Please don't waste your money on The Last Airbender

utopianmachine

utopianmachine

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My husband and I are huge fans of the cartoon series. We've been excited about the release of the film for weeks, so we decided to see it today, on opening day.

I was dismayed at how bad it was. The actors were stale and seemed a poor choice for their roles. All the major characters had distracting pronunciation differences in their names. Momo and Appa were nearly meaningless additions, hardly more important to the movie than the clothes on the characters backs.

If you love the cartoon series, don't let this film blaspheme your memories of it. If you like 3D films, don't spend the money unless you enjoy dark, blurry movies with virtually no 3D effects.

The average critic store is 21 out of 100 on Fandango.
http://www.fandango.com/thelastairbender_126056/criticreviews

The Onion:
"[N]one of the care and craftsmanship evident in projects [Shyamalan] originated, even lousy ones like The Happening, find their way into this movie. So what does that leave? A lot of headache-inducing CGI-effects sequences, many scenes of children doing tai chi, and some imperiled magical fish."
 
^ Shh! James Cameron's ego will hear you, and tell Shyamalan that his dad's ego could beat up Shyamalan's ego's dad's ego.
 
Sixth Sense was a LONGGGGG time ago... feel bad for the guy really.

I thought this would be kinda cool, never watched the series. Roger Ebert's review is legendary.
 
op i knew the film was shit as soon as they announced that they werent using asians in the roles of the main characters. then i saw the sfx in the commercials and i further knew itd be shit and then i saw a commercial with a cgi oppa and momo and i rolled my eyes and contined to flip channels. then i read roger eberts review and laughed.

they should have just done an animated movie that carried on after the war ended set maybe a year or 2 later. i still want them to do something concering where zukos mom is.
 
I like his movies. I think his big mistake was Lady In The Water. Where critics said he lost his way making a movie about a guy that writes a book that saves the world...and plays the character that writes it. People started thinking the guy was getting full of himself. The Happening got blasted (unfairly I think) as a result, and he makes a further mistake of doing a live action anime.

I think he knows he should get back to his roots, rumored to be doing a followup to Unbreakable (his most underappreciated movie) with Bruce, given that the movie is left open enough for damn good sequel opportunity. Calling it "top secret project" does imply heavily it's Unbreakable 2.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']I like his movies. I think his big mistake was Lady In The Water. Where critics said he lost his way making a movie about a guy that writes a book that saves the world...and plays the character that writes it. People started thinking the guy was getting full of himself. The Happening got blasted (unfairly I think) as a result, and he makes a further mistake of doing a live action anime.

I think he knows he should get back to his roots, rumored to be doing a followup to Unbreakable (his most underappreciated movie) with Bruce, given that the movie is left open enough for damn good sequel opportunity. Calling it "top secret project" does imply heavily it's Unbreakable 2.[/QUOTE]
I read somewhere that he planned Unbreakable to be the first movie in a trilogy.
 
[quote name='moon_knight']I read somewhere that he planned Unbreakable to be the first movie in a trilogy.[/QUOTE]

i hope he can pull it off that movie was awesome its one of 3 of his films really like ( the other 2 being signs and 6th sense).
 
I wasnt going to see this anyway. I work in TV/Film and it actually does annoy the shit out of me when Hollywood says Americans cant relate to anyone other than other White Americans.

I am all for casting the best actor in each role but for fucks sake when the source material is based on a certain culture you cant just shrug your shoulders and change it all. Hell even Roger Ebert says it

"After the miscalculation of making the movie as live action, there remained the challenge of casting it. Shyamalan has failed. His first inexplicable mistake was to change the races of the leading characters; on television Aang was clearly Asian, and so were Katara and Sokka, with perhaps Mongolian and Inuit genes. Here they're all whites. This casting makes no sense...."

But I still didnt expect it to be so poor.
 
hmm. it seems phat we really cant trust trailers anymore.
Im shocke, and it seemed so good
 
We're shocked that another one of his movies is disappointing? I thought the shock factor would be gone by now. Honestly, I think Unbreakable was good, but the rest... meh.
 
We're shocked that another one of his movies is disappointing? I thought the shock factor would be gone by now. Honestly, I think Unbreakable was good, but the rest... meh.
 
I've not seen the cartoons, with that said it's bad? The preview trailer looked good. Not even just for the effects? On that note, I did see Avatar only for the looks not the actual movie. It still pains me that I went though a story line like that more than once.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']I like his movies. I think his big mistake was Lady In The Water. Where critics said he lost his way making a movie about a guy that writes a book that saves the world...and plays the character that writes it. People started thinking the guy was getting full of himself. [/QUOTE]

Lady in the Water seemed completely self-aggrandizing. It was like he wrote that movie just so he could show how awesome he is.

I think Shyamalan's problem is he just tries to do too much. He writes the movies. He directs the movies. Even in recent movies he's producing them as well. He should really try to stick with one thing, because it looks to be he stretches himself too thin to blow any one aspect of the movie out of the park.

I imagine this would be especially true with The Last Airbender movie. Why not get someone who actually has some experience adapting screenplays rather than someone that, up until now, has only written his own, original works?
 
Be careful, if M. Night Shyamalan sees this he will slap you silly. He considers this film as the greatest cinematic achievement, and anyone who disagrees is an idiot.
 
BTW, Why couldn't someone have put out a warning about Avatar before it came out too... ? It's probably a worse offender at any rate.
 
[quote name='Soodmeg']I wasnt going to see this anyway. I work in TV/Film and it actually does annoy the shit out of me when Hollywood says Americans cant relate to anyone other than other White Americans.
[/QUOTE]

I agree with that. The worst example of that is Let The Right One In being remade (ie: Americanized), as if the original wasn't worth anybody's time despite it being a horror movie sneaking onto every critic's best-of-the-year list, often times claiming the #1 spot. fucking makes me sick. Too many dumbasses are going to watch the remake, think it's great, but miss out on the insanely incredible original because it's "foreign."
 
In my opinion this director (Shamalamadingdong) has never made a good movie. No reason to think he would start now.
 
While I hate to see one of my favorite series basterdized, at least this brings Shamalamadingdong closer to rock bottom. The dudes so full of himself while he continues to make shit movies and because of that, he figured he could take a much loved tv series and not possibly mess it up.

I hope he doesn't bother to make the sequels.
 
[quote name='DestroVega']Roger Ebert's review is legendary.[/QUOTE]

When I got home from the theater last night, I started looking up critic reviews, and Ebert's actually made me feel better. It's like, "Yes, yes, it does suck!"

Read the review here:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1190017.html

[quote name='VipFREAK']I've not seen the cartoons, with that said it's bad? The preview trailer looked good. Not even just for the effects? [/QUOTE]

The special effects are paltry. Frequently, effects happen off-screen or with extreme close-ups that seem to be done to either hide their shoddiness or to minimize the amount of CGI needed.

[quote name='Cantatus']I think Shyamalan's problem is he just tries to do too much. He writes the movies. He directs the movies. Even in recent movies he's producing them as well. He should really try to stick with one thing, because it looks to be he stretches himself too thin to blow any one aspect of the movie out of the park.

I imagine this would be especially true with The Last Airbender movie. Why not get someone who actually has some experience adapting screenplays rather than someone that, up until now, has only written his own, original works?[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. The man seems to have a certain clumsy, artless vanity about his films that pours over into the finished product. I was really worried about Shyamalan having a hand in this film. I went into the movie with very low expectations, and Shyamalan couldn't even meet those.

[quote name='Count']Lol I think I'll stand my ground for OP; I agree with her.
Just saw one clip..

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/dor/objects/874418/last_airbender/videos/lastairbender_1_062910.html[/QUOTE]

Actually, that part in the movie was a highlight. It was pretty much the best we got when it came to waterbending.

For those that have seen the cartoon and want to know how the battle of the Northern Water Tribe resolves:
You know how in the cartoon Aang transforms into that amazing water elemental? You know how cool it is? You know how you were wishing it would look amazing on the big screen? Well, guess what. It doesn't even happen. Shyamalan is all about making Aang a pacifist, and instead of actually really fighting off the Fire nation, he simply creates an enormous tidal wave and simply has it roiling there, staying in place, just to threaten the Fire nation into leaving. And it works. So so anticlimactic.

[quote name='Indignate']I hope he doesn't bother to make the sequels.[/QUOTE]

If the sequels are made, I sincerely hope someone slaps Shyamalan's hands away and takes the reins. Considering I read somewhere than he's a fan of the cartoon series, I don't know how he came up with this bastardization of cinematography. I'd hate to see what he would do to the rest of the series.
 
[quote name='utopianmachine']
Actually, that part in the movie was a highlight. It was pretty much the best we got when it came to waterbending. [/QUOTE]

It kind of looked like he abandoned the whole bending is a martial art thing. At least from what Aang was doing, it doesn't look like the martial art (Tai Chi, I think) that waterbending was based on.

[quote name='utopianmachine']For those that have seen the cartoon and want to know how the battle of the Northern Water Tribe resolves:
You know how in the cartoon Aang transforms into that amazing water elemental? You know how cool it is? You know how you were wishing it would look amazing on the big screen? Well, guess what. It doesn't even happen. Shyamalan is all about making Aang a pacifist, and instead of actually really fighting off the Fire nation, he simply creates an enormous tidal wave and simply has it roiling there, staying in place, just to threaten the Fire nation into leaving. And it works. So so anticlimactic.
[/QUOTE]

That. Is. Lame.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']I was vaguely interested in the movie, until I read this article about it:

http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamalan-finally-made-a-comedy[/QUOTE]

Nice.

You have been drawn into a place where you will lose, not only your power as an audience member, but quite possibly your mental faculties altoghether. You are lost in the wilderness, and Shyamalan is your trickster guide on a journey into nothingness, from which only your soul-dead shadow will ever return.
Click to expand...
 
In all fairness to Shyammy's bungling, the movie was 2D converted to 3D, and that simply never works. Movies need to be designed for3D from the start, and preferably not at all.

As for Momo and Appa, well, what did you expect? Cartoon animals like these guys never get a fair shake in live action adaptations. Remember Oolong in Dragonball Evolution? No? Cut. Never even got a CGI cameo or namedrop.

But Shyammy's movie problems are all our fault. We liked the Sixth Sense's twist too much, and the poor fool's been trying to recreate that magic ever since. He cannot. He's a One Trick Pony. He made the ultimate twist nobody saw coming (even though he says we should ahve seen it a mile away when Bruce and Haley are talking about dead people not knowing their dead), and won't stop trying to make more ultimate twists. Which is the problem. He's forcing the twist on us. It must be natural.
 
Meh. I was interested in the movie, and I'm not going to let the critics make my decisions for me like a sheep. Still going to see it.

I'll decide if it sucks for myself.

Shamalama deserves for me to at least give it a chance. I, for one, actually really liked Lady in the Water. It was kind of an age of innocence type of fantasy movie.
You don't see much of that nowadays. People seem to have lost all hope for humanity, even though there are still good people in the world.
 
I kind of liked the series but I had 0 interest in this movie. It looked like it was just a excuse for big budget special CG effects and nothing more. It looked very generic, sterile, boring and uninspired. It just reminded me of a dozen other movies to come in the past couple years with the same look, style and feel. Like aragon, sorcerers apprentice, transformers and all those other wannabe "family safe, and dumbed down" flicks we have been getting lately.

True I cant judge the movie since I havent seen it yet, but I can judge how it looks to me from trailers and such.

Im just really hating big budget CG movies since they always seem to turn into a sqauresoft game more or less when they care more about how much money they can spend on the effects and more about the effects than actually having a good storyline, good characters, weaving the narative properly and having something thats actually interesting or compelling.
 
Can the movie industry please stop giving this fucking hack movies?

I'm watching the clips on RT that were posted. Was M. Night deliberately trying to troll America with this?
 
People were expressing their opinions during the movie.

For example

Katara: Aang we need to get back to whatever... (Pronounced as Ahng rather than Ayng)
Audience member:"That's bullshit"

Also Sokka was somehow pronounced Sow-ka. Iroh was Ear-oh. The earthbending kid looked like maybe a 5 year old how is he supposed to have a mustache at the end of the series

Firelord: So what you're saying is that my son is the blue spirit.
Zhao: YES. (end scene)
Audience: Hilarious laughter
 
[quote name='xeno']Yea I'll netflix it[/QUOTE]

Same here. I was really hoping to hear more positive stuff about this film - I didn't expect it to be another bomb. :bomb:
 
[quote name='kirby145']People were expressing their opinions during the movie.

For example

Katara: Aang we need to get back to whatever... (Pronounced as Ahng rather than Ayng)
Audience member:"That's bullshit"

Also Sokka was somehow pronounced Sow-ka. Iroh was Ear-oh. The earthbending kid looked like maybe a 5 year old how is he supposed to have a mustache at the end of the series

Firelord: So what you're saying is that my son is the blue spirit.
Zhao: YES. (end scene)
Audience: Hilarious laughter[/QUOTE]

This is why I love the internet. There could be hundreds of reasons that a movie is legitimately bad, but of course, we have to nitpick pronunciations and whether or not the main character could sport a mustache by the end of the series...
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']This is why I love the internet. There could be hundreds of reasons that a movie is legitimately bad, but of course, we have to nitpick pronunciations and whether or not the main character could sport a mustache by the end of the series...[/QUOTE]

Apparently there are hundreds of reasons why this movie is legitimately bad, that's the problem.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Apparently there are hundreds of reasons why this movie is legitimately bad, that's the problem.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure of it. I just find it funny that most of the criticisms in this thread stem from the things I mentioned.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']I'm sure of it. I just find it funny that most of the criticisms in this thread stem from the things I mentioned.[/QUOTE]

That would be because it is the internet, just like you said.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']This is why I love the internet. There could be hundreds of reasons that a movie is legitimately bad, but of course, we have to nitpick pronunciations and whether or not the main character could sport a mustache by the end of the series...[/QUOTE]

wtf did you expect? You follow a series for its entire run and get accustomed to all the characters names and then comes a guy with a "I'm the shit!" ego and changes even the pronunciation of most characters' names from the series. I was hoping he would redeem himself with this movie but no, he had to come and change everything fans came to love from the animation. Internet has nothing to do with this.
 
[quote name='Bazylik']wtf did you expect? You follow a series for its entire run and get accustomed to all the characters names and then comes a guy with a "I'm the shit!" ego and changes even the pronunciation of most characters' names from the series. I was hoping he would redeem himself with this movie but no, he had to come and change everything fans came to love from the animation. Internet has nothing to do with this.[/QUOTE]

Nerd rage.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']Nerd rage.[/QUOTE]
hahaha

Not much of a convo guy I guess, just a one-liner-cool-wanna-be on the internetz. :applause:
 
[quote name='utopianmachine']If the sequels are made, I sincerely hope someone slaps Shyamalan's hands away and takes the reins. Considering I read somewhere than he's a fan of the cartoon series, I don't know how he came up with this bastardization of cinematography. I'd hate to see what he would do to the rest of the series.[/QUOTE]

Did Michael Bay ever say he was a fan of Transformers? If he did then M. watches TV on the same set he does.
 
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