Movie Bob, I am very disappointed. I normally like your reviews: your taste normally lines up with mine (excepting GI Joe). This time, however, you were a little too hopeful. You didn't need to bash the hell out of it or anything, but the movie was awful and definitely not worth a shot. No one should be put through this movie. I should have asked for my money back after hearing the first two or three lines of dialog. It was horrible.
Escape to the Movies: The Last Airbender
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I got to say that this is the first "Movie Bob" related video I've seen and I'm upset with it. The Last Airbender had great effects but nothing in the world saves a movie from flat acting and poor transitions. I saw Eclipse the day before (as girls tend to like Twilight and force their boyfriends to go) and I have to say, that movie was better. At least heads were being ripped off and it had Ashley Greene.
Airbender was so poor on a lot of levels. The transitions really ruin the movie, along with poor scripts. For example, this part was actual dialog except the I can't remember everything to the first sentence.
*scene of good guys are shown now swapped over to the Fire Lord and General Zhao*
Fire Lord: "Are you calling my son a traitor?"
Zhao: "Yes."
*end scene, goes back to good guys*
It was a very pointless scene. I laughed out loud because of how horrible that was.
Airbender was so poor on a lot of levels. The transitions really ruin the movie, along with poor scripts. For example, this part was actual dialog except the I can't remember everything to the first sentence.
*scene of good guys are shown now swapped over to the Fire Lord and General Zhao*
Fire Lord: "Are you calling my son a traitor?"
Zhao: "Yes."
*end scene, goes back to good guys*
It was a very pointless scene. I laughed out loud because of how horrible that was.
I just finished watching Season 3's finale episode and I have yet to see someone named AIRO. Maybe you mean Iroh?Cosplay Horatio said:
*nit-pick powers off*
Apparently, the movie is so bad, it not only failed to make a profit (or at least even out the losses), some people called Dragonball Evolution a better movie than The Last Airbender. Which is a shame...
Right, Iroh...thanks for the correction. I agree seeing as Goku also used Air Bending to fight Piccolo.Abedeus said:
I was massively disappointed with the movie honestly. Its not the worst movie I've ever seen (Bloodrayne, alone in the dark, transformers 2) but it wasn't the least bit good. I mean i agree that they kept the basic plot, but they took out major plot elements that were actually crucial to the story, such as the Kiyoshi warriors(I think that's the spelling.) The acting wasn't very good either. The action scenes were also horrible. I adored the show, but i was massively disappointed with this movie. If i could give a bit of advice, if you liked the show you will most likely dislike the movie.
As a fan of the show, I completely agree with everything you've said, and you actually summed up my feelings of the movie better than I could. However, I recommend you give Moviebob a chance. I've seen almost all of his reviews so far, and pretty much every single one of them is brilliantly done. In fact, this is the only review I've ever wholeheartedly disagreed with, which is saying a lot considering he's a movie critic. M. Knight doesn't deserve another chance, but Moviebob does.Xalphin said:
i couldn't agree more on this.
they had so many things right in the movie. but at the same time. soooo many things wrong, the overall writing and transition..was just so un immersive and a massive "what..?", and you put it in perfect words, "reading its own manual", it took so long to get over the prologue to the whole damn thing that by the end the movie was just...that. the prologue.
although as you pointed it out it had so many things going for it.
overall, it left me optimistic, but with a bad taste in my mouth after watching it all.
they had so many things right in the movie. but at the same time. soooo many things wrong, the overall writing and transition..was just so un immersive and a massive "what..?", and you put it in perfect words, "reading its own manual", it took so long to get over the prologue to the whole damn thing that by the end the movie was just...that. the prologue.
although as you pointed it out it had so many things going for it.
overall, it left me optimistic, but with a bad taste in my mouth after watching it all.
I have to say I absolutey hated almost everything in this film. The acting was terrible, the script was awful and concisted mostly of exposition, and all the action was poorly choreographed and just BORING. Apart from those things however, the one thing that pissed me the most off about this film was M.Night's manhandling of the source material.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was without a doubt one of the best televison shows to come out of the last decade. Its combination of complex characters, clever writing, fantastic storytelling, and jawdropping animation set it apart from most kid shows. Not only is the cartoon completely devoid of these things M.Night also removed any sense of fun or humor the series thrived on.
I understand that you feel the need to feel sorry for the fact that because this movie probibley won't do very well in the coming weeks M.Night's directing days may be over. But the hard truth is that if a good director stops making good movies he should probibley stop before people forget his early excellence.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was without a doubt one of the best televison shows to come out of the last decade. Its combination of complex characters, clever writing, fantastic storytelling, and jawdropping animation set it apart from most kid shows. Not only is the cartoon completely devoid of these things M.Night also removed any sense of fun or humor the series thrived on.
I understand that you feel the need to feel sorry for the fact that because this movie probibley won't do very well in the coming weeks M.Night's directing days may be over. But the hard truth is that if a good director stops making good movies he should probibley stop before people forget his early excellence.
I don't really understand why you spent the first 30+ seconds of a five minute review apologizing for M. Night Shyamalan (SP?) and bemoaning what an impossible task he had. It was his own damned fault for promising he could condense the first season of Avatar into a 90 minute movie.
Let's not forget that he was also the writer, and one of the producers. Now I'll accept that he had no control over the length of the movie, and over how many movies were allowed in the contract, but he had at least two options available to him.
1: Rewrite the story so it will fit in a 90 minute move. Yeah, some of the fans would have been mad, but they can get over it. And really, would that have been any better than the rage this movie is causing now?
Most good film adaptations of books or other mediums with long stories do it by writing a different story that stays true to the spirit of the original. Look no further than any good superhero movie ever if you want an example.
2: Skip the exposition. Let's not kid around, this movie is aimed specifically at fans of the show. Fans who already know what's going on. They don't need all the explanations.
Let's not forget that he was also the writer, and one of the producers. Now I'll accept that he had no control over the length of the movie, and over how many movies were allowed in the contract, but he had at least two options available to him.
1: Rewrite the story so it will fit in a 90 minute move. Yeah, some of the fans would have been mad, but they can get over it. And really, would that have been any better than the rage this movie is causing now?
Most good film adaptations of books or other mediums with long stories do it by writing a different story that stays true to the spirit of the original. Look no further than any good superhero movie ever if you want an example.
2: Skip the exposition. Let's not kid around, this movie is aimed specifically at fans of the show. Fans who already know what's going on. They don't need all the explanations.
I can't believe all the people hung up on the racial issues. Get over it people. What is important is how badly the movie was done. Regardless of what race played what nation the actors were given nothing to work with and there was little to no character development. There's nothing to know about the characters because they are not given anytime to be the characters if you want to get on the Actors for not looking their parts then fine that is something examples :
Iroh : Series : Short kinda portly japanese/chinese feel Movie Tall Skinny almost viking look and feel. The actor tries to be Iroh but his lines give him no room to be Iroh.
Suki : series : Important aspect of character development for Sokka and Aang. Means for introducing Avatar Kushi(Aang's former life, yeah I know spelling it wrong) the fan girl that kicks sokka's ass. Movie : Nonexistent So how are we going to get around the Oppa kidnapping later in the series? Or is that going to get written out as well? How is she going to be around for helping get the kids into Ba Sing Say? I think the point is made
Aang : The most obvious everyone that has commented about this has mentioned it... in the series he's fun, he's conflicted, he's immature, and he's lovable/able to relate with. In the Movie he's Mature, brooding, Unlovable and completely with out soul(but the tattooing was done really cool).
I mentioned Katara in my other post see that post not going to repost here.
The point is this, we can not blame the Children or adult Actors for the jobs they did. They were given no character to be. There wasn't enough time to be the characters that they were portraying. Any chance they are given is kneecapped by exposition. Let's stop crying about what races played what nations. It doesn't matter. It is a small piece of what is wrong with the movie. If it was well written and executed I probably could have gotten behind the choices made.
M.Night Sham-a-lama-ding-dong Should be forced to go back and remake the movie out of his own pocket, and Do it right.
Iroh : Series : Short kinda portly japanese/chinese feel Movie Tall Skinny almost viking look and feel. The actor tries to be Iroh but his lines give him no room to be Iroh.
Suki : series : Important aspect of character development for Sokka and Aang. Means for introducing Avatar Kushi(Aang's former life, yeah I know spelling it wrong) the fan girl that kicks sokka's ass. Movie : Nonexistent So how are we going to get around the Oppa kidnapping later in the series? Or is that going to get written out as well? How is she going to be around for helping get the kids into Ba Sing Say? I think the point is made
Aang : The most obvious everyone that has commented about this has mentioned it... in the series he's fun, he's conflicted, he's immature, and he's lovable/able to relate with. In the Movie he's Mature, brooding, Unlovable and completely with out soul(but the tattooing was done really cool).
I mentioned Katara in my other post see that post not going to repost here.
The point is this, we can not blame the Children or adult Actors for the jobs they did. They were given no character to be. There wasn't enough time to be the characters that they were portraying. Any chance they are given is kneecapped by exposition. Let's stop crying about what races played what nations. It doesn't matter. It is a small piece of what is wrong with the movie. If it was well written and executed I probably could have gotten behind the choices made.
M.Night Sham-a-lama-ding-dong Should be forced to go back and remake the movie out of his own pocket, and Do it right.
The multitude of fantasy cultures in the setting's backdrop and primary cast was one of the many awesome things about it. Getting it wrong in the casting for the film was one of the many reasons the movie was bad. It wasn't the only reason, by far. It wasn't the biggest reason the movie sucked, either. But it is one more reason why the movie is such a massive failure, both as a stand alone product and (especially) as an adaptation of existing material.
People are hung up about it partially because people feel strongly about anything political, partially because people really identified with the main characters of this show, so getting something as basic as that so wrong is really grating, and partially because the race-fail aspect was one of the very early indications that we were in for a soulless cash-in production without any of the source material's life & spirit.
For the most part, we don't blame the child actors themselves. At least, I don't. They weren't the ones who white-washed the cast, that probably wasn't even Shyamalan. I myself don't even blame them for the wooden acting. Child actors especially require great directing - only an extremely rare few 'get it' naturally. And even great actor with a great director wouldn't have been able to do anything with that mess of a script.
I have no idea how this looked to someone who has never seen the series, but for me it was a big pile of shit and stickle bricks.
Don't get me wrong, what it did right was rare and beautiful, a glimpse of a much, much better film. But it just did so many things wrong. Weirdly wrong. Amateurish, even. Something that bears a far stronger resemblance to what would happen if you gave the people who made that weird Firefly fan film enough funding to buy Mars than if Christopher Nolan started making seriously bad directing decisions. About half of the movie plays like someone put together a clip show on youtube titled "Avatar Season One In 10 Seconds"- oddly jerky, with a vague feeling that what you're watching would make more sense in context, always cutting away before anything climactic or interesting happens in a somewhat arbitrary way. When the movie does recite nearly scene for scene for the show, it gets a whole lot better, and it seems to realize this. But there's simply not enough time in one movie to do that, and so a whole lot gets taken away. Events lose their significance; the revelation that Zuko was the Blue Demon is neither shocking nor particularly exciting as we had no base for how off-character this is for Zuko.
The costumes were really nice, though. I think maybe if the speakers had given out it would have made for a good movie.
PS: In this weak firebenders can only bend existing fires (torches, lanterns, wood fires etc.), which I found odd, stupid, and completely unnecessary. I suspect that this had something to do with trying to make the solar eclipse's importance more evident to those who've never seen the show, but in a movie this confusing it seems a bit arbitrary to dumb that part down when everything that should have been dumbed down was kept uncut or left unmentioned.
PPS: And before I forget, the casting was pretty weird too. Here you had whole villages of people who lived in pretty much an Inuit society, where all the extras look pretty native, but anyone important to (what I would hesitantly call) the plot is white as the driven snow. Aasif Manvi was good, though.
So, in conclusion: a lot of this movie just didn't make sense. The story, the characters, the cut-aways, the casting... but most of all, why it came out this way. Did NO ONE pre-read Shyamalan's script (including Shyamalan)? Good god, it was like Avatar as penned by Timmy, age 8. If you want to see it, don't. Just go watch the animated series again, I'm pretty sure it's an instant watch on Netflix.
Don't get me wrong, what it did right was rare and beautiful, a glimpse of a much, much better film. But it just did so many things wrong. Weirdly wrong. Amateurish, even. Something that bears a far stronger resemblance to what would happen if you gave the people who made that weird Firefly fan film enough funding to buy Mars than if Christopher Nolan started making seriously bad directing decisions. About half of the movie plays like someone put together a clip show on youtube titled "Avatar Season One In 10 Seconds"- oddly jerky, with a vague feeling that what you're watching would make more sense in context, always cutting away before anything climactic or interesting happens in a somewhat arbitrary way. When the movie does recite nearly scene for scene for the show, it gets a whole lot better, and it seems to realize this. But there's simply not enough time in one movie to do that, and so a whole lot gets taken away. Events lose their significance; the revelation that Zuko was the Blue Demon is neither shocking nor particularly exciting as we had no base for how off-character this is for Zuko.
The costumes were really nice, though. I think maybe if the speakers had given out it would have made for a good movie.
PS: In this weak firebenders can only bend existing fires (torches, lanterns, wood fires etc.), which I found odd, stupid, and completely unnecessary. I suspect that this had something to do with trying to make the solar eclipse's importance more evident to those who've never seen the show, but in a movie this confusing it seems a bit arbitrary to dumb that part down when everything that should have been dumbed down was kept uncut or left unmentioned.
PPS: And before I forget, the casting was pretty weird too. Here you had whole villages of people who lived in pretty much an Inuit society, where all the extras look pretty native, but anyone important to (what I would hesitantly call) the plot is white as the driven snow. Aasif Manvi was good, though.
So, in conclusion: a lot of this movie just didn't make sense. The story, the characters, the cut-aways, the casting... but most of all, why it came out this way. Did NO ONE pre-read Shyamalan's script (including Shyamalan)? Good god, it was like Avatar as penned by Timmy, age 8. If you want to see it, don't. Just go watch the animated series again, I'm pretty sure it's an instant watch on Netflix.
You can tell he did not watch the series.
If he did I think he would have tanked it a whole lot harder, S1 is the weakest season of the 3 (not saying its bad) and had the least story (Find Aang, Introduce the world, Go to the North Pole chased by zuko) and they still managed to mess it up.
If he did I think he would have tanked it a whole lot harder, S1 is the weakest season of the 3 (not saying its bad) and had the least story (Find Aang, Introduce the world, Go to the North Pole chased by zuko) and they still managed to mess it up.
mess it up is going to soft on this one i don't know if there is a actual saying for how bad this is.AlphaOmega said:
they left out Bomi, Jong Jong, and Jet the acting was horrible and so was the cast choice(why are they all Indian?), made the fire bending and earth bending just plain stupid(they shot fire from hands and feet in the show what that to hard for CG? and the earth bending was a pathetic joke) he just toke the beginning and ending of the season and through together a new middle not to mention this movie was way to short and probably should have been made into 2 parts to begin with, personally i think Michael Bay could of done a better job then this.