The Last Airbender

Jul 03, 2010 16:10

I've just come back from watching The Last Airbender. It was...disappointing, but decent.

Short Story Short:
For a fan:  It starts out very slow and boring and there are a lot of [major] quirks. The ending makes up so that the movie is NOT an abomination, but it is only decent.
For a non-fan: Not great, but a good sturdy movie that will grip you.

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sokka, last airbender, zuko, avatar: the last airbender, aang, katara

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stillthere4me July 3 2010, 21:11:14 UTC
I feel like I'm being semi-referenced in here... XD

My main problem with Suki not being included (aside from it making all the girls pushovers) is that it's going to be way to much to cram into the second movie, which I believe has more crucial plot points to include than the first one had. A lot is going to have to be changed and switched around in order to be able to hit the major important things.

You got over the racebending? You're far more forgiving than most people--even Zuko's voice actor (Dante Basco) is boycotting the movie because of that:
http://dantebasco.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/the-last-airbender-to-boycott-or-not/

And actually, Toph is the main character I would have minded the least being played by a white actress--mostly because the Earth Kingdom is typically (in the cartoon at least) the most diverse nation and so long as the actress has black hair, I won't mind too much.

I've heard about the personality changes in Katara and Sokka, and that pisses me off too. Have you read my LJ entry on this?

http://stillthere4me.livejournal.com/99398.html

I'm glad you seemed to enjoy the movie, but the postive points you have are not enough to convince me to go pay to see it. I am fully aware and okay with the fact that the movie will always be different from the original source. I rarely mind adaptations of things--for example, I'm fine with ALL the HP movies. While there are some points that may dissapoint me, usually I can accept them as different things and appriciate the positive points of each version. However, there is just too much warped and changed for me to even want to pay to see it. Too much was done wrong in the creation of this movie, not only for fans, but also for those who are or want to get into the entertainment industry.

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fallendominance July 3 2010, 21:38:02 UTC
"I'm glad you seemed to enjoy the movie" Where did I ever say that? I said: "It was...disappointing, but decent." And if you look at my list of actual positives, it's quite short.

It is definitely a movie to avoid if you're a fan of the series. It's only good for those who aren't Airbender fans. I think you're right not to go see it; no need for a second one to get made.

However, once I looked at the big picture I did find a few positives, which thus explain why hubby and his aunt both thought it was "good".

And yeah ,the personality changes pissed me off the most. Sokka and Katara were the most obvious and the personality traits I talked about for Sokka didn't even revolve around the slapstick humor, but rather his sarcasm, lack of care for strangers (let's face it, he's not exactly mister-let-s-go-help-everyone, and of course his creativity was missing as well), but Aang was also changed a lot as he was almost always gloomy, even though in the anime he's only gloomy at certain points (so I'd say it went from about 20% gloomy to 80%, big change). Zhao was also not as ambitious nor as decisive. Ozai didn't seem right, and Yue changed slightly, though it seems in her case it was for the better.

I had read that post of yours before actually. And Aang's gloominess is sadly a reflection of your fear that the movie wouldn't remember that they are just kids.

On the bright side, Azula appeared at the end of the movie - when her father sets up her orders, and it did look like there was a bit of mental instability (though not too much, which is good because her insanity needs room to grow.)

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stillthere4me July 3 2010, 21:49:55 UTC
Well, by enjoy, I meant that since you didn't hate it and thought it was decent, you had somewhat enjoyed it. And to your list of positives, I took your "trivial changes that you get over" to mean these things weren't that bad so weren't exactly negatives.

I do hope a second one doesn't get made, and instead someone gets the rights to remake the movie adaptation, and does a better job (because like I said, I'm not against adaptations--I think that someone could do a really good adaptation of the series--but this current one isn't it).

I agree with you 100% on Sokka. There was more to him than slapstick humour.

Well, you didn't comment, so I didn't know you read it. XD

Well, I'm glad there's hope for Azula. And I'm glad whatever change they made for Yue made her more likable. But yeah... still hoping for it to flop and someone else to get the rights to remake it.

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fallendominance July 3 2010, 22:04:24 UTC
"Humour"?
Are you vacationing in Ireland or something? What's with the UK spelling?

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