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The Last Airbender

eloisel

eloisel

Forever Empress E
Okay.

The critics have been particularly harsh on this movie. Fs mostly.

The audience critiques have been either really good or really bad.

So, I wasn't expecting much when I went to see it at the theater.

I can see why the first viewers were disappointed. I don't understand the outright hatred for this movie though.

The story is obviously holding back because there are sequels planned.

The scene that has been selling the movie for the last year or so wasn't even in the movie.

Some of the acting is not very good.

The voice over narrative and change of scene text identifiers on screen are problematic in that they tell rather than show the story.

However, despite all the shortcomings of this movie, it has some good moments, one outstanding moment, and lots of promise all around. The filmography is pretty good and some of the special effects are right nice.

It isn't worth the extra cost to see it in 3D. It is better to see it at a bargain matinee price. It is probably also best to see it on the big screen.

Overall I give it a C+.
 
The kids want to go see it today. I know of the animated series but I haven't ever seen it, so I'm not sure what kind of opinion I'll have on it.
 
My son loves the animated series, but had no interest in seeing the movie. He'd rather wait and see Despicable Me this week.
 
M. Night Shyamalan is the director. It's guaranteed to suck. That man can suck the life out of ANY character. No matter how awesome or colorful they were before he got a hold of them.
 
Conchaga said:
M. Night Shyamalan is the director. It's guaranteed to suck. That man can suck the life out of ANY character. No matter how awesome or colorful they were before he got a hold of them.
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I've never seen a director turn in work with such a consistent downward curve in quality --and keep getting work. I actually had hopes for this one, since it was the first one he did that was based on someone else's material and I naively figured this might keep his corrosive ego from overwhelming it. Silly me.

I gotta wonder when his career's death-knell will finally sound. It won't be with this one, 'cause it's guaranteed to make a profit due to its considerable fan base. But jesus...I'm beginning to think he'd have to make a 3-hour $500 million epic about Wordforge for people to finally NOT pay to see his shit.
 
So pretty much, even if the movie were worthy of an A rating, people would still hate it even though they hadn't even seen it.
 
No.

I'm going by a few standards.
1. The material they're using to produce movies. In this case, it's the Anime serial Avatar: The Last Airbender. Hollywood's attempt to make movies from Anime serials has generally failed miserably. Take the two latest attempts: Dragonball and Astro Boy. Both of those were terrible in comparison to their originals. The writers/directors didn't understand the characters or the creators' vision.
2. The body of work that the director has produced. The ONLY and I mean only work that Shyamalan has produced that was worth something was Sixth Sense. That's it. All subsequent movies he's done have been the most bland, uninteresting tripe I've ever seen. Slow-paced, dry, soulless, and unimaginative. If you want the perfect example of how crappy his directing style is, compare his last three movies' main characters and their responses to strange circumstances. They all have the same dead look in their eyes. It's kinda creepy.

Now, combine those two and what do you get? A movie that, not only, will disappoint the fans of the original material, but a movie that will bore you tears even though it's supposed to be an action film.

It doesn't matter if he got the same guy who edited Terminator Salvation and Tears of the Sun; or if he grabbed the composer for Dark Knight (who has also done the score for a good chunk of Shyamalan's movies, can you say leverage?). It doesn't even matter if he hired the Production designer for all of the Ocean's 11 movies. Even more insignificant is the fact that he roped-in the cinematographer for the LotR trilogy.

Do you know why NONE of that matters? Because he only has TWO... two people who were involved in the TV show helping him to make this movie. They're producers, that's correct. However, Shyamalan is a producer, and he pulled in all of his other usual producers who let him get away with this crap. Finally, the pies de resistance is that he didn't get a single person who worked on the original TV show to help him write the screenplay. Therefore, this whole movie is one, gigantic piece of fanfiction.

/moviesnob
 
Dear Moviesnob:

I don't look at movies the same way you do. First, I need relatively mindless entertainment most of the time. I spend a lot of time in complex thought processes. My brain needs a break. (Explains my perverse enjoyment of TK.)

I look for something that is visually interesting. In that regard, Last Airbender was actually better than MNS's previous movies.

Generally, I need the story, no matter how fanciful or fantastical or over the top it is, to not be so implausible that I fall out of the story. That leaves a lot of room for movies to be acceptable in my POV.

I'm not an expert on the anime or cartoon series of the Last Airbender. I've seen one or two shows on TV so I'm not completely ignorant of the subject but I am by no means familiar enough with the storyline or the characters to have an expectation of how they should look, act, move, or sound. That should have been a plus for MNS in this movie. However, for the most part, I felt the dialogue a bit stilted, bare in some spots, and completely absent in others. I did not like the voice over narration at all. Therefore, absent enough meaningful dialogue, the story had to be carried forward almost entirely on the appearance of the characters and their actions bolstered by the voice over narration. Audience members not familiar then were at a disadvantage in the storytelling experience.

I think that in some respects the movie should have kept the violence dialed down. It is clearly aimed at a younger audience. Not all of us approve of subjecting young children to a glut of blood, guts and gore. That being said, there was one particularly ghastly scene that should have been cut from the movie. I'm speaking of the gang drowning of a man until he was dead. The knowing sacrificial act of one of the young heroes was also something I would have rethought for the targeted audience. No one should make suicide look glamourous to young children.

There are many scenes that promise something better. Perhaps the sequels, if there are any, will deliver. If the next one doesn't, I don't see a franchise moving forward.

With regards to MSNs other movies, I liked Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village as well as Sixth Sense. I haven't been able to watch the thing in the water movie and probably never will see it all the way through. The movie The Happening is one of those I thought utterly retarded and I can not stand Zooey Deschanel as she is, in my opinion, the absolute worst actress of all time. I do not know why she continues to get movie parts where they allow her to be in front or to speak. Yes, she is cute. She'd make a good model.
 
I read in other forums that a lot of people were angry because all the starring roles (they believe) should have gone to asian actors instead of white and indian ones :huh:

 
I heard the same complaint.

I'm of the opinion that unless the story requires a person be of a specific ethnicity in order to manifest the story, then a person of any ethnicity should be able to play that role.

While I agree that there are Asian influences in this story, it is clearly a fantasy and the setting is possibly on another world. I don't think it would further the story for an American audience to make the characters Asian unless the setting of the movie was definitely in an Asian country. That being said, using at least four visibly different ethnicities to represent the four kingdoms - Air, Water, Earth, Fire - would probably have increased the visual richness of this movie.

The child that played the Last Airbender was sufficiently ethnic looking as were some of the other visible actors that didn't just blend into the background. The dialogue between the older boy and the older girl about why her hair was white was a tad ridiculous as it is not uncommon for white people to have white hair. That was one of the instances where the dialogue was lacking as there should have been some set up prior to it explaining why white hair among that girl's people would seem odd. There is a reason why she is white headed that is a key point to the story so it should have been explained.

In general, I think the ethnicity of the characters wouldn't be an issue if the movie didn't lack so much to begin with.
 
Ely, I can find you a dozen movies that are mindless and unintelligent, which I have absolutely loved, that don't rape a popular serial or stroke the ego of a really crappy director.

As for the violence, I really hate when people say we need less violence in movies. Until the early 20th century the world was a violent place. It still is. If we can see that violence is alright to be used to defend yourself against something that would harm or kill what we love, it is far more acceptable than blatantly violent movies like Ninja Assassin. All that's left is defining what is ok to be violent about.
 
Conchaga said:
Ely, I can find you a dozen movies that are mindless and unintelligent, which I have absolutely loved, that don't rape a popular serial or stroke the ego of a really crappy director.
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This is one of the places where we differ. I don't know The Last Airbender as a popular serial and MNS's ego isn't of interest to me. I just base my thoughts on the movie as a stand alone all by itself product. I'd have felt the same way about this movie if it hadn't been based on a popular serial or if someone else was the director.


As for the violence, I really hate when people say we need less violence in movies. Until the early 20th century the world was a violent place. It still is. If we can see that violence is alright to be used to defend yourself against something that would harm or kill what we love, it is far more acceptable than blatantly violent movies like Ninja Assassin. All that's left is defining what is ok to be violent about.
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My issue isn't about more or less violence in the movie but the amount and types of violence in the movie depending on the target audience. I think Last Airbender would probably play better to kids around eight years of age. I can't speak for anyone else but I don't think murder/death/kill/decapitate/eviscerate/eat somebody's kidney for snacks is the kind of thing eight year olds should be watching. You want to see that kind of thing, knock yourself out. It isn't like I'm going with you and will have to watch the thing in chick vision.

I also agree with you on defining on what it is okay to be violent about.
 
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