I saw The Last Airbender today

wilco64256 · July 13, 2010, 04:39:20 PM

And I actually kind of liked it.

*ducks*

daventry · July 13, 2010, 04:43:41 PM

It was short and rushed and just randomly cut, the Acting was bad and why did they have to go change the Names.

dark-daventry · July 13, 2010, 04:44:13 PM

Quote from: wilco64256 on July 13, 2010, 04:39:20 PM
And I actually kind of liked it.

*ducks*

WHAT?! HOW COULD YOU?!

lol I'm just kidding. I'm not a big fan of the movie, but I respect other's opinions. There were some good parts to it, but not too much in my opinion. If I may inquire, what specifically did you like about it?

wilco64256 · July 13, 2010, 04:58:03 PM

Firstly, the fact that they gave proper Japanese pronunciations to the names (hides and ducks) which a lot of people seem to misunderstand. I know it wasn't originally strictly Japanese anime, but they were meant to be Japanese names and they're spelled like Japanese names, so it didn't actually bother me that they were pronounced the Japanese way.

Second, I thought the effects were quite good for the most part, this was no Avatar mind you but I thought a lot of them were pretty cool to watch.

Third, my expecatations were incredibly low because it got such bad reviews, so it actually turned out to be better than I expected.

I will definitely say that the acting was utterly AWFUL for the most part and a lot of the lines were just bad. It wasn't a fantastic movie by any means, but I wouldn't give it as bad a review as most people have been. 2/4 stars maybe.

dark-daventry · July 13, 2010, 05:05:54 PM

I am a bit bothered by the pronunciations. The show purposely intended them to be pronounced the way they were (ok, so I can't actually back that claim up. I suppose I just grew so used to the way the show pronounced them.)

I will admit that the effects are great. But the acting was crap and in terms of adapting the first season into a movie, they did a pretty poor job.

tessspoon · July 13, 2010, 05:07:18 PM

I was rather disappointed in it, but then I'd been really looking forward to it for a long time, and love the series. I'd watch it again, but only on Netflix Instant Watch for free or something.

Didn't know that about the names, at least now I understand why they changed them.

wilco64256 · July 13, 2010, 05:09:32 PM

I agree that the reduction of the whole season into a single movie was not done well at all. Sad that the guy who played Iro (sp?) was the most convincing of the entire cast for me.

And I do also agree that they should have just pronounced the names the same way they're pronounced in the cartoon, I just also get why they did it differently. It makes me wonder how much time they actually spent watching the cartoon before they made this.

And I wonder if they'll dare to make a movie out of Book 2.

dark-daventry · July 13, 2010, 05:23:39 PM

Well I know that M. Night has gone on record saying he's got a script done for 2, and that he hopes to make it. Also, M. Night's daughter's are huge fans of the show, which is one of the reasons he made the movie.

It's spelled Iroh by the way. And in my opinion properly pronounced "eye"roh, not "er"oh. That was one of the most aggravating things for me...

KatieHal · July 13, 2010, 08:27:51 PM

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I just finished Season 2 of the show and I've really been enjoying it. I'm curious--does the movie maintain the sense of fun of the show? That's the one thing I haven't seen in the commercials at all and I'm curious as to what exactly has made the movie fail so much.

wilco64256 · July 13, 2010, 08:31:03 PM

The movie didn't really catch the wacky humor of the show the way I hoped it would. I think I laughed like twice. The fact that I can't remember if it was that funny or not is a bad sign I suppose.

tessspoon · July 13, 2010, 08:52:31 PM

Hardly any humor at all, everyone's very serious pretty much the entire time. $:-\$

wilco64256 · July 13, 2010, 09:04:23 PM

The girl who plays Kitara (sp?) looks like she just stopped crying for the entire movie.

oberonqa · July 13, 2010, 11:45:38 PM

It's movies like this that make me glad I live out in the middle of the Styx with the closest movie theatre being 70 miles away. I am a HUGE fan of the show (anyone remember when my avatar pic was Zuko with his hair cut short?)... and it seems everything I hear about this movie makes me cringe.

I was talking with a friend who went to see it and he told me about how the Earthbender prison ship from the cartoon got translated into a concentration camp in the middle of a mountain. How in the world do you imprison EARTHBENDERS in a prison that is surrounded entirely by EARTH?!?!??! That was kinda why the Fire Nation imprisioned them... in the middle of the ocean... NO EARTH (or at least, no earth that was within range of the relatively weak Earthbenders they were holding... I imagine if they had imprisioned King Bumi or Toph on that ship.... either one of them would have been able to Earthbend with ease.)

Yea it's things like that that make me cry. They say the directors daughters are big fans... perhaps the director should have brought his daughters onto the payroll to be consultants. I can understand making changes to the source material... if said changes are within reason and follow the spirit of the source material. But when you put Earthbenders in a prison that is surrounded by mountains... that just screams complete and total lack of understanding when it comes to the source material.

Like I said.... makes me glad the closest movie theatre where I live is 70 miles away. I'll wait for it to hit Red Box. **lol**

B'rrr · July 13, 2010, 11:59:05 PM

Quote from: oberonqa on July 13, 2010, 11:45:38 PM
It's movies like this that make me glad I live out in the middle of the Styx with the closest movie theatre being 70 miles away.

You mean the river?

i always knew there was something dodgy about some teammembers...

oberonqa · July 14, 2010, 02:34:35 AM

Quote from: B'rrr on July 13, 2010, 11:59:05 PM
Quote from: oberonqa on July 13, 2010, 11:45:38 PM
It's movies like this that make me glad I live out in the middle of the Styx with the closest movie theatre being 70 miles away.

You mean the river? i always knew there was something dodgy about some teammembers...

Sometimes I think it is the river... if you count rocks, lack of water, and absolutely H O T summers as inhospitable as the river Styx... then yea I suppose you could say I do live in the river. I absolutely hate living in the desert sometimes. **lol**

B'rrr · July 14, 2010, 03:57:06 AM

Grats on becomming an Oracle by the way

oberonqa · July 14, 2010, 04:44:23 AM

Thank you.

KatieHal · July 14, 2010, 07:38:55 AM

Yeah...I get the feeling when it comes to Netflix I'll finally watch it, but not til then.

Also, I finished Season 2 last night.

[spoiler]And holy crap, what an ending! Great Act 2 depressing end with hope looking pretty gone. And oh man, Zuko! You were so close to being a good guy! Argh! And you so know you didn't do the right thing again! I hope Iroh gets his chance to tell you how disappointed he is, you deserve it. Also, it seemed for a moment there like we might get an interesting love triangle of Katara-Aang-Zuko, but that's sure dead in the water now, pun totally intended. I'm looking forward to Season 3. [/spoiler]

Also, man I love Netflix streaming

tessspoon · July 14, 2010, 10:32:06 AM

Glad you like it Katie! Season 3's my favorite, it's got some good stuff in it

I love it too, we can stream it through the ps3 and onto our tv, so cool. Of course, they put season's two and three up on instant watch right *after* we finished watching them through dvd's...

Bad Asp · July 14, 2010, 04:08:44 PM

Huge Avatar fan here! I have collected DVD's of all three seasons, and they're awesome!

Of course, it's sad that Hollywood has to give cartoons the "let's change animated to live action and CGI for no reason" treatment.

But, as long as all three of the original seasons, with the original voice actors and everything, are still on DVD, we can buy them and watch them to our heart's content!

And no, I have no current plans to watch the new movie... at least, not yet!

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I saw The Last Airbender today