More like The Last Fail-bender, am I right?
Unless you've been under a rock for the past few days or aren't a nerd you've heard that the movie "The Last Airbender" based on the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender isn't very good. Here are some choice quotes from my favorite reviews.
Roger Ebert
"The Last Airbender" is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here.
...I close with the hope that the title proves prophetic.
The A.V. Club
The Last Airbender isn’t that much different from the rest of this summer’s generally dire multiplex fare-from The A-Team to Jonah Hex-which started with established properties and half-decent ideas, then cranked up the volume, velocity, and effects to the point where neither sense nor tender moments could escape. But it is remarkable in one respect: It’s the worst of them.
io9: M. Night Shyamalan Finally Made A Comedy
This is the part where I would insert a quick plot synopsis of the film, but it's really unnecessary - Shyamalan has boiled every epic heroic story of the past 20 years down to its most basic, primal soup-y essence, so he can spray it all over the audience, in a kind of Hero's-Journey bukkake. You will be finding chunks of Joseph Campbell's calcified spooge behind your ears for three days after watching this film, no matter how many times you bathe.
...And I think everybody who has criticized Shyamalan for casting white actors as Asian characters in this film should admit they were wrong. Clearly, Shyamalan tried to cast Asians, but he just couldn't find any whose performances were lifeless enough.
Kevin of Made of Fail
Then, of course, we have Aang. Oh, Aang. Noah Ringer takes all the worst parts of Phantom Menace Anakin and added Attack Of The Clones Anakin with a touch of Sixth Sense Without The Heart. The worst acting of the entire movie was done by Noah Ringer, who just...doesn't know how to emote properly. He's from the school of Speaking Forcefully And Impressively Makes Up For Lack Of Talent And Characterization.
shinga
It's like they read the basic plot of the first season and made a movie out of it. Turns out there wasn't even a racist casting issue, because they didn't fucking know. They hired some people and were like "wait, Katara and Sokka have darker skin? Huh. Oh well." Speaking of the race issue, it's pretty much JUST the main cast that's white. Somehow Sokka and Katara are the whitest bit of white people ever to white despite the fact that the rest of their tribe... isn't. Not sure what happened there. Maybe the milkman was white.
Going off the last quote, The Last Airbender has been getting a lot of negative attention for its casting decisions, namely casting Caucasian actors in roles originally filled by animated characters with brown skin, ambiguously Asian, but definitely not white. This cartoon sums it up very well. Here are some other excellent links.
An Open Letter to Racebending.com Detractors. A good overview and response to the race issues.
FacePainting. Wicked long, but worth the read if just for the "A Personal Argument" section.
Darnivorous. A great review not only of the movie itself, but the racial and gender issues.
In not horrible family movie news go see "Toy Story 3." It wasn't as funny as I was expecting, but it was quality story-telling all the way through. A-
Favorite Pixar movie? Wall-E. I hope Toy Story 3 picks up this year's best picture Oscar to make up for Wall-E getting robbed.
Roger Ebert
"The Last Airbender" is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here.
...I close with the hope that the title proves prophetic.
The A.V. Club
The Last Airbender isn’t that much different from the rest of this summer’s generally dire multiplex fare-from The A-Team to Jonah Hex-which started with established properties and half-decent ideas, then cranked up the volume, velocity, and effects to the point where neither sense nor tender moments could escape. But it is remarkable in one respect: It’s the worst of them.
io9: M. Night Shyamalan Finally Made A Comedy
This is the part where I would insert a quick plot synopsis of the film, but it's really unnecessary - Shyamalan has boiled every epic heroic story of the past 20 years down to its most basic, primal soup-y essence, so he can spray it all over the audience, in a kind of Hero's-Journey bukkake. You will be finding chunks of Joseph Campbell's calcified spooge behind your ears for three days after watching this film, no matter how many times you bathe.
...And I think everybody who has criticized Shyamalan for casting white actors as Asian characters in this film should admit they were wrong. Clearly, Shyamalan tried to cast Asians, but he just couldn't find any whose performances were lifeless enough.
Kevin of Made of Fail
Then, of course, we have Aang. Oh, Aang. Noah Ringer takes all the worst parts of Phantom Menace Anakin and added Attack Of The Clones Anakin with a touch of Sixth Sense Without The Heart. The worst acting of the entire movie was done by Noah Ringer, who just...doesn't know how to emote properly. He's from the school of Speaking Forcefully And Impressively Makes Up For Lack Of Talent And Characterization.
shinga
It's like they read the basic plot of the first season and made a movie out of it. Turns out there wasn't even a racist casting issue, because they didn't fucking know. They hired some people and were like "wait, Katara and Sokka have darker skin? Huh. Oh well." Speaking of the race issue, it's pretty much JUST the main cast that's white. Somehow Sokka and Katara are the whitest bit of white people ever to white despite the fact that the rest of their tribe... isn't. Not sure what happened there. Maybe the milkman was white.
Going off the last quote, The Last Airbender has been getting a lot of negative attention for its casting decisions, namely casting Caucasian actors in roles originally filled by animated characters with brown skin, ambiguously Asian, but definitely not white. This cartoon sums it up very well. Here are some other excellent links.
An Open Letter to Racebending.com Detractors. A good overview and response to the race issues.
FacePainting. Wicked long, but worth the read if just for the "A Personal Argument" section.
Darnivorous. A great review not only of the movie itself, but the racial and gender issues.
In not horrible family movie news go see "Toy Story 3." It wasn't as funny as I was expecting, but it was quality story-telling all the way through. A-
Favorite Pixar movie? Wall-E. I hope Toy Story 3 picks up this year's best picture Oscar to make up for Wall-E getting robbed.