The Last Airbender

[Vine Whip]

Really surprised no one else has made a thread about this??

Avatar: The Last Airbender is arguable the pinnacle of modern cartoon making. Just playing haha. But its dope.! I don't really want to introduce they whole synopisis, but chances are if you checked out this thread you're familiar with it--it's basically a KICKASS martial arts show about manipulating various elements, and for a Nickelodeon shows its fucking badass. :avatar2:

I'm seeing this movie in a couple hours, if you haven't seen it DON'T SEE IT IN 3D.

Also, this film is getting RAPED by critics because they want to see Shyamalan eat it. It's also getting raped by fans because name pronounciations are changed and it's really fast paced. :happybrain:

Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire is supposedly the best actor throughout the movie, with Noah Ringer (his first movie ever) in 2nd, then Twilights Jackson Rathboner and etc etc.

Like I said the reviews are SO POLAR. You either think it's a good movie, or YOU HATE IT AND WANT M NIGHT TO BURN IN HELL

Seriously thats all I've been reading. "I loved it!" and "Fuck you Shyamalan."

I need to form an opinion for myself and see it anyway.


So yea discuss this movie! If you are a fan of the show, you're automatically a fuckin badass:nerd:

 

[iAmSmuuuurf]

Die hard fan of the cartoon. When I heard Shyamalan was picking it up I cried. His only good movie (imo) was the Sixth Sense. I'm definitely going to see it though, half expecting it to be garbage. I don't know... like you I want to have my own opinion on it. We will see in a couple of hours.

 

[lilyhollow]

Polar? As in, "lots of variance; some good, some bad"? Because it all seems pretty completely horrible to me. It's received worse than like, Grown Ups. And Marmaduke. Doesn't seem very worth forming an opinion on to me, but whatever.

 

[popemobile]

critics hate it because it is legitimately one of the worst movies ever

 

[black.arwing]

3 words:

Hide

IT SUCKED BALLS

I'm watching the actual show right now to remedy myself. I just saw it an hour ago.

*shudders*

 

[Mr.E]

more like 3 words:

Hide

m night shyamalan

amirite ??

 

[Llama]

One of the few movies that has managed to be fucking horrible while I was incredibly baked.

I mean what the fuck, it has to be the worst movie I saw in theaters, I mean I knew it was going to be bad, but that was one the worst shit shows and slaughtering of a series in movie form.

Also lol at the fact that when Zuko took out a picture of his family in the movie they looked like they did in the actual series aka white, while all fire benders were Indian in this movie.

 

[Jimbo]

I'm also a huge fan of the tv series, and I was really upset and angry over this movie. I was hoping it'd actually be a good adaptation. Sadly, that didn't happen :[

Going beyond the name mispronunciations and the racial tossup (imo fire nation is america, earth kingdom asia, water tribes are inuits, and air nomads are monks [obviously], so taiwanese or something), the acting was awful and editing was up there too. Similar to the Harry Potter movies, I knew there'd be some things cut out but he really did some major editing which was offputting (cutting out Suki, Jet, and the Mechanist entirely?). He even changed some seriously bad ass parts of the show like avatar roku's spirit and Koh the face stealer. Also, gigantic wtf at firebenders needing a source of fire.

Overall I was extremely disappointed, the special effects were the only somewhat good part of the movie. Most parts were so boring I started falling asleep. The most entertaining part of the movie was my friend yelling AANG every time the actors said "ong."

 

[Vine Whip]

Also lol at the fact that when Zuko took out a picture of his family in the movie they looked like they did in the actual series aka white, while all fire benders were Indian in this movie.

Hahaha! I thought I was the only one who noticed that. Yea in his picure the entire family is Asian looking...complete with the badass huge-Fire Nation beards....seemed like Zuko was, "Better put this away before someone notices!"

Going beyond the name mispronunciations and the racial tossup (imo fire nation is america, earth kingdom asia, water tribes are inuits, and air nomads are monks [obviously], so taiwanese or something), the acting was awful and editing was up there too. Similar to the Harry Potter movies, I knew there'd be some things cut out but he really did some major editing which was offputting (cutting out Suki, Jet, and the Mechanist entirely?). He even changed some seriously bad ass parts of the show like avatar roku's spirit and Koh the face stealer. Also, gigantic wtf at firebenders needing a source of fire.

Fucking seriously! The dragon is done to death if you asked me. I watch the Season 1 finale last night, and wow this entire movie would have bee compensated for if they added that one character.

Oh and everytime Aang when into the "Spirit World" it looked like a high school film project in someones fucking backyard. Probably filmed at the same location as The Village.

But its way to easy to knock this movie. As a fan of this awesome show...I really want to see the sequel. I wouldn't mind seeing all the characters again because what I think hurt this was Star Wars Ep 2-style dialogue. M. Night seriously needs some co-producers and a COMPLETELY new screenwriter. The effects weren't too bad, but doing 20 fucking minutes of Tai Chi to move a rock and other stuff like that is just retarded. In the show the bending was an extension of yourself, not doing martial arts for a power- up-the movie was so much like a turn-based RPG when it came to the bending.

But seeing a kickass show come to life is what I liked most. Zuko was my favorite characters, Sokka (SO-AKA) was actually funny sometimes and Noah Ringer for his first film wasn't too shabby.

I believe the film has potential.

 

[Lorenz]

It was said best as this: "Wow, this movie made Dragonball Evolution look like a masterpiece."

Really disappointed with this movie. M. Night Shamamamalaan took one of the greatest things America has given the entertainment world of our time and butchered it. I wasn't one of the people who got all pissed off about the white casting in an asian inspired world but when you have 3 whiteys randomly thrown into a world of all Asians and Indians it makes me say "wha......?"

Characters were horrible. Katara had one face the entire movie, the face that says she is constantly period cramping during the entire movie. Sokka at least got a scene where he got to say a full paragraph at around the end of the movie (which was more dialogue at one time any other character got), but instead of being a comic relief he came off as irritated at the entire world and put out that he was on this journey. Aang seems to have more of a problem facing the fact he hit puberty than Avatar issues. And I gotta ask, Katara and Sokka go along with Aang from the Southern Water Tribe village to the Southern Air Temple and they wait until they land there to ask his name? Really? And how the hell do you decide that this nameless person whom you just met and just got captured is your responsibility? Again....really? Zuko again got more depth (though not much) than any other character to follow the show's tradition of taking focus and character development for the main character away and putting it into a Vegeta-esque character. Iroh was the only character I liked, reason being that even though Shamalamamlan put the pages of the script into a shotgun, fired, and picked up the scraps to form the final draft, the actor still showed the audience that Iroh had a good head on his shoulders and genuinely cared for his nephew.

The entire movie was rushed. You get two lines of dialogue, a quick bending demo, then you're in a completely different location. Nothing is explained, characters don't get enough time to capture the attention of the audience, and unless you've watched the show you have no idea whats going on. I'll commend the movie for not having some of the lesser important bits of season 1 but also have to ask why the hell they threw in the Blue Spirit. What does the Blue Spirit do for the movie? Zhao already had a reason to want to kill Zuko. Zuko has been considered basically garbage by the Fire Nation and the way Zhao talks about him at the banquet he has no respect for him and would jump at the chance to jack him up. The Blue Spirit scene contributed nothing. Zhao could have had any number of other plot convenient reasons to kill Zuko, lord knows the rest of the movie had plenty of plot convenient BS.

This is how I would have done the movie:
-20-30 min block of the first two episodes, basically introducing who the main 3 good guys are and what the Avatar does for the world.
-20-40 min block of that episode where Aang goes crazy at the temple and Zuko kicks Zhao's ass including bits of info from the episode where they explain Aang leaving his temple and the origin of Zuko's scar. You get the backstory to Aang and Zuko and the motivations of each character.
-20-30 min block where they go through the Earth Kingdom and helping the Earthicans (Futurama reference!!!). Get some cool bending scenes and a montage showing them actually doing something useful. Start with the invasion of Kyoshi they show up conveniently to save and montage references to Bumi and Haru and everyone else to make the fans say "yay!" You'd have to switch some events around but hey, its pretty much an alternate universe anyway.
-30-40 min block summarizing the Siege of the North. Keep Aang committing mass murder on the Fire Nation instead of lamely intimidating them and making them run like the French.
Roku is left out because for a summary of the first season I don't feel you need him. Sprinkle him into the second movie somewhere.

I will give the movie this though, I was more than satisfied when they bent the elements.

EDIT: And at the end where Aang is supposed to be all at one with himself being the Avatar and everyone bows down to lick his shoes why does he still look constipated and upset?

 

[NikLink]

dammit

I was looking forward to seeing this. But I just realized that someone like ShyamanlaksnahFDSH287O would never be able to capture Sokka's character.

If he does a second one he is going to completely ruin Toph. AND Azula.

 

[Phizzlax]

This movie was not as tragically horrible as I expected it to be.

That being said, Last Airbender was a worse movie experience for me than Eclipse.

I'm a 23 year old man and not a Twilight fan, to put into perspective how bad Airbender was (and how low my expectations were!)

 

[Lorenz]

This movie was not as tragically horrible as I expected it to be.

That being said, Last Airbender was a worse movie experience for me than Eclipse.

I'm a 23 year old man and not a Twilight fan, to put into perspective how bad Airbender was (and how low my expectations were!)

Damn, that's cold dude.....I've never seen the Twi-fuck movies but have read the books and I have had cataracts ever since. To put the Last Airbender below that is some cold blooded shit.

 

[PK Gaming]

I was checking Rotten Tomatoes daily for it's scoring of the movie. As an avid fan of the original cartoon, I wanted the movie to be a smash hit...


The movie was awful. Barely any 3D effects, AWFUL acting, butchering of the plot... good lord.

 

[Raverist]

So why is the thread title not 'The Last Shyalaman Movie' yet?

Now, I liked the actual shows, but the movie just made me shove lemons in my eyes.

 

[Lorenz]

So why is the thread title not 'The Last Shyalaman Movie' yet?

Because it won't be. Shamalan is already writing the script for the second movie. It's a preplanned trilogy that we'll have to suffer with.

 

[Mentlegen]

Because it won't be. Shamalan is already writing the script for the second movie. It's a preplanned trilogy that we'll have to suffer with.

Maybe he'll go the way of most quality game devs where he'll improve greatly in the second and third because he takes the criticism to heart.

then again, this is M. Night

 

[Arch]

We must kill Mr. Shamawhateverthehell


Before he completely ruins the respect and credibility of the Avatar series. >:

 

[Ninahaza]

WOW you guys are really ripping this movie/director apart. well i am a big fan of the cartoon series but even before all the adds and trailers, from the start i knew there was just no way this move [trilogy] was going anywhere. didnt matter who directs it just because....i mean think about it

if you have really seen all of the avatar books you will know that there is no way 3 movies are going to do the series justice, even if the actors were perfect, a better director and effects were done to perfection, unless each movie was maybe 4-5 hours long so they can truely capture the avatar cartoon series [or most of the kickass parts] and truely bring the characters out like Sokka [i mean cammon the cartoon momo had more character than the bs job M.night shamalallala did with the movie characters]. yeah i knew it was going to stink

 

[Glen]

i haven't seen this but i thought i'd chime in with regards to the shyamalan hate. he's very hit and miss, but some of his films are absolutely incredible, with unbreakable being a total masterpiece

 

[MrIndigo]

Apparently the biggest complaints are the "Whitewash" in casting and the blanding out of the story to little better than pulp fiction. I don't think the reviewers are just biased against Shyamalamamamalan, since if that was the case he wouldn't still be a big name in the field (and critics usually rate his movies positively, if not glowingly so).

I think he probably just dropped the ball here because he didn't really understand why the cartoon was so popular?


Also, preplanned trilogies are bullshit.

 

[Shy Glizzy]

What I fear the most is that it will turn of people who never saw the original show like the Diary of A Wimpy Kid did.

 

[Lorenz]

if you have really seen all of the avatar books you will know that there is no way 3 movies are going to do the series justice, even if the actors were perfect, a better director and effects were done to perfection, unless each movie was maybe 4-5 hours long so they can truely capture the avatar cartoon series [or most of the kickass parts] and truely bring the characters out like Sokka [i mean cammon the cartoon momo had more character than the bs job M.night shamalallala did with the movie characters]. yeah i knew it was going to stink

The cartoon Momo just showed up out of no where. One scene he isn't part of the group and the next he's following them for whatever reason.

@MrIndigo: There wasn't really a "whitewash", it was more like 3 random white people thrown into a world full of Asians and Indians. I have no problem with casting white people in an Asian inspired world, but its just the fact that there's only the three of them...just in there...

You had Katara, Aang, Sokka, Pakku was an old white guy, and Gran Gran had like one scene. But yeah if you were just a background extra you were Asian or Indian.

 

[Iamslow]

I'm not a real fan of this show, but I've seen nearly every episode because IT'S ON SO DAMN MUCH... and I'm just glad I'm not what with all the changes in the movie, I know I would have really hated that. It's a shame, especially because the show is pretty entertaining. I really thought the movie looked promising, but I guess I should have known better.

 

[Tsunami]

How much did the movie actually cover? The entire series or only a season?