Disappointment to the Billionth Degree!

Have you ever looked forward to something so much for a while and then it finally comes around and it lets you down?
If only I could put into words how much the Last Airbender movie was a universal disappointment... but I refuse to use the Utahn word "epic", even though it seems entirely appropriate on this occasion.
I am a big fan of the cartoon series. In fact, I think it might be my favorite cartoon series, so when they said that a live action movie was coming out and being directed by that Shyamalan guy, I was stoked. Then the previews came out and showed some pretty tight action and I got a little more stoked. Then I actually saw the movie and almost choked myself.
Just put it this way:
I would rather shove pencils in my eyes than watch that movie again!
I would rather wipe my bum with sand paper than watch that movie again!
I would rather watch Eclipse than watch that movie again!

I mean, putting a whole season of the cartoon into one live action movie is quite a feat. Understandably, the director or writer had to cut a lot of stuff out. But the movie was only an hour and fourty-three minutes. EVERYTHING was cut out of the middle. Lord of the Rings did a few 2+ hour movies and they worked... And not only that, the characters were undeveloped and the dialogue was choppy and dry. The movie was mainly humorless and the action, though decent, was overdramatic most of the time. The Fire Nation soldiers actually reminded me often of the puddies from the old Power Rangers show, with their flailing arms and dancing about behaviors.
And it wasn't only the hard core fans like myself who were disappointed. Every other person who left that theater, including my friends and roommates, were also expressing their surprise at just how awful the movie turned out to be.

And here come some very specific spoiler disappointments, so if you're still planning on wasting your time with this Dungeon and Dragonesque corniness, then I'd advise you to read no further.
The fire nation were all Indians. Where did they get that idea? The Water Tribe were all white people... what? Only the Earth Kingdom were appropriately Asians. Zhao was a femmy and eccentric weasel, as compared to the out-of-control and powerful maniac he was in the cartoon (voiced by Jason Isaacs), Sokka was a carbon copy of Zuko (angry and intense) with the pony tail being a bit much for me to swallow, and Aang was also just a depressed kid. Where was the fun? And if you're looking forward to seeing any of these characters, know that they all failed to make an appearance: Boomi, Suki, Jet, Jeong Jeong, Roku, the inventor people, and all of Jet's gang.

And amidst this scathing review, I have one positive note to add: the sets were pretty.

So if I was any of you reading this, I would wait for the dollar theater at most to see this. But maybe you should not taint the magic of the original series at all and just forgo seeing it altogether. Moral of the story: it's extremely difficult to turn an epic cartoon series (Gasp! I used the word) into a live action movie. Remember Dragon Ball Evolution? I've actually never seen the cartoon myself, but I've seen the movie and got a similar feel from it...