movie Aang is more serious, but because they are different Characters from different continuities.

This movie should be reviewed as its own seperate thing, Sure its BASED off the series, but again note based not copy.

In my opinion too many fans went into this movie with the wrong mindset not open to the possibilities.

Sure the movie is not the Best movie ever but its not 8% bad, the only real problem i have with the movie is some of the Script is terrible.

In my opinion, a lot of people hate on the movie because everyone else is.

It should do justice, and in my opinion it does, my point is alot of people say it doesnt do justice because its not exactly like the show.

HOw can it be a betrayal if we never knew what the movie versions of the characters were like ?

THe main complaint about characters is that Movie Aang is too serious and not fun loving like ATLA Aang. But people gave the movie a bad review because of this (and other things).
But what if someone had seen the movie first and then seen the Show and complained that ATLA Aang is too fun loving, if that happened that person would not be taken seriously yet if it happens teh other way it completely all right and everyone joins in.

I honestly enjoyed the movie and thought it did a decent job of giving us the Same basic plot and Characters in Live Action Form. It is not 8% bad as most reviews said.

I thought there were some bad things with the movie and then coupled with the fact that I would have preferred it M. Knight had kept it true to the series, it produced an unpleasant experience for me.

As you said Airspeed, the script was awful. This is the area where M. Knight must improve upon the most in the second movie. I also found the movie to be almost completely devoid of any character development, which is crucial to all movies, but moreover, is what I think made the series as good as it was. Almost zero attention was given to Oppa and Momo as well.

In terms of the story being changed, I thought that the movie could have been another half hour longer and included so much more content from the series. I also think it was selfish of M. Knight to change the pronunciation of the character’s names just to make the movie seem more like his own creation and not based on something else. I didn’t like that Suki wasn’t introduced in this movie. I didn’t like how the trap was set for Aang to be captured by Zhao (wouldn’t have had to be the archers from the series, but could have been better). I didn’t like that there was no Zhao-Zuko agni kai. I didn’t like the whole dinner scene with Zhao, Zuko and Iroh. I didn’t like how Zhao just out-of-nowhere assumes that Zuko is the Blue Spirit. Without having watched the series, that assumption would have been so unobvious. There are other things I didn’t like as well. The script, by far, was the worst of anything.

Things I did like about the movie: the Blue Spirit, the few parts that did keep true to the series, the acting, the graphics, the setup for the next movie.

Mostly, I think M. Knight just butchered it in making the movie his own. He should have kept it more true to the series and had a real writer write the script.

@airspeed said:In the series Zhao also just comes out with that accusation from nowhere ,he looks deeply into the eyes and I think sees the scar, its the same in both.

But in the series they also show Zhao inspecting Zuko’s broadswords on his ship. I thought it was a lot more obvious in the series, anyways.

I really do hope the next 2 movies get made. I just hope they’re better written.

@airspeed

Yeah people were jumping to conclusions about the show even before it got made, alot of people we’re mad at M Night just for making it which isn’t right.

I’m glad he made it, at the very least it shows the popularity of the TV show, and I hope the feedback he receives (much of it I think rightly so, he made mistakes on alot of levels) helps him make the second one better.

As far as people new to the Avatar series, I did bring a couple of those types along, and unfortunately the majority of them couldn’t follow the storyline at all. Although of the people I interviewed the person who was most likely to enjoy the movie was someone who had never seen the series before.

So in essence the movie did nothing to hurt the series so it’s certainly not a bad thing, but it could do with some major renovation and improvements.

@coyote01

But as i have said a couple of times before, he didn’t have to stay true to the Series it is just BASED on the main points from ATLA, it was his own take on the story, some people may not like his take and i accept that but saying that this movie is bad because it is not a copy of the show is the wrong way to look at the film.

I would have prefered if he had done it exactly like in the show But it wasnt and i enjoyed what we got, and i am fully interested in the Movie Continuity probably even more than if it was a copy, because it is different the characters are not the exact same as the show so we dont know exactly what they will do.

@coyote01
But there is such a thing as disliking the movie for the wrong reasons.

I accept when people say it was a bad movie, but when they criticize it for not being a copy of the show, sure everyone is entitled to say that but base a review on that,i don’t think that is fair you are then not judging the film on what it is but what it isn’t,

Also the movie has some pretty big changes Example (Spoilers) in the movie prequel book about Zuko, after he is banished he searches for the Avatar in the 4 air temples, in the western temple he meets Fire Sage Shyu in the Eastern Air Temple he meets Guru Pathik who he fights thinking he is the avatar. Then zuko is robbed by the Red Spirit who teaches him to use Broadswords and not rely entirely on Firebending.
None of this happened in the show yet no on says the show is bad for not having this, but alot of people criticize the movie for not being like the show.