| superSokka wrote: | ||||
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Agree!
Nickelodeon (ended 2008)
| superSokka wrote: | ||||
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So lets get into the review of The Last Airbender...
Beware of the below spoilers...
So I have to agree with what I read so far from the Internet. The story was extremely choppy. To sum up the episodes they covered, here is a list in order. Boy In The Iceberg, The Avatar Returns, Southern Air Temple, Imprisoned, Blue Spirit, Waterbending Master, and Siege of the North. Those are the major parts to make up the storyline. However, each episode was was covered in an average of 13 minutes. Some other episodes had about a minute of an appearance. So everything felt very rushed!
Now the story went like this: Soaka and Katara find Ong. Zuko and Earo come to the village and take Ong away. While on Zuko's boat, Earo pulls out a piece of the other 3 elements to see if they react to Ong. Sort of testing if he is the Avatar. After passing the test, Ong cleverly escapes. They fly to Southern Air Temple. Ong gets Momo, and gets mad because he sees the Gyatso was killed. Avatar State... Next they save a small Earth bending village by convincing them that the dirt under their feet can be used as a weapon... (Duh) So the villagers give Katara a waterbending scroll. They travel around saving other towns and Ong struggles with learning waterbending (Which did not happen in the show.) So next Ong felt the need to go to the Northern Air temple to see if he can connect again in the spirit world with Roku's dragon (Yeah Avatar Roku was not in this movie at all...) At the temple, General Zhao has a good trap to where they capture Ong. They hold Ong at the air temple and Zuko saves him. Ozai orders Zhao to kill the Moon Spirit. So everyone ends up going to the Northern Watertribe. Ong learns his waterbending there and so does Katara. Everything at the water tribe goes similar to the show, but Ong doesn't merge with the Ocean Spirit to destroy the fire navy. Also Ong and Zuko get into a big fist fight. That's right, not much bending... Also the firebenders need an available source of fire in order to bend.
So what major plot line has been changed? Sozin's comet comes into play at the end of the movie when Ozai tells Azula to delay the Avatar's learning of the other elements for 3 years... (You read that right!) So instead of the comet coming in the following Summer, it is 3 years away... I guess M Night did that because if he is going to make the other 2 movies, then he needs to allot time since the kid playing Ong is going to be going through puberty. Also the comet will just give the fire benders the ability to throw fire without a source. Which in the show the source of the firebending is the sun. They get their power from the sun. They summon fire from the sun. Very weird. So I am guess that the whole Solar Eclipse isn't going to make a part in the trilogy...
Overall, if I had to rank this movie from 1-10, (10 being the highest) I would give it a 4.
Here is the points loss:
-1 for the bad writing
-1 for the bad acting
-1 for changing the names
-1 for making the movie only an 1.5 hours
-1 for not making Appa and Momo bigger roles
-1 for crapping the bending (Meaning too much movement done to make it work)
Total: -6
Here are the point gains:
+1 Noah Ringer makes a good Aang
+1 Pretty good CG for the the bending
+1 Great job on the scenery
+1 The creation of Appa and Momo
Total: +4
Finally, I will say one thing that I probably would change and that is the fire nation actors. Not being racist or anything so please don't flame me, but I think they would have been better played by Asian actors. Even some of the other roles in the movie might have been better played by Asians. Some things felt out of place for some reason. The names bothered me a bit, but what bothered me the most is the lacking of enthusiasm from some of the scenes. I also don't like that they took out the fire bending source (the sun factor) because that shows what they would do with the 3rd movie. I.e. no Day of Black Sun...
| mechtrogdor wrote: |
| I do not watch this movie to destroy my love for the show, so I will never watch it. |
| edmasterchaos wrote: |
| Bad movie was... not so bad, you've gotta ignore all your "That's not how it should work!" thoughts, but otherwise, it's an okay thing that supports avatar, so that's good enough for money wasting. IMO. |
| tico1125 wrote: | ||
|
I thought it was horrible. I can live with the cast and the acting but just the fact that from a narrative stand point it was just completely hard to follow. AND Shama-whatever's decision to talk about spirits governing over the earth was the most confusing thing i've ever heard!!!
And also his decision to change the fire benders from being able to create fire rather than manipulate was absolutely ridicules because when they invaded the north all the watertribe warriors had to do was put out any available fire that was present and they could easily win.
A huge and complete flaw in the story just horrible and also not introducing the Kyoshi Warriors was dumb since they play a pivotal role in the series especially with sokka. Horrible horrible horrible. NO company should let shamalyan direct ever again. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!
| SokkaAppa wrote: |
I thought it was horrible. I can live with the cast and the acting but just the fact that from a narrative stand point it was just completely hard to follow. AND Shama-whatever's decision to talk about spirits governing over the earth was the most confusing thing i've ever heard!!! And also his decision to change the fire benders from being able to create fire rather than manipulate was absolutely ridicules because when they invaded the north all the watertribe warriors had to do was put out any available fire that was present and they could easily win. A huge and complete flaw in the story just horrible and also not introducing the Kyoshi Warriors was dumb since they play a pivotal role in the series especially with sokka. Horrible horrible horrible. NO company should let shamalyan direct ever again. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!! |
I agree that M. Night should not be allowed to direct. If they are going to run with 2 more movies, then they should let Bryan and Mike do the writing and get someone like Peter Jackson to direct. Get a real director that will carry the vision of the show. What I am afraid is that the next movie will not properly cover Toph and the Earth bending lessons. I am even betting that they will cut Ba Sing Se. Think about it. They killed a major point in the story. Firebenders get their power from the Sun. They make fire without a source because of the sun. Hence the plot line of the solar eclipse. Well if they don't need the sun to make fire, then what would be the point to have a solar eclipse. No point to running to Ba Sing Se to tell the Earth King of a coming solar eclipse. In one sense they can continue with it similar to the way the moon helps waterbenders, but then it would make little sense.
Another thing that is going to be strange is how they will handle lightning. Think about it. If they can't even conjure up their own fire without a source, then how are they going to conjure lightning for Azula? In the reveal that Nickelodeon played last week before the movie came out, M. Knight said that he made it so firebenders needed a source. He did it because he didn't understand how they could make fire... That is somewhat of what he said right? So this next quote from Iroh in the Boy in the Iceberg episode, "Iroh: No! Power in firebending comes from the breath. Not the muscles. The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire." So where is the confusion mister director?>
I seriously think he watched maybe 5 episodes in the middle of Season 1 and decided to make the movie without watching anymore.
| tico1125 wrote: | ||
I agree that M. Night should not be allowed to direct. If they are going to run with 2 more movies, then they should let Bryan and Mike do the writing and get someone like Peter Jackson to direct. Get a real director that will carry the vision of the show. What I am afraid is that the next movie will not properly cover Toph and the Earth bending lessons. I am even betting that they will cut Ba Sing Se. Think about it. They killed a major point in the story. Firebenders get their power from the Sun. They make fire without a source because of the sun. Hence the plot line of the solar eclipse. Well if they don't need the sun to make fire, then what would be the point to have a solar eclipse. No point to running to Ba Sing Se to tell the Earth King of a coming solar eclipse. In one sense they can continue with it similar to the way the moon helps waterbenders, but then it would make little sense. Another thing that is going to be strange is how they will handle lightning. Think about it. If they can't even conjure up their own fire without a source, then how are they going to conjure lightning for Azula? In the reveal that Nickelodeon played last week before the movie came out, M. Knight said that he made it so firebenders needed a source. He did it because he didn't understand how they could make fire... That is somewhat of what he said right? So this next quote from Iroh in the Boy in the Iceberg episode, "Iroh: No! Power in firebending comes from the breath. Not the muscles. The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire." So where is the confusion mister director?>
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| shadowclone7290 wrote: |
| I've seen all three of these movies and Avatar the last Airbender was WAY better the DBE and Eragon both of those movies caused mass fan suicide around the world this movies had some problems but we still have two more movies and hopefully it should get better with age... let's hope |
Well, at least with DBE people knew it was going to be terrible. Even the trailers and commercials weren't covering up the fact that this was not going to be a faithful adaptation. For me, I enjoyed it better than Avatar because at least with DBE you could consistently laugh at how bad it was. In fact, I think there are some good rifftrax available for it. With Avatar, all the trailers and commercials took the only good scenes from the movie and pasted them together, making it feel like some epic/amazing movie. It reminds me of another movie that ticked me off with their clever marketing tricks, The Bridge of Terabithia (sp.), which made it out to be like another Narnia movie when in reality it turned out that all the fighting scenes, the two of them that existed, were already in the commercials and the rest of the movie was a boring and severely depressing experience. Avatar was bad, but there were only a few things that were so bad that they were funny, the rest of the movie was boring, erratic, and confusing.
| tico1125 wrote: |
What I am afraid is that the next movie will not properly cover Toph and the Earth bending lessons. I am even betting that they will cut Ba Sing Se. Think about it. They killed a major point in the story. Firebenders get their power from the Sun. They make fire without a source because of the sun. Hence the plot line of the solar eclipse. Well if they don't need the sun to make fire, then what would be the point to have a solar eclipse. No point to running to Ba Sing Se to tell the Earth King of a coming solar eclipse. In one sense they can continue with it similar to the way the moon helps waterbenders, but then it would make little sense. |
True, but I'm thinking that they will still address it since the master of foreshadowing (and by master of foreshadowing I mean someone who has the villain mention the Ancient Library almost every time he has a scene) alluded to the Ancient Library, so I'm thinking they will still visit it and learn something useful. My guess is that it will be the same as with the waterbenders as you pointed out. The Eclipse will probably negate their ability to bend the existing fire, which is pretty much the same thing, but he still should have addressed it anyways.
Ok all, here is the contact page I used to put in the complaint. Viacom is the parent company. If we overload them, then maybe a change will be made.
http://www.viacom.com/Contact/Pages/default.aspx
However, as I pointed out earlier, this movie cost them $150 million and so far they are only at $69.3. I have a feeling that this movie is going to die completely before them making back their costs. We may actually be seeing the end of M. Night's career because no studio would be willing to shell out a ton of money for another epic failure.
| Twisted-Alien wrote: | ||||
Well, at least with DBE people knew it was going to be terrible. Even the trailers and commercials weren't covering up the fact that this was not going to be a faithful adaptation. For me, I enjoyed it better than Avatar because at least with DBE you could consistently laugh at how bad it was. In fact, I think there are some good rifftrax available for it. With Avatar, all the trailers and commercials took the only good scenes from the movie and pasted them together, making it feel like some epic/amazing movie. It reminds me of another movie that ticked me off with their clever marketing tricks, The Bridge of Terabithia (sp.), which made it out to be like another Narnia movie when in reality it turned out that all the fighting scenes, the two of them that existed, were already in the commercials and the rest of the movie was a boring and severely depressing experience. Avatar was bad, but there were only a few things that were so bad that they were funny, the rest of the movie was boring, erratic, and confusing.
True, but I'm thinking that they will still address it since the master of foreshadowing (and by master of foreshadowing I mean someone who has the villain mention the Ancient Library almost every time he has a scene) alluded to the Ancient Library, so I'm thinking they will still visit it and learn something useful. My guess is that it will be the same as with the waterbenders as you pointed out. The Eclipse will probably negate their ability to bend the existing fire, which is pretty much the same thing, but he still should have addressed it anyways. |
Another thing I noticed about the firebending was that each time it was used a piece of their source disappeared. Example, Zuko surrounded himself with a ring of fire to bend at Katara. When he threw the a fireball a piece of the ring disappeared. So what happens when they run out of fire to bend? Firebender says, "Oh sorry. Can I call a timeout while my soldiers send me another fireball?" Waterbender replies, "No timeouts in war!" Firebender looks around nervously and sees he is out numbered, "Oh this isn't a war, it is just us playing with you guys. I just want to be your friend. I was just throwing the fire so we can make some Smores and sing Kumbaya..." LAME!!!!
Hey, how do you beat the fire nation in M Night's movie? Apparently put out the torch.
In the show, they were more of a threat because of the limitless source of fire. The Comet makes their fire creation bigger/strong not gives them the ability to use their own Chi. Oh yeah, 3 years and the comet is coming. So within 3 years, they can't go and blow out all of their torches and birthday candles in the fire nation? ROFLMAO!!!!
| tico1125 wrote: |
| Well the whole spirit thing made me throw up in my mouth. He is slowly decapitating the plot of the story with his changes. As for the bending, yeah that was too ridiculous! I mean, in the show, every movement affected the element. It wasn't ten moves for one action with water... Another thing that had me laughing was the fight between Zuko and Aang at the end. They got into a FIST FIGHT!!!! WTH!?!?!?!?!? Zuko can throw fireballs and Aang can blow him into a wall, but they end up wrestling on the floor? So I was doing some quick research and found that the total budget on this movie was $150 million. They have made $69.3 million so far. If the movie doesn't recoup the cost and then some, there will not be a 2nd and 3rd movie. So in a sense, I hope it dies here. If it doesn't then I am hoping they kick M Night to the curb. I am going to be writing a lengthy email to Paramount now. To make the point! |
| SokkaAppa wrote: | ||
I don't want it to die though but i want it to be changed. I hope there is a second movie but I just dont want Knight to be directing it. Thanks for email address. |
Where was Mike and Bryan throughout the making of this film? Surely they would have seen the mess this guy was making. I really can't believe he got away with the changes he made... the names urrrrgggghhhh the names, 1st they pronounce sokka, soak-a then aang, ung (ok I understand that one). The bullet point presentation of the movie???? (went here, then here, then there WTF!)movie length - too short, far too short! If you didn't know anything about the cartoon you'd be there scratching your head wondering what the hell was going on. As the creator's Mike and Bryan should have written the script, they know the world of the Avatar inside out. I just knew Shyamalan was going to wreck it from the moment they announced it. Poor form.
The Last Airbender has made 74 million so far, just under half of which is going to the theatre owners, I know it's early days but this isn't looking good for the rest of the books. So far it hasn't opened internationally
the link, if you're curious
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lastairbender.htm
| yummyone2005 wrote: |
The Last Airbender has made 74 million so far, just under half of which is going to the theatre owners, I know it's early days but this isn't looking good for the rest of the books. So far it hasn't opened internationally the link, if you're curious http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lastairbender.htm |
