THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: Boro_Bandito on 10 Jul 2009, 19:03

Title: The Last Airbender
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 10 Jul 2009, 19:03
Right, there hasn't been a specific topic made for this yet except for a couple posts in the Michael Bay douche bag thread, one for and one against specifically. I myself am excited for this movie.

I never saw the Happening, and except for Signs every M. Night Shyamalan movie I've seen I liked, with Unbreakable being at the top of my favorites list. And while I only watched the show for about the first season of Avatar, I liked it a bunch and I've recently caught a few episodes from a more recent season which I feel is enough to call me a fan and say that I am cautiously optimistic about this film.

The link to the website and the trailer: http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com/
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: onewheelwizzard on 10 Jul 2009, 19:05
My best friend worked construction for the sets of this movie for a few months.  They paid him serious bank.  Apparently there was an ice castle involved.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 10 Jul 2009, 19:14
I love the show, almost fanatically, so I don't know how to feel about this movie.  One hand we have avatar, probably one of the best Nicktoons, or cartoons, in a long time.  On the other hand is Shyamalan, who's movies have progressively gotten worse and enjoys putting in twists.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: RallyMonkey on 13 Jul 2009, 13:15
I hope the only two M. Night movies you have seen were Unbreakable, Signs, and The Sixth Sense. Because The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening are all terrible. Every movie more terrible than the one before it.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 13 Jul 2009, 13:53
The Village definitely isn't my favorite movie, but its not terrible in my opinion, since we're both being highly subjective here. I actually really liked Lady in the Water. Haven't seen The Happening, not in any hurry to, though I think its somewhere on my Netflix queue. I know it received pretty much bad reviews all around so I'm not expecting anything good but I'll watch it anyway eventually.

For some reason I like his directing style, though I know it leaves a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. I also think that for him directing this movie is a lot different from anything he's used to dealing with, being a pure fantasy story being set in an entirely different world and timeline and whatnot and I think will be a lot different from any of his previous work. Whether this is a good or bad thing, hell I don't know. I think on the pro side of this it'll probably be hard to write any major twists into the story, and rather as my brother jokingly put it "The twist came before the movie's even out, with Shyamalan directing a movie based on a kid's cartoon. Twist!"
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: RallyMonkey on 14 Jul 2009, 00:28
You luckily missed out on the truly terrible one. When it comes to The Village and Lady in the Water, terrible is a fairly harsh word. Yet, it doesn't come close to describing how bad The Happening was, which has in turn tarnished all of his prior movies.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 14 Jul 2009, 00:36
Man, a movie can't tarnish prior movies unless it introduces something that changes the context previous events and characters must be viewed through, something which does not apply here since these movies are unrelated aside from having a common writer-director. The Happening is also not that bad of a movie if you go in expecting it to be sort of dumb and how could you not expect it to be dumb when it has such an awful title?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: FIXDIX on 14 Jul 2009, 00:52
The Happening, for me, was good in concept but was executed pretty fucking poorly. It's actually works a whole lot better if you only watch the first 20 mins and the last 5-10 mins, without all the bleh-bloo-blah of Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel it would be a pretty sweet short film.

The trailer looks awesome production and set wise. The thing that impressed me the most were the Fire Nation ships, those things look mint. There was a whole ton of controversary over casting pretty early on though, which is fair enough when you cast Jesse McCartney as Zuko.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Zingoleb on 14 Jul 2009, 02:26
I hope the only two M. Night movies you have seen were Unbreakable, Signs, and The Sixth Sense. Because The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening are all terrible. Every movie more terrible than the one before it.

Hey. Hey you.

Learn to count.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: KvP on 14 Jul 2009, 03:16
Man, a movie can't tarnish prior movies unless it introduces something that changes the context previous events and characters must be viewed through, something which does not apply here since these movies are unrelated aside from having a common writer-director. The Happening is also not that bad of a movie if you go in expecting it to be sort of dumb and how could you not expect it to be dumb when it has such an awful title?
One has to remember the intense hype that sprung up around Mr. Shyamalaman after Sixth Sense hit. He was touted as a rising star auteur, a master of taut thrillers in the vein of Spielberg at his best (people specifically noted Jaws and Duel, both of which hold up today) Then came another movie with third-act plot twist. Then another. Then another. By the time Lady in the Water came out Shimmelman was only really being defended as a good director and not a good writer. That film put Schoolmarm's rather massive ego on display, including himself in the narrative and including characters obviously modeled after his critics solely for the purposes of dooming them to violent ends.

Then The Happening came out, and I disagree with your assertion that it's not that bad of a movie. It's that bad. It's worse. It is transcendentally bad. And to make matters worse, beyond the curiously uninspired direction it was very recognizable as a Shambliss film. Except here all the things that were perceived as strengths were actually weaknesses. The tension-building was ridiculous, as the threat to the characters was ridiculous. More importantly, Shasta McNasty's terse and economical writing, once seen as an asset, was super fucking dumb ("There appears to be an event happening!"; "We've lost contact" "With whom?!" "(pause) With everyone!") He changed his PR course rather quickly after the movie's release, claiming it was always meant to be awful, but I don't believe him.

And ultimately that does reflect poorly on his prior work, because there's not much of a good reason to say that two movies with several common central elements and a shared visionary can be vastly different. You watch The Happening and recognize that the writing is the stuff of sucky urban legend. You watch the Sixth sense and it has a very similar writing style that is considered a strength in one film and a crippling injury in the other, and you begin to wonder if the other's acclaim was mainly a boon of circumstance, the first cut being the deepest and all that. To be sure The Sixth Sense is a greater film than The Happening. But could it be the case not that Shimmerlong didn't start strong and got weaker, as the conventional wisdom goes, but rather that he was always mediocre and simply spent all his capital over time and ultimately failed? How would we view The Happening differently had it come out before people were tired of Shamwow's schtick? Before they even knew who he was? What if Sixth Sense had been last? Wider context often informs the way we view things we enjoy - knowing the stories behind the making of "Rumours" or the Pop/Bowie/Reed Berlin Recordings enhances the experience of listening to them. Reading the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame makes watching the Disney version ridiculous and perhaps a little unsettling. Lots of people saw The Sixth Sense without knowing what a skilled hack the man behind it was. There are elements of film that are objective, but when we're talking about artists and their patterns, and when passing gestalt judgments, perspective is rather important. It's partly a philosophical dilemma - If I like a band's single and decide it's their best track only to discover that they have dozens of nearly-identical songs, couldn't I have possibly heard one of their other songs and decided it was the best? How can I be sure of my judgment?

I'm reminded of a story I read a long time ago. A writer at Slate was lavishing praise on the Aphex Twin for releasing a remix of Nine Inch Nails that the writer thought was a perfect parody of industrial music - It was all steam whistles and sheet metal percussion and minor-key, movie villain horns. To the writer, the remix was an example of Aphex Twin's talent for recognizing ridiculousness in music and coaxing the good out of it. However I knew something that the writer didn't - Aphex Twin didn't really intentionally make the remix. He was paid for it in advance and forgot about it until the deadline rolled around and the record company started calling. Not wanting to put such effort into something on a small time frame, he picked a tape off his shelf of unfinished / unreleased works, added some samples of the Nine Inch Nails song at the end, and sent it off as an official remix. That it came out the way it did was largely luck. Having known that, the awesomeness of the track (and I think it is very good) was lessened a great deal, because one wonders if the Aphex Twin puts a similar lack of effort into everything he does and if so, how much better his work would be if he applied himself. But the author didn't know that, and so the work was evidence of genius that was in reality just providence. Which one of us is right?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 14 Jul 2009, 09:38
I know that story and the bottom line here is that the track is still good. Such occurrences may change people's perception of the creator but when it is used to denigrate their successes it tends to say more about the degree to which people have their heads up their asses than anything. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is also a fairly dicey comparison since the differences between the film and the orginal story changed what happened pre-existing ideas and characters; that's outright begging for a comparison, particularly since Quasimodo is such a well known character. It doesn't help either that the Disney film was still in many ways an ugly story with ugly undercurrents; the ending likely would have still rang false even had it been an original creation. At least I thought so at any rate, and I know virtually nothing of the original tale.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 14 Jul 2009, 09:45
Also, yes, I realize that my post basically amounts to me claiming that an awful lot of critics have their heads up their asses. This is because I believe a lot of critics do in fact have their heads up their asses.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blyss on 14 Jul 2009, 10:14
I have high hopes for this, but I expect them to be dashed on the proverbial rocks....

Repeatedly...



Until dead.

 :-(
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: messeduplilkid on 14 Jul 2009, 11:57
Now... I don't want to sound racist..... Because I LOVE people. I really, REALLY do.... But I HAVE to throw this out there..




They're white.

THERE I said it!
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: JD on 20 Jul 2009, 05:20
(http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/aasif-mandvi-0209-lg.jpg)
This man is one of the big reasons I want to watch this movie.He play Admiral Zhao

P.S. They aren't all white
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: axerton on 20 Jul 2009, 06:05
my problem with this is the very medium it being put in. Live action may be cool, but the problem is that you have to use real actors, and when you take a kid and shave him and give him some tatts the result is not the overall happy go lucky friendly looking kid that aang was drawn as, more like an angry angsty preteen.

Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: JD on 20 Jul 2009, 06:36
The Trailer wasn't a happy thing, wait for another to come out. I agree that cartoon to live action doesn't usually pan out that well though.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 20 Jul 2009, 12:36
This man is one of the big reasons I want to watch this movie.He play Admiral Zhao

P.S. They aren't all white

I think most of the Water Tribe cast is white when in the series they had really dark skin
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Hat on 20 Jul 2009, 13:07
It is transcendentally bad

invoking the montoya principle on this clause right here
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Hat on 20 Jul 2009, 13:07
I do not think this word means what you think it means
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: axerton on 20 Jul 2009, 18:09
The Trailer wasn't a happy thing, wait for another to come out. I agree that cartoon to live action doesn't usually pan out that well though.

what I was more going off was this
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Last_airbender_cast.jpg/180px-Last_airbender_cast.jpg)
(no, yes, no, maybe)
and I mean really - if the cosplayers can pull it off, why can't the actors have the right hair styles.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: KvP on 20 Jul 2009, 20:17
I do not think this word means what you think it means
I simply meant to imply that The Happening was so awful as to reach a supernatural sort of awfulness. A purity of badness. As far as I'm aware it's a correct usage of the common definition of the term, though I'm sure there are other meanings.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 22 Jul 2009, 23:54
The small teaser trailer I saw showed absolutely nothing, that being said, I'm going to take a giant pass with this one.  M. Night seems like one of the weirdest choices for this film and it worries me that he's producing, writing and directing the thing.  I'm not sure which I'm iffiest about the most.  Maybe it's the fact that each of his scripts are full of holes when anyone examines them, maybe it's the fact that he's doing this because his kid loves the show, or maybe it's because he's making a genre of movie that is so incredibly different than anything he's done before. 

I should probably go download the show now, right? 

As for the actors compared to their cartoon counterparts: smiles, anyone?  And WOW are they all (except for Slumdog) completely not fitting in any way at all....especially Ang. 
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: JD on 16 May 2010, 09:43
So I saw this trailer before Iron Man 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egQ79OrYCs)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Dazed on 16 May 2010, 11:01
Yeah they pretty much all look white to me.

And The Village features some of the most pompous and horrific performances in recent memory. I can't comprehend anyone actually managing to enjoy it.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: JD on 16 May 2010, 13:16
I think Night just took one look at the characters and noticed how the fire nation guys are so damn pale. So he flipped the color of their skin around.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Tom on 16 May 2010, 14:04
Cartoons never/hardly ever transition well to live action.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 16 May 2010, 14:18
Well, that's in large part because cartoons so very rarely take themselves seriously on any level whatsoever. Compared to something like He-Man the Avatar cartoons were actually pretty character driven.

Anyway, yeah, the water tribe is so white they may as well have just casted Jens and gotten it over with.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 16 May 2010, 19:03
So I saw this trailer before Iron Man 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egQ79OrYCs)

Yay, first appearance of Appa.  Also, the Blue Spirit actually looks kind of cool.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: FIXDIX on 16 May 2010, 19:29
Isn't that this trailer? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joqQgyMbpAM)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 16 May 2010, 19:31
Wait, it looks like the same exact scene.  What the fuck, where is Appa in the first one?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: FIXDIX on 16 May 2010, 20:16
Miracles, recognize.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: kemon on 17 May 2010, 00:02
it looks pretty nifty.  gonna have to see it.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: LeeC on 18 May 2010, 06:19
looks like the water book, perhaps 2 more movies after this one?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Inlander on 18 May 2010, 06:25
I've gotta admit: every time I see this thread I think "airbender" is some strange new euphemism for homosexual.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: KharBevNor on 18 May 2010, 08:27
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/vaughanroderick/biggles.jpg)?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Inlander on 18 May 2010, 08:36
I must confess to being in a rather juvenile state of mind at the moment. On Sunday I saw West Side Story for the first time, and when Tony (played by the guy with the teeth) told Maria (played by Natalie Wood) that he'd come to see her at the dress shop she worked at at the end of the day, and she replied "When you come, come in the back door", god help me I couldn't help giggling.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 26 Jun 2010, 22:07
Oh look, it's Momo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxKIu_AdLCY)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: LTK on 27 Jun 2010, 07:50
So, judging from those trailers, are they going to cram every major event from the series into the movie? I'm not sure if that can turn out well.

Oh, and in 3D. Well, whooptee-doo.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: LeeC on 27 Jun 2010, 14:10
So, judging from those trailers, are they going to cram every major event from the series into the movie? I'm not sure if that can turn out well.

Oh, and in 3D. Well, whooptee-doo.
nah looks like just book 1, where they all meet and save the northern water tribe city.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 27 Jun 2010, 14:49
It is Book 1 and I really hope they have Koh in it.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: LTK on 27 Jun 2010, 15:41
I forget. Did book 1 also include the part where uh, spoiler alert, Aang gets captured then rescued by the blue spirit?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 27 Jun 2010, 17:28
Yep, you can see him in the trailer.

Here's the best screen shot I could find so far
(http://avatarthelastairbenderonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Blue-Spirit-The-Last-Airbender-Sighting.png)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: LTK on 28 Jun 2010, 15:47
Oh, I saw him, clearly even in one of the newer trailers, I just wasn't sure whether or not that happened in book 1. Well, I guess that's a good thing! Does that mean we're getting more Avatar movies after this one? That would be great. You know, if this one is any good.

This trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMoGFeMmhKA), 2:00.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: axerton on 29 Jun 2010, 04:36
Oh god the guy who plays Sokka appears to be a god awful actor with god awful dialogue to work with. Damn it I want to like this film.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 29 Jun 2010, 04:45
Well, we all just have to wait a few more days before the reviews start pouring in, wonder if it'll do better than Eclipse.  And that should be the big question of this week, are you more likely to check out this or Twilight, I for one will be checking out Twilight.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: knives on 29 Jun 2010, 19:43
Or take the third option and rewatch Toy Story 3 (or if you're in a cool city watch Winter's Bone)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 30 Jun 2010, 10:01
I don't mean to call you out, but why are you watching a movie based upon a terrible property that everyone knows will be bad instead of one based on an awesome property that might actually be kind of cool?  What I'm saying it please don't see Twilight, go watch something else.



Fuck man there is nothing else coming out this week worth mentioning, cept maybe some indie movie.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: KvP on 30 Jun 2010, 13:43
Oh wow, this might just end up killing M. Night Shyamalan's career outright. It was at 00% on Rotten Tomatoes until a guy from CinemaBlend gave a lukewarm-but-not-outright-negative review, bumping it up to 6% (it'll go up a little more when Armand White gets to gushing). Michael Phillips compares it to Lynch's Dune.

That might not necessarily mean complete disaster, but apparently it's not even fun, and the 3D is used exceptionally badly. Eclipse is going to clobber this thing.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 30 Jun 2010, 14:53
I don't mean to call you out, but why are you watching a movie based upon a terrible property that everyone knows will be bad instead of one based on an awesome property that might actually be kind of cool?  What I'm saying it please don't see Twilight, go watch something else.


I'm going to see Twilight because it's absolutely entertaining and me and a few friends going to see it wouldn't make a huge difference anyways.  Thing is going to make money.  Plus you get double the excitement if you see it really quickly, you get to see the godawful movie AND you get to see it in a theater FULL of twihards.  Serious entertainment.

The fact that this thing is getting clobbered by critics is sad unless you hope that people might instead go and try to find and watch the series.  I haven't been interested one bit in this adaptation since Shyamalan was announced for it: Signs, The Village, Lady In The Water, The Happening, how do you get excited when his name is attached to something anymore?  Just looking at his ratings for his last bunch of films is really disheartening. 
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Lines on 30 Jun 2010, 17:33
Well, we all just have to wait a few more days before the reviews start pouring in, wonder if it'll do better than Eclipse.  And that should be the big question of this week, are you more likely to check out this or Twilight, I for one will be checking out Twilight.

This is The Question for my friends and I this Saturday. I want to see both, but I want the twihard experience because it is SO FUNNY.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: scarred on 30 Jun 2010, 17:37
Yeah even Ebert's ripping this one apart, and he was favorable to The Happening.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: David_Dovey on 30 Jun 2010, 21:12
Ebert is seriously unimpressed (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100630/REVIEWS/100639999)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 30 Jun 2010, 21:29
I think it's more accurate to say that he didn't hate The Happening as much as everyone else did. I remember his review as basically weighing in as "Not exactly terrible," the film critic equivalent of casting a movie into limbo. I feel about it pretty much the same way. The Happening wasn't good, but it didn't make me feel like I had seen a benchmark bad movie. Then again, I have a hard time getting enthused about film in general and Shyamalan in particular, so maybe my expectations were just barely low enough.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: scarred on 30 Jun 2010, 21:31
I enjoyed The Happening inasmuch as I enjoy any schlocky B-horror movie. But it was pretty universally panned. And Last Airbender is getting worse reviews.

Ouch.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 30 Jun 2010, 22:38
I enjoyed The Happening inasmuch as I enjoy any schlocky B-horror movie.

It had some similarities to The Mist, as far as flaws go. Both films try and have their cake and eat it too in regards to tone, since the plots are balls out goofy and the characters are in too odd of a situation to give you any sort of real grounding. It creates some weird moments where a person could be forgiven for not being to tell if it's unintentional comedy or not, which is hella distracting for a lot of people. Distracted audiences aren't terribly likely to start giving a shit about your characters, which is kind of a problem given the endings of each film. I can totally see how an audience might leave either one feeling annoyed and jerked around, although I think the Mist fared a lot better overall in that regard.


But yeah, man, does Ebert hate him some Last Airbender. Not a good sign for me, since our tastes tend to align pretty closely, particularly in regards to visual style. It's pretty easy to get me invested in a special effects loaded scene as long as the actors really sell it, but that sounds like it's an issue with this one, and that REALLY tends to distract me. I can handle schlocky '80s action movie fight choreography better than I can handle a serious case of CGI-actor disconnect.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: LeeC on 01 Jul 2010, 10:35
wow, im hearing nothing good about this movie.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 01 Jul 2010, 10:58
With 71 reviews so far, only 4 of them are good...this could turn out to be the worst film of the year.  This is AMAZING and I'm completely and utterly surprised by this.  When I heard that he was making it I pretty much knew it was going to be horrible but this bad, I would never have guessed.  And I'm definitely going to check out Eclipse over this.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ozymandias on 01 Jul 2010, 14:29
 Charlie Jane Anders of io9's fantastic review (http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamalan-finally-made-a-comedy)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: knives on 01 Jul 2010, 14:40
With 71 reviews so far, only 4 of them are good...this could turn out to be the worst film of the year.  This is AMAZING and I'm completely and utterly surprised by this.  When I heard that he was making it I pretty much knew it was going to be horrible but this bad, I would never have guessed.  And I'm definitely going to check out Eclipse over this.
The funny thing about those four is how half-hearted they are. Even Hex managed a few, 'it's totally awesome in a bad way reviews.'
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 01 Jul 2010, 15:03
Wow.  I have found the SINGLE best review blurb for this movie, ever, ever.

Quote
Shyamalan has taken what could have been a big, flashy, generic Hollywood production and made it wholly his own.

This comes from Kevin N. Laforest.  He also loved Shrek 4, Cop Out, and Terminator Salvation.  He also said this about Brokeback Mountain

Quote
I love gay people and I love a lot of gay movies - just not this one.

Sometimes I love not just reading one contradictory review, but reading a whole bunch of other reviews by the same guy.  Reading Armond White's reviews has brought me hours of joy. Did you know that dude hated (500) Days of Summer, Up, Star Trek, The Dark Knight, Milk, In Bruges, There Will Be Blood, Gone Baby Gone....while giving awesome reviews to Jonah Hex, Clash of the Titans, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Dance Flick?  Oh good times. 
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ozymandias on 01 Jul 2010, 15:07
Armond White was the first and one of the only people to give Toy Story 3 a bad review.

He pretty much always just writes a review contrary to everyone else just because.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: beat mouse on 01 Jul 2010, 15:15
It does definitely give off that joker vibe. Before this movie came out my feelings toward it was "isn't that that kids cartoon, if so, i dont care." Then the trailer inspired a little bit of... something, maybe heartburn, but I would give it a boot if it were free, but based on the reception I will revert back to "isn't that an m night shamlaymlayn movie, if so, i don't care"
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 01 Jul 2010, 15:34
That's how I'm feeling.
"Oh god this looks terrible"
"The trailers are giving me some hope"
"Oh god the reviews for this say it's terrible"
Either way, I'm going to see this, maybe twice if my plan doesn't work out.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 01 Jul 2010, 18:05
I'm kinda sorry I jumped on the hopeful bandwagon by even starting this thread, given the reviews attached to the final product. I'll skip it in theaters and save it for netflix or something so at least I'm not spending 10 bucks on a ticket. Since I already saw Toy Story last weekend (and loved the ever loving love out of it), this probably means I'm going to see the Karate Kid this weekend instead, or just go watch Toy Story 3 again.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Heliphyneau on 01 Jul 2010, 20:54
Charlie Jane Anders of io9's fantastic review (http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamalan-finally-made-a-comedy)

That review had me cracking up when I read it this morning.  I'm gonna guess it's way better than the movie, which I will not be seeing.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 01 Jul 2010, 21:22
Hero's-Journey bukkake.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: McTaggart on 02 Jul 2010, 00:14
Charlie Jane Anders of io9's fantastic review (http://io9.com/5576076/m-night-shyamalan-finally-made-a-comedy)

This review, read sincerely, roughly sums up how I feel about Batman and Robin. Maybe I will watch this when it is on TV.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: KvP on 02 Jul 2010, 11:47
It's pretty much the right way to approach Starship Troopers.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: knives on 02 Jul 2010, 13:09
Or Douglas Sirk.
Really that's the only way to enjoy most of these sorts of films.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: rynne on 02 Jul 2010, 14:01
It's pretty much the right way to approach Starship Troopers.

That was pretty much Verhoeven's point, right?  That all the pro-war cliches stuffed into action flicks are actually pretty vile?

Whereas M. Night's just throwing himself a massive pity party (http://movies.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jul/02/slide-show-1-interview-with-m-night-shyamalan.htm): "You know what I don't know what the disconnect is ... I'm speaking a different language I guess."
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 02 Jul 2010, 16:57
I feel sorta bad for the actors. I get that learning to deal with failure is a life lesson and all that crap, but I doubt 12 year old me would have handled this very well. Hell, I probably wouldn't handle it well now.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 02 Jul 2010, 17:16
I've heard that Jake Lloyd pretty much hates his entire involvement with that horrible movie and that kids still make fun of him for it.  I saw an interview with him a while ago and he seemed REALLY bitter about the whole experience.  I wonder if "Aang" is going to feel the same way years down the road or if The Last Airbender is going to tank so badly that no one will even remember.  My guess is no one will remember it in five years, unless it does well enough for them to continue.

Also, if this film does really badly, will it help spell the way for the death of 3-D?  I certainly hope so.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 02 Jul 2010, 17:17
Don't be silly. They charge more for tickets for 3d. It's here to stay.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 02 Jul 2010, 17:49
Yeah, but how much does it cost to turn a movie into 3-D?  If enough of these films flop the amount it costs to invest in the 3-D will be sacrificed....won't it?  If enough people stop paying to see these stupid 3-D conversions it has to stop, right? 

Hollywood is already saying that people are starting to get sequel fatigue and are considering not making so many sequels/prequels because people are starting to get sick of them and the box office numbers aren't AS high as they expected them to be.  At what point will they decide that people have 3-D fatigue and decide to stop this rather annoying trend?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Emaline on 02 Jul 2010, 19:03
Ummm.....Have you not seen Toy Story 3 yet? Or that perfect for 3d short at the beginning? Because Until you have, I don't think you can really continue to shit on 3d.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 02 Jul 2010, 19:58
I am fine if the film is filmed in 3-D but the problem is with the post-filming conversions that a lot of films seem to be jumping on.  Clash of the Titans, Alice In Wonderland, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, This.  Consider that there's only been two or three films that have good 3-D and a huge amount that are coming out that have terrible 3-D that makes things dark and muddled and blurry and I think that I have a good reason to say that that the 3-D they've been using is total garbage. 

When they start filming films initially in 3-D I might be more forgiving about it, but those films aren't coming out for a little while.  Personally though, I really don't like 3-D and will continue seeing films only in 2-D. 
 
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: David_Dovey on 02 Jul 2010, 22:27
Yes, this may (MAY) spell the end for fake, post-production 3-D but it's a goddamned fool's errand to think that they're gonna stop putting out 3-D films that were actually conceived as being 3-D from the get-go
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 02 Jul 2010, 23:08
Yeah, it's too damn useful as a trojan horse for raising ticket prices, if nothing else. I doubt we'll see the day where every film is in 3d any time soon, but when I heard that Men in Black was going to be in 3d, it hit me as one of the least surprising announcements ever. You don't need a big percentage of the audience to pay the extra 3 bucks to get your money back on producing the film in 3d when you're talking about a Will Smith vehicle.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Inlander on 02 Jul 2010, 23:40
What will kill 3D is when audiences figure out that they're paying more money for a lesser cinematic experience. The glasses are uncomfortable, the images on screen are darkened and muddied by wearing the glasses and if you get sick of it and try to watch the movie without the 3D glasses you just get a slightly fuzzy image with the colours separated at the edges, and the 3D effects while eye-catching at times are not so much 3D as a slightly disoncerting layering of 2D images akin to a pop-up book. Directors, meanwhile, at least those who are passionate about their films, will I suspect start to shy away from 3D because, apart from all the points I just mentioned, watching a film in 3D actually distracts and distances the viewer from the movie itself, which no director wants.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: KvP on 02 Jul 2010, 23:50
There's also a problem with 3D in terms of color vibrancy, which was one of the main knocks against Other Avatar. Although they're probably working on ways to get around that.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: J on 03 Jul 2010, 01:09
3d is just a tool, it takes some practice to learn how to use it right, and the first few attempts are always going to be abit clumsy. eventually things will get better i think, directors will learn when to be bold and when to be subtle, and the tech will improve. once it becomes standard curriculum in film schools, then we will see some interesting shit. remember that it took a while for anyone to take color films seriously too.


as to the movie, it's a bummer, i hoped it would be good, and i still kind of like night. i think he really tries. unbreakable was my favorite of his, the village was ok, signs was exceptionally well made even though it was fundamentally flawed (i'd like to blame mel gibson for that, but who knows), never saw the happening, and i actually really liked lady in the water, even if he did cast himself as jesus and attempt to insult all his critics (the critic was by far the best character though, so ha). if he wants to pick up his career, i think he'd best go back to his roots and give us some suspense, because above all else, the man knows how to create atmosphere and tension.


i've been thinking about it though, and to some extent, i suspect that the biggest problem is that this was just an unnecessary film. the story has allready been told well and beautifully, so what is to be gained from telling it again with actors instead of drawings? it has to be a fairly condensed version of the story at that, so why do it (other than the obviou$ of cour$e)? a better approach i think would have been to tell a new story within the same continuity, either a sequel with the characters having a new adventure (perhaps tying up a loose plot thread or two) or to do a prequel with a previous avatar.

but then again, i haven't seen the movie, so that is all purely theoretical.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Be My Head on 03 Jul 2010, 12:07
*can't wait for the rifftrax version*

This might be so bad it's funny material.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ozymandias on 03 Jul 2010, 12:15
Based on the reviews, I'm not optimistic it's even worth it for that.

It just sounds deeply boring instead of laughably bad.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 03 Jul 2010, 13:43
Yeah, the only nice thing I've heard anyone say about the movie was in regards to the guy who plays Uncle Iroh, who I guess wasn't completely terrible. Figures, since Uncle Iroh was a fan favorite for a reason.

Gah, this whole thing bums me out.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: rynne on 04 Jul 2010, 04:36
What will kill 3D is when audiences figure out that they're paying more money for a lesser cinematic experience. The glasses are uncomfortable, the images on screen are darkened and muddied by wearing the glasses and if you get sick of it and try to watch the movie without the 3D glasses you just get a slightly fuzzy image with the colours separated at the edges, and the 3D effects while eye-catching at times are not so much 3D as a slightly disoncerting layering of 2D images akin to a pop-up book. Directors, meanwhile, at least those who are passionate about their films, will I suspect start to shy away from 3D because, apart from all the points I just mentioned, watching a film in 3D actually distracts and distances the viewer from the movie itself, which no director wants.

Not to mention the glasses are disease-ridden (http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-testing/consumer-advocacy/3d-glasses-investigation). 
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: LTK on 04 Jul 2010, 08:09
Well, that's no surprise really, when it comes into contact with multiple people every day. When I went to see Up! I got an alcohol wipe to clean the glasses with, so they do take it into consideration.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: KvP on 04 Jul 2010, 15:31
Turns out people are stupid! (http://gawker.com/5579461/despite-being-crap-m-night-shyamalans-new-movie-is-making-lots-of-money)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ikrik on 04 Jul 2010, 16:55
That is really, really surprising. When a movie is at 8% and has horrible word of mouth don't people listen anymore?  I was kind of hoping this movie was going to pull a Jonah Hex and end up at like number 5 or 6.  I'm interested now to see how quickly it'll drop next week. 

Somehow I think they might just end up making those other two films.  Yay for two more Last Airbender movies?
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Jimmy the Squid on 05 Jul 2010, 06:54
Not to mention the glasses are disease-ridden (http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-testing/consumer-advocacy/3d-glasses-investigation). 

The cinemas here give you individually wrapped 3D glasses. In fact if you show up having kept the last pair you were given they give you a discount on the tickets. Also the 3D glasses at the IMAX here are given to you out of a massive portable dishwasher/steam cleaner thing. They're still slightly warm when you are given them!
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Bearer on 05 Jul 2010, 13:18
I've always been a big fan of Moviebob's reviews, and this one is definitely a very fair one:
http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2010/07/escape-to-movies-last-airbender.html (http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2010/07/escape-to-movies-last-airbender.html)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 05 Jul 2010, 19:06
I'm not one to agree with critics, but holy fuck this movie was terrible.  Everything about it was terrible.

Vanity Fair has your back (http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/07/25-questions-you-may-have-about-the-last-airbender.html)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Johnny C on 06 Jul 2010, 01:05
i haven't seen this movie but someone said this is an actual exchange:

Princess: "It's been nice spending these last few weeks with you."
Love interest: "Me too."
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Ozymandias on 06 Jul 2010, 10:05
To be honest, that sounds like something Sokka would say in the cartoon, just because he's a buffoon. If they played that line straight like he meant to say that, then that's pretty lame though.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Alex C on 06 Jul 2010, 12:03
I could see how he'd come across as just plain old awkward and bewildering if this film is as devoid of character development as reviewers keep saying it is. Sokka is relentless with his buffoonery in the cartoon, after all. Even as he develops into a solid contributor and unconventional thinker he never really relinquishes his comic relief role. I can't imagine Shyamalan writing for a character like that, to be honest.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Blue Kitty on 06 Jul 2010, 12:39
Another reason not to see it
(http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/8861/earthbending.gif)

Every bending technique requires them to do a complex set of moves to do the easiest things.
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: David_Dovey on 07 Jul 2010, 02:44
(http://i.imgur.com/zhhDQ.jpg)
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: Runner4406pack on 12 Jul 2010, 21:19
few words of advice, if you are a fan of the series it is visually stunning as a movie! remarkably so! on the downside it was too rushed and unexciting to capture any audience that couldn't fill the unexplained gaps with prior knowledge, there were so many details and actions that needed to happen in order to feel for the characters and make sense of the movie!
Title: Re: The Last Airbender
Post by: october1983 on 13 Aug 2010, 05:44
The English language can be a treacherous and slippery thing... (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/12/the-last-airbender)