Movie Review: "The Last Airbender"

[jpskewedthrone]

So, pbray and I went to see The Last Airbender this afternoon. This was not on our "must see" list for the summer (I'm dying to see Inception), but since it was like 100 degree out and neither of us have AC, we decided the movie price might be worth the cost of two hours of air conditioning.

It wasn't.

The movie sucked like you cannot even believe and I'm not even certain I can competently describe it. The acting was bad, starting with the first lines of the movie. The writing was bad, which was not a surprise since, as I discovered at the end of the movie, it was written by M. Night himself. I had gone into the movie thinking that someone ELSE had written this one and so there was hope that M. Night hadn't screwed it up. He did. The plot was horrible and had HUGE GAPING plot holes. And all of this came together in a convergence of sheer stupidity that I nearly walked out of. I only stayed for the AC and the many, many snide comments Patricia and I made to each other throughout the movie.

I think the major problem (besides having M. Night attached to it; why do they keep giving this guy money?) was that it didn't know what it wanted to be. Is it targeted toward the kids? Adults? Somewhere inbetween? I can see some of the horribleness coming from the desire to appeal to the kid market. But then they also seemed to want the adults to take the plot seriously, and in that there was epic fail. NONE of the kids could act. There were brief sparks or moments where I thought we saw the REAL character, the one that was supposed to be on the screen, but they were rare. The only actor who was actually good was the guy who played the uncle. HE was good. And his character should have gotten more screen time, since he became important to the plot AND was attached to the most interesting character out of the entire ensemble: the banished prince.

Aside from those two, everything else sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked. There are obviously supposed to be two sequels to this movie HOWEVER if there are, if the studio actually decides to fork over more money to this thing, they ABSOLUTELY MUST get someone different to write and direct them. If they don't, there is NO WAY I'll be dragged to the theater to see them.

Not even to escape 100 degree heat.

Comments

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

I've never seen any of the cartoons (they're on our Netflix Instant view queue) but the first things I heard about this movie was how the main chars were 'whitewashed', ie, only one was actually, possibly, of the actual ethnicity of the original cartoon char. (And that the 'bad guys' were all people of color.}:/)

That's sad.

Now, as more people on my LJ friends list or my Twitter list see it, the more BAD reviews I see and hear about. Even Ebert bombed the 3d version.

Generally, we go see a movie even if the critics bomb it, because we end up liking it. But after seeing yet another bad review from someone I 'know', I'm inclined to think we need to pass on this one.

In my opinion, M. Night has gone down hill drastically since 'Lady In The Water'. Hubby says it started before that, but, well, we don't agree on everything. Heh. (We made the mistake of seeing 'The Happening' IN the theater. Yeah, that was a big mistake. )

[theguindo]

I'm a fan of the cartoon and was following the casting drama from the beginning. They originally cast Jesse McCartney as Zuko, can you believe it? (He got kicked after an interview revealed that he had absolutely no idea what the source material was even about.)

I haven't seen the film yet, but the whitewashing alone makes me want to boycott. I knew it was going to be awful the minute they put M. Night's name on it, and I've got some vindictive pleasure in knowing I was right 8|

If I were you, I wouldn't pay to see it.

Watch the animated series though; that's worth it.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

We definately plan on watching the cartoon. We have all seasons currently available in our Netflix.}:P It's just a matter of getting the time to sit down and watch TV, lol.

[keireland.livejournal.com]

The episodes are only about 20 mins long each. 20 eps per season. Real easy to slip it into your schedule if you skip the intro and ending credits. :)