The Last Airbender

[Spidey-Bat]

I'd like to see the number of theaters that drop it.

I'll probably see this when it comes out on Rifftrax. I'm curious as to just how bad it is.

 

[Apollo]

Will there be a 'User rating Poll' added to this thread?

 

[nightwing06]

M. Night Shyamalan's version of The Last Airbender,is the perfect example of one of my biggest problems with Hollywood and its adaptations of certain animated and comic book characters: Ignoring great source material and creating a version that is boring and goes nowhere.
When T.V producers try to tackle a comic book or animated character ,i give them a bit of room for error,because they have limited budgets,and the character is likely owned by four different companies,so there is not much you can do with the character.
Why Shyamalan decided to erase the mischievious and joyful personality of the main character Aang (Noah Ringer) and change the pronunciation of his name is beyond me.
He took so much away from this live action production which could have made it so charming and appealing.
It's an uneven film because the story is rushed and slow at the same time
Instead of letting things play out so we can connect with the characters ,one character
Katara(Nicola Peltz) narrates: This and that happened and we ended up here,this and that happened and they became close....man thats just lazy film making!!
So i ended up not caring about what happened to any of the characters.
Shyamalan even removed the fun banter between Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) and his uncle
Iroh(Shaun Toub) The acting is wooden and beyond bad .Patel is the only one that shows some type of emotion and even thats not saying much.I could write a book on how bad Aasif Mandvi is in this movie.
The only ones that deserve some type of praise on this production are the costume,set,and graphic designers.
Paramount should be sued for promoting this as a 3D film,only about 30 % of it is in 3D!!
If you're a fan of the show stay far away from this film,dont even watch the making of this film!!!
One last word on Shyamalan who i was a fan of and i have enjoyed 3 of his films,but when a director and writer can screw up something that has already been written and designed for him,you know he's officially lost it!!
Scale of 1-10 a 3

 

[night0205]

If anyone is reading this. Do not see this movie. As a fan, that holds Avatar The Last Airbender close to my heart, this adaption was the biggest disappointment of my life so far, and I expected it to be bad. I have never felt so violated. Do not make Book 2, do not watch this movie. Not because you'd be giving them money, but because you will have nightmares for years...

 

[louiebling$]

I still see the trailers and TV Spots and its so bizarre how the Actual film and Tv Spots/Trailers look like 2 different things..

 

[jakinj]

I agree. This movie wasn't good, but I don't think that the Tomatometer is an accurate representation of what's wrong with it. People look at the 9% it's got on there and they either subconciously or conciously look at it and assume that means that the movie itself is 91% bad. It's just a number, though. The vast majority of reviews have been negative, but how negative they are is entirely subjective. I gave the movie a bad review on Flixter, but I didn't go say anything like "this movie is pure punishment" or "there is absolutely nothing good about this movie at all." This movie had A LOT of good stuff going for it, but I couldn't give it a good review because the problems it had affected the experience in such a fundamental way. I decide whether a movie is good or bad based on whether or not what I liked outweighs what I didn't like. In this case, the structure of the film was broken and there was very little character development, which was enough to outweigh all the stuff that I thought was great.

If they did a good director's cut then the movie could be salvageable, but it's a shame that that's not what we got the first time. What could have been a great start for a new fantasy movie franchise ended up being a weak limp out of the starting gate. The source material deserved better, and the fans deserved better.

maybe im bitter because i waited in such a long line.. but I'd give it a 2% rating. So in essence, I agree.. the 8% is incorrect.

 

[TNC9852002]

2%...Pffft. That's nonsense.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

those are opening numbers.

lets see how this will do in 2 and 3 weeks

Its gonna drop. The fan reaction is awful and even many casual filmgoers hated the film.

a lot of movies bombed in holywood. a lot of movies underperformed in 2010.

i wonder if this movie underperforms if fans will think that because its a bad movie?

KickAss was a good movie but it didnt make a lot of movie. even for the promotion that they had. so what?

will fans again lie?

There were a lot of reasons why Kick-ass underpeformed.

- The fact it was a rated-R comic book hero film (Those all underpeformed)
- From the uninitiated the marketing campaign looks like it was marketed towards teens.

The only reason it didn't gross less was because of good word of mouth. It underperformed but it'll sell really well on DVDs.

I'm getting the feeling that Rotten Tomatoes is having a bigger impact now than 2 or 3 years ago too.

Think, when you look at wide-release films in the at 90% or above (only Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon this year only), those films tend to have consistently strong box office numbers that keeps it going for many weeks.

Meanwhile, some films that are fresh and that are in the 70s in terms of percentage haven't had the same luck.

- Splice (74%) Bombed
- Kick-ass (76%)underperformed slightly
- Iron Man 2 (73%) struggled to gross as much as the first (Iron Man 1 grossed at much as it did because of the good reception)


I'm not saying that its the only reason a film suceeds, but RT does play a role in terms of good or bad word of mouth and its a deciding factor in millions of filmgoers. The films just plain haven't been as good, and RT's helps distinguish the correlation between that and how much it grosses.

But of course, there are freaks of nature like Twilight and Transformers that will gross millions no matter how bad it is (even though I heard Eclipse wasn't as bad).

maybe im bitter because i waited in such a long line.. but I'd give it a 2% rating. So in essence, I agree.. the 8% is incorrect.

2% for you? God, that's Baby Geniuses, Master of Disguise, Speed 2, and Meet the Spartans range right there. Even Battlefield Earth has a better tomatometer rating (which is absurd).

 

[X Knight]

y'know....this whole name-pronunciation changing issue kinda reminds of the name Ariel from the Little Mermaid.

In the Little Mermaid, Ariel's name is pronounced "AIR-E-L." The only character who calls her "AH-RE-EL" is Sebastian the crab ( due to his accent ). However, everyone else calls her "AIR-E-L."

Now, from what I understand, the more "culturally correct" pronunciation would be Sebastian's "AH-RE-EL." HOWEVER, the "AIR-E-L" pronunciation is the one associated with the character's name Ariel.

That's the pronunciation fans are used to. It's the one that has been "ingrained" into our mind. When we see pictures of Ariel, we think "AIR-E-L." When we see the name Ariel, we commonly think "AIR-E-L" due to the popularity of the Little Mermaid.

So, while Sebastian's "AH-RE-EL" pronunciation might be more culturally correct, the character's name is pronounced "AIR-E-L," as THAT'S WHAT HER CREATORS DECIDED.

If someone decided to remake the Little Mermaid ( heaven forbid ), and decided to be more "culturally correct" and changed her name to "AH-RE-EL".....well....that prob wouldn't resonate too well with fans, because, to us, her name has been, and should be, pronounced "AIR-E-L."

Likewise, with the Last Airbender, Aang is not Ohng, Sokka is not Sohka, Iroh is not Eeroh, Avatar is not Ahvatar. While the pronunciations may not be "culturally correct," that's HOW THEY WERE PRONOUNCED IN THE SHOW. IT'S WHAT THE CREATORS OF THE SHOW DECIDED!

More importantly, the original pronunciations are what the fans are used to. It's whats ingrained into their minds after 3 seasons and 60 something episodes.

Are they culturally correct? perhaps not.

Did they really need to be changed? no......they didn't.

 

[TNC9852002]

2% for you? God, that's Baby Geniuses, Master of Disguise, Speed 2, and Meet the Spartans range right there. Even Battlefield Earth has a better tomatometer rating (which is absurd).

Yes...and this is the fallacy.

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

There's no irony there. Because if anything he should have changed the spellings to match the pronounciation of the names.

There is irony; The live-action film cast white people to play major roles, while also going the extra lengths to make sure their names are accurately Asian than the cartoon. Its probably not as enormously ironic as I initially thought, but there is a definite discordance that goes against the casting/name pronunciation.

Well I was one of the people who always saw their race as ambiguous. There were Asian influences but I never saw them as Asian. When I looked at them I honestly never thought about race. No one ever said they were Asian. I don't even think the writers for the show ever put in Shyamalan's mind that they were Asian. I doubt show's writers ever brought race up in their meetings with him.

Huh, that's a very different view, I confess I've never actually heard this one before. Not making fun of it of course, but the writers have stated several times what each nation was based on (eg. Fire Nation of Meiji Japan, Water tribe on Inuit etc) and the only hair colours are black and dark brown. The rituals, customs, look, mythology, martial arts, bending, costumes etc are all based on Asian history and principles, with little twists of course. The text is Chinese. I think its pretty widely accepted that the world was Asian given the absolutely enormous amount of influence taken from it (not literal Asia of course, its still a fantasy world), much more research than any other cartoon I can think of.

And while the cartoon is American, it certainly takes touches from anime, such as not following western principles of 'race identification' so much, which is why some people believe that Aang is white, though this just goes along with many different anime where the characters, despite being Japanese, would be thought by many westerners to be white due to disparities between western animation character design and Japanese.

Of course there is still the possibility that the cartoon took place in a world where western white people are deeply ingrained and part of Asian culture, but I personally think thats a reach of an argument and a very odd premise.

(For anyone else not following this convo, I'm not going all racebending or anything, I'm actually arguing the ethnicities of the characters as they are in the cartoon )

 

[CGHulk]

What the Last Airbender TV series has that the movie doesn't
http://gizmodo.com/5578799/what-the-last-airbender-tv-series-has-that-the-movie-doesnt

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/wp-content/uploads/medlrg74.jpg

 

[Rumpy Bulge Dubz]

yea, I can't really join in on this discussion nor judge it from the point of view of an already established fan of the series, being I've never seen the cartoon nor even heard of it before seeing the movie, so I wasn't familiar with the characters, story, or plot/concept beforehand. I actually didn't know there was a cartoon till my boy told me after the movie was over

going into this completley new to everything, yea, LOVED IT!!!! Can't wait for the DVD but I doubt we'll get the sequels if it's getting the opposite reaction


(and yes, I can see why it's getting ripped apart now. If it really was that vastly different from the source material, then it deserves the criticism it's recieving. DAMN F'NG GLAD I didn't know a thing about it before seeing the movie).

 

[Rumpy Bulge Dubz]

edit

 

[Antrax255]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8&playnext_from=TL&videos=NKAYfRVXckU hopefully this will clear up or atleast educate people on the truth.

 

[Timstuff]

If anyone is reading this. Do not see this movie. As a fan, that holds Avatar The Last Airbender close to my heart, this adaption was the biggest disappointment of my life so far, and I expected it to be bad. I have never felt so violated. Do not make Book 2, do not watch this movie. Not because you'd be giving them money, but because you will have nightmares for years...

Good grief. The movie was bad, but you make it sound like it was freaking Legend of Chun Li. The movie was disappointing and failed to do justice to the source material, but it's not like it made me want to go jump off a bridge afterwards. My reaction was "That was it? Weak." not "ZOOOMMMG M Night is a film terrorist and he destroyed my life!!!!!!"

 

[Neptune]

Wow, i can't believe the movie is that bad. I haven't seen it yet but all i hear is negative reactions. As a huge fan of the cartoon, i have to see this movie. Tellling other fans to boycot this movie won't help at all. No matter how bad it is, fans will still wanna see it.

 

[Timstuff]

Wow, i can't believe the movie is that bad. I haven't seen it yet but all i hear is negative reactions. As a huge fan of the cartoon, i have to see this movie. Tellling other fans to boycot this movie won't help at all. No matter how bad it is, fans will still wanna see it.

If you're a fan of the series there is a lot of stuff to like, if for no other reason than to experience the novelty of seeing moments from the cartoon in live action, which for the most part was well done. Doesn't change the fact that the movie's story has little character development, way too much exposition and narration, and is overall way too short, but overall the movie isn't terrible-- it's just bad.

If the movie was as bad as Dragonball Evolution as some people (falsly) claim it is, then Aang would be an 18 year old in the "semi-real world" and would be attending Avatar State University.

 

[Downhere]

Wow, i can't believe the movie is that bad. I haven't seen it yet but all i hear is negative reactions. As a huge fan of the cartoon, i have to see this movie. Tellling other fans to boycot this movie won't help at all. No matter how bad it is, fans will still wanna see it.

I wouldn't say for fans of the show to boycott the movie, but if you must see it just expect to be highly disappointed. There's a few things to like, the score and production design is pretty good and some of the visual effects are nice (although, mostly just average and lack any flair). But, other than that everything else is pretty much epic fail.

 

[Rumpy Bulge Dubz]

I will say this again, I am damn glad I was unaware of the cartoon before the seeing this movie. Helped me enjoy it that much more

and there's plenty of Sci Fi movie's that don't adapt the source material directly and end up great, good or decent. Hell, most Superhero films are that way

 

[Rumpy Bulge Dubz]

I'm going to say this again, I am damn glad I had no clue there was a cartoon out before seeing this movie, with no preconceived notions, it helped me enjoy the movie that much more.

 

[TNC9852002]

Like I mentioned--the movie isn't THAT bad, IMO. I gave it a 6.5/10 because there were a lot of things that I really really liked about the movie but they just couldn't make up for all of the sloppiness and lack of basic stuff that you'd expect from a movie adaptation taken seriously.

 

[Doctor Jones]

So how much footage was cut?

 

[dark_b]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8&playnext_from=TL&videos=NKAYfRVXckU hopefully this will clear up or atleast educate people on the truth.

what truth?

 

[mr. peasant]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8&playnext_from=TL&videos=NKAYfRVXckU hopefully this will clear up or atleast educate people on the truth.

The Anime characters =/= White people argument would hold a lot more water if this was Dragon Ball, Evangelion, etc. But in Avatar, White actors are clearly not replacing Asian characters. Let's explore it a bit more:

The ones that have been 'white washed', as 'race-focused people' might describe, are actually all from the Water Tribe; i.e. the ones inspired by Inuits (who are clearly not 'Asian').

As for Aang, he's a monk, in which the Air Nomads seem more to be a religion-based culture rather than an ethnic one. That means they can be from more than one ethnicity (which is reflected in the movie, what with Gyatso being played by a Black actor). To say otherwise would be to insist that Jews can only be Ashkenazi and that Buddhists must all be Indian (that's right, folks; Buddhism originated from India and not China).

The only obviously Asian-based factions (namely the Fire Nation, Kyoshi and the Earth Kingdom) have all been played by Asians. Moreover, aside from the Fire Nation, the remaining two have been predominantly of East Asian descent. As for the Fire Nation, the royal family is played by South Asians; who are not Caucasian.

As for the 'unfortunate implications' of having 'brown' people as villains, this is again an utter load of rubbish. They are a royal family. That means; if one of them is of a certain ethnic origin, chances are most of them will be. And if you look at their soldiers, you can see that they are of a mix of races (with White people amongst them). This, again, makes sense seeing as how the Fire Nation is an empire that has been expanding its territory over the last 100 years.