Stonemaybe wrote:When I saw the title of this film, for some reason I thought it was about air-guitarists!
Obviously, I was wrong.
LOL, nice one. Actually, that's exactly why it's called simply "The Last Airbender". The Animated Series is called "Avatar: The Last Airbender". They dropped the "Avatar" part so it wouldn't be confused as a sequel to James Cameron's "Avatar"
Yeah, when the hype machine geared up for "Avatar" last year, I was thinking, "Wow, folks are sure getting excited over a movie based on a Nickelodeon cartoon!" It took forever for me to realize "Avatar" was a different movie entirely...
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Stonemaybe wrote:When I saw the title of this film, for some reason I thought it was about air-guitarists!
Obviously, I was wrong.
LOL, nice one. Actually, that's exactly why it's called simply "The Last Airbender". The Animated Series is called "Avatar: The Last Airbender". They dropped the "Avatar" part so it wouldn't be confused as a sequel to James Cameron's "Avatar"
Yeah, when the hype machine geared up for "Avatar" last year, I was thinking, "Wow, folks are sure getting excited over a movie based on a Nickelodeon cartoon!" It took forever for me to realize "Avatar" was a different movie entirely...
HEHE, me too, and I was only a yearling+ to the series at the time
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I think I'm one of 5 people who really enjoyed "The Village". Even if it has plot holes big enough to drive semi's through.
There are more of us than you think.
I loved M Nights first films (6th Sense, Unbreakable, Signs), and thought The Village was pretty good (though mis-marketed). However, I'm not a fan of Lady in the Water, and The Happening was a putrid mess.
After seeing people's reactions in this thread, I think I will take a chance and see Airbender in the theatre.
"You make me think Hell is run like a corporation."
"It's the other way around, but yes."
Obaki, Too Much Information
I think I'm one of 5 people who really enjoyed "The Village". Even if it has plot holes big enough to drive semi's through.
I probably would have enjoyed it too, if the marketing hadn't geared me up for a Horror Flick, leaving me disappointed when that wasn't forthcoming
I was saved from that fate by a co-worker, who griped about expecting a thriller and getting something else a few days before we went to see it. Forwarned, I enjoyed it for what it was.
I think Airbender is getting a bum wrap by the haters.
I saw many of the flaws others have pointed out. I cringed when I heard the line "We must show them that we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in theirs." ACK! Script was an afterthought - if they'd spent as much time on it as they did the digital drawing of the gorgeous bending effects, we'd have a totally different movie.
I enjoyed it, though I had never seen a single episode of the animated TV series. May watch it now, though. Hope it isn't panned so hard they don't make a film sequel...
A few things I noticed, that really bugged me: First, in the cartoon, there are several scenes with Aang and Kitara practicing their waterbending. You see them moving through stances, with water bending through the air around them. In the movie, they also have several(!) of these scenes, sans the water bending. That is, you watch Aang and Kitara moving through the stances, with nothing happening. I seriously wonder if they planned for certain effects and just forgot, or if they ran out of money, or if M Night just wanted us to watch them do their calisthenics.
The second thing that bugged me was how they made a half-hearted attempt to change the pronunciations of everyone's name. It's one thing if you're adapting a book, but this is a show where people have been hearing the names for 3 seasons. To hear them suddenly pronounced differently was jarring. Especially pronouncing "Avatar", with the first A like it's pronounced in hall rather than hat; they only did this for the first half of the film, and then for the second half they just gave up! They couldn't even be consistent in it!
Other than that, the reviews are right. Horrible dialogue, bad acting (which, judging by M Night's other recent films, I'm willing to attribute to his poor directing), it needed to be longer to allow more development & exposition, more show & less tell, more of Aang's capriciousness, etc.
I seriously hope the next one's better.
"You make me think Hell is run like a corporation."
"It's the other way around, but yes."
Obaki, Too Much Information
First of all, I had only seen two episodes of the series before watching this movie. I watched one episode once, a long, long, long time ago, and thought, "Wow, what a cool cartoon!"
Only thing is, I forgot the name of it and never watched another episode. Everytime I would tune into Nick, I would get the wrong cartoon. Finally, one day my wife was babysitting my nephew, and he insisted upon watching it, and my wife really, really liked it. She made me watch the same episode she watched, and I said, "No way! This is the cartoon I've been looking for! I love it, too!"
Would you believe it, the next week she asked me what it was called, and I couldn't remember. So we never watched it again. Finally, I saw the trailer for the movie, and said, "Holy shit! That's the show and now it's a movie!!!"
Now that I have the back story out of the way, let me tell you about the movie. Went into it with only two episodes under my belt, and really remembered nothing about those two episodes at all, and...
I absolutely LOVED this movie!
For people not very familiar with the show, I would very highly recommend the movie! The story was awesome, the action was awesome, the special effects were awesome! I was totally into it from beginning to end. The only thing that I am disappointed with is, why the heck isn't it an IMAX movie?!?!???!?!?!! I would pay big $$$ to see it in IMAX! Oh well.
But yeah, if you are looking for a fun movie, with a neat story, and mesmerizing special effects, go see this movie!
Okay...now on to Phase II of my posting. I have an XBOX, I have XBOX Live Gold, I have internet, and I also have Netflix. This means that I no longer need to pay for TV programming, becasue I have thousands of movies and shows streaming directly to my XBOX. It is the greatest thing ever in the history of everything.
Guess what??!?!!!!!! Avatar: the Last Airbender is available through Netflix!! Yes, that is right, I have the entire series at my fingertips! Commercial free!
WAIT! I forgot to mention that my thousands of TV shows and movies are all completely 100% commercial free!
Ok, ok, ok I amgetting to my point. The fucking cartoon is way better than the movie. There are now several things I don't understand about the movie, and I can see why cartoon fans might have a few disagreements with the movie. Like Prince Zooko (spelling?) . . . he is sooooo much cooler looking in the cartoon. And the scar is like BAM!-in-your-face-holy-shit-look-at-that-scar in the cartoon. In the movie it looks like the Prince maybe just maybe might have perhaps or perhaps not might have been slightly burned just a little bit once. IMHO it is really stupid for shamalamadingdong to have removed Zooko's scar.
Hell look at me prattling on. Sorry.
Any how...awesome movie, especially if you are somewhat unfamiliar with the cartoon.
Saw this tonight, no history with this so seeing it for the first time. I thought it was so-so, but had so many other movies in it, Golden Child meets, Narni meets, Golden Compass meets, The Abyss meets........ that it started becoming a "OK where's that from" quiz.
Effects were good ................!
"Winston, if you were my husband I'd give you poison" ................ "Madam, if you were my wife I would drink it!"
"Terrorism is war by the poor, and war is terrorism by the rich"
"A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well."
"The opposite of pro-life isn't pro-death. Y'know?"
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finn wrote:Saw this tonight, no history with this so seeing it for the first time. I thought it was so-so, but had so many other movies in it, Golden Child meets, Narnia meets, Golden Compass meets, The Abyss meets........ that it started becoming a "OK where's that from" quiz.
Effects were good ................!
"Winston, if you were my husband I'd give you poison" ................ "Madam, if you were my wife I would drink it!"
"Terrorism is war by the poor, and war is terrorism by the rich"
"A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well."
"The opposite of pro-life isn't pro-death. Y'know?"
"What if the Hokey Cokey really is what its all about?"
Yeah, when the hype machine geared up for "Avatar" last year, I was thinking, "Wow, folks are sure getting excited over a movie based on a Nickelodeon cartoon!" It took forever for me to realize "Avatar" was a different movie entirely...
