Avatar: The Last Airbender, or oh dear god shyamalan is going to cock this up

[Luke5515]

So a few years back a cartoon came onto nick called Avatar the Last Airbender. I loved it. It was funny, it had an interesting plot, albeit it got sidetracked sometimes, and genuinely characters. By the time the series is over, and even before that, someone got it in their head that it would make a great movie. I disagree. Mostly because of M Night Shyamalan. I never really liked his work, even when he was still doing what was considered good work. I have the greatest fear that a once loved childhood cartoon is going to be piddled on and defaced.

Does anyone have an opinion or a prediction for Avatars end result?
Anyone have a directer or producer or writer who you believe inherently makes bad work?

 

[EboMan7x]

While I didn't particularly care for the anime, I still think this is an awful, AWFUL, AAAAAWFUL idea.

 

[Pimppeter2]

A little late to the party are we?

 

[A random person]

A little late to the party are we?

It's not out yet, so I'd say the party's still going on. Everyone's just drunk at this point.

On topic, the trailers look decent, but I'm not expecting much considering the recent history of the director and the fundamental problems with transitioning from animation to live action (not to mention some casting choices; Aang actually is white, but Sokka and Katara just confuse me).

 

[Marter]

I don't think it looks very good. These types of things rarely go well.

 

[Luke5515]

Also, there is the problems turning a story from a series that's many hours long into a 1-2 hour movie and trying to develop characters and plot. Same problem that game movies have.

 

[Thaius]

For one thing, Avatar is not anime. It is not. Seriously, people.

OT: It's going to freaking rule. I'm one to watch my hype, especially when dealing with what is, in my opinion, the greatest show ever made (in case you couldn't tell from my avatar). But despite his two most recent movies, Shyamalan has done some amazing films (The Sixth Sense is one of my all-time favorite films, and has one of film's greatest plot twists), and he really, really loves the show in this case. He is working directly side-by-side with the creators of the original show, and the result looks fantastic.

I've been keeping up with it like crazy. I already know the exact plot progression, some of the dialogue, and which characters and events will be making appearances. It is not exactly accurate to the story of the first season, but it is successfully compacted into a movie that does what the first movie has to do within its 2-hour time slot. It has turned out really well, in my opinion, and anyone who has seen the trailers knows that the effects are looking fantastic, for what it's worth.

I expect great things.

 

[Krion_Vark]

So a few years back a cartoon came onto nick called Avatar the Last Airbender. I loved it. It was funny, it had an interesting plot, albeit it got sidetracked sometimes, and genuinely characters. By the time the series is over, and even before that, someone got it in their head that it would make a great movie. I disagree. Mostly because of M Night Shyamalan. I never really liked his work, even when he was still doing what was considered good work. I have the greatest fear that a once loved childhood cartoon is going to be piddled on and defaced.

Does anyone have an opinion or a prediction for Avatars end result?
Anyone have a directer or producer or writer who you believe inherently makes bad work?

GO BUY THE DVDs OF THE SERIES (or at least the second one) there is a bonus disk where M NIGHT is interviewed and talks. I HIGHLY doubt that the creators would OK a movie that they thought wouldn't do the series Justice.

ALSO M NIGHT IS AN AMAZING DIRECTOR BUT A SHIT WRITER. Seriously watch the directorial parts of his movies and its amazing the writing genuinely mostly sucks and the internet now ruins most of his play twists but he is a great director.

*EDIT*
I am a HUGE Avatar: The Last Airbender fan. So far me and my friends who are also huge fans are actually happy with what they are showing in the trailers because it is showing things that definitely should not be left out of the movie.

 

[Xman490]

The movie will be what would happen if someone ate the show and barfed the strongest parts of it out while adding the powerful-smelling stomach acid called cinema. Exact same stuff, different medium.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I expect great things.

Oh good, I'm not the only one.

Yeah, so far, the only problem I'm foreseeing for myself is trying to get used to Noah Ringer's voice.

 

[Thaius]

I expect great things.

Oh good, I'm not the only one.

Yeah, so far, the only problem I'm foreseeing for myself is trying to get used to Noah Ringer's voice.

It is a bit different from Aang's in the show, but it's not annoying or anything. Getting used to stuff like that will be a constant thing, no doubt. Iroh's voice sounds very good, though, and if there's any voice they need to get right, it's his.

Also, I love that Momo is in it. Shyamalan briefly considered cutting him, but when his two daughters attacked him and refused to speak to him for a couple days he decided to keep him in. Seriously, true story. I love that he and his family love the show: that means a lot. Things like this are usually done to make more money: in this case there's actually passion behind it. There's a LOT of points in favor of the movie right there.

 

[Worgen]

well its turning an animated show into live action so it was doomed from the get go

 

[AlissaX70]

Sokka and Katara irritated me (whitewashing alert, for real). And I was frustrated that Zuko's scar wasn't prominent enough, or that his top knot-thing wasn't in the movie. The only casting choice I was remotely pleased with was Aang.

But quite honestly, The Last Airbender is just one of those things; I'm not going to like the movie that takes a light-hearted, well-written, humorous, fantastical, and action-packed cartoon and attempts to make it a "serious" action blockbuster. Indeed, it could poo bricks of cinematic gold and I would still hate it because it's not exactly how the original TV series portrayed the story, which I think is a legit feeling.

So I've come up with a solution: avoid the movie like the plague, thus I have no reason to *****

 

[sylraiana]

So, ok, I had an Avatar watching marathon a few weeks ago with a few buddies (we watched all the episodes in one weekend, it was fun.) And I've been a fan of the animated series from the very beginning.

And as has been said, I like the animated series, it's fun, it has a good plot for the more adult viewer and is actually pretty dark at times.

Now, what the movie is gonna be is in Live Action... Really, the last Live Action flick based on an animated series was Dragonball... And that one sucked regally.

And then there's the dear director... I mean, he's ok for horror, but this... Really...

And then, next point. Have you looked at the crew? Really, this has been a real good opportunity for M. to use some people with various backgrounds. The Watertribe nation is a bit on the dark tanned skintone side, Earthbenders are more Asian, Airbenders are quite caucasian and the Firenation is very, very Japanese (well, ok, I can't really judge this stuff, and I'm not that knowledgeable about the world, but you get my drift, also I'm not trying to offend anyone, so apologies for that right now.)

And what do they do? They basically Whitewash the entire crew... Except for... well... for the Firenation as far as I can judge from the current credits... They're all Indian(ish)!
Really, prince Zuko is played by someone who had a role in Slumdog Millionaire(?!) this is... I dunno...

It really promises to either be moderately interesting if you put the animated series aside or it's going to majorly suck.
I'll go and see it anyways, probably, because I just want to know...

Besides that. The character of Zuko in the series has this huge scar on his face. Guess what? Not much of that in Live Action (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm136154368/nm2353862), while it was a major part of the character... Well, we'll see what they do with that, maybe they just wanted to be more realistic about the kind of scars fire leaves...

Truth is, I just don't know what to think of it yet, but I'm fearing the worst...

 

[AgentBJ09]

So a few years back a cartoon came onto nick called Avatar the Last Airbender. I loved it. It was funny, it had an interesting plot, albeit it got sidetracked sometimes, and genuinely characters. By the time the series is over, and even before that, someone got it in their head that it would make a great movie. I disagree. Mostly because of M Night Shyamalan. I never really liked his work, even when he was still doing what was considered good work. I have the greatest fear that a once loved childhood cartoon is going to be piddled on and defaced.

Does anyone have an opinion or a prediction for Avatars end result?
Anyone have a directer or producer or writer who you believe inherently makes bad work?

Shyamalan

 

[AlissaX70]

... Now, what the movie is gonna be is in Live Action... Really, the last Live Action flick based on an animated series was Dragonball... And that one sucked regally.

Okay, let's all pretend like that one never, ever happened...


EDIT: Also, the nationalities in the Avatar world are largely mixed between Asian and Inuit (with the most distinct nationalities as Chinese [Fire Nation], Eastern Asian [Earth Kingdom], and Inuit {aka "Eskimos"} [Water Tribes]). The Air Nomads were more or less whatever. And while these nationalities seem prevalent in Avatar world, they're really more like general outlines for completely re-imagined populaces.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

I was never a fan of the show, but if it's anything like other big screen translations of tv shows, it's gonna suck hard, they all do.

Except for the first TMNT live-action movie. That fuckin' ruled your face with an iron shell, despite changing some of the main bits (like Splinter being a rat first instead of a man, though it's been years since I've read the comics, and I'm not sure, but I believe he was also a human first in that as well). I think that movie was the closest my prepubescent self came to achieving orgasm.

 

[DocBalance]

Anybody been watching the trailers? Because so far it's looking damn good. Don't count it out yet.