Avatar: The last airbender

[genaral_mitch]

I just saw this movie yesterday, it was pretty good, but they cut out A LOT of the stuff that was in the cartoon. What did you think of it?

[EraOfDesann]

I haven't seen it nor do I plan to. As a fan of the series, the idea of a live-action trilogy seemed unnecessary and risky to me. And on top of that, Shyamalan's involvement wasn't particularly encouraging nor were his casting choices. If it had turned out to be a successful adaptation I would've made time to see it, but the reviews have been absolutely atrocious. Atrocious. I was prepared for a dud but I hadn't expected it to be this bad. Word-of-mouth from fans has been equally unfavorable. Any small amount of interest I might have had in seeing this movie has now been completely dissolved.

[Grev]

I want to see it simply because I have a tendency to enjoy movies. It takes a lot for me to not like a movie. In fact, the only movie I can recall not liking is Epic Movie.

Since I'm a big fan of the show, I really wanted to see this, since I had no beef with the idea... before the reviews. I thought the actors had been casted alright, since I really genuinely thought they looked like the show characters. I may have had some beef with Shyamalan directing (Shyamalan is directing. OH NO WAIT! It's really M. Night Shyamalan! OH! HA! Fooled ya. It's really Shyamalan), but I didn't really care much.

However, as Era pointed out, reviews have been horrendous, so I may skip it. It's sad because theres so many ways you could make a good Avatar movie, and it apparently wasn't done.

PS: I'm not Grev, I'm M. Night Shamalyan! BUMBUMBUM!

[redgroupclan]

You just can't make a cartoon into a real life-type movie.

[skelltor]

You just can't make a cartoon into a real life-type movie.

what he said

[Caleb1117]

You just can't make a cartoon into a real life-type movie.

You certainly can, it just won't be Exactly like the source material, due to restraints of time, and reality. I mean, good luck tying to grow a beard like Iroh had in the cartoon, on a person and have him not look stupid.

I havn't seen it yet, but still plan too. I don't trust most critics, once you learn to critically analize something in detail it takes away some of the simple enjoyment. Or in other terms, I figure most of them are just hacks. I've seen plenty of movies that tanked in reviews but that I thouroughly enjoyed.
Community responce to the movie has been more scattered, but I don't trust Mr. Average Joe's critque much either. Some people don't realize the constraints that one is under when crossing mediums, and others look at it through rose coloered lenses, unwilling to see failure.


In short, I don't trust what people say, so I'm going to go and make up my own bloody mind.

[Ping]

I'm not seeing it simply because the reviews were so awful. I kind of expected it to not be as good as the anime (Can we even call it that? It wasn't exactly made in Japan..), but I didn't expect the reviews to be horrible.

[Grev]

I'm not seeing it simply because the reviews were so awful. I kind of expected it to not be as good as the anime (Can we even call it that? It wasn't exactly made in Japan..), but I didn't expect the reviews to be horrible.

The fact that it wasn't made in Japan doesn't not make it anime. It isn't anime because the directors of the cartoon said so, and have reasons for considering it not anime.

And Calen pointed something out that I overlooked, namely critics being unreliable quite a bit. Anyone see Pirate Radio/The Boat that Rocked? Good movie bad reviews. Caleb may have singlehandedly changed my mind. Kudos.

[plasmoidmonkey]

I'll just say that I can't wait for the re-do by a director who respects the source material in a decade or so.

[Ipodzanyman]

I saw the film. It was pretty good- not on par to his other movies and not as bad as The Happening. Mind you I've never seen the cartoon series. That probably makes or breaks this film...

[plasmoidmonkey]

Mind you I've never seen the cartoon series. That probably makes or breaks this film...

From someone who loved the original series, it breaks it, and breaks it hard. Here's a list of the changes between the two. While some are small, or expected, M. Night managed to cut out major characters, re-write the laws of the Avatarverse to his own whims, whitewash said universe, and steamroll characters' original personalities. For example, compare Movie-Katara to this bit from the first 5 minutes of the show.

Hidden/Spoiler:

[quote="Katara"]I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you: NOT PLEASANT![/quote]

It's disheartening to see a good female character like her get Chickified.

[Ping]

@plasmoidmonkey: For some reason, I lol'd at the "whitewashed" comment. That pic is also pretty funny, too.

Anyways, being a subscriber to Time magazine, I noticed in the most recent issue they did one of those "10 Question" interviews with the director of the Last Airbender. In the interview, the guy said that he thought casting Caucasians was okay because the animation purposefully made everything ambiguous race wise.

After having watched the animated series, I can say that 90% of the characters were not of ambiguous race. Even my mom, who's only seen one episode of the series (yesterday!), agree that the races weren't ambigous. Plenty of the characters are clearly Asian.

[plasmoidmonkey]

Plenty of the characters are clearly Asian.

Exactly. I love the justification people use to say that they're "ambiguous".

"Oh, they just eat with chopsticks, wear Asian clothing, have Asian names, read Chinese calligraphy, do Chinese martial arts, live in Asian-based cultures, and have eastern-style spirituality. They must be white, because they're in a cartoon and cartoons are ambigious!"

Palm, meet face.

[Darth_Squoobus]

Plenty of the characters are clearly Asian.

Exactly. I love the justification people use to say that they're "ambiguous".

"Oh, they just eat with chopsticks, wear Asian clothing, have Asian names, read Chinese calligraphy, do Chinese martial arts, live in Asian-based cultures, and have eastern-style spirituality. They must be white, because they're in a cartoon and cartoons are ambigious!"

Palm, meet face.

Hidden/Spoiler:

Maybe he couldn't afford asian actors...

I have no desire to see this movie. I hated the show in the first place because 45% of Nickelodeon's daytime programming consisted of Avatar. (With 30% devoted to Tweencoms, 20% to Spongebob reruns, and 5% to everything else.)

That, and I found the premise hackneyed.

[plasmoidmonkey]

I have no desire to see this movie. I hated the show in the first place because 45% of Nickelodeon's daytime programming consisted of Avatar. (With 30% devoted to Tweencoms, 20% to Spongebob reruns, and 5% to everything else.)

What Nickelodeon were you watching? I know Nicktoons Network plays it all the time, but regular Nick could barely be bothered to show the third season at all when it came out. And they haven't shown it again since the finale nearly two years ago.

[EraOfDesann]

I was dismissive of the show at first, but fortunately I actually took the time to sit down and watch some of the episodes in order and was almost immediately hooked. Don't let the fact that it's a cartoon fool you, cause it's a wonderful show and anything but hackneyed.

[Caleb1117]

Plenty of the characters are clearly Asian.

Exactly. I love the justification people use to say that they're "ambiguous".

"Oh, they just eat with chopsticks, wear Asian clothing, have Asian names, read Chinese calligraphy, do Chinese martial arts, live in Asian-based cultures, and have eastern-style spirituality. They must be white, because they're in a cartoon and cartoons are ambigious!"

Palm, meet face.

Exactly, they are all Asian, generic Asian.
The only noticeable diversity in the cartoon was the water tribe, which (most of the time) appeared Inuit.
But besides them:
Aang, - Pale whitish dude
Firebenders, - very pale whitish dudes
Earth kingdom, More generic pale Asian dudes
While it is obvious, that the culture is saturated with Asian influence, the characters aren't always apparently Asian, or any distinct race. I think it's alittle far flung to say it has been 'whitewashed' or to (as some people do) insinuate racism... From a man who is himself, Asian. Plus, it wouldn't suprise me, if M.N.S didn't have alot of choice, it is possible Paramount told him to hire whites for most of the roles, like they forced him to cut about thirty minutes of content from the movie.

Sooooo, yeah.

Now does that mean I agree with M.N.S's casting decisions? Not really. I heard that the Sokka actor applied for the role of Zuko. As far as appearance goes, he could have done well. I would have cast a very pale person for Zuko, even just so his scar would be more evident.

Generally speaking though, you just can't convey or include all the greatness of a entire SEASON of t.v in an hour and a half. And it is unrealistic to expect such; unfortunate as that is.

[Darth_Squoobus]

Generally speaking though, you just can't convey or include all the greatness of a entire SEASON of t.v in an hour and a half. And it is unrealistic to expect such; unfortunate as that is.

If it were four hours long, it might work. But even that's stretching it.