"There's a dark time; this is a dark life."

[greygirlbeast]

My last entry before Readercon 21The past two days have been hell here in Providence. The temperature hit 101F on Tuesday (a record for the date), and wasn't much better yesterday. We've had to stay out of the House as much as possible, trying to stay cool. It is an old house, this House, and it is made to hold in heat in cold winters. It also

Comments

[cithra]

Your reaction to The Last Airbender reminds me of Howard Taylor's review, as relayed to me by my brother (so I'm definitely not quoting here) - If you are a fan of the manga, it's a terrible movie. Otherwise it's merely painfully mediocre.

[greygirlbeast]

Sounds about right.

[nullmode]

I do hope he didn't say manga. Last Airbender is neither manga nor anime.

But sadly yes what a botched job. This could have been so much more and wasn't.

I have to say the miscasting bothered me. It wasn't so much the race thing, though that didn't help, it was that most of the casting was so thoroughly wrong. Whether or not you were a fan of the show you have to admit that it had a definite flavor to it. Shyamalan seems to have missed, or more likely, chosen to ignore this. That is where he fails. He has messed with the chemistry to much. Producing something that feels alien and hollow to the fan base this movie was made for.

Don't get me started on the dialog and the acting either. ugh...

Sounds like I should see Toy Story 3 though.

[greygirlbeast]

I do hope he didn't say manga. Last Airbender is neither manga nor anime.

Hence I said "animated series."

It wasn't so much the race thing, though that didn't help, it was that most of the casting was so thoroughly wrong.

I thought Aang worked, but that was about it.

[nullmode]

I was referring to the aforementioned reviewer.

I agree Aang was the only one who was close. It was probably the writing more than anything that spoiled that role. Aang is still a kid in the show and acts accordingly. That joy and innocence was completely lost in the movie. This is going to completely destroy the 'hero's journey' Aang is on. A great deal of the plot in the show is about growing up and Aang in the movie already acts like a middle aged man.

Oh and one thing that really disappointed me was the omission of Katara's struggle against sexism. In the original story line she has to fight to be accepted as a water bending student. Girls are not normally accepted for training. This was an important part of her characters development early on. Removing it leaves the character quite flat.

[greygirlbeast]

Aang in the movie already acts like a middle aged man.

I didn't think so, but....

Oh and one thing that really disappointed me was the omission of Katara's struggle against sexism. In the original story line she has to fight to be accepted as a water bending student. Girls are not normally accepted for training. This was an important part of her characters development early on.

Well, we did see that she'd been discouraged from bending. I expect this is one those things that happens because story has to be trimmed for movies (often at the cost of necessary character development).

[nullmode]

Ok maybe not a middle aged man. But the character lacks the energy it had in the show. Perhaps sedated would have been a better description.

[cimeara]

And if you're a fan of the anime, it's worse.

The animated series is an American product, not redubbed from Japan. The movie is supposed to be based on the series. Shyamalan claimed to be a fan. But, among other errors (some of which are certainly the normal fan reaction of "not the movie we wanted to see"), the movie changes the pronunciation of main character names? That's hard to explain.

(Edit: apologies to the above poster, who's right, but at least I use "anime" for animated and "manga" for drawn? oh well, not much of an "at least"...)

[cithra]

...and now everyone knows exactly why I said I wasn't quoting.

[cimeara]

Quoted:
If you love the Airbender anime, the movie is abominable. If you don’t care, the movie is merely “very bad.”

But it's okay, we weren't blaming you!