Reply to Topic
Sigh. Poor Akira, Bebop, and GiTS.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell
The Last Airbender - Disappointingly Short
→ in Movie Reviews
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
I can't believe people thought this'd be good. It looked terrible. Utter shite. Anime's bad enough, but 'live action Anime"?!?! It seems that no one's ever happy with that.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
Yea, Should have been longer. Since the movie was kept to a normal length, M Night had to pack too much into such a short time and therefore character development and dialogue was hindered. Should have taken the "Lord of the Rings" approach and made the movie 2 to 2 1/2 hours long in order to actually develop some personality is the characters.
Also, whats with the alternative pronunciations of names?
Also, whats with the alternative pronunciations of names?
I totaly agree with alex5455 on how M. Night should have taken The Lord of the Rings approach with a movie 2 to 2 1/2 hours long. He would have been able to fill in so many details, actually mention all the people that Aang meets and actually give true homage to the anime.
I can't believe people thought this'd be good..
I can't believe people thought this'd be good. It looked terrible. Utter shite. Anime's bad enough, but 'live action Anime"?!?! It seems that no one's ever happy with that.
Anyway, I know quite a few people who were very intrigued by the trailers. I'm surprised you're surprised that I'm surprised it's bad.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
I hope they aren't trying to do Akira in Live Action form - that just will NOT work, ever.
X
Favorite Movies
Yeah, I figured you would retort with something like that.
Color me unhappy about the idea.
Color me unhappy about the idea.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
For starters, I’ve been anticipating this movie for about a year now. As a preface, I’ve been following the Avatar series since it first came out and, as many fans would agree, was incredible (and what made it even more incredible was the mere fact an American company, Nickelodeon nonetheless, was able to come up with it). Avatar incorporated traditional and very real martial arts into a “cartoon” and was (as a kung fu student myself) extremely accurate. I remember one day watching a re-run of one of the episode’s in the third book and thinking to myself, I just learned that exact move in class today. A friend and I learned the “Dragon Dance” for our performance video, though it was just for laughs, it was so much fun thinking we could do what Zuko and Aang could do. Speaking of the characters, they’re simply remarkable. They’re lovable, ‘hateable’, mysterious, unforgettable, and yet they’re just drawings.
But enough about my way too obvious love of the show, how about the movie? From the very beginning of the movie, the very first scene, I could tell something was off. It may have just been the theater I went to, and there’s a 99% chance that it was, the words were so blurry, they were almost illegible. The intro was almost exactly the same as the show, except re worded differently. Who would of thought? Now, I knew before I walked into the theater, and tried to prepare myself, that Sokka would not be funny, Zuko was casted horribly, they pronounced Aang’s name like “Ung”, and a few other little facts here and there. They condensed a lot of the beginning (which was expected because they had to fit an entire season into a two hour film). But honestly, the movie was horrible. It took every ounce of strength not to walk out of the theater in the first 20 minutes. I know that sounds dramatic, but I seriously questioned it. The acting was truly a nightmare. It was Noah Ringer’s (aka Aang) first acting gig, so I can accept that his acting skills aren’t up to prime. Plus who am to judge? I actually really liked him as Aang, though I thought he could have been a bit more “cheery”, his martial arts skills were extremely impressive! I said prior that the casting to Zuko was a bad choice; I still pretty much stand by that. Zuko is supposed to be quiet and, occasionally foolish with decision making, but in the movie Zuko seemed fairly level headed, like he knew what he was doing. He was also very outspoken. They originally were going to cast Jessie McCartney as Zuko, but later decided against it. I don’t think McCartney would’ve been a better actor, Dev Patel is actually very good, but I think he appealed to the role of Zuko a lot more.
Inaccuracy: A key player in why this movie was crap. The Air Temples? According to the movie, the sanctuary where the statues of past Avatars reside is located in the Northern air temple. In actuality Aang, Katara, and Sokka, stumble upon it in the Southern air temple within the first few episodes. This is where they find Momo, it’s how Aang entered the “avatar state” for the first time. In the movie, they ignore all of this and decide that they’re going to use the statues as a lure for the Fire Nation to capture Aang. The Fire Nation Soldiers were hiding behind the statues and were able to catch Aang. They then bring Aang somewhere within the Northern air temple and hold him captive. Zuko, disguised as the “blue spirit”, then releases Aang and drags him away so that he may bring him back to his father instead of the Fire Nation Army. None of this actually happens in the show. At least not in the sequence, and in many cases not at all. There is a point when Zuko dresses as the “blue spirit” and frees Aang, but it certainly does not happen when or how they described it in the movie. But this is just one point, what happened to the Kiyoshi Warriors? Oh, they don’t exist. Which means Sokka doesn’t have a girl friend, it means Azula and her gang never infiltrate Ba Sing Se. It means Aang and Zuko would never escape The Boiling Rock -The Fire Nation’s top security prison-, and many battles would be lost. The special effects could have been remarkable. Avatar (The one by James Cameron) had a basic plot, nothing inconceivable, but the effects and design were impeccable. “The Last Air Bender” could have done that, even though they’re plot was twisted and inaccurate; they could have gained it back with the bending effects. But they were no more than average. The fighting scenes were interesting to watch, to see the elements in full effect of live action, but it didn’t “put you there”. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t even begin to imagine that it was “real”. The bending was awkward as well. Fire benders had to have fire to fire bend (Except for Iroh, who could somehow magically make fire shoot out of his arms) I seriously question the judgment of the director, who claims he knows “everything there is to know about Avatar” It’s ironic because that statement is a joke, except the movie (which is supposed to be intense yet have elements of comedy) is lacking any ounce of humor what-so-ever. Then there are the small things, like pronunciation.
Uncle Iroh (Eye-Row). In the movie it’s (Ear-Row)
Sokka (Sa-Ka). In the movie it’s (Sow-Ka)
Aang (well it’s pretty much how it looks). In the movie it’s (Ong)
Agni Kai (Ag-knee-Kie). In the movie it’s (Ag-Knee-Kee). It sounds a lot different, trust me.
I’m writing this on the first day it came out, and every review on the internet right now is completely and utterly negative.
I could go on, because I tend to make my arguments extremely excessive, but I’ll stop for your sake. I’m no professional critic, and who am I to judge the actors or producers, because honestly I probably would have done a 100 times worse job then they did. Avatar was just not meant to be live action (like many anime <--- hence the term “anime”) It was also not meant to be directed by the chosen director. I was thinking throughout the movie that this looked fan-made, something you would see on YouTube.
But enough about my way too obvious love of the show, how about the movie? From the very beginning of the movie, the very first scene, I could tell something was off. It may have just been the theater I went to, and there’s a 99% chance that it was, the words were so blurry, they were almost illegible. The intro was almost exactly the same as the show, except re worded differently. Who would of thought? Now, I knew before I walked into the theater, and tried to prepare myself, that Sokka would not be funny, Zuko was casted horribly, they pronounced Aang’s name like “Ung”, and a few other little facts here and there. They condensed a lot of the beginning (which was expected because they had to fit an entire season into a two hour film). But honestly, the movie was horrible. It took every ounce of strength not to walk out of the theater in the first 20 minutes. I know that sounds dramatic, but I seriously questioned it. The acting was truly a nightmare. It was Noah Ringer’s (aka Aang) first acting gig, so I can accept that his acting skills aren’t up to prime. Plus who am to judge? I actually really liked him as Aang, though I thought he could have been a bit more “cheery”, his martial arts skills were extremely impressive! I said prior that the casting to Zuko was a bad choice; I still pretty much stand by that. Zuko is supposed to be quiet and, occasionally foolish with decision making, but in the movie Zuko seemed fairly level headed, like he knew what he was doing. He was also very outspoken. They originally were going to cast Jessie McCartney as Zuko, but later decided against it. I don’t think McCartney would’ve been a better actor, Dev Patel is actually very good, but I think he appealed to the role of Zuko a lot more.
Inaccuracy: A key player in why this movie was crap. The Air Temples? According to the movie, the sanctuary where the statues of past Avatars reside is located in the Northern air temple. In actuality Aang, Katara, and Sokka, stumble upon it in the Southern air temple within the first few episodes. This is where they find Momo, it’s how Aang entered the “avatar state” for the first time. In the movie, they ignore all of this and decide that they’re going to use the statues as a lure for the Fire Nation to capture Aang. The Fire Nation Soldiers were hiding behind the statues and were able to catch Aang. They then bring Aang somewhere within the Northern air temple and hold him captive. Zuko, disguised as the “blue spirit”, then releases Aang and drags him away so that he may bring him back to his father instead of the Fire Nation Army. None of this actually happens in the show. At least not in the sequence, and in many cases not at all. There is a point when Zuko dresses as the “blue spirit” and frees Aang, but it certainly does not happen when or how they described it in the movie. But this is just one point, what happened to the Kiyoshi Warriors? Oh, they don’t exist. Which means Sokka doesn’t have a girl friend, it means Azula and her gang never infiltrate Ba Sing Se. It means Aang and Zuko would never escape The Boiling Rock -The Fire Nation’s top security prison-, and many battles would be lost. The special effects could have been remarkable. Avatar (The one by James Cameron) had a basic plot, nothing inconceivable, but the effects and design were impeccable. “The Last Air Bender” could have done that, even though they’re plot was twisted and inaccurate; they could have gained it back with the bending effects. But they were no more than average. The fighting scenes were interesting to watch, to see the elements in full effect of live action, but it didn’t “put you there”. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t even begin to imagine that it was “real”. The bending was awkward as well. Fire benders had to have fire to fire bend (Except for Iroh, who could somehow magically make fire shoot out of his arms) I seriously question the judgment of the director, who claims he knows “everything there is to know about Avatar” It’s ironic because that statement is a joke, except the movie (which is supposed to be intense yet have elements of comedy) is lacking any ounce of humor what-so-ever. Then there are the small things, like pronunciation.
Uncle Iroh (Eye-Row). In the movie it’s (Ear-Row)
Sokka (Sa-Ka). In the movie it’s (Sow-Ka)
Aang (well it’s pretty much how it looks). In the movie it’s (Ong)
Agni Kai (Ag-knee-Kie). In the movie it’s (Ag-Knee-Kee). It sounds a lot different, trust me.
I’m writing this on the first day it came out, and every review on the internet right now is completely and utterly negative.
I could go on, because I tend to make my arguments extremely excessive, but I’ll stop for your sake. I’m no professional critic, and who am I to judge the actors or producers, because honestly I probably would have done a 100 times worse job then they did. Avatar was just not meant to be live action (like many anime <--- hence the term “anime”) It was also not meant to be directed by the chosen director. I was thinking throughout the movie that this looked fan-made, something you would see on YouTube.
OK, I just got back from seeing this in theaters with some friends. It is not very good...at all. I genuinely like Shyamalan, and am sincere when I say I want him to be successful. But pretty much since Signs in 2002, he hasn't made a movie that audiences really embrace. His bad luck streak continues with this movie.
It's entertaining at parts, but really, how can a movie about a kid who can bend air, fire, earth, and water not be exciting? Shyamalan's pretty good in those scenes, but they are few and far between and almost non-existent for the first hour. Honestly, the pacing, dialogue, and above all the acting in the first act of this movie are painfully bad. The last twenty minutes or so is epic, though. I'll give it that. But overall, I agree with the popular critical consensus of the film in saying it's more or less a failure.
His abilities as a director are undeniable; Unbreakable was slick and well done, Signs is a tremendously underrated masterpiece in my opinion, and of course, The Sixth Sense is just one of the 25 best movies of the last decade. Again, these are just my opinions, and I'm no director myself.
But after Signs he seemed to say to himself, "Okay, now I'm just going to make a bunch of self-indulgent movies for myself without regard for whether or not I engage the audience." That's probably a little strong, but The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening just were NOT very interesting stories, plain and simple. At least from an entertainment perspective. I often like directors who reward the audience's patience and intellect, but the material has to be stimulating.
Again, he's still on top of his game as a director, especially in the The Happening. I thought it featured some of the best directed scenes of that year, (2008?) and of Shyamalan's career. For those of you who've seen it, I'm referring in particular to the scene where a Jeep hits a tree, the construction workers falling off a building, the single-shot gun scene, and the scene in the country house where the lady walked around banging her head on things. The guy knows how to film people killing themselves.
But I say self-indulgent because he seems content in staying in his own world of fantasy and slight thriller in Philadelphia, with dialogue that's contrived and trite, a shocker ending, and child actors who are way too mature or smart for their age.
THE REMEDY? Easy. He needs to direct someone else's script. I don't know if it's because he's too close to his own material or if he's creatively bankrupt, but his stories fall flat. So yeah, you can still keep your signature style, but branch out M. Night! Do a political thriller starring adults as main characters; do a Hitchcockian adventure movie; do a CG blockbuster action fantasy adaptation. Actually don't do that last one cuz Airbender stunk.
Then again, my expertise is limited to thousands of movies watched and some film classes. You're a major studio Academy Award-nominated screenwriter/director/producer.
It's entertaining at parts, but really, how can a movie about a kid who can bend air, fire, earth, and water not be exciting? Shyamalan's pretty good in those scenes, but they are few and far between and almost non-existent for the first hour. Honestly, the pacing, dialogue, and above all the acting in the first act of this movie are painfully bad. The last twenty minutes or so is epic, though. I'll give it that. But overall, I agree with the popular critical consensus of the film in saying it's more or less a failure.
His abilities as a director are undeniable; Unbreakable was slick and well done, Signs is a tremendously underrated masterpiece in my opinion, and of course, The Sixth Sense is just one of the 25 best movies of the last decade. Again, these are just my opinions, and I'm no director myself.
But after Signs he seemed to say to himself, "Okay, now I'm just going to make a bunch of self-indulgent movies for myself without regard for whether or not I engage the audience." That's probably a little strong, but The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening just were NOT very interesting stories, plain and simple. At least from an entertainment perspective. I often like directors who reward the audience's patience and intellect, but the material has to be stimulating.
Again, he's still on top of his game as a director, especially in the The Happening. I thought it featured some of the best directed scenes of that year, (2008?) and of Shyamalan's career. For those of you who've seen it, I'm referring in particular to the scene where a Jeep hits a tree, the construction workers falling off a building, the single-shot gun scene, and the scene in the country house where the lady walked around banging her head on things. The guy knows how to film people killing themselves.
But I say self-indulgent because he seems content in staying in his own world of fantasy and slight thriller in Philadelphia, with dialogue that's contrived and trite, a shocker ending, and child actors who are way too mature or smart for their age.
THE REMEDY? Easy. He needs to direct someone else's script. I don't know if it's because he's too close to his own material or if he's creatively bankrupt, but his stories fall flat. So yeah, you can still keep your signature style, but branch out M. Night! Do a political thriller starring adults as main characters; do a Hitchcockian adventure movie; do a CG blockbuster action fantasy adaptation. Actually don't do that last one cuz Airbender stunk.
Then again, my expertise is limited to thousands of movies watched and some film classes. You're a major studio Academy Award-nominated screenwriter/director/producer.
__________________
"I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema" -Francois Truffaut
"I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema" -Francois Truffaut
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
I can't believe people thought this'd be good. It looked terrible. Utter shite....
I don't think anyone was thinking this was going to be good...
The Last Airbender sucks according to everyone
Aang’s first words were “I don’t deserve their praise”, and looking back it’s quite funny considering The Last Airbender has received hardly any from critics who have seen the film. And when I say ‘hardly’ I mean it is currently the worst rated film of 2010, with a measly 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Each film from M. Night Shyamalan has been progressively worse than the previous one following his hailing as the ‘next Spielberg’ thanks to The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. Many thought that The Last Airbender could be a chance for M. Night to redeem himself as a huge summer blockbuster has never crossed his path before, but he seems to have dug himself into a deeper hole by making the worst critically received movie of the year.
Here’s what a few critics are saying:
The New York Times:
The long-winded explanations and clumsy performances are made worse by graceless effects and a last-minute 3-D conversion that wrecks whatever visual grace or beauty might have been there.
The dialogue is couched in unspeakable quasi-medieval formalities; the characters are so portentous they seem to have been trained for grade school historical pageants. Their dialogue is functional and action-driven. There is little conviction that any of this might be real even in their minds. All of the benders in the movie appear only in terms of their attributes and functions, and contain no personality.
Even without one of Shyamalan’s trademark twist endings, “Airbender” easily fits into the helmer’s portfolio of brooding genre inversions: Here, we expect an epic martial-arts movie and instead get a soul-searching adolescent’s decision to spare his enemies — a character-driven approach that’s ill served by the largely amateur cast.
Tedious, overstuffed, visually flat … emotionally inert, filled with painfully expository dialogue and mostly poorly acted, it’s simply an all-around misfire.
M. Night Shyamalan may want to halt work on that sequel…
Source: Filmonic
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
I can see this film doing well at the box office. Even if it's utter garbage, people will still watch it. There's plenty of examples: Transformers 2, all Twilights.
And Night will probably be pleased again. "One hit wonder" is beginning to sound like a justified description of this overrated director/screenwriter. He's rapidly becoming the most overpaid hack in Hollywood.
And Night will probably be pleased again. "One hit wonder" is beginning to sound like a justified description of this overrated director/screenwriter. He's rapidly becoming the most overpaid hack in Hollywood.
X
User Lists
Oh sure it will do well out of pure curiosity. Transformers 2 was actually fun to be honest. I wouldn't call it utter garbage though. It was popcorn excitement 
.
And one hit wonder? I don't think so. One hit wonder describes person having only one hit on their hands and never having another in their life. He's had many hit movies in his life.
.And one hit wonder? I don't think so. One hit wonder describes person having only one hit on their hands and never having another in their life. He's had many hit movies in his life.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
I saw The Last Airbender sunday 
I loooved it and I'm a huge fan of the show too. There were several things that bothered me though and it wasn't perfect but it was still really awesome xD
Just to see the benders bending the elements was enough.
I loooved it and I'm a huge fan of the show too. There were several things that bothered me though and it wasn't perfect but it was still really awesome xD
Just to see the benders bending the elements was enough.
__________________
"One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them..."
The Lord of the Rings
"One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them..."
The Lord of the Rings
I can't believe people thought this'd be good. It looked terrible. Utter shite. Anime's bad enough, but 'live action Anime"?!?! It seems that no one's ever happy with that.
OK, fair enough. Though I have to say that the phrase "potato, potarto" comes to mind.
But you are right, so I'll +rep that.
But you are right, so I'll +rep that.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
OK, fair enough. Though I have to say that the phrase "potato, potarto" comes to mind.
But you are right, so I'll +rep that.
But you are right, so I'll +rep that.
But I can see where people get them confused since the animation of Avatar is based off japanese anime.
Normally I'd write something here to sort of "introduce" the review, but I doubt it needs much introduction at this point. It's bad. Not bad in the many understandable ways it could have been bad; bad in very easily avoidable ways.
The Last Airbender
...more expository dialogue than the end of an Agatha Christie novel. All the elements for an engaging fantasy are here, but Shyamalan, unlike his characters, just can't control them ...READ MORE
...more expository dialogue than the end of an Agatha Christie novel. All the elements for an engaging fantasy are here, but Shyamalan, unlike his characters, just can't control them ...READ MORE
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
Boy, I was actually considering giving this a chance as well. Put off to the max. M Night needs to really sort it out it.
Saw the movies today...
I kind of enjoyed it a bit... It was not at all disappointing, I am growing fond of the franchise even more now. I hope they make a sequel to it.
I know it might be disappointing to hardcore fans.. but I think it wasn't all that bad,,
I enjoyed it a lot more than Prince of Persia (whose success still beats me).
I kind of enjoyed it a bit... It was not at all disappointing, I am growing fond of the franchise even more now. I hope they make a sequel to it.
I know it might be disappointing to hardcore fans.. but I think it wasn't all that bad,,
I enjoyed it a lot more than Prince of Persia (whose success still beats me).
X
Favorite Movies
X