The Last Airbender

[Saturo]

You can squeeze in the by and large of a plot over a two hour time slot. And if you can't, then you put in as much as you can, find a good stopping point, and make another movie if your first does well. What's important is that the fan's feel like what you have made represents the series.

Aye, nothing wrong with a long movie. I tend to like those the most, think Star Wars and LOTR.

[VelkynKarma]

The problem, I think, is because they let a FAN direct the movie.

I remember seeing a REALLY early interview, back when an Avatar movie was just a well-developed rumor, with the original creators and Shamylan (however it's spelled). He mentioned that he was a diehard fan of the series because his daughter loved it, so he got into it.

Now you might think, WHAT? WHAT IS THIS? WHY WOULD A FAN CREATE SUCH A HORRIFIC THING?! To which I reply, Just take a stroll over to fanfiction.net and see what all the other fans are doing. Fans ALWAYS have their own ideas about how a show/movie/book/whatever should be, that usually deviates from the actual story. Hell, if I had any control over the series, Zuko would have joined the Gaang at the end of season 2. The PROBLEM with this is that Shamylan has access to redonkulus amounts of money and was the director, so he actually COULD make his rendition of Avatar do whatever the heck he wants.

And once a movie contract is signed, the original creators of a book or comic or whatever have practically NO say in the matter, so the original creators wouldn't have been able to do anything about it except watch Shamylan take their hard earned popular creative work and crash and burn it.

I won't be seeing this. I'm not even going to pirate it. If it scores less than the loathesome Twilight on Rotten Tomatoes, you know something's wrong with it!

~VelkynKarma

[Palladiamorsdeus]

This happen's all the time though, Velly. Even when no fan gets ahold of things. Do I even need to mention Uwe Boll? M.Night there reassured people that he 'got' the Last Airbender, but clearly he didn't. I don't think of this so much as his rendition, as I think of it as him taking Airbender and fitting it to his dark, solemn moviemaking style. Except that he couldn't really inject any more of his personal style into, since it is, for all intents and purposes, a fairly static story at this point. Course, that doesn't stop directors from taking pre-established stories and tearing them apart all the time.....

The man can say he is a fan all he want's, but the truth come's through in this movie. At this point, in reference to your link, I have seen better fan-fic done. This is just a sad, sad time for Airbender fans.

[Vephriel]

http://www.cracked.com/funny-5806-the-l ... der-movie/

[VelkynKarma]

That...was hilarious, Veph. Hilarious.

At the same time, incredibly depressing.

Sigh.

~VelkynKarma

[Vephriel]

Yup.

Since I already subjected myself to the abomination that the movie is, I feel free to openly rant and make fun of it.

Hell, I was the one arguing with all the people saying it would be horrible. I had faith that it couldn't be that bad, and I went in completely optimistic.

Hope = Shattered

Don't do that to yourself if you truly love the series. It's just not worth it. x_x

[Palladiamorsdeus]

From what I am hearing, that might have been the nail in M.Nights career. If he isn't capable of anything more then this, then good riddance I say.

[Vephriel]

I can't help but wonder what's in store for the future of the movies. After all there were supposed to be 3 to cover each chapter of the series, but I can't see the others being at all successful after this travesty.

[Saturo]

Like the Eragon movie then? There won't be anymore of those now.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

They just need to find a different director. They can recover from this travesty with a good second movie. But the question is, are they even going to bother MAKING a second movie after this? Probably not.

[Rhyela]

.....I couldn't get home quick enough to watch the animated series and bleach the movie from my mind.

That's exactly what my husband, brother and I did. We were like "Gotta watch the show to wipe the taint from our minds!!!". Yeah, it was that bad.

Last I saw on rottentomatoes, it had an 8% rating. Yes, just 8. Not double digit 18.....EIGHT. Horrible.

[Saturo]

Last I saw on rottentomatoes, it had an 8% rating. Yes, just 8. Not double digit 18.....EIGHT. Horrible.

Really? Even the crap that was Eragon got a doubledigit number! 17%!

[cowmuflage]

no Palladiamorsdeus they are makeing the next 2...... Its as sad as the AVP movies i had so high hopes for them intill i saw it and it was one present day earth

[Rhyela]

Last I saw on rottentomatoes, it had an 8% rating. Yes, just 8. Not double digit 18.....EIGHT. Horrible.

Really? Even the crap that was Eragon got a doubledigit number! 17%!

Yep, just looked it up again and it's still 8%, LOL.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_airbender/

[Saturo]

The below is a review from someone who had never watched the series. He gave the movie a 2/10 on imdb.com .

Note: the following review comes from Luke Gallagher (me) of nerdbastards.com

"The Last Airbender", directed by M. Night Shyamalan is tortuously lethargic, uninvited, abysmal, and uniformly atrocious (in every aspect). And that's me being nice!

Based on Nickelodeon's beloved animated series (to which I am only vaguely familiar and thus can't compare) is set i a world in which the population is divided amid the four elements (Earth, Wind, Water and Fire) and some skilled practitioners whom can "bend" these elements to their will. Since the elements are naturally at odds with each other, an overall controller is needed to maintain order among the kingdom. This role is played by the Avatar, who can manipulate all the elements and thus can keep balance and peace amongst the tribes. Only problem is this Avatar has gone missing for 100 hundred years.

"The Last Airbender" follows a brother and sister from the Water Tribe, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) and Katara (Nicola Peltz), who discover a 12-year-old monk-child from the Air tribe frozen in a block of ice and his gigantic furry steed (that resembles the luck dragon in "The Never Ending Story").His name is Aang (Noah Ringer), and he, of course is the missing Avatar. Now freed, he finds his home air tribe are all dead and the rest of the world in turmoil. All at the hands of the tyranny of the dreaded Fire Nation. Aang, who never wanted to be the Avatar in the first place (thus why he ran away) must step up, lead a resistance and bring peace back to the Kingdom. However, he must first learn how to control the elements other than air (was imprisoned by an ice storm before he could train). The Fire nation led by Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis) wants none of this of course and seeks to capture and subdue Aang (they would just kill him but he'd just get reincarnated). Rounding out the plot is Ozai's son, Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), living in exile with his uncle Iroh (Shaun Toub), who also wants to capture Aang and bring him back to his father to win his honor back.

Sound like a lot? It is, but surprisingly not as convoluted as it sounds. The scope of the plot, which attempts at mysticism, politics, religion and a whole obvious Jesus angle isn't the problem. Its how the story is told that makes it unbearable. It throws a lot at you with no effect. It fails definition and lacks resonance. Everything is rushed. Characters and story elements are given no development. Take the Fire Nation for example. We are told they are scourge of the once unified kingdom but we arn't shown this. They travel the globe in their ominous, menacing, iron ships and have a mightier than though attitude but all in all nothing that establishes their evil-ness; albeit a later incident with a glowing pond guppy. Because of this we have nothing at stake, no reason to root for the good guys to triumph. Another example would be a big part of Aang's journey. Which involves him letting go of his anger towards the genocide of his people (a scene depicting said genocide would have helped sell the fire nation's douchey-ness) but we never see him get angry enough to make "letting go" have meaning.

Void-ness of emotional moments are what really plague this film. I would blame this on the script but the performances are what make it not work. Every actor in this film (minus Shaun Toub) delivers dialogue as if they were reading it for the very first time. Not one thing anyone says carries any weight, none of it resonates emotionally. To say the actors suffer from wooden acting would be insult an to wood.

It seem Shyamalan seemed much more interested in the visuals than the narrative (or the dialogue, which is shoddy at best). M. Night manages a few striking images, most of them involving otherworldly landscapes and ornate set design. There are strong special effects and action sequences which are fluid and vivid. Particularly with the fights involving element- manipulation. Winds gusts slamming people around like rag dolls, earth barricades, globs or walls of water and so on are eye popping. The effects are top notch. The hand-to-hand, Kung-Fu fight sequences are well choreographed as well, but a bit too extraneous. Should also mention that this movie is available in 3D and lets just say it's a wasted element (pun intended), an unnecessary afterthought. It wrecks whatever visual grace that might have been (and will give you a massive headache).

Though, relatively successful in cinematic aspects Shyamalan, overall fails to capture the sense of adventure. There is a signs of a beautiful journey but it ultimately falls flat.

Underwhelming and joyless Avatar: The Last Airbender is sure the be the final nail in the coffin of M. Night Shymalans stunted career.

M. Night Shyamalan: Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me four times? "The Sixth Sense" was clearly a fluke.

[Razzy]

Hesoos, I saw this movie yesterday, and I could barely stand it.

I've only watched a handful of episodes, but I've watched it enough to know all of the characters, and know the plotline, etc.

Mispronouncing names does not make it unique. It makes you look like a douchebag.

Making the villains look like they're from india (which shamallama happens to look like. He probably gave himself a spot in the movie as well, that bastard.) when they're obviously white/asian in the series makes you look like even more of a douchebag.

Changing the personality of nearly all of the characters makes you look like a 13 year old writing a fanfic on livejournal.

Getting rid of prince Zuko's ponytail (which is a major plot point later in the series) and giving him a full head of greasy hair takes the cake.

Shamallama, gtfo right now.

[Vephriel]

Ugh, not to mention they barely even made Zuko's scar noticeable.

Oh, and the Fire Lord's throne room? In the series it was this incredible, intimidating area covered in red, black, and gold with walls of fire.

In the movie it was a white room with a couple flags on the wall. -_-

[Razzy]

Did they even say Momo or Appa's names?

[Vephriel]

I don't recall....I tried to bleach most of my memory of that movie from my brain. >_>

[Razzy]

Also, I was so looking forward to the creature that steals faces. D: Though I guess that would've been scary for the kiddies.