The Last Airbender
We saw The Last Airbender today. I'd read all the reviews, and expected a cinematic atrocity. But the movie turned out to be much better than I expected. It wasn't great, but it surely doesn't deserve all the insults that have been thrown at it. And as for Roger Ebert saying that it looked as if it had been filmed through a dirty sheet, I can only guess that something must have been wrong with the projector in the theater where he saw it - either that, or his glasses were dirty.
Though I must admit that we saw it in 2D rather than the upconverted 3D. Maybe that made a difference.
Anyway, although it changed a number of elements from the series (which I'm a fan of), it wasn't brutal about it. The actors who played Aang and Katara were much better than I expected, from the reviews. Noah Ringer, who played Aang, captured the sweetness of the character rather well.
Some of the casting was a bit jarring, racially, and that's coming from someone who thought that the complaints about it were mostly annoying whining; but seeing such a very Caucasian-looking woman (she looked Swedish!) playing Katara's grandmother shook my suspension of disbelief. And there were other moments when the odd assortments of ethnicities within tribes and nations was just a little...distracting.
The actor who played Sokka didn't work for me; or, perhaps I should say that the character was written with virtually no humor, and that was a sore lack. In fact, that's something I missed very much: the humor of the original series was almost entirely missing.
Dev Patel, who played Prince Zuko, could have done a better job I think. I liked him a lot in Slumdog Millionaire, but he was too over-the-top here - he overdid the character's rage. Ironically, his scar was much too understated. It may be worth noting that in my opinion, the character of Prince Zuko was the worst-acted in the original series, and has always sounded rather wooden. At least Patel avoided that pitfall.
Aasif Mandvi always makes me laugh on The Daily Show. He did a very credible job here as Commander Zhao, although I wonder if I may be biased; he didn't seem very different from his Daily Show persona. But it seemed a waste to have a talented comic actor in what should be an out-and out "heavy" role. It makes me think of the criminal waste of casting a comedic genius like Hugh Laurie in a role like "House".
The "they wave their arms, strike some poses and then the elements react" effect that I'd read about was noticeable some of the time, but nowhere near as intrusive as I'd been led to expect. I'd been warned about the changes in pronunciation of names, and was ready for it; it was a stupid thing to do, but it didn't ruin the movie.
I've liked Shaun Taub ever since I saw him in Iron Man. But whenever he was on the screen I badly missed Mako, who played Uncle Iroh for the first two seasons of Avatar. Taub didn't try to imitate Mako's voice, and isn't stout at all. I love imitating Mako's version, his voice is just so fun! Plus I hate to lose a stout (or fat) hero. There just aren't enough of them in the movies these days!
The effects weren't bad at all - in fact, I thought they were pretty neat. The writing wasn't bad either, a little overdone but respectable. More humor would have helped. I can't help but feel that a lot of the critical community is slamming the movie because they just like to kick Shyamalan when they think he's down. It looks as if they may have succeeded, too; we saw an afternoon matinee, and the three of us were the only ones in the theater! Pity, I'd have liked to see the sequels.
Sebastian gave it nine out of ten stars, but then revised that to eight. I gave it six or seven. Teri gave it three because she felt it was too unfaithful to the original series.
Tomorrow I think we're going to take Sebastian to his first drive-in movie to see Despicable Me, which should (I hope) be good.
Though I must admit that we saw it in 2D rather than the upconverted 3D. Maybe that made a difference.
Anyway, although it changed a number of elements from the series (which I'm a fan of), it wasn't brutal about it. The actors who played Aang and Katara were much better than I expected, from the reviews. Noah Ringer, who played Aang, captured the sweetness of the character rather well.
Some of the casting was a bit jarring, racially, and that's coming from someone who thought that the complaints about it were mostly annoying whining; but seeing such a very Caucasian-looking woman (she looked Swedish!) playing Katara's grandmother shook my suspension of disbelief. And there were other moments when the odd assortments of ethnicities within tribes and nations was just a little...distracting.
The actor who played Sokka didn't work for me; or, perhaps I should say that the character was written with virtually no humor, and that was a sore lack. In fact, that's something I missed very much: the humor of the original series was almost entirely missing.
Dev Patel, who played Prince Zuko, could have done a better job I think. I liked him a lot in Slumdog Millionaire, but he was too over-the-top here - he overdid the character's rage. Ironically, his scar was much too understated. It may be worth noting that in my opinion, the character of Prince Zuko was the worst-acted in the original series, and has always sounded rather wooden. At least Patel avoided that pitfall.
Aasif Mandvi always makes me laugh on The Daily Show. He did a very credible job here as Commander Zhao, although I wonder if I may be biased; he didn't seem very different from his Daily Show persona. But it seemed a waste to have a talented comic actor in what should be an out-and out "heavy" role. It makes me think of the criminal waste of casting a comedic genius like Hugh Laurie in a role like "House".
The "they wave their arms, strike some poses and then the elements react" effect that I'd read about was noticeable some of the time, but nowhere near as intrusive as I'd been led to expect. I'd been warned about the changes in pronunciation of names, and was ready for it; it was a stupid thing to do, but it didn't ruin the movie.
I've liked Shaun Taub ever since I saw him in Iron Man. But whenever he was on the screen I badly missed Mako, who played Uncle Iroh for the first two seasons of Avatar. Taub didn't try to imitate Mako's voice, and isn't stout at all. I love imitating Mako's version, his voice is just so fun! Plus I hate to lose a stout (or fat) hero. There just aren't enough of them in the movies these days!
The effects weren't bad at all - in fact, I thought they were pretty neat. The writing wasn't bad either, a little overdone but respectable. More humor would have helped. I can't help but feel that a lot of the critical community is slamming the movie because they just like to kick Shyamalan when they think he's down. It looks as if they may have succeeded, too; we saw an afternoon matinee, and the three of us were the only ones in the theater! Pity, I'd have liked to see the sequels.
Sebastian gave it nine out of ten stars, but then revised that to eight. I gave it six or seven. Teri gave it three because she felt it was too unfaithful to the original series.
Tomorrow I think we're going to take Sebastian to his first drive-in movie to see Despicable Me, which should (I hope) be good.