Tuesday, October 12, 2010
The Last Airbender Movie Review
The movie was fair. Big sigh. Where do I start? Well let's start at the sticking point that everyone has had with this movie. In case you missed it, a lot of noise has been made because Noah Ringer (Aang), Nicola Petlz (Katara) and Jackson Rathbone (Sokka) are White actors cast in the roles of Inuit and Asian characters.
While I didn't like the fact that they white washed 3 of the main characters it was not that much of a distraction, especially once they left the Southern Water Nation. The biggest problem with these actors is that they sucked. Their acting was the equivalent of kids reading bad book reports to a captive audience. While there may have been better actors of color out there, in their defense, it wasn't totally their fault. M. Night Shyamalan wrote, produced and directed it, so he's responsible.
However, considering that he took roughly 420 minutes worth of material and condensed it into 94 minutes gives him very little time to briefly touch on very complicated and sophisticated material. Granted it was great material, but he only had 94 minutes to present it.
I found the mispronunciation of Aang, Sokka and Iroh (mispronounced as Ong, Sukka and Earro respectively) unbelievablly distracting, especially as the whispers in the theater acknowledged the mispronunciation several times.
This was the equivalent of calling Bruce Wayne Brice Wong. In addition, his version of the material left no time for character building. Without character building how do we understand why they care for each other or get to the point where we care about the characters?
The fun, happy go lucky Aang was turned into a sour, drab 12 year old. Sokka's joking, ingenuity and protectiveness was turned into weird looks in close up with little meaning. The preachy, motherly Katara was just there, not really serving a purpose. Zuko, desperate to regain his honor so that he can return home as heir to the throne was somewhat empty.
Side note - actor Dev Patel is definitely an actor to watch. He took lousy material and made it look good. Also for the fans of the Kyoshi Warriors and Suki, they were totally cut. Uncle Iroh was very caring but he came off as a whiny woman and when we did get to see the dragon it was an empty scene. And finally while Commander Zhao came off as having testicals the size of watermelons his character also came off as totally confused and unsure.
The amazing martial arts (Tai Chi, Northern Shaolin, Hung Gar and Ba Gua Zhang) that the element bending of each nation is based on was weak and rare. Shyamalan decided that the firebenders actually needed fire to be present for them to fire bend then changed his mind in the end. Aang's airbending left much to be desired.
Katara didn't really need to learn waterbending, but still wasn't good at it. And while they did include Zuko as the Blue Spirit, the amazing firebending that he did in the series was left wanting (they did show him sparing and Dev Patel was good). Not to mention the imprisoned earthbenders that made no attempt to escape despite being surrounded by earth instead of metal. It also would have been nice to see more of Damon Gupton (Master Gyatso) but there wasn't time for that either.
'The Last Airbender' definitely has an extremely diverse cast but once again the 3 White main characters seemed oddly out of place (as did Master Gyatso being cast as a Black man, but not as much)
As for the action, well, if you've seen the trailers, you've seen the action.
If you thought the action you saw in the trailer was good, it was amazing on the big screen. While the special effects are great, I think more attention should have been paid to the way the bending actually worked in the series because the technology is definitely there to reproduce it.
I think Shyamalan and Paramount underestimated the following the original series had. The showing I attended had roughly about 50 people there and I only counted about 12 kids (the so-called target audience). The other 38 or so people were over 25, mostly middle aged and most came as couples, heads close together during various scenes. Adults and children alike were disappointed that such fantastic material could be so severely butchered.
In my opinion, 'The Last Airbender' should be just that, the last airbender - for now anyway. Maybe in 3 or 4 years they can release Avatar:The Last Airbender and make it 2 and a half hours, leaving time for character building, much better airbending, more martial arts(bending from the other nations), more action, more fun and a better understanding of the culture that the original series presented.
But for now, Book 2:Earth and Book 3:Fire should not be made. With the weak airbending that was presented, there is no way they could pull off the final fight scene that Book 3:Fire contains (which if you haven't seen it, is phenomenal). Also, the air ball that Aang rides was left out.
The sad truth is, it is completely impossible to present such complicated and sophisticated material in 94 minutes. If I hadn't been a fan of the series I would have thought it was the worst movie of the year. Only fans of the series can follow what is going on in the movie and we were left wanting. I understand why the reviews were as bad as they have been.
By: GeeGee
From MovieOnline.ca
While I didn't like the fact that they white washed 3 of the main characters it was not that much of a distraction, especially once they left the Southern Water Nation. The biggest problem with these actors is that they sucked. Their acting was the equivalent of kids reading bad book reports to a captive audience. While there may have been better actors of color out there, in their defense, it wasn't totally their fault. M. Night Shyamalan wrote, produced and directed it, so he's responsible.
However, considering that he took roughly 420 minutes worth of material and condensed it into 94 minutes gives him very little time to briefly touch on very complicated and sophisticated material. Granted it was great material, but he only had 94 minutes to present it.
I found the mispronunciation of Aang, Sokka and Iroh (mispronounced as Ong, Sukka and Earro respectively) unbelievablly distracting, especially as the whispers in the theater acknowledged the mispronunciation several times.
This was the equivalent of calling Bruce Wayne Brice Wong. In addition, his version of the material left no time for character building. Without character building how do we understand why they care for each other or get to the point where we care about the characters?
The fun, happy go lucky Aang was turned into a sour, drab 12 year old. Sokka's joking, ingenuity and protectiveness was turned into weird looks in close up with little meaning. The preachy, motherly Katara was just there, not really serving a purpose. Zuko, desperate to regain his honor so that he can return home as heir to the throne was somewhat empty.
Side note - actor Dev Patel is definitely an actor to watch. He took lousy material and made it look good. Also for the fans of the Kyoshi Warriors and Suki, they were totally cut. Uncle Iroh was very caring but he came off as a whiny woman and when we did get to see the dragon it was an empty scene. And finally while Commander Zhao came off as having testicals the size of watermelons his character also came off as totally confused and unsure.
The amazing martial arts (Tai Chi, Northern Shaolin, Hung Gar and Ba Gua Zhang) that the element bending of each nation is based on was weak and rare. Shyamalan decided that the firebenders actually needed fire to be present for them to fire bend then changed his mind in the end. Aang's airbending left much to be desired.
Katara didn't really need to learn waterbending, but still wasn't good at it. And while they did include Zuko as the Blue Spirit, the amazing firebending that he did in the series was left wanting (they did show him sparing and Dev Patel was good). Not to mention the imprisoned earthbenders that made no attempt to escape despite being surrounded by earth instead of metal. It also would have been nice to see more of Damon Gupton (Master Gyatso) but there wasn't time for that either.
'The Last Airbender' definitely has an extremely diverse cast but once again the 3 White main characters seemed oddly out of place (as did Master Gyatso being cast as a Black man, but not as much)
As for the action, well, if you've seen the trailers, you've seen the action.
If you thought the action you saw in the trailer was good, it was amazing on the big screen. While the special effects are great, I think more attention should have been paid to the way the bending actually worked in the series because the technology is definitely there to reproduce it.
I think Shyamalan and Paramount underestimated the following the original series had. The showing I attended had roughly about 50 people there and I only counted about 12 kids (the so-called target audience). The other 38 or so people were over 25, mostly middle aged and most came as couples, heads close together during various scenes. Adults and children alike were disappointed that such fantastic material could be so severely butchered.
In my opinion, 'The Last Airbender' should be just that, the last airbender - for now anyway. Maybe in 3 or 4 years they can release Avatar:The Last Airbender and make it 2 and a half hours, leaving time for character building, much better airbending, more martial arts(bending from the other nations), more action, more fun and a better understanding of the culture that the original series presented.
But for now, Book 2:Earth and Book 3:Fire should not be made. With the weak airbending that was presented, there is no way they could pull off the final fight scene that Book 3:Fire contains (which if you haven't seen it, is phenomenal). Also, the air ball that Aang rides was left out.
The sad truth is, it is completely impossible to present such complicated and sophisticated material in 94 minutes. If I hadn't been a fan of the series I would have thought it was the worst movie of the year. Only fans of the series can follow what is going on in the movie and we were left wanting. I understand why the reviews were as bad as they have been.
By: GeeGee
From MovieOnline.ca
The Last Airbender Review
From Amazon.com
The cartoon epic Avatar: The Last Airbender comes to the big screen as live-action special effects spectacular, with the title simplified to The Last Airbender. The movie is crammed with as much of the show's anime-influenced mythology as can fit: In a fantasy world, different tribes have influence over the elements of air, earth, fire, and water.
Only one person can manipulate all four--the Avatar, who is also a bridge between the terrestrial and spirit worlds, and who reincarnates throughout the centuries. But for a hundred years, the Avatar has disappeared--until Katara, a young waterbender, and her brother Sokka discover a young airbender, Aang, frozen under the southern ice.
Aang sets off to master the other elements so that he can counter the marauding Fire Nation, who have slain all other airbenders in their campaign to rule the world. Aang's journey and the titanic battles owe a significant debt to the Lord of the Rings trilogy--it's surprising that director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) hasn't made more of an effort to craft something more distinctive.
The only character who stands out is Prince Zuko (Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire), an exiled firebender who can only regain his place by his father's side if he can capture the Avatar. Everyone else is fairly bland--but this movie isn't about characters, it's about special effects, and lots of money and labor has been lavished on blasts of fire and water flying through the air.
Viewers unfamiliar with the cartoon are likely to be confused; some fans will be disappointed at how cramped the story has become, while others will enjoy the visual delights. --Bret Fetzer
The cartoon epic Avatar: The Last Airbender comes to the big screen as live-action special effects spectacular, with the title simplified to The Last Airbender. The movie is crammed with as much of the show's anime-influenced mythology as can fit: In a fantasy world, different tribes have influence over the elements of air, earth, fire, and water.
Only one person can manipulate all four--the Avatar, who is also a bridge between the terrestrial and spirit worlds, and who reincarnates throughout the centuries. But for a hundred years, the Avatar has disappeared--until Katara, a young waterbender, and her brother Sokka discover a young airbender, Aang, frozen under the southern ice.
Aang sets off to master the other elements so that he can counter the marauding Fire Nation, who have slain all other airbenders in their campaign to rule the world. Aang's journey and the titanic battles owe a significant debt to the Lord of the Rings trilogy--it's surprising that director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) hasn't made more of an effort to craft something more distinctive.
The only character who stands out is Prince Zuko (Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire), an exiled firebender who can only regain his place by his father's side if he can capture the Avatar. Everyone else is fairly bland--but this movie isn't about characters, it's about special effects, and lots of money and labor has been lavished on blasts of fire and water flying through the air.
Viewers unfamiliar with the cartoon are likely to be confused; some fans will be disappointed at how cramped the story has become, while others will enjoy the visual delights. --Bret Fetzer
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