Live action Avatar: The Last Airbender

[ArellaEliora]

I would put a review up but I'm afraid I would spoil it for people that haven't seen it.

All I can say is I left wishing I could do my own trilogy. Not that it was completely horrible, but there were some disappointing things that I didn't count on. Like when Aang finally tells them his name and he says "Aang" pronounced AAH-ng. Everytime they said his name I would cringe. The people behind me would laugh.

[LadyRushia]

The Emperor of China has spoken. His word is law.

I hope that this is an inside joke between you and Ryan because this seems like a very racist statement to me.

Phil, that picture is amazing, XD.

[Yamamaya]

I hope that this is an inside joke between you and Ryan because this seems like a very racist statement to me.

Phil, that picture is amazing, XD.

Didn't mean it as racism so I edited it out.

And yes that picture is quite cool.

Now that I think about it their choice of actors does seem very odd.

They kept the Asian names yet they got white actors to play the roles...why didn't they pull the old tactic of changing the names?

[steenajack]

*saves pic on her bookmarks* I is goinz 2 keep zis! X3!!!!

[ADXC]

@ Cog- Win.

[Nate]

So speaking of Avatar, does anyone know the story behind this?

[ADXC]

XD Wait, what?

[FllMtl Novelist]

So speaking of Avatar, does anyone know the story behind this?

O.O
...
...
...Um well I just hmm. XD

[MomentOfInertia]

So speaking of Avatar, does anyone know the story behind this?

1. No I don't.

2. I don't remember that scene, it must be from the "unrated" version

3. Isn't Aang taller?

Also for this thread Cog=win

[Cloud500]

You would hope that they just accidentally swapped the character portraits, but who knows...

[LadyRushia]

It could be shoop'd, but it's pretty funny, XD.

[steenajack]

Well, actually Toph did kiss a girl on the cheek once by accident.
Here's the proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIwhrln-7bc (this is the only one I could find sadly.)
This scene cracks me up every time. XD!

[Nate]

Aw that's it? Man that is nowhere near as interesting as I thought it would be. :\

But it does explain it at least!

[minakichan]

It's really not that surprising that the movie sucked. Most anime/cartoon adaptations fail hard.

A lot of J-drama adaptations are actually quite good. A lot suck too, but I can definitely think of some that are as good or even better than the original (Liar Game immediately comes to mind, just for the aesthetics).

So speaking of Avatar, does anyone know the story behind this?

Awwww yeah~

[ich1990]

God, this movie plain sucked. So bad.

Everything about it sucked.

I will challenge this statement. The fighting and special effects were top notch. I don't really see how anyone could argue otherwise.

[Nate]

The special effects in Transformers and Transformers 2 were top-notch but those movies still sucked so hard. Looking pretty doesn't make something not suck.

[dyzzispell]

I'm almost curious enough to go see it, just to see how bad it really is.

Oh and Cog FTW! That is an awesome pic. Wish I thought of it. Just saw the ep the other night when they were all watching the Fire Nation play...

[Radical Dreamer]

I will challenge this statement. The fighting and special effects were top notch. I don't really see how anyone could argue otherwise.

The special effects in Transformers and Transformers 2 were top-notch but those movies still sucked so hard. Looking pretty doesn't make something not suck.

XD This is like what my brother said earlier today. "Saying 'the CGI and special effects were awesome' is like saying 'dresses look pretty on girls.' It's just kind of a given these days." XD Not to mention it's pretty much expected, with the technology we have and the money that goes into making a big-budget film. So the special effects were great--that's fantastic, but all that does is lump the movie in a pile with the rest of the movies that look pretty but have no substance. XD

[Cognitive Gear]

Strangely enough, some critics don't like the special effects. I'll quote the one that stood out to me the most:

Since "Airbender" involves the human manipulation of the forces of air, earth, water and fire, there is hardly an event that can be rendered plausibly in live action. That said, its special effects are atrocious. The first time the waterbender Katara summons a globe of water, which then splashes (offscreen) on her brother Sokka, he doesn't even get wet. Firebenders' flames don't seem to really burn, and so on.

[ShiroiHikari]

...look pretty but have no substance. XD

What, like Megan Fox?

[Radical Dreamer]

What, like Megan Fox?

Ohaha, I see what you did there. XD

Since "Airbender" involves the human manipulation of the forces of air, earth, water and fire, there is hardly an event that can be rendered plausibly in live action. That said, its special effects are atrocious. The first time the waterbender Katara summons a globe of water, which then splashes (offscreen) on her brother Sokka, he doesn't even get wet. Firebenders' flames don't seem to really burn, and so on.

LOL. That is hilariously bad. XD

[Cloud500]

Does anyone know how much this movie has made since it was released? I'm really hoping it flops, because if it doesn't it will give the director the idea that people like what he's doing and he should continue doing it.

[mechana2015]

According to some online stuff, 32 million, but it has to somehow pull in over 500 million dollars to break even. (150 million dollar movie, 130 million dollar ad campaign, around half of ticket prices are paid to the theaters, not the studio.)

[ich1990]

The special effects in Transformers and Transformers 2 were top-notch but those movies still sucked so hard. Looking pretty doesn't make something not suck.

I am not sure what you are trying to argue here, because we already agree. All I said was that not everything about the movie sucked, because the fighting and special effects were great. I didn't say that the special effects made the movie great. I don't think any amount of CGI could make that happen.

Strangely enough, some critics don't like the special effects. I'll quote the one that stood out to me the most:

Yeah, it did look like they splashed water on "Soh-kah's" face; and that didn't look realistic. I wouldn't really consider that special effects though. The orb of water that Katara created, on the other hand, was. And it was done quite well. Reminded me of the one Dumbledore summoned from the Order of the Phoenix movie (just a lot smaller in scale).

As for the fire, people got knocked around and blasted by it, leaving them lying around and smoking. There weren't any people lit on fire and screaming, but that was probably more of an effect of the PG rating than poor graphics.

The only thing that really stood out as being poor, was the rock bending (and that was an extremely minor part of the movie).

[Blacklight]

Darn... My sisters are really excited to see this movie, I had hoped that it would turn out well, I was interested in seeing it...
I'm now hoping that they're going to wait for it to come out and become accessible through Netflix.

And also...

XDXDXDXDXDXDXD

[Chrysolite]

I clicked on this out of curiosity thinking I'd just take a quick peek and ended up reading the whole thread. This makes me really sad! I had such high hopes for this movie. And the worst part is it puts me in a strange dilemma... I want to see the movie no matter what just to satisfy my curiosity, but if it's gonna be bad I'd rather not spend the $10.00 to see it in 3D, but if the best part is the special effects then a part of me thinks that if I'm gonna see it at all I'd better see it in 3D. What should I do? I saw James Cameron's Avatar in 3D and I remember coming out of the theater thinking, "It's a good thing I saw that in 3D, because that's all that made it worth it." I kinda hated the story of it, but the 3D experience alone was worth the money in my opinion. *sigh* At least I read this thread before rushing off to see the movie in theaters. This way I can at least be prepared for disappointment. Earlier today my family and I almost went to see it, but we couldn't get ahold of our friend who really wanted to see it, so we went to see How to Train Your Dragon at the dollar theater instead. Now that was a good movie! I regret having missed the bus on seeing this one in 3D.

Oh, and Cognitive Gear, that comic you posted was hilarious! That's the sort of thing I'd save forever even if I ended up loving the movie. ^-^

[Etoh*the*Greato]

What, like Megan Fox?

This would require Megan Fox to look pretty first.

[SIZE="1"]oh, burn.[/SIZE]

[Mister Frodo]

I saw the film and fairly enjoyed it. Maybe it was simply because I was prepared for the worse. Still, as both a big fan of M. Night and of the show, I felt it ignored most of the strengths of both.

One of M. Night's films' trademark is their slow, deliberate pacing. Some find it boring, which I can understand, but it's something that makes his films stand out and one of my favorite things about them. And one of the best part of the show is its character interaction and development, which in most cases seems above and beyond what other shows do. But almost every scene in The Last Airbender is rushed, with only a few given any time to develop. The audience can barely relate to the characters besides maybe Aang and Zuko; Sokka and Katara really suffer. I blame this mainly on M. Night trying to condense the plot of the show into about 90 minutes. He's not the best screenwriter while writing his own material, so condensing something else didn't turn out well. I mean, if they hadn't added anything significant but had just spent another 15 to 30 minutes fleshing out the scenes they had, the movie probably would have been better for it.

Visually, though, it was stunning. As others have said, good visuals don't make a movie, but they do at least make a bad one hurt less (and I could tell what was going on in the fight scenes, unlike most of Transformers ). I thought the bending effects were good-looking, and the fight scenes at the end really showcased this.

To me, though, there were only two real stand-out moments in the film. The first was the fight scene in the earthbender village that was all one continuous take. The way the action flowed in it was just awesome, and it was one of the scenes to actually come close to capturing Sokka's character (him reaching for his boomerang and not having it; it's not much, but at least it's something). Honestly, this part of the movie was so good, it made me wonder why the rest of the movie couldn't have been as well-done.

Also, the other part is spoiler-ific, but

[spoiler] I thought the way they handled Aang's guilt over not accepting his role as Avatar was surprisingly well done. I love how it comes full circle at the end. It felt like finally the film was getting something right, and honestly, it was the one thing I felt the film might have captured better than the show itself. [/spoiler]

And that's about it. I wish they had had some more humor in it; the funniest thing was probably Katara accidentally freezing Sokka. Also, the music was excellent. Even if it didn't use any themes from the show, James Newton Howard still provided an awesome score.

Oh, and one more thing:

[spoiler] The lack of the Zuko vs. Zhao duel really disappointed me. It was like the film was building to it, and then... Zuko just walks away. It wasn't a horrible alternative, but I really would have liked to see them duke it out. It honestly disappointed more than Aang's "show them the power of the ocean," but that may be because at least I knew that was coming. [/spoiler]

[dyzzispell]

I clicked on this out of curiosity thinking I'd just take a quick peek and ended up reading the whole thread. This makes me really sad! I had such high hopes for this movie. And the worst part is it puts me in a strange dilemma... I want to see the movie no matter what just to satisfy my curiosity, but if it's gonna be bad I'd rather not spend the $10.00 to see it in 3D, but if the best part is the special effects then a part of me thinks that if I'm gonna see it at all I'd better see it in 3D. What should I do? I saw James Cameron's Avatar in 3D and I remember coming out of the theater thinking, "It's a good thing I saw that in 3D, because that's all that made it worth it." I kinda hated the story of it, but the 3D experience alone was worth the money in my opinion. *sigh* At least I read this thread before rushing off to see the movie in theaters. This way I can at least be prepared for disappointment. Earlier today my family and I almost went to see it, but we couldn't get ahold of our friend who really wanted to see it, so we went to see How to Train Your Dragon at the dollar theater instead. Now that was a good movie! I regret having missed the bus on seeing this one in 3D.

I had heard that the 3D was a last minute decision, and the film was not originally intended to be 3D. This means that there isn't really much in it that IS 3D. Personally I haven't seen it, and I'm too afraid I'll get a major headache watching a 3D movie for more than 10 minutes, so I won't be able to tell you if that's true, even if I DO see the movie.

$10? For 3D? Wherever you live is awesome, because where I live, a regular non-3D movie costs more than that to see. 3D is about $15 or so here...

[Chrysolite]

Thanks for the info. That's good to know. Yeah, I love where I live. <3